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National Signing Day 2020 - Part II Primer (STORY POSTED); SIGNINGS ANNOUNCED HERE

k lonnquist

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Mar 10, 2009
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By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher

When former Baylor head coach Matt Rhule took the podium this past Dec. 18 to talk about his 12 signees, he mentioned that Baylor had about five more spots to fill for the 2020 class.

Well, things have changed. A lot has changed.

Rhule is gone and five other players have left the program either because of declaring for the NFL draft – safety Grayland Arnold and defensive end James Lynch – or putting their names in the NCAA transfer portal, defensive end Niadre Zouzou, offensive lineman Princeton Pines and defensive end/linebacker Deonte Williams.

Taking Rhule’s comments at face value and the other departures, there are at least 10 spots available for the 85-man roster. New head coach Dave Aranda will step to the podium Wednesday afternoon to welcome the balance of this class. It was a crash course recruitment that lasted two weeks.

Aranda will not fill the rest of the scholarships. But he will have enough to fill the bulk of them.

At the very least, Baylor will have three signees. Realistically, the Bears should announce five. The best-case scenario is that Baylor will end up with six. But it’s going to take until about 2:30 p.m. to know that.

Because of one Eastern Time signee, letters can start coming in at 6:00 a.m. central time. Baylor's class is last in the Big 12 and 67th overall. However, the 2.87 rating per player actually places the Bears sixth in the league.

Here’s a look at the Baylor targets who are expected to join the 2020 Baylor Bears:

Locks
Reed was one of the three non-December signees. He’s had some academic challenges. But a visit with Baylor TE coach Shawn Bell put everything at ease. Reed still has some work to do to become qualified, but Baylor believes he is close enough that he will make it.

Mazzccua announced his verbal commitment on Jan. 17 following his official visit. This relationship was established by the old staff. However, Aranda, who was then just hours on the job, found a way to solidify the relationship and get the commitment.

Shapen is the QB Aranda needed for this class. Baylor was always in circular motion with Fort Bend Marshall’s Malik Hornsby and finally moved on last week. Shapen is a two-sport star as a shortstop in Baseball. He threw for 2,049 yards and 24 touchdowns against five interceptions. He also rushed for 324 yards and five scores. Shapen had previously been committed to Arizona State.


Should be in
Walcott won’t announce until Wednesday. However, this should be Baylor. He spent a 10-day span between Jan. 24-Feb. 2 taking official visits to SMU, Auburn and Baylor. It appears Auburn has faded but you can’t discount the Tigers. SMU has been trying to make a last-minute appeal. However, Baylor seems to be in good shape here. P5 over G5 typically wins.

Harris cryptically tweeted this past Sunday afternoon that his recruitment was over. He just didn’t say where he had committed to. But the path and the timing of the tweets is too much of a coincidence. Harris visited Ole Miss on Jan. 24. However, the former Arkansas commit should be a boost to the secondary.


Waiting and wondering
If Aranda and Baylor were to make a big splash on this day, the 4-star defensive end would be it. He announces at about 2:20 p.m. on Wednesday. You can see that on ESPNU.

Umanmielen announced his four finalists are Florida, Auburn, Baylor and Texas. Well, you can eliminate Auburn because we’re told there is no more room for defensive linemen. Florida is the wild card but that’s unlikely the pick.

This should be between Baylor and Texas. If you’re asking your publisher on his pick, I’m going Baylor.

This isn’t a homer pick. There are three reasons for this decision:

>Because of what we reported last week that the family wants to make this an easy access situation so they can see him play. Yes, Texas and Baylor are easy access. But it matters.

>The fact that Baylor expressed its way back into this recruitment over the last two weeks with the hiring of Dennis “Meatball” Johnson as the new defensive line coach was impressive. Not only did Umanmielen give Baylor a second look, he took a second official visit for the final weekend of the recruiting coming from Austin. You don’t show up unless there’s a really good reason for it

>The Lonnquist rule about de-commitment applies. The rule states: once you de-commit from that school, it’s very rare for the recruit to re-commit to the same place. It does happen. Umanmielen decommitted from Texas in October. Texas did change defensive coordinators from Todd Orlando to former Rutgers head coach Chris Ash. Oscar Giles remains as the defensive line coach.

But given that Baylor just hired a head coach who just guided LSU’s defense to the national title and Johnson is considered a savvy recruiter, those are factors.

This would not be a shock-the-world decision. After all, Baylor won 11 games in 2019, beat Texas soundly (24-10), played for the Big 12 championship and appeared in the Sugar Bowl. Baylor’s credentials stand on its own.


We’ll see what happens!
 
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