BOL Round Table

My God, other coaches are allowed to be good recruiters without having to pay.

Kudos to Ole Miss and Freeze... We'll see 'em in the fall.

You need to follow a recruit if you're going to whine about getting out recruited. Tunsil has said time and time again he's interested in an up tempo offense. He clearly stated that as a major factor in liking Ole Miss. I'm sure being some on the idea of rebuilding a program with a few other big national names is appealing as well. Do a little research before you just throw some crap against the wall.

Some of y'all need to sack up.

Here is a large chunk of the mailbag from Bruce Feldman. What Ole Miss is doing is unprecedented. So if they are not cheating, we should bow down to Freeze because he is the greatest coach ever. I mean he is doing things that have NEVER been done by any coach....

From @SportsGuyTy: Which recent recruiting class in college football most closely resembles what OleMiss is likely to pull off on Wednesday?

None.

I can't recall any upstart (one that isn't a traditional Top 25 kinda program) ever creating such buzz this close to signing day in college football. Granted, we have a relatively small window of about 10 years or so since folks have been ranking and paying much attention to the world of college football recruiting. I looked back at the recruiting rankings for college hoops and it seems like that world is a lot more prone to this kind of thing.

According to Rivals' basketball recruiting rankings, Florida State in 2003 had the top-ranked class. Oregon also created a splash with a class in 2004 headlined by Top 10 prospect Malik Hairston. USC did something similar when its class had O.J. Mayo and Davon Jefferson. Same with K-State 's class starring Michael Beasley, Bill Walker and Jacob Pullen in ‘07.

Obviously, this kind of thing sparks a lot of suspicion. When I worked on Meat Market, I recall coach Ed Orgeron telling his staff that if Ole Miss landed (top-ranked recruit) Joe McKnight, the Rebels would get investigated by the NCAA. Hugh Freeze, who was an assistant under Orgeron, knows skeptics are out there. People are already whispering. Then again, I've talked to a bunch of college coaches in the past two weeks and there's a lot of skepticism swirling about the dealings of a lot of schools, not just ones that aren't traditional Top 10 schools. I've heard plenty of gossip about some of the shady dealings of the big schools, too. They range from how a recruit from a very modest background has been able to afford to take numerous unofficial visits to a school several states away to high school coaches completely steering a kid to a certain school. But no doubt Ole Miss has emerged as the biggest story of Signing Day.

Jason Kirk at SB Nation had an interesting article examining this topic, titled “Is Hugh Freeze's 2013 turnaround too good to be true?”

Kirk looks at other schools that have made a huge one-year jump in the recruiting rankings and found that only 2005 Nebraska has done what the Rebels may be in the process of doing. (Cynics also noted that those Huskers did have John Blake on Bill Callahan's staff as an ace recruiter.) The thing is, every program save for one on Kirk's list except for Ole Miss has been a traditional powerhouse. The lone exception: Stanford in 2012, which was coming off consecutive top-eight finishes and back-to-back BCS bowl trips.

To me, the most relevant example from Kirk's research of an outsider program making some national recruiting noise was Tim Brewster's Minnesota team in 2008. (They were ranked No. 17). But that class didn't have any of the recruits that are creating the buzz the level of who Freeze is close to landing. There wasn't a single five-star in the Gophers class. Last year, Vandy and coach James Franklin got a lot of attention for reeling in several blue-chippers early. (Vandy?!? Right, Vandy.) But still, that class (with three four-stars and zero five-stars) only ended up ranking No. 29. This Rebel class is on a whole different level in terms of star power.

It's not just Robert Nkemdiche, the nation's consensus No. 1 recruit. As I mentioned the other day, Ole Miss also has a commitment from the nation's top wideout, Laquon Treadwell, a player some rival college coaches think has more of a gap between himself and every other receiver than there is between Nkemdiche and all other DLs. Word is that Treadwell, whose buddy, CB Anthony Standifer, was signed by the Rebels last year, has been a great recruiter for Ole Miss.

The Rebels also already have signed the nation's top JC player, DT Lavon Hooks. In addition, they have committed Top 30 recruit Elijah Daniels, who is a five-star DE, and four other four-star recruits: WR Nick Brassell; RB Kailo Moore; DT Jarran Reed and RB Mark Dodson. Those guys alone plus Nkemdiche would blow away any other “upstart” class. But there's also speculation that the Rebels could also land the nation's top OT, Laremy Tunsil, five-star safety Tony Conner and maybe the country' No. 2 player as well in Missisippi State commit Chris Jones although I'm told Jones probably stays with State. Still, this sounds like a No. 1 class potentially, not just a top 10 class.

Ole Miss had a top-15 ranked class in 2006, which Orgeron signed the day I started working on Meat Market. That class actually exceeded expectations but did so more because of its three-star guys than due to the two five-stars (QB Brent Schaeffer and DT Jerrell Powe). Some of the unheralded three-stars who really shined were Dexter McCluster, DE Greg Hardy, DB Kendrick Lewis, WR Shay Hodge, and CB Cassius Vaughn.

It'll be fascinating to see how Freeze closes and then what happens with this group in the aftermath.

It may be that Coach Freeze is telling recruits something like "You know, six years ago a coach went to Alabama where the cupboard was half bare. He did about like we did the first year. Then he signed the Julio Jones, Mark Ingram class and they have won three National championships over the next five years. Wouldn't you like to be a part of something like that at Ole Miss." That could work, you know.

If you want to post your email I will get you in touch with a couple of friends of mine. They believe we didn't go to the moon and the CIA blew up the Twin Towers. You guys would go good together. Old MIss. may or may not be doing something but one things for sure. Not a damn one of us knows a thing for sure. RTR

Ha. Maybe a Rodney Carrington country song.

Three words after calling other people dumb, you misspell "con".