Taking a look around what’s in store for the 2014 class.
QB- Staley and Fitzgerald. Done here unless the second coming of Tom Brady is discovered in Tishomingo County. Really good haul this year that will help our depth issues at QB.
RB- Aeries Williams and Dontavian Lee. Done here as well. And also another good haul. Aeries is going to be a good RB in the SEC and I can’t wait to see him and Shumpert as a tandem. Lee is really an athlete that can play RB/H-back/FB/LB. A solid pick-up that Dan and his staff have been good at finding.
WR- Jesse Jackson, Jamoral Graham, and maybe Marcus Green. Now it gets a little interesting! Jackson adds to our outside WR corp and will have time to heal up because of guys like Bear, Morrow, and my personal favorite- JPS’s own Fred Brown. Slot WR is a need as evidenced by the fact that we are moving Gabe Myles to the offensive side of the ball, so taking two slot guys makes sense to me. I suspect Green gets an offer since he has a visit set-up and we will flip him from ULM. Graham may be able to contribute immediately and is going to be a SEC starter for us.
TE/H-back- This is a need for us since Malcolm Johnson will graduate before long and Brandon Hill and Rufus Warren have had some injury issues. Sammie Epps has just received an offer after blowing up at the Miss/Ala All-Star Game and appears to be interested in MSU, spawning Ole Miss trolls to try to keep the peace on MSU message boards everywhere. If he indeed flips to MSU, he will have a chance to play a good bit right away. Also, Darrien Hutchinson a giant JUCO TE from Co-Lin is leaning to MSU and I thin we indeed get him.
O-line- Sean Rawlings, Jordan Harris, and Jocquell Johnson (JUCO). Norman Price flipping may be a blessing in disguise, or maybe I should just say that Jamaal Clayborn emerging is a blessing because it made Price expendable. That means that we can give his scholarship to a high school o-lineman. Johnson is a need since we are losing Charles Siddoway and Damien Robinson has been a bust up to this point and the other options are freshmen or sophomore who probably need some more seasoning- Cole Carter, Jake Thomas, and Justin Senior. MSU just offered Deion Calhoun and then Juntavious Stallings and I suspect both will likely commit. That gives us two high school guard prospects in Harris and Calhoun and two tackle prospects in Rawlings and Stallings. If it were me, I’d take a flyer on Chase Johnson (6’4″ 260) out of Olive Branch who is committed to Memphis to give us a center prospect. Assuming we have room.
D-line- Braxton Hoyett and Will Coleman (JUCO). At the end of the day, I think we get Grant Harris and flip Cory Thomas. Granted, it certainly is possible that Harris could go to USM and Thomas could stay with UT. I think Hoyett could be a sleeper and Coleman will help immediately. Our coaches have some work to do in this class as far as the d-line goes, but when it’s all said and done I think I’ll be OK with how it all turns out.
LB- Gerri Green and Deshon Cooper. I like us going after big linebackers like those two. I think Green may be able to play some DE as well depending on how big he gets in the weight room. I think there’s a good chance that Shareef White ends up with an offer by signing day as well, but we have to wait and see how things play out. And then there are the Moore twins. I think we at least get a visit from them, and that will affect the board as well if they indeed flip. I’m not expecting that to happen though.
DB- Lashard Durr, Chris Rayford, and Brandon Bryant. You have to wonder when these recruiting sites are going to start to pay attention to Tunica. All they do up there are produce freakishly good football players- and MSU racks up on them. Brandon Bryant is your typical MSU find that will probably turn into a really good player. Rayford is probably a safety down the line, and then Durr is a CB. To me, it sounds like Tee Shepherd is moving on to another JUCO.
K- Logan Cooke. Will probably be our punter of the future.
So, I could live with this class.
QB- Fitzgerald
QB- Staley
RB- Williams
ATH- Lee
WR- Jackson
Slot- Graham
Slot- Green
TE- Epps
TE- Hutchinson
OT- Johnson
OT- Rawlings
OT- Stallings
OG- Harris
OG- Calhoun
DE- Harris
DT- Hoyett
DT- Thomas
DE- Coleman
OLB- Green
MLB- White
OLB- Cooper
S- Rayford
CB- Brandon Bryant
CB- Durr
K- Cook