USF Signing Day Approaching: What to Expect

It's all anyone has been talking about for the past week. National Letter of Intent Signing Day is coming tomorrow, and USF has put together one of the best classes in its short history, assuming everyone stays on board. If you've been keeping track of recruiting like I have, you know we've pretty much got most of our recruits locked down and ready to sign, so there won't be many surprises. But if you don't worry about recruiting until they step on the field (and even if you do follow it), here's a bit of what to be prepared for after the jump.

Bivins and Price are solid

Ever since Gainesville CB Chris Bivins and Marion TE Sean Price (a 3 and 4-star, according to Rivals) declared that they were going to be attending USF, Bulls fans have been apprehensive over whether they'd stay firm. Maybe it's because we aren't quite used to bringing in top recruits, beating out schools with a tradition of excellence like Arkansas and South Carolina for Bivins and Alabama, Florida, Georgia, FSU, Notre Dame, LSU, and Oklahoma for Price. But it does appear very likely that both will be Bulls. Maybe it's the proximity to home. Maybe we've got something that they couldn't find anywhere else. But Holtz and his staff have done a great job holding onto their top recruits, and it will pay off for them in future classes.

Probably not a lot of big surprises this year

Last year, 4-star DT Elkino Watson stunned fans from all over the state when he shunned the Miami and Florida hats on the table for a USF hat. This year will most likely not have one of those, unless by some miracle 5-star WR Nelson Agholor bails on his top five (Florida, Florida State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, and USC) and stays at home in Tampa to play for USF. But I'd be willing to wager that won't happen. As of right now it looks like the thing that will be most interesting for fans is to see whether 4-star Orlando WR D'Vario Montgomery stays firm with his commitment to USF after his very late official visit to Iowa State. For the record, I'm not threatened by the ISU trip. His high school QB goes there and I think he was taking advantage of the free opportunity to travel there. But that question will be answered tomorrow.

LaMarlin Wiggins probably won't be a Bull

Earlier in the summer we all got excited over the commitment of 3-star Plant City WR LaMarlin Wiggins. His commitment in late June gave Bulls fans a reason to keep track of this year's recruiting class. It's become pretty common knowledge by now, however, that Wiggins looks more like a sign-and-place this year. For those of you who are hearing what that is for the first time (like myself a few months ago), it means Wiggins will sign his letter of intent with USF, but due to some extenuating circumstance (often oversigning, or in this case, probably grades) he'll go directly to a junior college to gather experience and hopefully improve his grades so he'll be eligible for Division I football. After his two years of JUCO, he'll start the recruiting process all over again, but he'll have USF in his mind as the first team that had his loyalty. Many JUCO players don't re-sign with the college that they chose out of high school, but there's always a chance for him to come over. So Wiggins won't play for USF right now, but he can still come over after a couple years.

JUCO guys are solid

There are a lot of young high school players who won't honor their verbal commitments this year and go off somewhere else. But JUCO players are a little different. They've only got a maximum of two years to make a name for themselves before they ultimately try and make it in the big leagues. That's why you shouldn't worry about those guys wavering in their pledge to become Bulls. Chances are they've already gotten to work getting in shape for next season because it means that much more to them. Many of them are on campus right now trying to boost their GPA so they can focus on football in the Fall. Chandlor Mathews, Tevin Mims, Fidel Montgomery, Lawrence Martin, and Josh Brown are all on campus doing exactly that.

*Side note: Fidel Montgomery was just named the #3 JUCO Safety in the country yesterday.

We're not going to get a quarterback

USF struck out across the board on all the QBs they offered this time around. And a lot of fans are pretty bummed out. Their last longshot committed to Arizona, so it's pretty much over for us, ruling out one of those shockers mentioned earlier. But it's OK. USF has two quarterbacks on scholarship with two years of eligibility in Matt Floyd and Ryan Eppes, and they should be capable of leading the offense (after all, all they have to do is throw screen passes all day). USF has offered a couple quarterbacks for the 2013 class, including Carolina Panthers TE Greg Olsen's little brother Kevin. Next year is the time for Bulls fans to worry about a quarterback. And a lot of people probably don't even think about it, but the coaching staff is aware of this. They know what they're doing. They don't want to waste a scholarship on a kid and have five quarterbacks fight for playing time. We'll talk about recruiting a QB in the summer.

This signing day won't be incredibly exciting for USF and its fans, but as long as the Bulls hold on to the class they've put together, it should shape up to be one of the best classes in USF football's short history. Having all the five-stars in the country doesn't make you an excellent football team, though, so try not to concern yourself with how great other schools' recruiting rankings look. All that matters is what happens on the field.