The top high school players will be the center of the college football world next week. Photo: USA Today Sports
Recruiting is the lifeblood of any football program. The building blocks of a program are found through thousands upon thousands of high school football players and coverage of the recruiting game just gets bigger every year. It used to be you would get a magazine ranking players you never got a chance to see in person. Today there are multiple recruiting outlets such as Rivals and the growing 247 Sports network. YouTube has given every fan a chance to see highlights of high school players from coast to coast and high school football games are even getting national broadcasts on ESPN.
It is no coincidence that ESPN has been playing a role in the increasing popularity of the recruiting game. Not only do they carry high school games on TV, but they also have their own growing recruiting coverage to show off as well with recruiting rankings and school specific resources. It should come as no surprise that ESPNU is taking on an increasing role in recruiting coverage as well, and this year is certainly no exception.
On this episode of the podcast we are joined by Tom Luginbill, ESPN's national recruiting director. In addition to sharing some details on ESPNU's coverage planned for National Signing Day Luginbill shares his thoughts on a number of recruiting topics leading up to the biggest day of the college football offseason. Among the topics discussed…
* Which school has done the best to address their immediate needs?
* Is Tennessee ready to awake from a slumber? Staying in the state, is it possible to save Vanderbilt in 2014?
* How much of an impact is James Franklin having at Penn State and how much of Penn State's recruiting is thriving due to being two years removed from the scandal fallout of two years ago?
* How does Texas adjust under Charlie Strong and how much of an impact have we seen on the move of Texas A&M to the SEC two years later?
* Should we be quick to judge Chris Petersen in 2014 or wait for a more long term perspective?
* How much of a spike does winning a championship give a program like Florida State?
Listen to the full podcast below…
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