McCready: Next 370 days will dictate the tenor of Ole Miss' 2017 class
OXFORD -- On Sunday, as Ole Miss wrapped up its final weekend of official visits, a football staffer admitted the Rebels’ class might be lacking in star power but it was full of “football players.”
Ole Miss certainly has to hope so.
The same staffer, in his very next thought, said Ole Miss would return to the rarified air of top-10 recruiting classes this time next year.
“You have to keep up with the Joneses,” he said.
Truer words…
There’s a lot to tackle today, as National Signing Day brings manufactured optimism and dizzying spin at college football programs all over the country. Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, predictably, talked Wednesday about filling needs, about finding high character kids ready to work and ready to help the Rebels return to championship contention.
It’s an exciting day for kids all over the country. Young men signed national letters of intent, bringing to fruition years of work and assuring they’ll enroll with a full scholarship at universities on all over the country this summer. It’s a day of celebration, a day to hope and to dream.
For Ole Miss, though, once equilibrium returns from all the spin, Wednesday should bring a sobering reality. History says classes like the one Ole Miss signed Wednesday won’t win championships. Sure, the Super Bowl will have its fair share of two- and three-stars on the field when the Falcons and Patriots meet in Houston, but let’s keep this real: Championship college football programs are littered with four- and five-star players. There are really no exceptions.
Ole Miss’ class, as of this afternoon, was ranked No. 41 by rivals.com. Among the 14 Southeastern Conference programs, the Rebels are ranked No. 12. Needless to say, that’s not how the West will be won.
The NCAA clearly wants its proverbial pound of flesh from Ole Miss. On Wednesday, I think it’s fair to say, it collected at least a few ounces.
"We've suffered penalties," Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. "This recruiting class, it was a penalty to be under the cloud we're under."
A year ago, when news broke regarding Ole Miss’ receipt of a notice of allegations from the NCAA just days before National Signing Day, the Rebels were able to hold the class together. Under the dark cloud of an ongoing investigation and the inevitability of an amended NOA with new charges, Ole Miss simply couldn’t recruit with the big boys.
"It was ugly," Freeze said. "I didn't enjoy it. You take great pride in who you are, how you do things. Again, that's not to say we've been perfect, but I know the value I place on this job and my name and our coaches' names and our administration's name. But I'm the leader of the program and everything gets directed pretty much at you. Some of it is personal with some people, probably. ...Unfortunately, there were several others that thought it was a prime opportunity to use it in recruiting. That's the route they go and I won't forget who they are."
How one views Wednesday likely depends on one’s outlook. If you’re a glass-half-full guy or gal, here you go: Ole Miss needed linebackers more than anything, and the Rebels did pretty well there. Four-star Mohamed Sanogo picked Ole Miss Wednesday, joining fellow four-star Breon Dixon, three-star Josh Clarke and junior college standout Brenden Williams. A skeptic will point out the loss of former commitment Willie Gay to Mississippi State and late target Thomas Johnston to UAB, but Ole Miss met its needs at linebacker.
"Time will always tell, but I think we got quality individuals there, first," Freeze said.
Ole Miss needed a presence at defensive end and landed one of its top targets, junior college star Markel Winters. Three-star signee Ryder Anderson has a very high upside.
The Rebels needed to bolster their defensive secondary, and they certainly added some talent there. Four-star athlete Kam White, likely a safety in college, signed with Ole Miss. Junior college transfer Javien Hamilton and three-star defensive back A.J. Harris could provide immediate help. Three-star athlete D.D. Bowie could contribute immediately at cornerback, and his speed should earn him an early look in the return game as well. Bowie held off a strong charge by Mississippi State and stuck with the Rebels at an announcement midday Wednesday.
"I knew they were going to get in a little trouble, but I just feel at home right there," Bowie said of Ole Miss to the Clarion-Ledger's Hugh Kellenberger. "Coach Hugh Freeze never lied to me, so that’s where I choose to be."
The Rebels had to have a running back, and they signed a wonderful kid in the form of Hattiesburg’s Isaiah Woullard, who got his coveted Ole Miss offer Tuesday night and jumped on it. If you need a feel-good story to warm your heart on this signing day, Woullard is it. His family’s home was destroyed by a tornado last month, and he was in tears Sunday morning as he left his official visit to Ole Miss without an offer. I suspect no one will work harder over the next four years than Woullard will in Oxford.
If you’re a glass-half-empty sort, well, drink up. There are gallons of this potion to consume. The NCAA investigation very likely cost Ole Miss five-star running back Cam Akers, who signed with Florida State. It was hurtful, at the very least, in the pursuit of five-star linebacker Jacob Phillips (LSU), four-star offensive tackle Trey Smith (Tennessee) and four-star defensive back Chevin Calloway (Arkansas). It was a factor in the race for five-star offensive tackle Walker Little (Stanford) and it prevented the Rebels from having at least a puncher’s chance at Little’s high school teammate, five-star defensive tackle Marvin Wilson. Recruiting with a notice of allegations on the record is challenging. Recruiting under the cloud of an amended NOA with potential new charges and the acknowledged possibility of a bowl ban is next to impossible.
Freeze said Wednesday he addressed the potential NCAA penalties with prospects throughout the process, giving them "an educated guess on worst-case scenarios. We didn't run from it. We hit it head-on."
Asked Wednesday what the worst-case scenario is, Freeze didn't go into details.
"I'm the first to tell them, I have no idea what the end of this is," Freeze said. "I know who we are and I know if wrongdoing has occurred, there will be penalties. We've started paying many of those. ...I don't know what worst-case is, but we've talked about things. We've talked about scholarship reductions. We've talked about a bowl ban. Who knows, because we haven't had a chance to see what the charges are and we haven't had a chance to go and argue our case."
Since the Rebels’ five-touchdown Egg Bowl loss to Mississippi State, Ole Miss has changed both coordinators, added a linebackers coach, hired a new wide receivers coach and a new defensive line coach. Throw in the NCAA situation, and the last month was predictably a scramble. Did the new staff close well? Some will say yes. Some will say no. Nuance and perspective are required to discuss it adequately.
For example, Ole Miss got last-minute commitments out of Georgia in the form of athlete (likely wide receiver Braylon Sanders) and offensive tackle Tony Gray and lost four-star running back Cordarrian Richardson to Maryland (though Richardson’s academic status is shaky at best right now) and defensive back Eric Stokes to Georgia. It would take paragraphs to detail what happened in those and other cases, but sometimes, it just is what it is.
Along those lines, when the day is over and when the spinning stops, the sun will rise Thursday, the first day of the most important year in modern Ole Miss football history. Between Thursday and Feb. 7, 2018, Ole Miss will likely appear in front of the Committee on Infractions and receive sanctions, play the 2017 season and recruit its 2018 signing class.
That’s all that matters now. The 2017 recruiting class will produce some players that end up being good Southeastern Conference football players. You can bank that. However, keeping it real, classes like the one Ole Miss signed Wednesday won’t win championships in a division that includes Alabama, LSU and Auburn, not to mention Texas A&M, Arkansas and Mississippi State.
Ole Miss can absorb this class and hope it provides a couple of impact players, a glut of glue guys, leadership and complementary pieces provided 2018 and beyond bring star power. That’s reality, devoid of spin.
A little more than a year from now, I suspect, we’ll know the answer to the question many around Mississippi, the SEC and the nation were whispering on Wednesday as Ole Miss made the fall from recruiting powerhouse to sharing space in the recruiting rankings with Rutgers, Iowa State, Duke and Illinois. Was National Signing Day 2017 a bump in the road during a transition for Hugh Freeze or was it a marker in a fast descent that will ultimately lead to change?
For his part, on Wednesday afternoon, Freeze sounded like a man ready to rally and move forward.
"How much difference is there in the No. 10-ranked class and the No. 40-ranked class?" Freeze said. "I don't know, probably very small. Those top 10 classes, there would be some difference. After that, it becomes what the kid does with it when he gets there, and we're excited to go to work with these young men that have chosen our program."