National Signing Day Eve

I sat in my living room Sunday night watching the post-game coverage of the Super Bowl. I was cheering for the Niner’s, but it was cool to see Flacco win the big one. While the highlights from the game were rolling a horrible realization set in. Wait, if the Super Bowl is done that means so is football! (Moment of panic) Well, at least until September. Let’s be honest though. The 7 month offseason is almost unbearable if you are a hardcore football junkie like me. There are two big days to look forward to during the offseason. If you are a NFL guy (or girl, and let’s be honest you just like the tight pants) you have the NFL Draft to look forward to. There is a lot of hoopla that surrounds the draft. There is no shortage of NFL Draft coverage come late April. If you are more interested in the college game, like me, then National Signing Day is the big day we look forward to.

When you really stop to think about it, NSD is crazy. A bunch of overly excited fans watching 17-18 year old kids commit to the school they root for. On National Signing Day those fans find out who will be playing for their team for the next 3-4 years. We obsess over things: forty yard dash times, highlight tapes, and of course, stars and rankings. We hope that the next national championship class has just come in, or that a future Heisman Trophy winner could be among them. There are websites that are dedicated to the coverage of high school recruiting and nothing has a bigger following than high school football. As a matter of fact, some of these kids are celebrities before they ever step foot on campus. Don’t believe me? Tell me how else Shane Morris, 2013 QB and verbal commit to Michigan, has almost 22,000 people who follow him on Twitter. College football season has been done for almost a month now, but if you have a twitter account you may never know it. Michigan has a HUGE basketball game tonight against our hated rival, Ohio State. It is a highly anticipated rematch because Michigan will be looking to redeem itself after a lackluster performance in Columbus a few weeks ago. However, my timeline is filled with hundreds of people talking about what tomorrow may bring.

There is one more spot left for Team 134. Will the coaches bank this scholarship, or will they surprise everyone and finish this already amazing recruiting class with another big recruit? My guess is that it will get banked, but in the world of football recruiting nothing is guaranteed. Maybe that is why National Signing Day is such a big deal. Until these kids sign their names on their Letters of Intent they haven’t actually committed to anything yet. We have seen a lot of verbal commitments over the years break our hearts and flip to other schools, and we have done our own share of flipping kids to the maize and blue. No doubt some fans will be waiting on pins and needles until they get word that Henry Poggi has officially signed up to play football at the University of Michigan. I think at the end of the day tomorrow he will be a Wolverine.

No matter what way you slice it Team 134 is a special one. It has been a long time since Michigan coaches have reeled in a recruiting class that had this much potential. This class is loaded with talent from top to bottom. Another great offensive line class, some very talented “under the radar” guys, a pro-style quarterback with an cannon for an arm, and of course we can’t mention this class without bringing up the number one running back in the country, Derrick Green. Even if we end our class with 27 players, it is still going to be right there with some of the best recruiting classes that has ever inked their names on the dotted line for the University of Michigan.

So in honor of National Signing Day Eve I want some of your thoughts on this fine recruiting class that Brady Hoke is about to bring in.

1   1. Who is the diamond in the rough in this class? We have one five star running back, and a lot of four star kids, but who is that kid that will make us all say “Wow! I didn't see that coming?”

2   2. Who do you think will make an immediate impact on the field next year as a true freshman? Offense and Defense.

3   3. In 3-4 years who are 2-3 guys from this class that you think will be absolute studs for our football team?