Agree. So here is my take and some perspective.
A class is only as good as two things: 1. the needs that are met and 2. if the guys actually ever get to the field and qualify academically.
We've had more wow classes in the past. Higher ranked ones too. But how many of those kids made it to campus or the team? How many have some serious character questions? This reminds me of that class chizik had. Some services had it number 1. I think half of that class was a bust. Hardly a true number 1 class. My point here? This class met some needs aside from lacking an OL or two. It seems to have guys who won't have issues qualifying for the most part. It seems to have good character kids who won't go all Duke, Mincy or Kyle Davis on us.
I'll take 4 #12 classes all day long when needs are met and 95% of the signees suit up. I'll take that over a #4 class that has huge attrition and contributes sparingly on the field for whatever reason. Woody Barretts make a class look good on paper. It sells lots of magazines in February. But if he fizzles out then what good is it.
A couple of things I read today that were interesting on the krootin'. While our ranking was higher last year, the overall points (for lack of a better term) were higher in this class. In other words, it was a better overall class than last year. It was several other teams like USC and FSU that picked up their games at the last minute and jumped us.
The other was something Malzahn said. He basically said with the early signing period, that guys who held out til yesterday, were pretty much the biggest prizes. Most teams, including AU, had already signed more than half their classes, so more teams could put an all out blitz on these 5 star kids at the end. He said his priority was making sure they stayed on the 8 guys that committed but didn't sign early.
I also saw where 8 of our guys have already enrolled. I knew some had but I didn't realize it was 8. That's pretty cool that you can get that many in the system and most importantly, the weight room, this early.
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