Four SEC schools have momentum. Three are stalling. Two are surprising. And a full five are — as Prince once put it — living in a state of “chaos and disorder.”
Such is the state of SEC football recruiting on this Tax Day 2012. Below are the latest up-to-date commitment numbers for all 14 SEC programs (according to Rivals.com this morning).
As usual, we’ve ranked the schools by their total number of “talent points.” Rivals hands out star rankings. We give a point for each star, but we also give 0-star prospects a point because once they’re reviewed by Rivals they’ll get some stars thrown their way, too.
We also include a column showing you the average points per commit for each school so far. You can use those numbers to determine the caliber of athlete each school is attracting at the moment.
First, the numbers:
| School |
Commits |
5-stars |
4-stars |
3-stars |
2-stars |
1- & 0-stars |
Total Points |
Avg. Points/Commit |
| Florida |
15 |
0 |
9 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
54 |
3.60 |
| Texas A&M |
14 |
0 |
6 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
48 |
3.42 |
| Georgia |
15 |
0 |
5 |
8 |
0 |
2 |
46 |
3.06 |
| Alabama |
11 |
1 |
7 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
40 |
3.63 |
| LSU |
9 |
0 |
4 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
31 |
3.44 |
| Missouri |
8 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
26 |
3.25 |
| Auburn |
8 |
0 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
25 |
3.12 |
| Vanderbilt |
7 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
23 |
3.28 |
| S. Carolina |
6 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
16 |
2.66 |
| Tennessee |
4 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
3.50 |
| Ole Miss |
4 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
3.25 |
| Kentucky |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
3.00 |
| Miss. State |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
| Arkansas |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
Observations:
* The momentum gang is easily identified at this point. Florida, Texas A&M and Georgia are piling up the commitments right and left. They’re more than halfway done with their 2012 classes… aside from babysitting the guys who’ve already said “I do.” In addition, Alabama has the highest average-point-per-commit score in the league. By February, Nick Saban’s squad will likely be ranked #1 or #2 in the SEC again.
* LSU, Auburn and South Carolina seem to be stalling a bit compared to past performance and — in the Cocks’ case — their fine 2011 season. At this point in the process, LSU is usually bunched among the top four in the league in terms of talent points and they’re currently only one slot off that pace. Still, this a program we’re used to seeing closer to the top of our chart. Meanwhile, gone are the Tiger Prowls at Auburn and in are two new coordinators. While they’re still doing relatively well, to date AU isn’t snapping up commits as quickly as it did when Gene Chizik and crew first arrived on the Plains. As for Carolina, Steve Spurrier’s bunch is about where they usually sit… and the Palmetto State is not the deepest talent pool in the USA, either. Still, coming off an 11-win season and bowl-game beatdown of Nebraska, we expected a little bit more of an early bump for Carolina.
* The two big surprises in the SEC are the schools decked out in gold and black (and “anthracite” in one case). Missouri has already grabbed eight commitments which ties the school with Auburn and is only one off LSU’s pace. Either Gary Pinkel is getting up to SEC speed and offering scholarships earlier or the Tigers’ new conference home is already paying dividends on the recruiting trail. We’ll guess it’s a little bit of both. The other surprise is Vanderbilt which continues to pull in 4- and 3-star recruits. Want to know the kind of job James Franklin is doing? Just compare VU’s commitment numbers to Tennessee’s. In historical terms, it’s astonishing to see the Dores with seven commits — seven good commits — so early in the process.
* Woe to those at the bottom of our list. Four schools are facing the kinds of struggles and worries and concerns that negative recruiters prey on while another school just can’t seem to go outside its own state for recruits. Tennessee and Kentucky are low on our board and that can be directly tied to the job security issues facing Derek Dooley and Joker Phillips. Ole Miss is on the opposite end of that spectrum, breaking in a brand new coach and hoping Hugh Freeze can connect with Magnolia State recruits. Dan Mullen cleans up on 3-star Mississippians each February, but at some point to really build that program he’ll need to start landing some 3- and 4-star talent from outside the Bulldogs’ backyard. That or he’ll continue to lose when he faces SEC West programs that don’t feature the word “Ole” in their names. As for Arkansas and the Hogs’ zero commits, well, is their really any explanation necessary? The Razorbacks rarely start fast thanks to their own talent-poor state, but turmoil is making things even tougher at this point.
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