Traditionally, the Big East doesn’t pick up many of the nation’s elite players. This season won’t be much different, which is no surprise considering the season that was.
2011 National Signing Day: Louisville Leading Big East Into Signing Day
Currently, only four players on the ESPNU 150 are committed to Big East schools and Louisville is reaping the lion’s share with three of them. Yes, Louisville.
The Cardinals expect to receive commitments from S Gerod Holliman (No. 49 in ESPNU 150), WR Eli Rogers (No. 83) and QB Teddy Bridgewater (No. 143) on Wednesday. Bridgewater has actually already enrolled at UL so it would be super-awkward if he didn’t commit.
The key to Louisville’s success and the big reason they’ll easily have the Big East’s best recruiting class is their ability to snare top talent from Florida. Football recruiting coordinator Clint Hurtt will have earned his vacation in a few weeks.
The Cards have 19 commitments, with several players on their board still undecided. Of those commitments, 11 are from Florida, including seven from Miami.
"I think they have been doing the best job out of any program that has come into this area," Miami Southridge High School coach Patrick Burrows said. "This area is familiar to a lot of those guys, and they're doing a great job here."
The Big East is ripe for the picking and there’s no reason Louisville won’t be able to return to form if they keep this up.
The only other school in the conference to snare an ESPNU 150 athlete is Rutgers. That would be RB Savon Huggins (No. 28). Huggins tried to have a little fun when he made his announcement, briefly wearing a UNC hat before replacing it with a Rutgers cap, but it was a foregone conclusion he’d end up with the Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers has been looking for a supreme playmaker since Ray Rice and many feel they might have just found him.
One Big East team that won’t be showing up in the list of top classes is Pitt. Before Dave Wannstadt was fired, the Panthers were en route to a another solid recruiting class. Then Wanny was fired, the Mik Haywood fiasco went down and Todd Graham was left to pick up the pieces as quickly as possible.
Graham came in with six recruits still committed and has now worked that list back up to sixteen, with more expected on the way. There are a few fairly big fish out there that have Pitt on their list, but even if they don’t land any big fish, it’s been an admirable climb back up for Graham and the Panthers.
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