In the FCS Huddle: Top recruits not necessarily at top schools

NCAA Football Betting Lines

02/02/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ever get one of those do-not-open-until- the-holidays packages in the mail?

Well, let's just say we will need to revisit this column in about three years.

That's because recruiting analysis is so fickle - an educated, five-foot throw at the dartboard, but a throw nonetheless.

We'll see where Wednesday's national signing day takes us with this year's incoming FCS freshmen, but the top recruits may not be headed where you think.

Oh sure, Montana State might have signed the best incoming quarterback in Dakota Pruko out of Texas (this storyline has worked for the Bobcats before), or maybe it was Floridian Vegas Harley's commitment to Georgia Southern on signing day.

But the main national recruiting sites - ESPN, Rivals and Scout - say the top incoming freshman is going to South Carolina State.

Yes, a MEAC school.

Indeed, the grades and rankings are highest for 6-foot-6, 290-pound offensive tackle Javarius Leamon, who stayed in-state and gave a commitment to South Carolina State over Clemson on national signing day. The big talent out of Woodruff High is the biggest signee for the conference in a long time.

Leamon shares the top grade from ESPN with a player who didn't even sign a national letter of intent. Well, the Ivy League doesn't have such agreements, and, yes, Penn has a verbal commitment from Los Angeles Beverly Hills wide receiver Cameron Countryman, who ESPN ranks alongside Leamon with 79 scores each.

Up next were Pruko and Harley with 78s - top signees for top programs.

Leamon earned the top rating from Rivals - a 5.8 - and was followed by a signee from a Southland Conference program.

It wasn't national finalist Sam Houston State, either. How about struggling Southeastern Louisiana, which plucked linebacker Juwaan Rogers and his 5.7 rating out of Louisiana. He also gave his commitment on signing day.

Next up with 5.6s each were Harley, wide receivers Dalis Bruce (Eastern Washington) and Tray Rabon (Grambling State), quarterback Lamontiez Ivy (Jackson State), and running backs D.J. Abnar (Liberty), R.J. Robinson (Norfolk State) and Daniel Taylor (Northwestern State).

That's not a bad list of FCS programs, but not necessarily the cream of the national crop, either.

Scout? It gave Matt Barnett the nation's No. 16 rating at fullback and he signed with Wagner. Stud center prospect Austin Stock, No. 24 nationally, has given a verbal commitment to Columbia.

So who knows how the recruiting grades will turn out in the long run.

Maybe a lot of these players will soon be coming to an All-America team near you.

Sktbook NCAA Football Betting News

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.