Commit #5

MSU finally got some help at DE on June 24th from Florida native Kirkland Gainous. Supposedly he is one of those "stars on the rise" types and is just starting to get noticed. If thats the case his ratings may soar if he has a good senior season. For now though, they aren't so hot with both Scout and Rivals labeling him a 2 star. ESPN grades him as a 73 (low 3 star) and the #73 DE overall. He claims offers from Troy, South Florida, Central Florida, Illinois, LSU, and Alabama. Thats quite the mixed bag and could support the "rising star" theory.

Gainous is reportedly 6-2, 225. Scout mentions him having the frame to grow into either a DE or DT in college, but I really don't see DT being much of a possibility. Especially given the fact DE is the second biggest need after TE. I was unable to turn up squat about Gainous doing the normal Google stalk so speculation will have to suffice. Judging by the offer list their is one of two possibilities with this guy: 1. He is indeed a "rising star" with LSU, Alabama, and Illinois offering him later on in the game once he started blowing up or 2. He is very raw right now but has loads of potential and LSU and Alabama are taking a chance that they can develop him. Either scenario is far more favorable than him being a 2 star who is simply not that good. #1 is preferred though given how thin Mississippi State will be at DE next year.

ESPN is Garbage

Remember the days when MTV actually, you know, played some music? What a novel idea, MTV, which stands for Music Television, playing some music. Too bad they don't do that anymore. Remember when ESPN was about sports? Remember when Sportscenter was a nice, clean package of highlights that satisfied you as to what occurred that day in the world of sports? Yeah, I remember that too. It was nice wasn't it? Not anymore though. Now I find it to be completely unwatchable, outside of their broadcasts of actual sporting events, and even those are going down the toilet. Now we are treated to such abominations as Who's Now. I have a better question, Who Gives a Crap? I didn't know ESPN, and in this case Sportscenter, had become the Access Hollywood for sports. This will soon turn into nothing more than an expletive laced rant so I will defer to Dawg Sports on this one. Its sad to have to see ESPN become a shell of its former self.


UPDATE: FireJoeMorgan.com chimes in:

Hey! Do You Guys Like Sports?

Then you'll love ESPN's segment "Who's Now"! It's a sports segment about sports persons and it's on a sports network!

In this edition, ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports, devotes several minutes of my time (yes: my time) to discussing, with Stuart Scott, Mike Greenberg, Adam Sandler, and Kevin James, which of Tom Brady and Maria Sharapova is more "now."

Scott: Lot of talent on their field, or court. And a lot of buzz, because, let's face it, everybody talks a lot about how hot these two are.

Greenberg: The one thing I was thinking going into this, if there's a toss-up, maybe you actually go to the sports. --

Off Camera Voice: (as if this is a shocking notion) Wow.

Greenberg: -- Who's actually the greater player. In my opinion, Brady is closer to being the best quarterback in football than Sharapova is to being the best tennis player in the world.

(There is a fraction of a second where everyone involved with this miserable tragedy seems to be thinking: Man. It is a little weird that this is the flagship program on the #1 sports network in the world, and this is a recurring segment with like tons of graphics and fan voting and stuff, and one of our regular anchor-types just suggested that maybe if we need a like tie-breaker issue to figure out which of these athletes wins this contest that we're having, we might actually examine their relative abilities in the sports which they play. Then, Stuart Scott says...)

Scott: If you guys were having a party, and you had to invite one of them -- it's a Hollywood party -- who do you invite?

And then Adam Sandler makes jokes about hotness, Sharapova vs. Brady's girlfriends, and Sportscenter "rolls on."

What happened to ESPN? Seriously.

Amen

Catching Up With Recruitin' IV: Football '08

Our fourth commit for 2008 came to us on May 16 from tight end Nelson Hurst. Scout has him as a 3 star, the #35 ranked TE, and the #11 player in Indiana. (No, thats not a typo. We really did get someone out of Indiana. Like they say, there's a first time for everything.) ESPN gives him a 74, which is equivalent to a mid range 3 star and has him as the #41 TE. Rivals gives him just two but ranks him as the #9 player in Indiana. His offer list is actually somewhat impressive with some mid-level BCS teams in there: Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Illinois, Purdue, and UCLA.

Some people have suggested the possibility of him playing defensive end, he plays both TE and DE in high school, but Hurst says he would rather be a TE. Seeing as we will be losing 3 TE this year, leaving only one coming back in '08, I think it is safe to say we'll be seeing him play tight end.

Pretty good pickup and at a position of desperate need too. We'll be taking at least one more TE in this class, and it wouldn't surprise me to see us take two.

Catching Up With Recruitin' III: Football '08

The third member of the '08 class came when OL John Paul Alford committed to Mississippi State on May 9th. Yet again, MSU was the first to offer and Alford, who will most likely be a center at MSU, committed almost immediately. Seeing as this is an offensive lineman, this post is going to be somewhat short. Sorry John Paul, but I have no idea how to discuss individual OL or determine how good they may be. So, I'll just repeat how everyone rates him and that'll be that.

John Paul Alford is 6-3 and about 280. He was put on the 2006 4A All-State team by the coaches poll. Scout gives him two stars, places him as the #13 rated center and #23 overall in Mississippi. Rivals is a tad higher on him ranking him as a 3 star player, #6 ranked center and #9 overall in Mississippi. ESPN grades him at 67 (high 2 star) and the #26 center.

Catching Up With Recruitin' II: Football '08

On March 30th, middle linebacker Bo Walters became the second member of the '08 class to commit to MSU. He's a two star according to Scout and the #34 player in Alabama. Rivals is slightly higher on him, putting him at a 3 star. ESPN gives him a 78 rating (equivalent to a high 3 star) and rates him as the #33 OLB. Just like Patterson, State was the first to offer and Walters committed soon after. Since committing he has picked up 4 more offers: Louisiana Tech, Tulane, UAB, and Southern Miss, all of which are pretty meh.

So, going by the offers its looking like a CUSA level recruit, which doesn't really jive with the ESPN150 watchlist. Thats not necessarily bad at this point in time though as just a couple of years ago it wasn't uncommon to see us battling Div 1AA teams for recruits. Considering that, I'll take the UABs of the world instead. He did wrack up 97 tackles playing for a pretty good 5A team and he actually looks pretty good on film. Has good size and speed; 6-2, 225, 4.46-4.6 40. Actually, he probably would need to add about 10-15 pounds, but that should be easy enough to do. For some reason I like this commit. Maybe the glitter of the ESPN150 watchlist has blinded me, or maybe I desperately want some hope for the future...or maybe both.

Like at RB, this might be all MSU takes as far as linebacker considering they picked up 5 last year (7 actually, but only 5 qualified). Maybe one more at the most.

Basketball Picks Up Third Commit for '08

Dee Bost became the third Bulldog commitment for the '08 class on Wednesday. He was a senior in high school this past year but will be attending prep school, Hargrave to be specific, for a year to get his grades up to par. Thus the reclassification to an '08 recruit. Scout ranked him as a 4 star in '07 and had him as the 95th player overall and the 20th ranked shooting guard. He is still a 4 star in '08, but Scout doesn't rank reclassified players so I have to go by the '07 rankings. According to Rivals, Bost is a high 3 star, the #115 player in the country and the #21 ranked point guard. He averaged 17.8 points, five rebounds, and 4 assists his senior year.

Bost will almost certainly be a point guard at State and the replacement for Jamont Gordon. He might play SG for a while until he gets his feet wet. From what I can tell he is a distributor first and scorer second, which is fine as there will be plenty of other scoring options. Here's a little snippet:

Bost showed his toughness at the King James event in Akron. Will fire into the lane as though he is built like a prize fighter, as opposed to the smaller Satterfield-like frame he carries. Sees the floor well and loves to run the break. Is a very good shooter from deep, but loves the 'track team' style of play. - Mike Ryan

He played point guard in high school as well as playing quarterback and cornerback in football. He was the MVP of both the football and basketball state championship games, which if I'm not mistaken is the first time that has happened in North Carolina. Given that, its not suprising he was named the North Carolina male athlete of the year. Basically, he is just a leader and a winner. The Clarion Ledger has a little bit more on Dee Bost here and here.

This is really an impressive class Stansbury has put together here. We're talking close to the level, if not on the level, of a Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, North Carolina, etc type class. We're talking Final Four level potential. Thats right, I said it. Maybe we should ask him if he would want to start recruiting for football too? Just a thought. Assuming Gordon goes pro next year, we have one more scholarship left to give. If he happens to stay, then we are done for '08. Which would be fine with me.

Catching Up With Recruitin': Football '08

Mississippi State got it's first recruit for the 2008 class when running back Montario "Tojo" Patterson committed to play for Mississippi State back on March 19. Don't ask me why he is called "Tojo" by some because I don't know and I'm probably not going to try all that hard to find out. According to Scout, he is a 3 star and is the #17 player in the state of Mississippi. Rivals also rates him as a 3 star and has him as the #12 player in Mississippi. They also put him as the #47 ranked running back. ESPN also has him as a 3 star and the #64 RB.

He's six foot and somewhere between 190 and 200 pounds depending on who you talk to. Patterson is definitely a speed back, running a 4.4 forty. His junior year stats are impressive as he rushed for 1,858 yards and 17 touchdowns. Unfortunately his school, Biggersville, is 1A so take those stats with a grain of salt given the level of competition.

State was the first to offer and he committed almost immediately. He had "interest" from other schools but I'm not going to bother listing them since "interest" is such a vague term. Pretty good start to the class. None of MSU's current running backs has anything approaching this kind of speed so worst case he should be a good change of pace guy. Running back is actually relatively deep as it is with 4 already on the roster and 2 more signed last year, so Patterson could be the only one MSU will take in this class. Maybe one more, but certainly no more than that.