National Signing Day is coming up quickly and I’m pumped. I love reading about these kids and the ’stars’ next to their names and all the hopes of being a freshman all american. These kids will commit to schools and come out and talk about playing early and more power to them but for 95% of them it isn’t going to happen.

Freshman come into school and are behind from the start. They go up against kids who have been enrolled for at least a year and had workout programs in place. It’s an uphill battle from the beginning and to be honest the freshman should redshirt in nearly every case. The cases they shouldn’t are obvious as the top players in the country are that good. What’s funny to me is that a kid who redshirts at USC is more than likely a starter at a ton of different schools. Perception is a funny thing.

Why i look forward to signing day is the same reason i look forward to spring training in baseball. Each signing period renews hope for the program or kills it. When spring training starts each cub fan believes that this is the year and that some new player is going to be the missing link to bring the title to Wrigley. In football i view it the same way. I view these kids as super human and create expectations that nobody could possibly meet. The internet has made these kids famous in so many ways that the expectations that come with that fame almost seem natural.

My Illini are looking at another top 20 class and I couldn’t be happier. If they can close on a couple more kids I’ll be one happy camper come the 4th.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.