Gridironstuds.com Blog

I have been paying attention and I hope you have been too.  Top tier college football programs are finding it difficult to polish off those teams they have historically demolished by half time.  This year, more than ever, it seems that the meek are beginning to rise.  Just this past week I watched Utah St. beat someone (Wyoming) by 49 points!  Utah State!  This would have never have happened 10 years ago and I don’t care who Utah St. was playing.  Wake Forest jumps up and beats Florida St.  Syracuse had to travel to the edges of hell to beat Tulane 37-34.

Previous weeks has seen more glaring examples of the parity I have been noticing. Week before last week had Western Michigan beating Connecticut on the road.  Bethune Cookman keeping Miami in check until late in the 3rd quarter.  SMU beating TCU on the road!  Week four there was, of course, Temple crushing Maryland.  Virginia losing at home to Southern Mississippi.  Auburn wrapped up in a battle with Florida Atlantic through four quarters.  Ten years ago,  that’s a 56-7 football game.  There’s also North Dakota St. traveling to Minnesota and winning by two touchdowns.  You need more?  How about Temple losing by only four to Penn St.  How about Toledo taking Ohio St. down to the wire.   Tulsa putting up 33 points on Oklahoma St.  Washington barely beating Hawaii 40-32.  Clemson only beating Wofford 35-27.

As sites like Rivals.com and Scout.com begin hitting the 10 year mark of being significant and a load of other recruiting websites pop up monthly doing their due diligence to find hidden talent in every city, state and county,  college coaches can recruit from their desktop.  This allows the college programs with smaller budgets to navigate into parts of the country where they would not have dared to go in year’s past.  Now,  from their computer,  a small school in Illinois can find an under-recruited kid in Texas with talent and find out if he would be interested before they spend money on a trip down there to see him.  In the past,  that small school from Illinois would not risk their budget to go down into Texas to find a kid that they think would either go to Texas or at the worst TCU.

This ability to shop for recruits from the office is bringing better talent to the smaller schools and depleting the “quality depth” of a lot of the major Division-I programs.  Only the big time programs that have remained savvy and embraced the Internet recruiting will remain as relevant as they have always been.  Programs with the old school mentality will sink in the rankings and relativity scale like a led balloon.  We are watching it before our eyes.  Smaller programs that make the most of what recruiting sites have to offer can see themselves ascend quickly and give the big time school fits.  Once they sleigh a dragon on a Saturday,  now even more eyes will be on their program.

This phenomenon also refocuses the importance on coaching and player development.  Once upon a time,  staffs at big time schools could just go out and shoot fish in a barrel and bring in big time talent.  The better talent would get you a win on at least nine Saturday’s per season.  If  a coach could recruit well he always had a job.  Well now,  recruiting won’t be enough.  Some college programs have not figured this out yet but they will sooner or later.  If you can’t bring in your talent and develop them,  you will get beat more often than not by some of these smaller programs that have been having to coach their tails off for years just to compete.   It’s happening I tell you.

Some big time programs are crumbling and these are the major factors that are contributing.  Embracing and using Internet recruiting sites to the fullest and developing your talent will be the two major factors in a college program maintaining their superiority and in smaller programs climbing their way onto the theater stage.

General college football recruiting, high school football, rivals, scout

Proof that NBA players are getting bored during the lockout,  NBA superstar Lebron James took to the high school gridiron and practiced in full gear for the St. Vincent, St. Mary football team on Tuesday.  James wore it all down to the visor and mouthpiece however,  tackling James was off limits (duh!).  James borrowed equipment from an injured player who stands at 6’5″ inches tall.  No video or pictures available but it is being told that James went up and got every pass thrown his way during the 1 1/2 hour practice session.   The 6’8″ James was an All-State wide receiver for St. Vincent, St. Mary Fighting Irish in high school and led the team to the state semi-finals his junior year.  A full write up about this story can be found on the Sun Sentinel’s online newspaper click here.

High School Football high school football, lebron james

Trevor Barsamian

July was a very busy month at Gridironstuds.com as over 30,000 Internet football fans came through the site looking at the latest highlight videos and reading up on the latest high school and youth football information.

Below we have listed the Top 10 most viewed videos during July in order:

(1) Trevor Barsamian – RB – New Jersey- view video click here

(2) Patrone Wood – RB – California – view video, click here.

(3) Austin White – RB – Michigan – view video, click here.

(4) Joe Brennan – QB – New Jersey – view video, click here.

(5) Cody Riggs – DB – Florida – view video, click here.

(6) Quentin Tucker – LB – California – view video, click here.

(7) Evan Berry – Youth QB – Georgia – view video, click here

(8) Jeff Luc – LB – Florida – view video, click here.

(9) Antwan Story – RB – Florida – view video, click here

(10) Latwan Anderson – DB – Ohio – view video, click here

General high school football, top 2010 recruits, Youth Football

Check out this great video taken of the spring game between Glades Central and Miami Central.  This game features a number of big time prospects on both sides including Jeffrey Godfrey and Brandon Gainer from Miami Central and LJ Thomas and Kelvin Benjamin from Glades Central.   This video is cut up into 5 parts.  Enjoy:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

High School Football brandon gainer, high school football, jeffrey godfrey, top 2010 recruits

The college football recruiting season is in full swing and on a daily basis, prep football players are making their choices and commitments to programs where they believe they will spend the next four to five years.

Some players have a really clear idea of where they want to go and have known all along while others aren’t quite sure and will be rather cautious with their decision. The latter would describe where St. Thomas Aquinas’ (Ft. Lauderdale) cornerback Cody Riggs stands right now.

Riggs has played his cards close to his vest for most of the recruiting process but he has reached the point where he knows he needs to narrow things down and focus on a few schools. With that in mind, Riggs has named his top five schools as Georgia, Florida, Notre Dame, Tennessee and FSU.

“Georgia is the leader,” Riggs said. “I got along with their entire coach staff, especially Coach Martinez and Coach Richt,” he added.

There is a lot more for Riggs to like at Georgia along with the coaching staff. This includes Georgia’s beautiful campus and direction they are heading in. Riggs admits that Florida’s campus and facilities impressed him the most but Georgia’s on the upswing.

“Georgia is redoing their weight room and everything was brand new,” Riggs said. “They are doing a lot of good things at Georgia.”

Many had thought Notre Dame was a front runner for Riggs’ services but he said that he was just really impressed with Georgia and that Florida is another school getting strong consideration.

Eventhough Riggs has narrowed things down to five schools, he still wants to wait until after the season to make his choice. With so many other top named players making early commitments, Riggs may feel some serious pressure to make a choice before he originally planned. He admits to feeling pressure from Florida because they are getting commits left and right. However, with Riggs’ stock rising, he may have the power to hold out until season’s end.

One of the interesting questions surrounding Riggs has been his lack of interest or the local college’s (University of Miami) lack of interest. Riggs has not been offered a scholarship by Miami and it would not have mattered if they did.

“I wasn’t going to stay home so I would have been wasting their time,” said Riggs.

Along with sorting out his future, Riggs is also getting focused on the upcoming season. St. Thomas will be defending their High School National Championship and Riggs will be anchoring a secondary that will be considered the best in the country. Riggs will combine with top recruits Keion Payne (transfer from Dillard High School), Brian Robinson and Gridironstuds.com member Reynaldo Kirton to form a formidable quartet of pass defenders.

Riggs is perhaps the best natural corner in the country. Nothing he does on the field looks forced and he has an abundant supply of the best physical tool that a corner needs and that is good feet. He used his great instincts, quick feet and aggressiveness to lock down his opposition last year while nabbing 8 interceptions.

Despite his gaudy numbers and strong performance in his first year as a starter, the respect for Riggs was slow to come. When Rivals and Scout put out their Top 100 list of recruits this year, Riggs was absent from both of them. At some point, the recruiting services woke up.  Rivals now has Riggs ranked 43rd overall and as the 5th rated defensive back in the country.  Scout ranks Riggs as the 7th best corner in the country.

Some may question Riggs’ size (5’9″) but you can’t question his speed (4.38 in the 40) or his skills.   Riggs has taken on some of the best wide outs in the country at the Army Underclassman,  Nike Camp and Under Armour combines.  He made a name for himself by getting in receivers’ hip pockets and denying them the football.  He’s looking forward to displaying his skills on the field again this season.   He credits his natural ability and Aquinas’ defensive back coach Otis Mounds for success.

“He knows what he’s doing (Mounds) and he works with us a lot,” said Riggs.  “He always wants to workout.”

Riggs also said Class of ’09 receivers Duron Carter and Dwayne Difton helped mold him into the corner he is today.  This should come as no surprise as St. Thomas Aquinas always packs a roster of full of top rated talent.   Riggs and friends will be on the field looking to go undefeated again in 2009.  When all is said and done,  Aquinas should make a run at defending their national title and Riggs will be making plans to play at one of the top college football programs in the country.

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Check out Cody Riggs’ Junior Season highlight video

High School Football cody riggs, college football recruiting, florida gators, georgia bulldogs football, high school football, Notre Dame football, St. Thomas Aquinas football, top 2010 defensive backs, top 2010 recruits

We are all sadden to learn of the passing of former Titans and Ravens quarterback Steve McNair on July 4, 2009.   With his passing and all of the reflections on his All-Pro career in the NFL,  I was left wondering,  what kind of athlete was Steve McNair in high school.  What I found really surprised me.

McNair obviously brought  a great deal of athleticism to the quarterback position as the signal caller for the Titans,  the team with whom he spent most of his career.   However,  just how great an athlete McNair was in high school was a bit of a surprise.

McNair was a four sport star at Mount Olive High School in Mississippi.   You often hear that said about people but when you look into it you find out that they played four sports.  However,  McNair played and “starred” in four sports at Mount Olive.  He was the star point guard on the basketball team.  On the track team,  McNair ran both short and long distances,  a rear feat indeed.  On the baseball team,  McNair was the team’s shortstop and played outfield.  He did that so well that he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 35th round of the 1991 MLB amateur draft.

Football is where McNair did the most damage.  We’ve all come to know McNair as a great quarterback but in high school,  he was equally devastating to opponents as a defensive back.  McNair totaled 15 interceptions in one season and totaled 30 in his high school career to tie the state mark set by Terrell Buckley.  McNair was a stand out high school football player and was named All American by Super Prep.   McNair was recruited by the likes of LSU, Miami, Nebraska, Ohio St. and Mississippi St.  So how did he end up at Alcorn St.?  Well all of the schools previously mentioned wanted McNair to play defensive back.   McNair had his mind set on playing quarterback and Alcorn St. was willing to allow him to do that.   So,  following in his older brother Fred’s footsteps,  McNair went to Alcorn St. and played quarterback.    The rest as they say is history.   McNair threw for over 3,000 yards ever year he started with the Braves and in his senior year,  he put up over 6,000 yards of total offense and accounted for 53 touchdowns.  He ended up finishing third in the Heisman Trophy voting his third season Rashaan Salaam and Ki-Jana Carter.

General college football, high school football, steve mcnair

July 2nd

St. Mary’s Prep H.S. (Michigan) safety and Gridironstuds.com member Earnest Thomas has chosen UCLA over Stanford, Illinois, Wisconsin, Penn St., Missouri and Louisville.

Big time running back Harding H.S. (Indiana) recruit Roderick Smith has committed to Ohio St.  over Michigan, Iowa and Michigan St.

June 30th

Gridironstuds.com member Cody Riggs (St. Thomas Aquinas H.S., Florida) is closer to making a decision. Notre Dame, Georgia, Tennessee are the front runners. More on this later.

Gridironstuds.com member Chris Dunkley (Pahokee H.S., Florida) says he’s not committing any time soon so we should all just cool our heels.

Gridironstuds.com member Aramide Oliniyan is in Notre Dame today. You have to wonder if his Duke commit will hold up after this trip.

Gridironstuds.com member Jeff Luc (Treasure Coast H.S., Florida) has planned a second college tour with Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss and Southern Miss being among the schools he will visit.

Timpview H.S. (Utah) safety and Gridironstuds.com member Chris Badger has switched his commitment from Stanford to Notre Dame after being “blown away” by his visit to South Bend.

Stanford soothed their pain from the Chris Badger loss to Notre Dame by securing a commitment from Hamilton H.S. (Arizona) safety Devon Carrington. Carrington also has offers from California, Arizona, Arizona St., Washington, Washington St., Oregon, Notre Dame and Northwestern.

Notre Dame commit and Gridironstuds.com member Lo Wood plans to graduate in December and arrive in South Bend in time for spring football.

Recruits, prospects, let this be a lesson to you. Grade troubles leads to release from scholarship for 2009 USF signee Kamran Joyner. Full story.

Less than one week after securing a commitment from Gulliver Prep (Florida) QB Michael Strauss, Tulane has secured a second QB commitment from New Iberia H.S. (Louisiana) Taylor Bullock. Bullock is a dual threat QB with a 4.6 forty yard dash to his credit. The three year starter was not concerned with Strauss’ commitment “There’s going to be competition wherever you go,” he said.

June 29th

Evan Berry 13 year old brother of Eric Berry has committed to wait for it…. wait for it.. . Tennessee. Go ahead and tell me you are stunned by this.

Rumors and Wires Aramide Olaniyan, chris badger, chris dunkley, college football, college football recruiting, high school football, high school football recruiting, jeff luc, lo wood, top 2010 recruits