Over The Pylon

19 Cardinals put pen to paper Wednesday to pledge their next four years to the Cardinal and White.

For the majority of Cardinal fans, National Signing Day under Pete Lembo usually brings a new batch of Cardinals with some hidden gems, some unexpected surprises, but on the whole, a solid group of individuals that fits into the plan of things at BSU. Today was no exception as BSU inked 19 graduating high school seniors and one graduate student transfer to complete the class of 2014. While the national eyes were on the football factories down south, Coach Pete Lembo and crew put together what is being heralded by some as a class worthy of celebration.

At the conclusion of signing day, Steve Wiltfong of 247sports.com called the Ball State 2014 class “one of the best in the MAC”, a sentiment not reflected by his employers, who placed BSU 7th in the conference. Rivals had BSU as the 4th-best class in the MAC and Scout ranked the Cardinals as 3rd-best. As we talked about on the OTPRecruitcast last week, rankings outside of the top 25 are wildly divergent and rarely consistent across ranking services. However, Scout.com’s evaluation of the Cardinals as the 77th best class in the country is the highest rating that BSU has had since the Scout service was archived back to 2002.

Your class at a glance:

• S Dedrick Cromartie
• WR Roy Denson
• RB Darian Green
• DT Bruce Heggie
• WR Jordan Hogue
• LB Jeremiah Jackson
• DB Matthew Johnson
• TE Garrett Johnson
• OT Alex Joss
• OT Malik King
• WR Corey Lacarnia
• S Jake McPhatter
• QB David Morrison
• WR Devin Reece
• LB Damon Singleton
• DB Quentin Turner
• ATH Winfred Ward
• LB Jacob White
• DT Kevin Willis
• WR Jalen Wyatt

Some things that I noticed about the class:

• The biggest thing I noticed is that there isn’t a push for the defensive line, where (in my opinion), BSU will be the weakest next season. The secondary and defensive backfield got a push to bolster their experienced units, as did the offensive skill positions. I have to believe that the defensive interior depth is an area that the coaching staff wishes was a better situation, and I’m quite sure not having a current D-line coach played into that result quite heavily.
• Speaking of offensive skill positions, with the focus that position got on this year’s recruiting trail, it tells me that the coaching staff knew fairly early on that Willie Snead was going to try his hand at the NFL at season’s end. Plus, with this year’s injury bug to the wide receivers, I would imagine the coaches wanted significant depth at that spot, and they certainly got it.
• Early frontrunner for “Name of the Class” is Dedrick Cromartie. That’s got humor written all over it. I can only hope we find an equally entertaining photo for him like we did for Matthew Page.
• The BallStateSports livestream today was great. I had multiple livestreams going for several different teams that I follow, and BSU’s was right up there with the best of them. There was a significant lack of blogger input on the livestream though. I know a good one, guys.
• It was noticeable how geographically diverse this class is. Indiana was the state with the most signees (6), but unlike years past, Florida and Michigan were right behind (4 each). Illinois with 2, and Georgia, Missouri, and Pennsylvania with one each were also within spitting distance. I am shocked there is no one from North Carolina. That may not seem like all that large of a footprint, but like most things in life… a map helps:
  

You can check out the entire release of the BSU recruiting class with names, info, biography information and some info on the class as a whole here: Signing Day Release

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