Some notes on incoming recruits and new personnel

According to Kyle Veazey of The Clarion-Ledger, three of this year's junior college football signees should be in class for the spring 2007 semester. The three are DT Jessie Bowman, SLM Dominic Douglas, and QB Josh Riddell. Bowman is waiting for results of a correspondence course before he can enroll. If I understand the NCAA rules correctly, this would mean they officially count toward the 2006 recruiting class. This means that at the moment, assuming Bowman ends up qualifying, Mississippi State has 27 commitments counting towards the 2007 class. This is not including the 3 soft-verbals that State has per scout.com. If these three hold to their commitment, that would bring the total to 30. I don't believe Mississippi State has enough scholarships for 30 players, so I would expect to see two or three recruits fall off the board for whatever reason before signing day. ( do not appear likely to qualify, back out and commit elsewhere, etc.)

Also, welcome Ben Pollard, the new strength and conditioning coach. It's a little hard for me to judge the merits of a conditioning coach based on on field performance of his team, so I won't even try. He does have a pretty good pedigree though, coming from Texas A&M and Alabama before that. Seems like a solid hire to me.