(Zac, Briggs gettin’er done)
Got the win, which was critical; 17-13, over the Aubs. We also landed a 5.7, three-star wide receiver commit DeAndre Woods of Pinson, Alabama on Saturday. Huge pickup as we dropped one of our wr commits, Dominic Walker, when he became a soft verbal and kept taking visits to other schools. It may have been a mutual parting of the ways. DeAndre is 6’3″, 205 with 4.5 speed in the 40. 247 sports has him graded out as an 88, two points below a four-star, and he’s one tenth of a point below a four-star on Rivals at 5.7. DeAndre had offers from Auburn, Miss State, Arkansas, USC (Southern Cal), Purdue, Southern Miss and UAB. He actually committed to Miss. State in June, but decommitted in Aug. This year he has accounted for over 500 yards receiving and seven touchdowns for a very fine Clay-Chalkville team, which is 7-1 and has a shot at a state title this season if they can get by mighty Hoover and some other very good teams in Class 6A in Alabama, the highest football playing classification in the state. Clay was upset Friday Night by Huntsville, but they still are a very good football team. May have had the best team in the state last year, but due to what seemed to be an unfair ruling, had to forfeit nine games for playing an ineligible player. It was too bad because they looked primed for a state championship last year. They are definitely in the mix this year, even though I don’t think anybody can beat Hoover. They are the Alabama of high school football in this state.
Last year, DeAndre caught 36 passes for 460 yards and 10 touchdowns. His sophomore season, he posted over 400 receiving yards and six TDs.
Looks like an excellent pickup. DeAndre is our 22nd commit. So we have one and, I believe at the most, two spots left. Would like to reel in L3 and another running back. There is a senior running back out of Mobile, Alabama, St Paul’s High School, Jordan Huff, who is gaining some interest by our staff. Jordan tore an ACL last year, but is back on the field this year and is making good progress. He’s got some smaller offers (Arkansas State and some others), but St. Paul’s is a very good program that produces excellent football players. A couple of my VU friends went there and I’m very familiar with it through them and from my covering high school football in Alabama for a lot of years. St. Paul’s is excellent. It is a school that produced Mark Barron, who was a first round draft pick out of Alabama in 2012 by the Tampa Bay Bucs. He was the seventh player selected in the draft. And they always have other Division one players. Jordan could be a guy to watch. We could use another running back. Would like to see Warren Norman get another shot next year if this year doesn’t work out. He’s still a very talented player. Not sure what’s going on there.
DeAndre is our fourth wide receiver commit joining Rivals four-star Carlos Burse and solid three-stars Latevius Rayford (5.6 three-star) and Gerald Perry (5.6, three-star). We also have six solid three-star defensive backs in this class. James and his staff focused on getting playmakers on both sides of the ball in this class. The dbs are 5.7, 3-star Jalen Banks, 5.7 Tre Bell, 5.6 Taurean Ferguson, 5.6 Malik Greaves, 5.7 Darrius Sims and 5.7 Ryan White. Bell, Banks and Sims are corners and White, Ferguson and Greaves are safeties. Again, 5.7 is the highest rating you can get as a three star. Would love to add L3 to that list (Leon McQuay III). We also have a four-star quarterback committed and a high three-star qb, who may become a four-star before the year is out. After watching Chad Kanoff’s film and looking at his stats, he looks like he could be a four-star like Johnathon McCrary out of Georgia, our four-star qb. We have a real fine three-star running back committed in Rudy Ford, who is tearing it up in high school in New Hope, Al. right now, two solid three-star tight ends, four three-star defensive ends, a four-star and a solid three-star linebacker and a very fine 5.7 three-star defensive tackle in Jay Woods. He’s high three-star according to Rivals and 247 Sports, and a four-star by Scout.
About the game. I thought we played very well except for the three fumbles. We should have won by double digits. Zac was outstanding running for 169 yards and a score. He’s stellar. Would love to see Zac on an NFL team next year. He looks like he fits the bill to be a starter eventually in the NFL. But I know how Zac is and he’s not worried about the NFL right now. He’s such a humble, focused guy and he and his teammates want to go to another bowl game this year and finish with eight wins. 8-4 would be spectacular after the team’s start in which we played four very tough opponents in our first six games: South Carolina, Northwestern, Georgia and Florida.
Jordan Rodgers played a solid game completing 15-of-25 for 173 yards with no interceptions. No TDs, but no ints. Played well. Thought Jordan Matthews (3 catches-46 yards) and Chris Boyd (6-77) had solid games at wide out. The line was awesome. Jordan didn’t get sacked once and we ran for 226 yards. Really like what Coach Herb Hand does with this group. They did the same thing last year; just keep getting better as the season progressed and that’s what they’re doing this year. Not the biggest group out there by any means, but tough, hard-nosed and aggressive. Like this group a lot. Very well coached, too, and most all of them are coming back along with the six true talented freshmen we have on the roster, most of whom are being redshirted. Defense was solid led by stellar linebacker Chase Garnham. Chase with nine tackles, three and a half for 14 yards lost, and three sacks. He was all world. Walker May played a good game, too. We’ve got some good players from Alabama. Zac is from Bibb County, Walker is from Briarwood Christian in Birmingham and Chase is from Fairhope High School in South Alabama near Mobile.
I said this summer I thought we had a good football team and we do. We just have to eliminate those turnovers. If we can play clean games and run the ball well with Zac mixed in with some good play action passes and some deep balls, and play defense like we did on Saturday, we have a shot to win the rest of our games. Got UMass this weekend, and while they’re not a very good team, we need to play well, take care of business and keep the momentum going. The game is on Fox Sports South at 7 PM ET/ 6CT. Then we go to Ole Miss, go to Kentucky, Tennessee at home and Wake closes out the season on the road. All of these games are winnable. And they are losable, too. We’ve got to play our best every Saturday from now on starting with UMass. We can’t take any team for granted. We’re not where we can just bring our B game and win. We can’t do that. We need an A game every time out. We’ve got work to do if we want to get to another bowl game and keep all these fine commitments.
Finally, the Bears host the Lions tonight at 8:30 PM ET/ 7:30 CT. You will be looking live from Soldier Field as the Monsters of the Midway host the Motor City boys. The debate is tonight too. Why would they have a debate on simultaneously with Monday Night football? If the Bears weren’t playing I might watch the debate, but the Bears are playing so it’s no contest. Will pickup Romney-Obama at halftime. Saturday Night Live has been doing some classic skits on these debates. I look more forward to SNL more than I do the debates themselves, though I have enjoyed debates.
Jay, Brandon Marshall, Devin Hester, Matt Forte and hopefully Earl, need to do some work tonight, and the defense just needs to keep being the Bears’ defense, which is outstanding. Would like to see Urlacher get back to form. Hope he will. But Lance Briggs and cCharles Tillman are playing exceptionally right now. They are phenomenal at linebacker and cornerback respectively. Julius Peppers is playing well and will get it going even more without a doubt at dend, and Henry Melton has become an absolute stud at defensive tackle. Wow, these guys can play some defense. If Jay and his offensive mates do their part, this could be a special season for Lovie’s guys.