2006 College Football Signing Day (Photo By Austin Kilgore, The Daily Campus)

SMU football coach Phil Bennett announced the 2006 recruiting class of 16 high school athletes and four transfer players at a press conference Wednesday. Of the high school players, 12 will enroll in the fall and four will be classified as “grayshirts” who will join the team later to preserve NCAA eligibility.

“We didn’t have a lot of numbers, but I do feel good about the class,” Bennett said. “Myself and 117 other coaches today are saying the same thing.”

Many of the signees will be looked at to fill defensive needs. Of the 16 high school players signed, nine play exclusively defense and two play on both sides of the ball.

“We look for guys who are athletic and can run,” Bennett said of his recruiting strategy. “We know it’s our job to develop them.”

And develop he shall. Last year Bennett red-shirted 16 players, of all whom will be expected to contribute this year. He expects to red-shirt most of this incoming class, with a few exceptions for players who he feels can contribute right away.

One of those exceptions might be Bryan McCann, a 6-foot-tall, 175-pound triple-threat player from Oklahoma City.

McCann played receiver, defensive back and returned kicks in high school. He was rated the 20th best player in Oklahoma by Rivals.com, a national recruiting website, and chose SMU over offers from Stanford, Northwestern and Texas Tech, among others.

“Bryan was a young man who was probably the star of our camp,” Bennett said. “Right now he will start at corner, but we will use him some at wide receiver.”

A broken ankle sidelined McCann for most of his senior season, yet in only three games he was able to record six touchdowns, an interception and a fumble recovery.

“If he hadn’t [broken his ankle] I’m not so sure we would have him,” Bennett said of the highly recruited McCann. “He’s a guy who had quite a few offers to begin with, but if the first three games were any indication, his opportunities would have been quadrupled.”

Also expected to contribute immediately will be kicker Kellis Cunningham of Creekview High School in Carrollton, Texas. Cunningham will be expected to compete for the job left open by departing kicker Chris McMurtray. Cunningham hit field goals of 44 and 50 yards in his senior season, along with making 29 of 33 extra point attempts.

“We ended up signing one of the better kickers in the country,” Bennett said of the athletic Cunningham, who played every offensive snap for Creekview as a slot back, and specialized in crack blocking.

Perhaps the most highly touted offensive recruit is wide receiver Phillip Burley, whose brother Kenard Burley is a sophomore defensive tackle for SMU. Phillip, like his brother, is 6-foot-5-inches tall, but weighs in at a slimmer 210 pounds (his brother is listed at 305). From 2A Scurry-Rosser, Phillip is a multi-sport athlete who was caught 33 balls in 2005 and was listed by The Dallas Morning News as an Area Top 100 selection.

This year’s class is also notable for its local base. Only quarterback Corey Slater, who hails from Seattle and is a junior college transfer, is not from Texas or Oklahoma. Defensive back Tim Crosby and wide receiver/defensive back A’Darius Medford are both from Garland. Defensive lineman Kyle DeGroat attended Dallas Carter, and wide receiver Morgan Hudnall caught 13 touchdown passes at Highland Park.

Bennett also confirmed that his son Sam, who also played at Highland Park, will attend SMU and attempt to walk-on as a long-snapper.

Nationally, the recruiting class is poorly ranked. Rivals.com, which lists only 13 players, ranks the class 104th among Division I schools. ESPN.com, with a more robust 18 players listed, ranks the class 83rd. SMU also added only one player, Burley, from the Rivals.com Texas Top 100 list.

For his part, Bennett is unconcerned about the rankings and told reporters he does not read them and does not care what they say. He said prefers to evaluate and develop talent himself, citing unheralded recruits like wide receiver Bobby Chase, defensive end Justin Rogers and defensive tackle Adrian Haywood, all of whom developed into All Conference-USA players in 2005.

Altogether, Bennett said acceptance at the high school level was higher than ever, with coaches urging their best players to take a more serious look at SMU. In competing for recruits the tide, Bennett believes, is turning.

“I see a light,” Bennett said. “It’s been a tough time building this team, but I see things starting to happen here at SMU.”