Getting Into Recruiting

In the past recruiting has not been one of the aspects of college football that I dove into, but some VIP tickets to the U.S. Army All-American bowl has changed that. Based on the small amount of research I have been doing the Army All-American bowl to take place in my hometown of SanAntonio seems to grabbed just as many big names as the Under Armor All-American bowl that espn pushes. According to the roster seven future longhorns will suit up for the West, four of them are listed as top 150 recruits. Two Sooners will also be representing the West, which raises the question when is it too early to start yelling at these kids? I don't expect to get into a kids head that has his own profile on espn.com, has been recruited by college coaches for a couple years and has just signed on to compete for national championships. Yellling at them just makes me happy. I also, sometimes, have excellent advice to bestow on the young men, "Don't use a car company run by boosters as a front for accepting alot of money" "Watch the statue of liberty if you are playing Boise St." "Win a bowl game for the love of God" "You're from Texas Jamarkus McFarland you fucking tratoir," all good stuff.

Besides getting a sneak peak at players who I will undoubtedly talk about during their careers there is the awesome experience of watching some to-die-for recruits put on the hat of the University who left the most sorority girls in the hotel rooms during the recruiting trip. The number two overall recruit, Dre Kirkpatrick, who is apparently a lockdown corner as a true freshmen, will be choosing either Texas, USC, Alabama, Florida or LSU. Maybe he will pick up the UT hat, throw it away and put on the LSU one in a Perillioux tribute move. Then of course he could get suspended eighteen times and kicked of the team before he was made the starter. It's all very exciting. A second huge undecided to be in SanAntonio is DE #1 Devon Kennard, who is looking at the Longhorns and a slew of Pac-10 teams.

The longer I look at the list of players the more intruiging the games is, for one night about 100 of the best recruits in the nation will play a horribly sloppy game due to only one week of practicing together. I have dreams of the winning play being run perfectly after the huddle which reads like this. "Patrick, run a hitch and go". Hut! the center who is headed to Arizona State will snap to the future Texas QB, excellent blocking from Texas A&M and Minnesota keep the defensive ends from making the sack. USC's RB picks up the blitzing Florida ILB perfectly. The Georgia safety is playing the run and leaves the coverage one on one, Michigans corner bites hard on the pump fake and the TD is inevitable. UCLA's new kicker shankes the extra point, but the West has an insurmountable six point lead and brings the title home 6-3. Everything has been decided, the players give say one last goodbye to their one week team mates, then huddle with their future squad. In the background you can still hear one voice screaming obseneties at the Ohio State and Oklahoma recruits. What a night.