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the university daily kansan
sports
thursday, february 5, 2004
Missouri secures recruiting class
The Associated Press
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Signing day can be a time of high anxiety for college football coaches. Not so for Missouri's Gary Pinkel.
Coming off the school's first bowl appearance in five seasons. Missouri got almost everybody it wanted yesterday and came close to sealing the state borders. The Tigers, 8-5 last year, secured commitments from 14 of the top 16 players in the state, according to www.rivals.com.
They also garnered five of the top six players on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's list of top 30 area recruits.
And, the end game went smoothly.
"It's interesting," Pinkel said. "Most of the players that we just signed, the signings and the phone calls and the faxes were completed, almost all of them, by 9 o'clock this morning."
The lone exception was defensive lineman George Lane of College of Sliskiyou, a junior college in Weed, Calif., who signed a couple of hours later. That state is in the Pacific Time Zone, two hours
behind Missouri.
beyond Mississippi.
The jewels of this year's 24-man class are a pair of quarterbacks who'll vie to be the successor to Brad Smith, a junior next year. Chase Patton of Columbia Rock Bridge and Darrell Jackson of Webster Groves both are among the top recruits in the country at that position.
county at a local office Jackson accounted for 52 touchdowns as a senior, throwing for 25 and running for 27. Patton, rated higher by most recruiting services, threw for 30 touchdowns.
"No matter where they go they're going to have to compete with somebody," said Dave Yost, Missouri's quarterback coach as well as the recruiting coordinator. "This is where they wanted to go."
The in-state signings are a result of significant improvements in relationship-building by Pinkel and his staff. When Pinkel arrived three years ago, succeeding Larry Smith as coach, he said Missouri had a lot of work to do.
"The breakdown between the high schools and the University of Missouri was as bad as I've ever
seen," Pinkel said. "The attitude was as negative as I could ever have imagined."
"I'm not blaming anyone, I'm just telling you like it is, and so we've worked real hard at earning trust."
Yesterday the Tigers hope they got rewarded for the effort. Besides its in-state haul, Missouri also signed nine players from Texas and one from Oklahoma.
It's difficult if not impossible to project how high school kids will do in college, but www.rivals.com rated Missouri's recruiting class 25th in the country.
"I'm excited about the class." Pinkel said. "I don't know of any coach in America that would not come up and start and with that statement.
"Our philosophy was we wanted to get 90 percent of the best players in the state and don't do that one year but year after year after year, and that gives us the opportunity from a recruiting base to build a national program."
The class includes four sets of teammates.
Patton and linebacker Van Alexander are from Columbia Rock Bridge, and Missouri also got a pair of players from John Jay High School in San Antonio, Texas, Kansas City Rockhurst and Ryan High School in Denton, Texas.
Alexander, rated the number eight linebacker prospect in the country by www.rivals.com, was the first member of this class to commit in November of his junior season.
season.
"I know Van was going to do everything he could to get Chase to be his teammate," Yost said.
All but one of the players, Lane, was listed on the announcement sheet with both an offensive and defensive position. That gives the school, which signed four quarterbacks but likely will move the other two to defense, a measure of flexibility.
"How we handle it in our program, every player starts where he wants to line," Pinkel said. "If an offensive lineman wants to play quarterback I might frown on that, but they're going to start where they want to start."
BASKETBALL: Wilkes remains confident he will be important to team
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
It will take more effort on Wilkes' part to earn playing time than he had originally thought, but he says that he does not regret his decision to come to Kansas for one minute, and he has no plans of transferring.
"There's so many things going for me that I'm not going to let playing time deteriorate my feelings," Wilkes said. "I'm pretty happy with the way things are transpiring right now."
When Wilkes was recruited out of high school, former Kansas coach Roy Williams made suggestions about his playing time as a freshman. When Williams left Kansas for North Carolina, Wilks stuck to his commitment, and is glad he did, as he loves playing for coach Bill Self, and loves Lawrence.
Wilkes is just fine now acting like a typical University of Kansas freshman. He from time-to-time gets homesick, but his father, former UCLA and Los Angeles Lakers standout Jamaal Wilkes, has helped him with all of the adjustments he has had to make in life and basketball.
"He has a lot of advice because he has so much knowledge of the game and played it for so long." Wilkes said. "He takes a fatherly role trying to comfort me. He believes in his heart of hearts that things will come together for me."
His father is not the only one telling Wilkes to hang in there. He receives just as much encouragement from the student body that has made him one of the local fan favorites.
"It's like we have a thousand coach Selfs out there," Wilkes said. "I've been told that I was Jesus Christ and was going to lead us to the promised land."
Wilkes got a good laugh, and still does, every time he thinks of the comment. While he's no savior, it's nice to have something to shoot for. Kansas Basketball Notebook
Lineup Solidified — Bill Self announced at yesterday's press conference that freshman forward David Padgett will be the team's permanent starter, replacing senior Jeff Graves, unless his left foot injury becomes a problem again. Against Missouri, in his first starting assignment since returning from the injury, Padgett had six points and six rebounds in 26 minutes.
Giddens OK — Freshman guard J.R. Giddens ended any concerns about his left knee, which forced
Freshman guard Omar Wilkes cut through a hoard of Colorado defenders in Allen Fieldhouse Jan. 25. Wilkes played six minutes against the Buffaloes.
him to hobble off the court following the Missouri game Monday night, saying it's not an injury worth noting.
"It just gave out a little bit," he said. "That sucks, but it's all gravy."
Edited by Collin LaJoie
RECRUITING: Jayhawk football fills crucial roles on signing day
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
"I don't want to put that type of pressure on him, but the potential exists for that to happen," Mangino said. Bigger Loss
Losing Bruce Mompremier to South Florida hurt, but Alan Erving not qualifying was the major blow for the Jayhawks. Erving had decent size and would have competed for a starting position.
starting position.
The Jayhawks were not deep on the offensive line last season and were lucky nobody was injured. One of Mangino's main goals was to improve the depth of the offensive line. The Jayhawks will instead fill the needed spots with the high school signees, Mangino said.
Best Athlete of the Class
Green was the number seven rated all-purpose running back in the nation and has fantastic speed and quickness. He had San Antonio city records with 442 total yards and seven touchdowns against the defending Texas 5A state champions. He has breakaway speed that enabled him to rush for more than 10 yards per carry as a junior.
He also catches the ball well out of the backfield and could be a special teams standout. With the depth at running back, don't be surprised if this moves either Green or Randle over to defensive back.
Bingest Sligner
This class is packed full of
Biggest Sleeper
them. Probably the largest unknown is defensive end Charlton Keith. Keith was only added to the Jayhawks recruiting list in the past few weeks because strength coach Chris Dawson knew him from Minnesota. Keith is blazing, and Mangino will give every shot to a defensive end that can pressure the quarterback.
sure the quarterback Keith ranked among the Big 10 leaders in sacks as a freshman and was named Freshman All-American. Strong defensive end play from Keith and Jermail Ashley is a must for Kansas' zone defense scheme to work. Defensive lineman Anthony Collins is another late addition.
Overall Recruiting Class
Mangino did an excellent job with the quarterback position and looks to have a solid core of offensive linemen to plug in. One more defensive tackle would have been nice along with another offensive lineman and another cornerback. The major strength of this class is the athleticism.
There are some strong players in this class, but most are unknowns. On first glance this class may not seem to be much and Mangino's development of the sleepers will be key. That's the reason for Rivals rating the class as the number 45 class in the nation. For now though, at face value, this class has a long way to go.
Final Grade: C+
Flaherty is a Lenexa senior in Journalism.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
SIGNING: Jayhawks acquire 20 players, have room for more
He's not the only player whose father had football experience. Walk-on Josh Lawrence is the son of former Jayhawks guard and current announcer David Lawrence.
Punter Kyle Tucker may be one of the more interesting players in the class. Not only will he have a chance to punt next season, he may also win the starting kickoff and field goal kicking positions. Tucker is a multi-talented athlete who also played basketball in high school.
■ When quarterback Adam Barmann suits up against Missouri, he'll have more than a border rivalry against the Tigers. His brother, Brian Barmann, signed a letter of intent yesterday to play tight end or defensive back for Missouri. The brothers are from Weston, Mo.
Mangino gave scholarships to three players who were on last season's team. Wide receiver Scott Bajza and offensive linemen Zach Hood and Matt Thompson are now on scholarship.
Even with the three new scholarships, Kansas has seven scholarships remaining. Mangino said Kansas will look to sign another one or two players and the rest of the scholarships would be performance-based for walk-ons. Phil Tuihalamaka, former defensive tackle left the team this season after withdrawing from his classes.
- Edited by Meghan Brune
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