I mentioned the last time that you have to be a bit forward thinking with recruiting and that means that you have to be looking to the senior class for the 2017 year so that you can get a handle on whether or not the 2017 class addresses. Here are the seniors for the 2017 season:
| No. | Player | Position | Ht/Wt | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | Tony Morales | Center | 6-3/295 | Senior |
| 3 | D.J. Polite-Bray | Cornerback | 6-0/195 | Senior |
| 46 | R.J. Hester | Cornerback | 5-9/185 | Senior |
| 53 | Kyle Heffron | Deep Snapper | 5-11/225 | Senior |
| 5 | Gary Moore | Defensive End | 6-5/240 | Senior |
| 12 | Zach Barnes | Defensive End | 6-3/240 | Senior |
| 95 | Talor Nunez | Defensive End | 6-4/255 | Senior |
| 99 | Mychealon Thomas | Defensive Tackle | 6-1/325 | Senior |
| 12 | Ian Sadler | Inside Receiver | 5-11/195 | Senior |
| 13 | Cameron Batson | Inside Receiver | 5-9/175 | Senior |
| 19 | Zach Austin | Inside Receiver | 5-11/195 | Senior |
| 11 | Jacarthy Mack | Linebacker | 6-2/195 | Senior |
| 5 | Patrick Mahomes II | Quarterback | 6-3/230 | Senior |
| 16 | Nic Shimonek | Quarterback | 6-3/220 | Senior |
| 4 | Justin Stockton | Running Back | 5-10/200 | Senior |
| 30 | Caleb Woodward | Running Back | 6-0/210 | Senior |
| 30 | Matthew Rubal | Safety | 6-2/185 | Senior |
| 11 | Derrick Willies | Wide Receiver | 6-3/215 | Senior |
| 14 | Dylan Cantrell | Wide Receiver | 6-3/210 | Senior |
| 88 | Ja’Deion High | Wide Receiver | 5-11/175 | Senior |
If you’re counting, that’s 20 seniors for the next class and of those 20, I think there are 14 or so scholarship players (that’s always tough to determine because you don’t really who know who got a scholarship).
RELATED: The Graduates |
To break this down by position group:
Wide Receiver:3
Inside Receiver: 3
Running Back: 1
Quarterback: 2 (this is obviously dependent if Mahomes stays)
Offensive Linemen: 1
Defensive Back: 3
Defensive End: 3
Defensive Tackle: 1
Linebacker: 1
So, the position of need is probably going to be the receiver spots, that’s 6 pretty productive receivers, both inside and outside, probably the inside guys more than the outside. And the 2018 class already had three highly rated receivers, Jaylon Robinson, Gabriel Douglas and Treveon Johnson. Other than that, I think I’m pretty good with how things look from a recruiting perspective. To look even a bit further out, the inside receivers that will graduate in 2018 includes Jonathan Giles, De’Quan Bowman (who didn’t play at all in 2016 and I’m not sure if he had a redshirt year, but I’d guess that he does), and Keke Coutee. That’s some productive inside guys and I wouldn’t be surprised if the staff really stocks up in 2018 on some inside receivers (see above). Oh, and the pending graduation of Cantrell and Willies was evident in the 2016 class where the staff grabbed Troy Brown, Quan Shorts, T.J. Vasher and Antoine Wesley, big outside targets. That’s the idea, to be ahead of the game.
Also important is that there will be only one offensive lineman leaving (fingers crossed) and that’s good news there. Again, players getting in trouble and retiring due to injury could maybe be tough to blame on the coaching staff because that’s tough to foresee and it’s not as if they’ve gone a glass where they ignored the offensive line.
Up next is where we start getting into the position groups and start with the defensive line.