It’s okay Vandal fans, the top recruit of the class is finally in. Alfonso Hampton, the 3/4-star rated defensive tackle prospect from Southwestern JC (Calif.) has sent in his letter of intent. Paul Petrino was not able to talk about him at his press conference earlier today because the letter wasn’t in. ESPN rates him as a 4-star and a top-10 junior college prospect in the country.
With that letter in, Idaho’s class is complete.
It consists of 17 junior college players, eight high school players and five high school players who enrolled last month as grayshirts.
Some of the eight high school players named by Idaho today will also grayshirt and enroll next January. Petrino didn’t name which ones, but I believe Gunnar Amos, David Ungerer, Michael Garner and Jordan Rose are the most likely to grayshirt.
Our full list of signed players will be at the bottom of the post, but first some quick notes and quotes on the class:
– Defensive back was hit hard, for obvious reasons. Idaho is thin at the position, and it wasn’t very good at all last season either. Idaho got five defensive backfield players, four of which are junior college players. Though the high school kid, Dorian Clark, could probably play right away as well. Height was important as well.
On height, Petrino said: “If it starts with a 6 and they play corner that’s exciting to me.”
– Speed was also an emphasis. Petrino signed five skill players in which he’s excited about their speed and playmaking ability. Kenny Torrence might be the best guy, who Petrino likened to Arnold Jackson. While coaching Jackson at Louisville, Petrino helped him become the first receiver in NCAA history to catch 300 passes.
Petrino said: “If you put on our No. 10 (Torrence) and you put on No. 10 Arnold Jackson then you would think they’re twin brothers. They run the same, they look the same, they have the same jump in the endzone when they score touchdowns.”
– Offensive line was also an emphasis. Five joined the fray, including grayshirt Patrick Johnson.
Petrino said of it: “I’m getting the very best guys I could get that could come in here and compete to start and either be the starter or make the guys that are here better by the competition of starting.”
The top gets in the class include:
– DB Dennis Rufus. Rufus was a junior college All-American and a former San Jose State commit out of high school.
– DB Chris Edwards. Edwards won a national championship at Butte JC last season and will probably come in to start right away at safety. “Anywhere I’ve ever been at I would have recruited that kid,” Petrino said.
– DL Alfonso Hampton.
– WR Kenny Torrence.
– OL Jerrett Olson. “When coach Cinkovich first showed him to me I really didn’t think we’d have a chance to ever get him,” Petrino said.
More Petrino comments
On quarterbacks:
Quarterback Jake Luton will get an opportunity to come in and compete for the job right away. He will, at worst, be the third quarterback behind Matt Linehan and Chad Chalich. That’s because last years’ back-up Josh McCain is moving to wide receiver, Petrino said. McCain will still have quarterback packages put together for him.
“He’s too athletic to stand on the sidelines. He needs to play receiver also,” Petrino said.
Luton hasn’t been told he’s going to redshirt, nor have any of the freshman. Petrino wants them to have the mindset of coming in to compete right away, and only after seeing them on the field will he determine if they’re physically or mentally ready to play right away.
On how being in a conference helped Idaho:
“I talked to our team the other day that now you have three goals – Win the Sun Belt, win your bowl game and go undefeated at home, and that’s definitely where our three goals are going to be every year from here on out. It helps, going in to that home and being in a conference, so that upped the ante of who we were trying to get.”
On signing so many junior college players:
“I think this was a bigger junior college class than we’ll probably take in the future, but we needed it. One, we needed guys who could have a chance to come in here and play right away and compete, and two there was not many kids left in the sophomore class. So the sophomore class we had to add a good number to.”
Petrino explained he needed to replenish the amount of to-be juniors he had in the program, trying to go after a balance point of 17 kids in each of the five class categories (including redshirting players.)
“In the future probably never have this many junior college guys sign in one more year again,” he said.
On his philosophy of attacking the Pacific Northwest:
“(It’s still my philosophy) but they have to be the players we want. One thing I do think we got, if you drew a circle from here to Spokane to Coeur D’Alene I would say we got three of the top five players. So we did a good job there, we got a really good quarterback from the Seattle area. We got a few good guys last year but we needed more junior college, to be honest with you.”
Petrino explained that when the program gets better and affords him the ability to go after more high school kids, the Seattle area and the northwest will be an emphasis.
Here is the full list of recruits. Video to come tomorrow.
[ultimatetables 3 /]