(Following the high school prospects who will be calling Moscow home in 2013 – Photo by Tony Marcolina | Argonaut)
‘Twas the night before a day commonly referred to as college football Christmas, and all throughout the Kibbie Dome new Idaho coach Paul Petrino and his staff are nervously or giddily awaiting the fax machine to deliver the signatures of the first recruiting class of the regime.
The class should, for the most part, be wrapped up. Seven junior college signees are already on campus, and Idaho isn’t waiting on any signing day announcements — at least none that are reported. It won’t be much of a shock for there to be surprises in terms of kids who don’t commit or unknown prospects who end up signing, considering a school like Idaho is going after many prospects who aren’t highly publicized or covered by the major recruiting services.
By our count there are 31 verbal commits to fill an allowance of 2013 scholarship spots — Up to five of the seven early JC enrollees could count toward the class of 2012 since former Idaho coach Robb Akey did not sign a full class last year.
There could also be gray shirts, meaning a prospect wouldn’t enroll until spring semester in 2014, therefore counting toward the next recruiting class. Capital HS OL Steven Matlock has told the Idaho Statesman that is what he will be doing.
The high number of recruits is probably because of attrition that usually takes place with a new coaching staff taking over a program.
First, some notes –
– Idaho commit WR Craig Scott has de-committed from Idaho to commit to Navy. But he will still announce a choice in the morning.
– The commit status of Kansas City OG/C Joseph Gibson isn’t exactly clear, though tweets from him and Idaho RB commit Richard Montgomery would indicate he at least took a vist to Idaho. He’s visited Kansas and Missouri but neither have offered scholarships, most likely just preferred walk-on opportunities. He’ll be a name to watch tomorrow morning. His latest visit was to Western Michigan.
– Idaho target WR Mike Tate has de-committed from Eastern Washington to commit to San Jose State.
– Idaho target WR Sammie has committed to Colorado State. His head coach at Lakes HS (Lakewood, Wash.) told me he is pretty solid to sign there in the morning.
– Idaho may have survived a scare from Nevada to hold on to CB commit Armond Hawkins. He took an official visit to Rento last weekend.
Here is our table of Idaho targets and commits, organizable by name, size, hometown/area and commit status. Also, our Q&A from Facebook and Twitter is at the bottom.
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Corey Mooney wants to know whether the quarterback commits will stay at quarterback or if they’ll play other spots.
– I think that all three, Matthew Linehan, Anthony Neyer and Joshua McCain, will stay at quarterback. From talking to McCain’s junior college coach it seemed that the opportunity to play quarterback was a big deciding factor in him deciding to commit to Idaho. Six scholarship quarterbacks is a lot for most programs, but come 2015 only three of them will remain. Also possible is attrition via transfers. This could work itself out in tons of ways, but it’s likely all of them stay at quarterback.
Grady Hepworth wants to know about the wide-outs in the class
– If Craig Scott ends up signing with Navy there could as few as one wide-receiver commit in this class, Dezmon Epps of City College of San Francisco. He’s a smaller, slot, speed kind of receiver. But it’s also possible that Trent Cowan ends up at receiver. Listed as an athlete recruit, the brother of former Idaho punter Bobby Cowan stands as tall as 6-foot-4 depending on who you ask. Receiver is a spot in which Idaho returns pretty good depth regardless, though, with the likes of Roman Runner, Najee Lovett and Jahrie Level.
Ryan Broyles wants to know about the beef in the trenches being recruiting
The offensive and defensive lines are actually spots in which Petrino is returning quite a bit of talent, but it’s an important position to recruit none-the-less. Idaho currently has the commitments of three gem state offensive linemen, and four total. Five is Joseph Gibson ends up committing. More importantly, these are all high school recruits. With, essentially, the entire offensive line returning from last season Petrino is counting on being able to redshirt and develop talent up front.
JC commit Anthony Rice is the only defensive line commit we’re aware of, but again that is a spot where Idaho has some good depth. It’s also possible for players to be moved around to different sides of the ball.
Loyal reader Dan Neuenfeldt wants to know who can start right away
– A majority of the junior college kids being brought in, we’d imagine. Especially the linebackers. With Idaho losing essentially it’s entire two-deep from last season at the position there will be wide open competition there. Marc Millan, Juan Martinez, and Eric Tuipulotu will all be present for spring practice. Also keeping it on defense, cornerback Delency Parham will also have a good chance to garner playing time.
We were also asked about players who won’t be returning for grades or other reasons. Right now we can confirm linebackers Jeremiah Walters and Elan Richard are two scholarship players who won’t be returning from last years’ team. There are others we are following but cannot confirm right now.