Kansas Football Recruiting Update

Well a trip to Mexico and I miss a lot in the way of football recruiting.  I thought it might have been a down time but I suppose I should have known we'd see some movement after the spring game.

The Kansas Jayhawk football staff has landed commitments from three players to kick off the 2010 signing class and I'm working on interviews with two of the three but it's been a little slow going so far.  I'll keep trudging along and seeing what I can come up with but for the time being I thought I'd give a quick rundown of the three and throw it out there for discussion. 

The three recruits that have made their pledge to the Kansas staff are David Clark, Jeremiah Edwards and Ricki Herod Jr.

Breakdowns and highlights after the jump...

I'll start with David Clark the one we've touched on already a bit thanks to Labba.  Clark has committed to the Jayhawk staff and is a JUCO corner currently playing at Independence CC in Kansas.  There are plenty of positives with regard to Clark as a JUCO prospect starting with the fact that he anticipates a December graduation meaning he'll be on campus for Kansas spring practices in 2010.  With that in mind he'll have ample opportunity to get up to speed and be prepared to make an impact if he can crack what is becoming a fairly deep corner position for the Jayhawks. 

The other good news is it sounds like he's got the talent to potentially make that happen.  Clark originally hails from Baton Rouge Louisiana and as Labba pointed out has a pretty strong list of offers now and even more dating all the way back to his high school days.  He's 6'1" 190 pounds and expected by many to break into the 4 star range when it's all said and done.  My guess is this one might have something to do with Bill Miller's ties to the Kansas junior college ranks.

Video of Clark in action at Independence.

Moving on next to Jeremiah Edwards and it seems the most common comparison out there is to a pretty good Jayhawk James McClinton.  Edwards was recruited by last years monster on the trail David Beaty who is taking Texas by storm.  Edwards is a tad undersized for a defensive tackle at 6'1" 275 but it would appear the staff thought fairly highly of him and he was up their in terms of targets.  The Jayhawk staff doesn't offer just anybody this early in the year.  Thinking back to guys like Kevin Young who we were all very happy to get last year and he didn't see an offer until after the summer camp. 

From an offer standpoint Edwards had officially recieved offers from both Tulsa and SMU but several other Big 12 schools were evaluating him and may still make a push for him this season as it's becoming tough for the Jayhawk staff to keep anyone a secret anymore. 

In high school Edwards has played primarily a nose tackles type spot for Garland High School.  He's very quick, strong, uses his hands well and has a solid motor which is likely where the comparisons to one James McClinton comes from.  Again this is a guy I'm working on an interview with but in the time being here's a highlight video.

Last but not least is Ricki Herod Jr. who comes from the same high school as Daymond Patterson.  Interestingly Ricki was offered and committed while Daymond's brother is still awaiting an offer from the Jayhawks.  I think this probably speaks very highly of Herod and what the coaches think of him. 

Once again Ricki was a recruit of David Beaty and comes out of the Dallas Fort Worth pipeline.  Herod began turning some heads at the Army Combine this past year where by some accounts he showed the most potential and was possibly the best reciever at the camp.  Why so little interest so far then?  Well for a variety of reasons and offensive scheme being a major one of those Ricki only had 15 receptions as a junior.  This could be another situation though like we saw with Chris Omigie where the Jayhawk staff has done their homework and found a potential major sleeper who lacked the stats to turn the heads of some of the major schools. 

We'll certainly be keeping an eye on Ricki during his senior season as I expect he might be looking at a few more nice offers as time goes on.  If the Jayhawks can keep this early commitment in the fold it could be another solid reciever for the future of the Kansas offense.

Here's a couple of quick video's of Herod, the first being an interview with The Shiver.  Listen to the list of schools he's been hearing from, like I said he may not yet have offers from those but that's because to date he's flown somewhat under the radar.  Make no mistake , from all accounts this guy has the potential to gain offers from some of those programs and it could be a huge early pickup for the Jayhawks if they keep him in the fold until February.