ND Baseball Prospect: Cole Frenzel

The number 94 top high school baseball prospect of 2009 by Baseball America is Cole Frenzel of Dickinson, ND. I found this video on a blog thanks to Dickinson Sports Writer Dustin Monke.

We all know ND is not much of a baseball state and to be regarded as a top 100 prospect in the nation is a big deal. Frenzel is a great all-around baseball player. I personally played against him in my 3 years of varsity baseball and 1 outta my 2 years of JV ball. He is the real deal as he launched HR after HR after triple against my team. He is currently being looked at by Nebraska, Kansas, Oregon St., and Virginia to name a few schools.

I'm not trying to pimp the kid in anyway, but I just wanted to give North Dakota some recognition it deserves.

National Signing Day Recap

Alabama takes recruiting title with late additions

The Alabama Crimson Tide came into the day with one of the top recruiting classes and ended up surpassing the Florida Gators, who was predicted to finish with the top class for the 3rd straight year. The Tide added some big time uncommited players early, landing the top WR in the country in Julio Jones. Bama overall signed 3 five star players, 17 four players, and 10 three star players, and 6 top 100 players overall. Some key players that they signed from that could contribute from the get go could be: WR Julio Jones, LB Jerrell Harris, WR Chris Jackson, LB Mark Barron, OT Tyler Love, and DE Courtney Upshaw.

Alabama landed one of their best classes on paper in years. You'd have to think it's obviously because of Nick Saban. For any coach in their first year, this is a tremendous class. Saban did a great job of landing the top in-state recruits, which is something Alabama hasn't been able to do in recent years.

Meanwhile, the nations top prospect, QB Terrelle Pryor decided not to sign with anyone just yet. He has his list narrowed down to Ohio St., Michigan, Penn St., and Oregon. He is a spread option type QB. He is often compared to Tennessee Titans QB and Texas Longhorn Vince Young. Pryor mentioned he wants to play where he would make an immediate impact; if that's the case it looks like Ohio St. if off the list, they still have Jr. QB Todd Boeckman.

The Sports Flow's Top 5 Signing Day Team Rankings:

1. Alabama- landed some big time 5 star recruits and loaded up on the defensive side

2. Miami- signed 3 QB's which was a must and signed 5 of the best LBs in the nation

3. Florida- signed loads of talent for the depleted secondary and picked up some big-time WRs

4. Clemson- reloaded at RB and signed the top DE in the country

5. Notre Dame- Weis signed the top WR class and also signed some great defensive players that should make an immediate impact

Scout.com Top 5 Team Rankings:
1. Alabama
2. Notre Dame
3. Miami (FLA.)
4. Georgia
5. Florida St.

Freshman of 07'

With a fabulous class of freshmen coming into the 2007 College Football season, I will now give you a few of my freshman to keep an eye on.

Everson Griffin, DE- USC
Griffin is one of the top recruits coming into the 2007 season and the best Defensive linemen. Even with USC's experience coming back on the defensive front, expect him to get a lot of playing time and maybe even compete for the 4th spot on the line.

Joe McKnight, ATH- USC
The highly touted McKnight should see the field right away even with an already deep rushing attack at USC. He is a superb back and can make a dazzling play at any point. His style of play is often compared to NFL star, Heisman Trophy winner, and USC Alum Reggie Bush.

Jimmy Clausen, QB- Notre Dame
One of the top QB recruits in recent years is in a three way battle for the ND starting job between junior Evan Sharpley and sophomore Demetrius Jones. Don't expect Clausen to start the season opener on September 1 vs. Georgia Tech because of surgery on his right wrist but expect him to be starting somewhere down the season.

Eric Berry, CB- Tennessee
With only one returning starter in the Vols secondary back expect Berry to start from day one. He is the best cover corner in this years class and could easily be one of the top DB's in the SEC by the end of the season. You heard it at "The Sports Flow" first.

Terrence Toliver, WR- LSU
After losing WR's Craig Davis and Dwayne Bowe, Toliver will have a great shot at one of the other two starting WR spots. Toliver is very athletic and was one of the top (if not the top) WR's in the class of 2007. Matt Flynn is a good enough QB to give Toliver respectable numbers. He should be a great compliment to Early Doucet.

Noel Devine, RB- West Virginia
Even with Heisman Candidate Steve Slaton ahead of him, Devine will see plenty of action in the backfield. The speedster from Florida should fit well in the spread-option offense. WVA fans must have prayed hard for his eligibility.

Torrey Davis, DT- Florida
With the major losses Florida took on the defensive line Torrey Davis should no doubt win one of the interior starting positions. He has a great first step and one of his strengths is his ability to get into the backfield quickly. Davis should help fill one of the voids for who the Gators lost in Jarvis Moss, Marcus Thomas, Joe Cohen, and Ray McDonald.

Chad Jones, S- LSU
Jones is a big piece of the puzzle to LSU's deflated secondary. The Tigers lost 4 year starters in LaRon Landry and Jessie Daniels. Many experts are saying Jones won't start this season but I believe he will crack the starting lineup sometime in the season; maybe not right away but somewhere along the line. He is a great talent, with great speed and a great nose for the ball.

Arrelious Benn, WR- Illinois
Benn is one of the top WR recruits and is already better than the current Illini Wr's. With his amazing talent and athletic ability look for the Benn to be Juice Williams' go-to WR.

Texting Recruits

The NCAA Division I management council has recommended a ban on text messages, between coaches and recruits. E-mails and faxes would be exempt from the new rule but would be limited by current NCAA guidelines.

Unlike restrictions on phone calls and in-person visits, there are no coach limits on text messaging.

The Board of Directors must still pass the legislation, and if approved at its April 26 meeting, the ban would take effect in August. Typically, the board passes such recommendations, but if it's delayed or rejected, coaches would go back to their previous policy of no limits.

I am for coaches being permitted to text recruits. It gives coaches a great way to stay in touch with their recruits. It also gives smaller schools a chance to outwork the bigger schools. If the ban is passed, it just gives another advantage to these bigger schools. Texting overall is a great tool for recruiting. It just gives coaches a way to get ahead of others and get an inside track on some recruits.

How is the NCAA going to keep track of all this? High-School coaches will now have to be involved if the ban is passed. I feel the NCAA just doesn't understand this whole texting process. They say it will be a burden on bills for the kids and parents. Well now the kids and coaches will just have to spend more money on traveling all-around.

If the ban is passed, this will all just be a continuing process, next it will be Facebook or some other web-based social networks.

Let's face it, texting needs to be permitted in the NCAA. It's an easy and efficient way to stay in touch with your recruits. Are we going back to the days of writing letters and coaches slipping some dollar bills in the envelopes? The NCAA needs to get with the real-world.


I encourage you to vote in our new poll: Should college coaches be permitted to text recruits?
Also, check out this Fox Sports Article on Coaches and Text Messaging: Text Message Ban Makes Little Sense

Zook breathing life back into Illini

Quick, name the school with arguably the #1 recruiting class in the Big Ten!......
If you guessed: Ohio St., Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn St. or even my beloved Iowa Hawkeyes you are wrong. I myself am an avid college football fan and an advocate of the Big Ten Conference and I had to double check this one. The answer is the University of Illinois Fighting Illini. Yes, you heard me correctly the 2-10 Fighting Illini. Depending on where you visit you can find the Illini's class of 2007 ranked anywhere from 10th-17th in the nation; ranked right on par, at some sites even ahead of Michigan and Ohio St.! They have a top-10 recruiting class in the nation, yet they didn't even finish in the top 10 in the Big Ten.

Ron Zook, renoun as as a much better recruiter than coach, is hoping to prove otherwise this year. At Florida he produced wonderful recruiting classes but had 3 successive 5-loss seasons before being fired mid-season in 2002.

Zook landed four ESPN 150 prospects, including Martez Wilson, the nation's No. 1 defensive end (luring him away from the likes of: Florida, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame and USC). Zook's recruiting class no doubt features a stockpile of defensive talent, however he went out and got some offense to compliment it. Headlining his offensive recruits is Arrelious Benn (featured right), ranked the No. 3 wide receiver in the country by Scouts Inc. He enrolled early at Illinois, after choosing the Illini over Florida State, Maryland, Miami and Notre Dame.

How does he do it? I mean sure, the Illini showed minute progress last year with a win over Michigan St., and close losses to Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Ohio St. (close is constituted by a TD or less). One possible reason is -one of my favorite names in the game- their explosive QB Juice Williams who will be just a Sophomore next year. Or is Zook passing $100 dollar bills under hats? There is speculation out there, and for good reason. What is Zook selling? It's not their record, history, facilities, and probably not his coaching.

For now what can you say? Until something materializes all you can say is "wow", "congrats", and "I can't wait to see what this team can do in the next 2-3". Hats off to Mr. Zook and it will be very interesting to see what he can do with these players once he gets them on campus.


"A coach once told me it's better to be a bad coach with good players than a good coach with bad players." - Ron Zook-

Fighting Illini recruiting class of 2007 stats and rankinkings compliments of:

Scout.com: http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=169&p=9&c=8&yr=2007&refid=6630

Rivals.com: http://www.rivals.com/commitlist.asp?Year=2007&School=29

ESPN.com: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recruiting/tracker/school?schoolId=356&season=2007

National Signing Day Recap

Florida takes recruiting title

The Florida Gators came into National Signing Day as the top dog and finished the day on top as expected. The Gators let a couple of top prospects get away in WR (ranked #1 WR in the country) Terrance Toliver and S Chad Jones (ranked number #1 S in the country) to LSU. But still managed to sign 10 five star players, 13 four star players, and 4 three star players, and 12 top 100 players overall. Some key prospects that the Gators signed that could make an impact from the get go could be: TE Aaron Hernandez, WR Deonte Thompson, LB Lorenzo Edwards, DT Torrey Davis, DE Justin Trattou, S Major Wright, and athlete Chris Rainey. All of these players could get valuable playing time early on, especially on the defensive side with only 2 starters returning.

The Gators got on a roll early and late. They got a huge recruiting boost early, especially with the 7 prospects from Lakeland (Fla.) High School and captured recruiting momentum late after winning the national championship. They signed many elite prospects at just about every position, especially on the defensive side. This has to be one of the top recruiting classes of this decade; at least on paper.

Meanwhile, the nations top prospect, Joe McKnight (inset) decided to go out of Louisiana and sign with USC. The highly touted RB was undecided coming into signing day and also heavily considered LSU, Alabama, and Ole Miss. McKnight should see the field right away even with an already deep rushing attack at USC. McKnight is a superb back and can make a dazzling play at any point. His style of play is often compared to NFL star, Heisman Trophy winner, and USC Alum Reggie Bush.

My Top 5 Signing Day Team Rankings:
1. Florida- landed top prospects from just about every position
2. USC- signed top 3 prospects in the country
3. LSU- signed loads of talent on both sides of the ball and signed some of the bigger names on the d-line and secondary
4. Texas- reloaded on the defensive side and on the much needed 0-line
5. South Carolina- Spurrier has always been a great recruiter and he reloaded with talent all across the board

Scout.com Top 5 Team Rankings:
1. Florida
2. LSU
3. USC
4. Texas
5. Tennessee