Many others have commented on the subject of Cal’s recent recruiting class so I won’t spend the time to go over it player by player.

However, I want to say this: this was Tedford’s best class yet no matter what the rankings say.  While it would have been nice to nab a 5-star player or two, balance is far more important.  And this class is PERFECTLY balanced with a strong emphasis on both the offensive and defensive in the trenches.  Additionally, the couple of junior college recruits are going to be able to come in and make an impact immediately.  They will go a long way to filling the voids left by Hughes, Bishop and Mebane.

While many are proclaiming the greatness of the running back duo, I think the crown jewel of the class is the offensive line.  People may be right that this is the best RB duo in the country, but I was already comfortable with the depth Cal had at RB and think we could have survived a year with a weak RB class.  Additionally, as Florida showed, weak RB’s can be worked around.

The offensive line however, can not be emphasized enough.  Whether you’re running, passing, kicking, taking a knee, or any other offensive snap, the success of the play always starts with the offensive line.  And the offensive line is also the place where the most injuries happen.  You can almost never have enough depth on the offensive line.

And this is a great offensive line class.  In fact, it probably has a better beat on the best in the country than that RB duo does.  All 5 players have rivals rankings of 5.6 or better (5.7 if you exclude DeMartinis who is the highest rated 5.6 nationally).  To give some context around that, it means ALL 5 of them are amongst the 50 best linemen in the country.  They’ve got the size (3 are already over the 270 lbs. mark with the other two containing the frame needed to add the 20-40 lbs. needed to be a top-flight lineman) and proven high-school talent to make the jump to D-IA football.

Yes, Kyle Reed, Kevin Riley or Brock Manson (likely QB candates) and Montomerey, Slocum, Schutte, Best or Vereen (likely RB candidates) are all going to be very happy campers come 2009-2010 when these guys come of age.  Their job will look easy because of the O-linemen up front.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 9:02 am and is filed under Sports, Sports - Cal Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.