Roundtable: Most disappointing class
We asked each member of the recruiting coverage staff which school's class was the most disappointing this year. Here are the responses.
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Jeremy Crabtree's answer: When Louisville hired Steve Kragthorpe, there were monster expectations both on the field and on the recruiting front. Kragthorpe had proven to be one of the best mid-major recruiters in the nation when he was at Tulsa. But success hasn't come on the field yet for him at Louisville, and the Cards finished a disappointing 76th in the nation in recruiting this year. It was the second year in a row they finished outside of the top 60. What's even more damaging is that Louisville again finished in the bottom half of the Big East rankings.
Mike Farrell's answer: The biggest disappointment is Iowa. This is a team coming off a 9-4 season that included a blowout win over South Carolina in the Outback Bowl game and a huge upset of Penn State in November that killed the Nittany Lions' national title hopes. For the Hawkeyes to finish 63rd in the nation and second-to-last in the Big Ten is not good. Kirk Ferentz is a great coach, and it wasn't too long ago that he was pulling down the No. 2 class in the Big Ten. But the re-emergence of Notre Dame and the home-state Illini in Illinois has hurt Iowa's recruiting base over the past few years.
Jamie Newberg's answer: I think what North Carolina State did was a little disappointing, especially with the way they finished the season on the field. You would have thought they would have had a ton of momentum after they crushed archrival North Carolina and rallied for a bowl bid. But the Tar Heels dominated recruiting in-state, to the extent that the Wolfpack didn't sign any of the state's top 10 players and only three of the top 35. NC State finished No. 52 nationally, a big drop-off from last year (No. 31), and the biggest reason is they didn't get their in-state share.
Barton Simmons' answer: The 2009 recruiting cycle for Boston College was powered by an 11-3 season in 2007 – the third consecutive season with at least 10 wins – and another appearance in the ACC title game in 2008. With that kind of on-field success, you would expect Boston College's class to be among the best in the ACC. Instead, BC is sitting at the bottom of the conference, and on a national level, the Eagles have a class ranked below the likes of Akron, Kent State and Troy. Don't blame the coaching change, either; the SEC had 10 teams in the top 25 despite seeing significant shakeup on four of those 10 coaching staffs.
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