Breaking down Texas' 2016 recruiting class

You can read all about the 2016 Texas recruiting class and how it fits over at Inside Texas FOR FREE!

Iowa State should be up later today as well, if you're lucky, in this space.

Time to break down every Big 12 2016 recruiting class

It's that time! National signing day has come and gone and now it's time to look at what every team brought in. My aim here will be to break down every class from the perspective of what that team needs to execute their strategies and whether their recruits project as players that can be successfully plugged into those strategies. Then I'll give a grade for every position group and wrap it all up by ranking the classes.

We'll move from North to South on this, except with Texas whom I will break down over at Inside Texas and link from this site in the coming days.

So we'll go:

Iowa State
West Virginia
Kansas State
Kansas
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma
Texas Tech
TCU
Baylor

I'm going to use terms from my glossaries of modern Big 12 offensive and defensive positions so read up on those if you want to be ready to keep up with the concepts and roles I'll be discussing. This is going to be fun, hope everyone's ready to dive in deep to their own team and perhaps some others as well.

How Harbaugh will make the most of the nation's no. 1 recruit

Harbaugh has landed the nation's consensus no. 1 recruit, Rashan Gary, who will undoubtedly prove to be a major weapon for them both in shutting down Big 10 running games but also in disrupting opposing passing attacks. You don't see a ton of talents like this within the Big 12, really anywhere, but certainly not in the Big 12.

Read about this freakish DL over at SB Nation.

Amazing advice for college recruits

Chris Hall is a God-fearing, salt of the earth dude who transformed himself from a 3-star recruit who lacked college-level strength to an All-American, Big 12 Champion, and nearly a national champion as well.

Now, he's been bringing some serious (and FREE!) wisdom for college recruits that don't fully understand what they're getting into in terms of going to play football on scholarship. If you want to know what it's like for a kid to be recruited to play football you need to read this series. If you know a kid that's being recruited, will be recruited, or is already on campus, you should encourage them to read this series.

It's addressed as a series of letters called "Dear recruit..." I think maybe we should call them Chris Hall's Epistles to the Recruits but that's just one man's opinion:

Part 1: Introduction to the world of recruiting

Part 2: What is college football?

Part 3: 5 things you never choose a school for

Part 4: 3 considerations you should weigh when choosing a school

Part 5: A warning about recruiting hype

Part 6: A conversation that changed Chris' attitude about football

How important are recruiting rankings for QBs?

Over at Football Study Hall I argue that they aren't terribly important.

Shane Buechele and his future at Texas

The Longhorns got a great QB prospect in Shane Buechele, the kind of savvy and gritty player that has been tormenting Texas at other Big 12 schools for the last several years while the 'Horns have wandered in the wilderness looking for signal-callers.

But what happens if he has to try and take over in 2016? Is he ready? I dug into his HS game against the Mansfield Tigers to see where Buechele is at in handling a tough, competitive game against a high level of competition. Read about it at Inside Texas for free here.

Alabama's not going anywhere

Their scheme and infrastructure is going to have them in contention for the foreseeable future, and they are probably your default champion in a given down year like 2015.