because I know that back when Felker was the coach, wasn't that kind of sort of how he recruited so well? I know he wasn't hauling in half of the Dandy Dozen every year, and I'm not sure that Felker ever put together a class as touted as this one may be, but I seem to remember a TON of Mississippians on Jackie's first two teams that were "built by Rockey" and perpetuated his possibly legit myth that he was a great recuiter.
Also, I have a media guide from 1980, and most of the guys on that team were also from Mississippi. A LOT of them were from them coast.
I think Jackie became way too dependent on the JUCO leagues, but I think part of that was because so many football players in Mississippi were having grade problems, and the only way we could get them was to sign and place them at whatever JUCO and then get them later. I'm saying that in response to the only one JUCO commit comment.
Croom just had no clue. There were so many recruiting feaux peaux's. Like having classes without a QB, recruiting Ty Evans, to somehow alienating and losing Chris Garrett, and then ripping Pat Patterson after he de-committed. I also think that Croom relied way too much on out of state guys and not enough on in-state guys.
But, I really like the way Dan is doing things with recruiting. MSU has made a commitment to be Mississippi's University, and they've really focused hard on getting the best players in the state- and he is doing that. I also like how Dan and his staff are finding guys that maybe don't have a ton of stars, but they have great size, height, speed, and they are guys that can potentially play several positions- like Price, Market, Rufus Warren, and McKinney from Rosa Fort. But he is mixing that in with guys that are bluechips like Brassell, Dee Arrington, CJ Johnson, and Joe Morrow. I like what we're doing. Those two star guys may make our "recruiting rankings" go down some, but I won't complain with a class in the 20's and a lot of high ceiling guys.