Signing Maze Vol. 3

I am hoping that the third time is the charm. Hopefully volume 3 is better than the previous 2 and you guys are enjoying a walk through the maze with me. Today we are going to look at the unsigned recruits in the top 200. From the 200 only 8 guys remain unsigned, so we are going to look through the players and also the schools who are going for them.

We are going to start off with the number 1 RB in the entire class. This fella Ernest Martinez is from Aurora IL. We have 2 schools battling for him. Both schools are human coached, teh schools are Michigan and Minnesota. Ernest has very good numbers, good speed, good athleticism, good strength, good elusiveness. His high school numbers are not great, he has a rushing average of 3.5 yards and an average receiving yardage of 7 with only 2 receiving TDs. His formation IQ to start off with are not bad across the board. Michigan already has 4 RBs on the roster and Minnesota is only sitting on 2 RBs and they definitely could use another one considering they run I Formation and Trips. Minnesota has a few more schollies and with that in mind they might be able to win this battle but that elite prestige might just pull Michigan ahead. Martinez has a low work ethic but I do not know how that relates to his potential, even with that low work ethic I would try to get him on my roster because those numbers are already great. This should be a good battle to keep an eye out because this is for a top talent. Good luck to both of you guys in this battle.

Matthew Garcia has the potential to just wreck you upfront. He has great strength, great tackling and great technique numbers. Those numbers are off the chart, the work ethic is good enough in my book to the point were if it means high potential then this guy will just develop and develop and develop and eat up everything in front of him.

Mr. Garcia has 3 teams on him going head to head. The 3 teams are all well coached teams with great coaches. Matthew Garcia is located in Providence, RI. The 3 teams going after him are Boston College, Syracuse and Connecticut. Of the 3 teams Syracuse is the one that needs bodies upfront to go after the QB, Boston College runs a 4-3 and they are currently carrying 5 guys upfront and lastly Connecticut is carrying 7 DLs and adding another would not hurt them. Of the 3 schools Boston College has the most schollies. With that scholly money and need for Matthew I would put my money on Boston College winning this battle.

We have another RB on our list of people we are going to look at. Keith Clark from Madison FL, also has good numbers and is ranked as the 11th best RB by WIS. Clark has great speed, good strength, and good elusiveness. Clark has similar numbers to the first RB we looked at, Martinez, for high school production. The schools going after Mr. Clark are the Gators and the Seminoles. Both are excellent schools with good coaches. There is no elite prestige advantage as both schools are elites. The Gators have 4 RBs on the roster and they run: Box and Trips. The Box needs a lot of RB bodies to work well so getting them in is important. The Seminoles have 3 RBs and they seem not to run formations that depend on RBs too much, but still getting in this fella will help the team. Based off the formations, the Gators seem to need the RB more. FSU has 9 schollies and the Gators have 11 schollies, and with the difference of only 2 I think the battle should be a fair one as the a difference of 2 is not too major.

We have a tall RB on the list. He is considered to be the 12th best tall RB by WIS and is ranked 90th overall. Paul Burger is a fast athletic fella with great hands and great elusiveness. Paul has great numbers for his characteristics and production. He can pick up yards and also get the ball into the end zone. Looking at his work ethic he can have some potential and if he does, he can improve into a beast, like Julio Jones (hopefully he can deliver the title to your team unlike the real life Julio). Mr. Burger has 3 teams looking at him and one of the 3 is an elite which would make me look elsewhere if I was on him. Paul Burger is located in Alabama and the schools on him are all in Alabama. We have Alabama on him, we have Auburn on him and we also have the University of Alabama at Birmingham. UAB is carrying 4 tall RBs right now and considering the formations they run I think they might need to get this guy. Auburn are currently carrying 6 WRs and adding another would not hurt, given that they have 6, not winning this battle would not hurt them that much except they will be out some money. The new Alabama coach might want to pick up this guy and redshirt him considering he likes to through the ball, I say they do not REALLY need him because they are already carrying 6 WRs. With the elite prestige I would put my money on Alabama winning this battle but you never know.

We have our first guy on the defensive side of the ball. Gary Hunt is a DB coming out of Mt Vernon, OH. Mr Hunt has 2 schools on him who are both not in Ohio, which surprises me, no school in Ohio thought to hit this guy up? I can maybe see why they have not because his speed is only 78, though his other numbers are good in my book. 71 strength, 83 tackling and 64 game instinct. The 2 schools on Hunt are Michigan State and UAB. UAB has already made it on our list and they seem to be on top 200 recruits. Michigan State is sitting on 4 DBs or as I have heard before they are sitting on 4 WRs who can not catch. The 4 DBs they are sitting on are quicker than Hunt. UAB has 6 DBs already and they could use Hunt on their roster and he has similar speed and numbers to some of the guys on the roster already. Hunt is ranked as the 7th best DB by WIS which seems to be way too high for me considering his speed.

We have a QB on the list, Ryan McCord is his name and he is coming out of Hoffman Estates, IL. Ryan has Louisville and Akron on him. Both schools need a QB but Louisville desperately needs another QB as they only have 1 on the roster as we have talked about before. Akron is sitting on 2 QBs and that is not too terrible a position but, one could always do with depth. I have Louisville winning this battle just because they are more desperate for a QB and they have more schollies. Ryan has awesome game instinct but that technique is way too low. It is in the basement for a QB at a D1-A school. He has good hands and good strength to chuck the rock down the field for you. He has a 51 work ethic which makes me lean towards having good potential and with that in mind the technique might come out of the basement and hang out above the ground and get some sun. I like Ryan's completion percentage in high school but he could improve that TD/Int ratio. If I were to get my hands on him I would redshirt him so that he can improve that technique a bit.

We have another defensive player on our list and he is way better than the other guy in my opinion. Jerry Wyatt has better speed, his speed is 90 and with that speed he will make to a position and try to make a play for you. His tackling is 90, WOWZER. Yep you read that correct, 90 speed and 90 tackling. His hands are 70, this guy can pick you off, with them hands. Jerry has great numbers man, work ethic 60, technique 64, this guys is a beast. He is only ranked 16th on WIS, that is crazy, I need to see the number 1 DB. Ryan has 2 schools on him and these schools have another battle we talked about earlier. Boston College and Connecticut are going at each other over this stud muffin. Boston College has 4 sitting on their roster right now and adding Jerry will improve any roster. UConn is sitting on 7 DBs already and adding him will just add depth but if they lose this battle they will be okay with it I feel. Mr Wyatt is a beast, and good luck coaches in your battle for this guy.

We have Mark Bass next on our list. Mark hails out of Tampa, FL and is ranked as the 20th best LB by WIS which is way too high for me considering he has a speed of 64. His strength and tackling are off the chart. He has decent game instinct, decent technique and above okay hands for a LB. Low work ethic of only 43 and a low stamina which I do not know counts for anything but I think it does but what do I know. Mark Bass has good athleticism of 70. Mark Bass has 2 schools on him, with one being an elite and the other a BCS school. I think by now everyone knows I think that the elite will always win that battle. Florida and South Florida are going at it. The South Florida coach is new so he does not have bowl money which is another disadvantage. Florida is sitting on 6 LBs which is okay regardless of which formation they run, South Florida is sitting on 7 guys and adding some depth would not hurt.

We have now gone through the guys leftover in the top 200, well at least at the time when this was written. So this might be different by the time you read it. Most of the guys left on that 200 list are studs and a few are suspect in my view, but what do I know. These guys are still being battled for because they are awesome. They are worth battling for and the coaches are battling for them. Recruiting in Wilk ain't no joke, most of the top 200 guys are already locked up at schools and we are not even close to the end of the recruiting period. Coaches are trying to set themselves up to win and to win you need to have the talent to execute that game plan for you. I wish all the coaches battling luck in those battles. I hope you enjoyed this little maze run we went on.