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Update: Jayhawkslant is reporting that longsnapper John Wirtel will walk on and is expected to contribute early on to the special teams unit.
Signing day kicks off bright and early this morning and as the each year goes by the coverage revolving around recruiting seems to grow exponentially. ESPN has wall to wall coverage, every football focused website, football media relations employee and coaching staff in America will be working through the day to put the finishing touches on the 2013 recruiting season.
For the Jayhawks this could be a fairly uneventful signing day. Last year we had a few small surprises but this year that could be an even less eventful day. Why? well Charlie Weis and his staff have done most of their work and at least to this point, we haven't heard a whole lot of chatter in the way of last minute changes.
That said, things do happen. Fortunately the staff has nine members of the class already signed and heading toward Lawrence to participate over the spring semester. That leaves 15 players that this staff has to hold onto and hopefully everyone can breath a sigh of relief at the end of this day with all 15 faxing in their letters of intent to play for the University of Kansas.
So what are we watching for then? Regardless of how confident we may be and regardless of this staff's track record, keep an eye on any last minute surprises for the good and for the bad. Are their names we aren't aware of? We know this staff was after several offensive line prospects late and they missed on all of the ones we were aware of so that would appear to leave an opening for someone that maybe wasn't as high on the radar screen early on. Offensive tackle still appears to be a major concern for this staff and they've targeted several, but missed in most cases. Are we going to have a hole to fill at that position? Also, do we find out about any preferred walk that might have an opportunity to contribute down the line?
Today is really the first full foundational class for Charlie Weis. It's the most aggressive we've ever seen the Jayhawks when it comes to junior college recruiting and it's pretty clear that the goal is to win, win now and start thinking differently when it comes to the business of recruiting for the Kansas Jayhawk football team.