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Thursday,
February 05, 2004
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USC,
LSU sign nation’s top football recruiting classes
This
year, championship seasons really did bring teams the
country’s most talented recruits.
By
Alan Robinson
Associated Press
College football’s recruiting race finished up exactly
like the season did — with Southern California and
LSU on top and everybody else chasing them.
Only this time, there’s no disputing Southern Cal
is No. 1, according to five top recruiting services.
LSU was a strong second on national signing day, landing
every top player it sought in its own state while adding
to its already deep wide receiver corps.
Miami also made a strong rush Wednesday, but it was Southern
Cal’s off-the-charts class that was the buzz of the
college football world.
“USC’s recruiting class is the best in the 11
years I’ve been doing this,” said recruiting
analyst Bobby Burton of rivals.com. “It’s the
highest quality class you’re ever going to see.”
Gatorade and Parade national player of the year Jeff Byers
of Loveland, Colo., leads coach Pete Carroll’s incoming
freshmen. He had 56 sacks and 14 forced fumbles on defense.
The AP national champion Trojans signed two top California
high school players in defensive end Jeff Schweiger and
offensive lineman Thomas Herring. They also journeyed
into recruiting hotbeds Ohio (wide receiver Fred Davis)
and Florida (linebacker Keith Rivers) to land key recruits.
Allen Wallace of Prep Football Report called the Trojans’
recruiting class “phenomenal.”
“There are no all-regional players on their list,
there are no second-list players there at all,” Wallace
said. “USC never dipped below (the top level), even
though they had great regional kids who wanted offers.”
LSU was much the same way, capitalizing on its USA Today/ESPN
national championship with a recruiting class arguably
just as good as last year’s top-ranked class.
The Tigers, already loaded at receiver, landed not one
but three of the nation’s top pass catchers —
Early Doucet of St. Martinville, La., Xavier Carter of
Melbourne, Fla. and Lavelle Hawkins of Stockton, Calif.
Doucet scored 79 touchdowns and had 7,104 all-purpose
yards in his high school career. Carter is one of the
nation’s fastest sprinters and could be a future
U.S. Olympian.
“It was a great year for receivers, and LSU got three
of the best,” recruiting analyst Max Emfinger said.
“You wonder why another receiver would want to go
there, but the answer is they want to wear a national
championship ring.”
LSU stayed in-state to land dominating 310-pound lineman
Marlon Favorite, then went next door to sign massive 395-pound
lineman Herman Johnson from Denton.
Student Sports.com’s Doug Huff, who has been tracking
national high school recruiting since the 1960s, wasn’t
surprised last season’s strongest teams — USC,
LSU, Oklahoma — had big recruiting years.
“Recruits see teams in the big bowl games on national
TV and atop the rankings, and that’s where they want
to play,” he said. |
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