Feb. 6, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
Illinois State head football coach Denver Johnson announced the newest additions to the Redbird football team Wednesday, as he formally unveiled the 22-man recruiting class on National Signing Day at a public event at the Kaufman Football Building.
The 22 recruits join Illinois State's three mid-year signees to bring the total number of players in the 2008 recruiting class to 25. According to the star ratings, as designated by Rivals.com and Scout.com, Illinois State's signing class consists of a combined 38 stars, including three three-star recruits in Jayme Comer, Blake Gumm and Dekendrick Moncrief.
"We make our own decisions about kids, but it makes you feel good when other people like them, too," said Johnson. "We make our own evaluations based upon our own criteria - athletic, academic, character and citizenship, and ultimately, we are going to make a decision based on our feelings toward a player."
Of the 25 recruits, 13 are slated to be either offensive or defensive linemen with the Redbirds.
"We knew we needed to address our offensive and defensive lines," said Johnson. "Particularly on our offensive line, in some previous recruiting cycles, we had robbed some scholarships there to address other needs, and we needed to get our numbers and our depth back up. We also needed to improve ourselves from a talent and depth perspective at the defensive line, so that was by design."
With the mid-year signees, the 2008 ISU recruiting class covers nine states but three of the players (Alex Buck,
Austin Davis and Billy Dickson), were in the Redbirds' backyard at Normal Community High School.
"Recruiting is travel and travel is expensive," said Johnson. "Dr. (Sheahon) Zenger has been very good about providing the resources for us, and we are fortunate to have an administration that understands the importance of recruiting. We want to start our recruiting efforts right here in town, but we will go as far and as wide as we have to go to find the level of guy who can help us win. Certainly, we have great local talent in town and in central Illinois, and we will always look at that first."
Overall, Johnson is extremely pleased with the signing class and the effort of his staff during the recruiting process.
"I'm thrilled and excited about the young men who have signed up to join our program," said Johnson. "It turned out to be a little larger class than what we anticipated, but it is difficult to walk away from good players. Overall, I'm really satisfied. There are a lot of kids in this class who turned down some real attractive opportunities to join our program, and that is always humbling."
Click here for more information on ISU's signing day.
