Well, it's a very quiet day for quack, so here's what we got:
- Rob Moseley has a review of the defensive line. This group really stepped up in 2010, much as they have done just about every year in recent memory. This group will be just as talented this season, though they do lose the leadership and experience of Bair, Rowe, and Clark. For 2011, I'm feeling good about the defensive line. There is a lot of talent, and with great coaching, this unit has always stepped up, even though it seems they are always our biggest question mark entering the season.
- Oregonlive has a profile on Oregon QB commit Marcus Mariota. Though only a 3-star recruit, Mariota has excellent potential. He committed to the Ducks early in the recruiting process, and has spurned the advances of just about every big school out there. He's got a very good arm, and amazing speed for a QB. The Ducks are loading up on talent at QB, and talent that fits Oregon's offense perfectly.
- Oregon is about to sign their biggest class in school history, just as the most successful senior class in school history graduated. Rivals has an interesting piece comparing recruiting classes and on field results. Oregon has done a good job of recruiting, but has also been one of the top overachievers in the country, and that overachievement is helping fuel better recruiting classes.
- And yes, recruiting rankings do matter. It's easy to cherry pick failures. Matt Hinton checks in with his annual defense of the "recruiting-industrial complex." As usual, he concludes that the higher ranked the player, the better chance of on-field success, by a significant margin.
- In Pac-12 news, what in the world is happening at UCLA? They currently have the conferences 9th ranked recruiting class, and have only one player in the California Top 100. In the past two years, UCLA had 28 four or five star players from the greater LA area alone. I almost feel bad for Rick Neuheisel. OK, no I don't.
- USC, despite being sanctioned by the NCAA, is still signing a normal recruiting classes. This has brought up a lot of questions on how in the world they're doing this. Stewart Mandel has a lot of answers on this topic. As I understand it, USC is simply delaying the scholarship restrictions, and using a very large recruiting class to try and hold off the pain of sanctions in coming years. While USC has a great class right now, it's a quite thin in the O-line, with no 4-star or better recruits.
Got any other quack? Leave it below. And stay tuned for the return of Tako Tuesday later this morning.