If you listen to Nevada head football coach Chris Ault, the 2010 recruiting class was better than the Yankees' free agent haul of Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett and C.C. Sabathia. On the other hand, if you listen to the recruiting experts, well, it seems like Nevada spent too much time the last two months hiring coaches and deflecting rumors that the head coach was in trouble. The truth is probably somewhere smack dab in the middle. Rivals ranks the class 96th in the nation and sixth in the WAC. Scouts ranks the Pack 95th overall and fifth best in the WAC. Ranking recruiting classes is as credible as the Old Farmer's Almanac predicting the weather a year ahead of time, so take it as you may.
Ault said that this class will win some championships. OK, nobody knows exactly what that means. A WAC championship? Are we talking about the crown of America's Next Top Model? Hey, Nevada recruit Cody Fajardo was a cast member on the reality television show, "The Ride," this fall. And, don't forget, the old ball coach truly believes a bowl game is a championship. So be prepared for a bushel load of Humanitarian and New Mexico Bowl championships.
This is certainly one of the more interesting recruiting classes. Fajardo could be special. Lemar Durant apparently can do anything and everything on a field. Rishard Matthews originally signed with Oregon out of high school. Nevada signed enough beef for the offensive and defensive lines to stage its own Reno Rodeo cattle drive. This is indeed a solid class, no matter what the experts say. It's definitely no worse than third in the WAC behind Boise State and Fresno State.
Ault and Nevada deserve a pat on the back for signing three northern Nevada kids. There have been far too many years in the last decade or so when the recruiting list had no local products, mainly because Boise State and Fresno State beat them to the punch. It's part of the reason why there has been a growing disconnect between the community and this program. Hopefully those days are behind us.
How did the top rivals in the WAC fare on signing day? Fresno loaded up on quarterbacks and wide receivers. Boise signed a couple wide receivers, a replacement for Kellen Moore and beat out Notre Dame for a safety. It's getting tougher and tougher every year to win the recruiting wars in the WAC, especially with Boise's success.
The best development out of signing day for Nevada was Ault's enthusiasm. It's been a difficult 10 weeks or so for, starting with the loss to Boise. The bad news continued with the season-ending injury to Luke Lippincott, the academic problems of Vai Taua, and a couple players getting in trouble in Hawaii at the bowl game (arrestted for stealing at a Gucci store). Nevada also lost Nigel Burton to Portland State during the preparation for the bowl game, had a devastating loss to SMU in the bowl, lost Chris Klenakis to Arkansas and had unsubstantiated media rumors that athletic director Cary Groth gave Ault a win-in-2010-or-get-out-town ultimatum. It was nice to see that Ault seemed to have renewed enthusiasm when he talked of his signing class on Wednesday.
- Josh Newman - RotoKingdom Staff Writer