Willie Taggart was hired in early Dec. 2012. That gave him only a couple months to assemble his recruiting class. A year later, Taggart has had an entire season to recruit players and the extra time seems to have payed off. South Florida’s 2014 recruiting class, which was signed last Wednesday, was one of the best in the American Athletic Conference.
When Taggart was hired to replace Skip Holtz he made recruiting players from the talent-rich Tampa Bay area one of his top goals. In year two, 11 of the 28 recruits who sent USF letters of intent were from the Tampa Bay area, six of the recruits are from Hillsborough County. Three players were signed from Taggart’s native Manatee County.
Overall the Bulls had the 40th best recruiting class, according to ESPN. USF was the highest ranked team in the AAC. The next closest school in the rankings is Central Florida 12 spots behind at 52. Defending AAC champion and soon to depart for the Atlantic Coast Conference, Louisville, was ranked 51st.
The high ranking comes after the worst season in Bulls history. USF’s 2-10 record was also their second 10-loss season in a row. That is another first for the program. Recruits, especially local recruits, indicated that it was a belief in what Taggart is trying to build.
The caliber of a recruiting class is based on the number of stars out of five that scouting services, like ESPN and Rivals.com, give players. Of the 28 players the Bulls signed last Wednesday, six were rated four stars with the other 22 being three star recruits.
In addition to rating and ranking the players by position, ESPN also ranks the top 300 players in a given year regardless of position. The Bulls were able to sign one player from the ESPN Top 300, wide receiver Ryeshene Johnson from Fort Myers.
Area recruits for the Bulls included OLB Josh Black from Sickles, DE Rohan Blackwood from Nature Coast, Tajee Fullwood from Tampa Bay Tech, OLB Juwuan Brown from Jefferson, CB Mazzi Wilkins from Plant and CB Devin Abraham from East Lake.
USF also signed a quartet of junior college players on Wednesday. Junior college players have a bit more experience than their high school counterparts. The best junior college prospects for USF are Demetrius Hill, a defensive end, from Kankakee, Ill., and Safety Jamie Byrd from Dade City.
Rounding out some of the top recruits were Marlon Mack, a running back from Sarasota, ranked 26th by ESPN, and Benjamin Knox, the 18th ranked offensive tackle. The Bulls also signed local four-star recruit, Vincent Jackson, from Jesuit in Tampa.
National Signing Day has been held the first Wednesday in February since 1981. Beginning in the morning, recruits fax a signed letter of commitment to the school. The commitment legally binds the player to the school.
Before 1981, some conferences like the Southeastern Conference and the ACC used to hold conference signing days earlier in December but other conferences complained saying that it was unfair.
