Recruiting has become a beast and something that is impossible to manufacture. I was reading an article today that stated recruiting or better yet, national signing day, was bigger than the Stanley Cup Finals. Not to offend any die-hard hockey fans but the growing hype around recruiting and football is making that statement more of a reality every year. You can't manufacture the drama, the intrigue or even predict some of the situations that recruiting creates. What other non-game situation in sports has as much drama? Take this year for the Buffs. Nick Kasa commits to Florida and then decommits and then chooses Colorado. Tons of reasons have been thrown out as to why he decommited, from Florida's supposed plan to move him to offensive to my favorite reason, to go to school with his girlfriend. The plot thickens when Urban Meyer starts to go public with statements about decommits and how he only wants players who want to play against the best, which was a direct reference to those who have changed their mind about attending Florida. Luckily for us, it looks like Kasa's situation will not be an issue tomorrow but there are still a ton of story lines and questions that many of you are paying close attention to, thus leading to more drama and anxiety. In fact, tomorrow will cause arguments among fan bases about schools paying off recruits, anointing their most recent commit as the next Heisman or immediately placing their coach on the hot seat. Again, you can't manufacture the swing in emotions. And to think, this is all around 18 year old kids! Wild.
We have compiled the top eight story lines/questions for Colorado football tomorrow, all of which will be answered in less than 24 hours:
Will S Byron Moore and WR Josh Moten from Narbonne High School in CA start off tomorrow's telecast on ESPNU announcing they will be attending Colorado? Moten seems more likely than Moore to commit to Colorado but the more I think about it, the more I believe it will be a clean Buff sweep or complete strike out. Next to Kasa, Moore has the ability to be the headliner of this class.
Can Dan Hawkins really fight off Florida, USC and Notre Dame in the same year? Yes, CU is 4 - 233 against these schools in the past couple of years but it is still a sign of the program moving in the right direction and the Hawk's message is powerful. Nick Kasa was once committed to Florida, Edward Nuckols was being courted by Florida and Byron Moore is deciding between CU, Notre Dame and USC. These three players have the big name ability to get Colorado talked about a ton tomorrow.
We will all be waiting Diante Jackson's explanation as to why he picked the school he picked. Mainly, will Diante Jackson stay at Buff? Does his family get the deciding call or does Diante? No other player has captivated the CU faithful more than Diante Jackson and for good reason. He has big play ability and can single handily spark confidence among the black and gold followers. But DJ has been anything but stable as Arizona State and Oregon have put their names in the hat.
WR Emory Blake's stock continues to rise and the Buffs are still in the discussion. Can Hawkins out duel the pass happy offense in Lubbock and the idea of a better offense under Gus Malzhan at Auburn to snag a top talent out of the state of Texas?
Are there a few surprises that Dan Hawkins will pull out of the hat like he did with Rodney Stewart last year? Their has been rumors of an big unknown player (higher than a 2* ranking like Speedy was) that will call CU's number tomorrow? Maybe another defensive lineman? Who knows but don't put it past Hawkins.
Wide receivers. Whether it is Ussery, Blake, Jackson, Jones, Hardy or Simmons, the Buffs need them. But do they need Colorado? What if the Buffs go 1 for 6 or even 0 for 6? Mark Helfrich and Dan Hawkins need play makers and a poor outcome tomorrow could set CU back one or two years on the edge.
Will the Buffs get to their plan of 20 - 22 players? It has been the number for a long time and many thought we may overshoot this number. Now, sitting at 18 including two soft commits in Andre Simmons and Diante Jackson, are the Buffs in danger of coming up short? Or are they going to bring in numbers closer to 22?
Time will tell all.
Tell us if we missed any?