Aggies Get Bigger On Signing Day

[aggiejazz]

Fobbs brought in 9 linemen that need serious physical conditioning which means at least 7 of the 9 will be reshirted this year if not all of them. It is normal to sit out freshman linmen.

[Bornthrilla]

Where's jaffe joffa when you need him? I'm sure he can add a calming dose of reality to all this optimism.

[Aggie One]

Add another two more from overnight, Anton Lyons, DL, 6-3, 260 from Weldon, NC, and Jermarion Pegues, a 6-0, 175, DB from Laurinburg, NC bringing the number up now to 29 signees.

2008 N.C. A&T Football Recruiting Class (29)

Fernando White 5-9 165 WR Charlotte, NC (Independence)
Torrian Warren 6-3 175 WR Greensboro, NC (Dudley)
Derek Gould 6-4 185 WR Brownsville, NJ (Pemberton)
Donte Prince 6-3 195 WR Laurinburg, NC (Scotland Co.)
Dreyan Willis 6-1 195 WR Snow Hill, NC (Dean JUCO)
McKinley Morgan 6-2 175 WR Winston Salem, NC (Carver)

Justin Duhaney 5-11 180 RB Charlotte, NC (Victory Christian)
Michael Mayhew 5-10 185 RB Charlotte, NC (East Mecklenburg)
Darius Moore 6-0 190 RB Concord, NC (Central Cabarrus)

Carlton Fears 6-1 185 QB Stone Mountain, GA (Georgia Military)

Brent Walker 6-1 285 OL Durham, NC (Hillside)
Willie Pettiford 6-4 330 OL Roxboro, NC (Person)
Kimeko James 6-5 305 OL Winston Salem, NC (Parkland)
Isiah Holland 6-5 300 OL Wilson, NC (Fike)
Donald Pollock 6-7 370 OL Goldsboro, NC (Goldsboro)

Quay Long 5-10 170 DB Charlotte, NC (West Charlotte)
Justin Ferrell 5-10 180 DB Danville, VA (George Washington)
Louis Muldow 5-10 175 DB Greenville, NC (Rose)

Bobby Hedgepeth 6-3 235 LB Enfield, NC (Northwest Halifax)
Austin Bowden 6-3 235 LB Fayetteville, NC (E.E. Smith)

Aaron Bethea 6-1 285 DL Red Springs, NC (Red Springs)
Terry Davis 6-1 275 DL Bunn, NC (Bunn)
Micah Stanfield 6-2 285 DL Eden, NC (Morehead)
Brandon Young 6-3 260 DL Louisville, KY (Manuel)
Jarrell Herring 6-2 260 DL Detroit, MI (Grand Rapids CC)
Anton Lyons 6-3 260 DL Weldon, NC (Weldon)
Leviston Lewis 6-1 325 DL Charlotte, NC (Joliet CC)

[Bornthrilla]

This is starting to worry me now. All 29 of these players can not be eligible. I think Fobbs is hedging his bets and hoping against hope by signing all these players. The question is how many are realistically expected to qualify.

Wheeler may correct me if I'm wrong, but I am pretty sure we don't even have the money to offer 29 kids scholarships. Unless we got rid of a whole lot of dead weight from last season.

[DOOMS]

He probably will drop some cats from the roster. Others will drop themselves. Also, the vast majority of these kids he's signed are in-state.

For the first time since this cat stepped on campus with them shiny cowpoke boots, I'd say he knows what he's doing on this one. Except for that inaccurate, spindly qb from my hometown, that is.

He's making it rain on these hose.

[Bornthrilla]

Yeah, you gotta give props where props are do. Fobbs must be able to sell ketchup to a man wearing white gloves.

If I was coming off of back to back winless seasons, I would be happy to find 9 kids who wanted to sign with me, let alone 29.

Fobbs must be a master of the family living room. I need to use some of his jedi mindtricks the next time I ask for a pay raise at work.

[DOOMS]

p.s. The next fund raiser should be for a got dang fax machine up in this piece.



I got that same b.s. fax machine in my house. You can almost tell from the picture that the fax is as blurry as the picture is. He shaking his head like "why did I get married... to this d@mn job?" He's probably taking the fax over to the engineering department to have them decode the ink.

We need to step our electronics game up. I bet App got a business center. We still on that early 2000s $199.99 tabletop mess.

[Bornthrilla]

Yeah that's the same copier/fax/scanner hybrid that I bought 2 years ago at Office Depot. The ink in that thing cost nearly $50 and has a life span of about 35 minutes. Total piece of crap.

I wish he would have spent $3200 of our fundraiser money on actually recruiting and $300 to purchase a new fax machine.

[bluehaze]

doomsday said:

p.s. The next fund raiser should be for a got dang fax machine up in this piece.



I got that same b.s. fax machine in my house. You can almost tell from the picture that the fax is as blurry as the picture is. He shaking his head like "why did I get married... to this d@mn job?" He's probably taking the fax over to the engineering department to have them decode the ink.

We need to step our electronics game up. I bet App got a business center. We still on that early 2000s $199.99 tabletop mess.

It's funny you mention that. I was thinking about us actually purchasing equipment instead of giving a "blank" check. Maybe some new equipment for the "film room" or some off-season work out equipment.

However, with 29 kids signed in the state, that $3,500 must've helped to fill up some gas tanks and pay for some Bojangles.

[Aggie One]

It is a numbers game in college football on the 1-AA level. Jackson State, Grambling, SC State BCC, and even App State use this practice to build all kinds of depth.

Here's the master plan - You sign kids who can all make the basic entrance requirements of the university for a normal student but not necessarily have the SAT or ACT scores to compete under NCAA rules their first year.

So you redhsirt them, and now under the five to make four rule, if they stay on progression to graduation with 24 semester hours per year, they can get the extra year eligiblity on the backend. Even if they don't play the first year, you've stockpiled talent so you don't have to replace 20 plus seniors every year and start over from scratch after having a decent season with a boatload of seniors ala 2003.

The catch - Now you have to be reasonably sure that the kids you do prop will make the grades. The barometer you use is the HS GPA. Generally if its a 2.7 GPA or better but a low test score, he'll probably stay in school and do okay. If a kid is a 2.5 or less and a low score he'll most likely struggle and won't make it past the fall semester. If its borderline, you have to weigh the pros and cons of the risk.

It means when you staff goes out and recruit, they have to really dig into not only the kids everyday school work but their general attitude and those of their parents toward school as well.

If they show little interest in going to class or they and the parent(s) show more interest in the football program over a degree then you have to pass on them.

Its the same system the big boys used to do up until a few years back before the NCAA stopped the practice of accepting non-qualifiers altogether for the BCS schools.

[DOOMS]

aggie4u said:

GREENSBORO, February 6, 2008 -- North Carolina A&T football coach spent Wednesday by the fax machine waiting for the got d@mn ink to clear up on the fuzzy @ss fax he received. When he walked away from the fax machine he would've been pleased with what came out of it if it was legible. The Aggies signed 27 players on signing day, including seven defensive linemen and five offensive linemen. The Aggies also added five receivers to the fold. But Fobbs was unable to figure that out for 12 hours while a crack team of engineers with secret decoder rings de-blurred the faxes.

Now I know why the game plans be handwritten on xerox paper.

[Bornthrilla]

GREENSBORO, February 6, 2008 -- North Carolina A&T football coach spent Wednesday by the fax machine waiting for the got d@mn ink to clear up on the fuzzy @ss fax he received. When he walked away from the fax machine he would've been pleased with what came out of it if it was legible. The Aggies signed 27 players on signing day, including seven defensive linemen and five offensive linemen. The Aggies also added five receivers to the fold. But Fobbs was unable to figure that out for 12 hours while a crack team of engineers with secret decoder rings de-blurred the faxes.

Hilarious

[DiehardAggie70]

admin said:

This is starting to worry me now. All 29 of these players can not be eligible. I think Fobbs is hedging his bets and hoping against hope by signing all these players. The question is how many are realistically expected to qualify.

Fobbs said that 18 of the 27 kids signed were fully qualified as of signing day.
Some were close,(20 - 30 pts needed on SAT)

But he planned to bring all of them in. Props, RS and get them on conditioning program.

[jaffejoffa]

Bornthrilla ..Never fear, Jaffe is now here..

I am always the most critical of Fobbs and staff, but think that he finally got a clue on this one (sort - of). Hayes would always have a few guys that he knew wouldnt qualify, but could get on campus for a few years. If you look at our recruiting list from the last few years, I'd probably say 3/4ths of the kids signed are no where or never have been any where close to Greensboro. Unless a prop or some other issues, im kind of wary of a 6'5, 300 somepound lineman coming to play for Fiasco Fobbs.

On a positive note, I cant lie and say that I'm not just a little bit excited after reading some of the press clippings on a few of those kids (Aside from the fact that we were fighting with UNCP for a couple recruits) ...

On a normal Jaffe note ..It shouldnt have taken 2 1/2 years, 0-22 to figure out a decent plan of action and a to take a common sense approach on recruiting. Eddie Robinson once said that for every true freshman that you start, it usually equals to about 2 loses. Time will only tell.

Born or anyone else, since I missed it, how was the signing day event, and what announcments were made about additions to the staff ..

[Bornthrilla]

McKenzie is the new OC. They are just working out the contract red tape mumbo jumbo. He was not at the Signing Day Party but supposedly was going to be in town next week.

There probably won't ever be a formal announcement on his hiring because .... hell, this is A&T we're talking about.

I am assuming that he will also be the quarterback coach.