National Signing Day 2010

Yesterday was the second or third biggest day behind bowl games and rivalry games for most college football programs (and it could be argued the biggest). Recruiting is the lifeblood of any collegiate program and without a doubt in football. There is only so much you can do in talent development - you need talent. Here is a rundown of where the ACC teams finished in this years' recruiting rankings. You can refer to my previous post from earlier this week to see which programs moved up or down.

Rankings from each set (previous and these) come from scout.com

1. Florida State (#10) - 5* WR Christian Green (#5 WR), 5* MLB Jeff Luc (#2 MLB), 5* CB Lamarcus Joyner (#2 CB)

2. Miami (#17) - 4* C Brandon Linder (#1 C), 4* RB Eduardo Clements (#14 RB), 4* CB Kacy Rodgers (#14 CB)

3. Clemson (#23) - 4* CB DeAndre Hopkins (#13 CB), 4* DE Corey Crawford (#18 DE), 4* S Bashaud Breeland (#22 S)

4. North Carolina (#31) - 5* OT James Hurst (#3 OT), 4* RB Gio Bernard (#13 RB), 4* DT Brandon Willis (#21 DT)

5. Virginia Tech (#35) - 4* DE Zack McCray (#24 DE), 4* G Laurence Gibson (JC), 3* MLB Chase Williams (#23 MLB)

6. Georgia Tech (#41) - 4* CB Louis Young (#11 CB), 4* CB Ryan Ayers (#16 CB), 4* DT Shawn Green (#31 DT)

7. North Carolina State (#42) - 5* OT Robert Crisp (#4 T), 4* DT Fre'Shad Hunter (#29 DT), 4* WR Tony Creecy (#35 WR)

8. Maryland (#43) - 4* OLB Javarie Johnson (#16 OLB), 4* QB Tyler Smith (#18 QB), 3* G Sal Conaboy (#12 G)

9. Boston College (#44) - 4* OLB Steele Divitto (#25 OLB), 4* OT Seth Betancourt (#27 OT), 3* TE Jarrett Darmstatter (#17 TE)

10. Wake Forest (#61) - 3* C Daniel Blitch (#21 C), 3* G Antonio Ford (#38 G), 3* CB Merril Noel (#67 CB)

11. Virginia (#67) - 4* OT Morgan Moses (JC), 3* TE Zach Swanson (#28 TE), 3* MLB Henry Coley (#41 MLB)

12. Duke (#69) - 3* OG Laken Tomlinson (#23 G), 3* RB Juwan Thompson (#58 RB), 3* QB Brandon Connette (#62 QB)

JC stands for junior college. These players do not fit into the high school senior class national rankings individually by position but do figure into the team rankings.

Just for comparison, FSU was the only ACC team in the top 10 nationally and we had 3 in the top 25. The SEC was the number one conference and the numbers really are staggering. If you want to know why the SEC is the king of college football here were their "numbers": They had 4 teams in the top 10 (ACC had one) and seven in the top 25 (ACC had three). Their lowest rated school was #53 Vanderbilt (the ACC had three below Vanderbilt). The SEC is ridiculous in college football.