Fresh off the program’s first bowl victory in 25 years, at the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, the SMU football program continued to gain steam Wednesday by signing possibly the best class of recruits seen on the Hilltop in 25 years.
The class, which head coach June Jones called the best he has seen since he returned to the college game, consists of 16 three-star Rivals.com recruits. This is an improvement from previous classes in 2007 (4), 2008 (4) and 2009 (7). The ratings are out of five stars.
“This class? Wow,” Jones said. “I haven’t seen a class like this in the 10 years I have been back in college and it has probably been a while since a class like this came through [SMU].”
Jeremy Crabtree, national recruiting editor for Rivals.com said this year’s class was “one of the top five recruiting surprises of the season.”
According to Rivals.com, SMU’s recruiting class ranks only 70 out of the 120 Division I schools, but Crabtree said that number is deceiving, and that the class is “honestly much better than that.”
Notable stand outs in the class include quarterback Stephan Kaiser, 6’3″/217 from Saint Louis, Mo. Jones said Kaiser is the best QB he has seen on film since coming back to college. Noting his impressive arm strength and accuracy, Jones said that had he seen a film like that in the NFL, he probably would have drafted him in the first round.
Jones called offensive lineman Ben Gottschalk possibly the best recruit in the class. When he saw him playing, he couldn’t believe they even had a shot at getting the 6’5″ offensive guard. Jones said with his talent level. Gottschalk could come in and compete for a starting spot right away.
Jones said that because the team still lacks depth in many areas, many of the recruits will see the field next year and not see many red shirts. He said it would take another recruiting class before you will see a lot of the players get red shirted coming in. By 2011, when this class has had time to develop and recruiting classes continue to improve, Jones said that SMU could be a “total power house.”
