Another Early Commitment for Ron Prince and the KSU Football Team

Ron Prince had an excellent 2006 recruiting class and is already received 6 commitments for the 2007 class.

There are several schools that have started signing early commitments but I am not sure it is a good thing. All 6 of the Wildcats' that have committed are from the High School ranks which is a positive sign that we are moving away from our dependence on Juco players, but none of them are rated by the major scouting organizations. Bill Snyder built our program on players that were largely overlooked by these same scouting groups but should we be making early commitments to these athletes? I would be more comfortable making early commitments to the nationally ranked players that want to be Wildcats. For example, this time last year, we received a commitment from a 4 star recruit, Leon Patton (RB).

Many of the concerns around early commitments have to do with disappointing Senior seasons. A serious injury could also restrict an athletes value when the actual signing day arrives.

My concerns are less about their senior year production and more based on the availability of scholarships to higher profile athletes that may want to sign with K-State towards the end of the recruiting season.

Let's take a look at one situation... First year Head Coach Ron Prince leads this years team to a Big 12 North title, a Bowl victory and a very impressive 11-3 record. Based on last years performance, you might think this is impossible, but the Big 12 North is wide open and we have a lot of starters returning next year. Evaluation of the schedule could easily lead to a 9-3 regular season, a loss in the Big 12 Championship game and then the bowl game.

If the situation I just described becomes reality, Ron Prince will be getting a lot of national publicity and he will be mentioned for National Coach of the Year honors. Let's face it, a first year coach taking a team that finished last in the Big 12 North to first would be a great story.

Those of us that follow K-State know that we were a better team then our record indicated the last two years and we would not be as surprised, but the national media has written K-State off and it would bring a lot of attention to our program.

In this scenario, K-State would be in a great position for recruiting at the end of the year. There would be blue chip athletes looking at K-State that had not even thought about them before the season. If we have over committed our scholarships by the end of next year, we may have to turn them away.

I guess that would be a good problem to have...