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Crabtree's Take: Simone, Recruiting

By Jeremy Crabtree, ESPN.com, 12/08/16, 11:00AM CST

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Crabtree looks at Simone winners, MO heavy

Simones Go North, To Missouri ... Again

Simone Awards Go North
The Northland cleaned up in the Simone Awards this year. The Thomas A. Simone Award returned to the Northland on Tuesday for the first time in 13 years, and the third time in the award's history. 

Julian Ross of Staley earned the coveted award for Kansas City's top area football player, after rushing for a whopping 2,257 yards and 37 touchdowns in 2016 for the Falcons. The last Northland winner was Michael Keenan of Oak Park (2003), and the only other was the inaugural winner - Jeff Kelso in 1983 from Park Hill. 

Park Hill landed a winner, as Chester Graves -- a finalist for the Simone Award -- earned the Buck Buchanan award for top big class linebacker/lineman. The four-star recruit was at Missouri last weekend for an official visit.

Kearney also captured two award winners with quarterback Anthony Pritzel winning the Frank Fontana Award for the most outstanding small-class player in the metro and linebacker Ethan Lutz winning the Bobby Bell Award for most outstanding small-class lineman/linebacker.

Kansas controversy
Even though Missouri receiver commitment Jafar Armstrong won the Otis Taylor Award for the best tight end/receiver in the metro area, a number of coaches on the Kansas side were upset with some perceived snubs of other players from the Sunflower State.

The most controversy surrounded the small-school awards, where three-time state champion and the second-ranked team in the metro area Bishop Miege was shutout. 

There was some major grumblings from many Kansas coaches I visited with about QB Carter Putz not getting the Fontana Award, despite throwing for 50 touchdowns, accounting for 3,500 total yards and throwing only three interceptions in the toughest league in the state of Kansas. Don’t take anything away from Pritzel, because what he did was impressive this season and I voted him high on my ballot, but his numbers don’t compare to Putz, he played against lesser competition and he also failed to win a state championship.

 

A number of other Kansas coaches I visited with were also shocked that Miege OL Colin Grunhard didn’t win the Bobby Bell Award. That one I can understand a little bit, because offensive linemen don’t have stats for coaches to quantify but there was no more impactful offensive lineman in the metro area for the last two years than Grunhard and recruiters are starting to take notice of that.

To put this in perspective, six straight Simone Award winners are from Missouri, the Fontana Award has gone to a Missouri player all 17 years it’s been handed out and the Bell has gone out to a Kansas player only three times.

National recruiting notes

Tennessee lands No. 1 player in country
Coming off a disappointing 8-4 season, Tennessee head coach Butch Jones received some huge news on Tuesday. The top-ranked player in the ESPN 300, offensive tackle Trey Smith, committed to the Volunteers. The 6-foot-6, 299-pound prospect from University School of Jackson in Jackson, Tennessee, chose the Volunteers over AlabamaOhio StateClemsonOle Miss and Notre Dame. Smith said his relationship with the current Tennessee players was a big reason for his decision.

This doesn’t erase the fact that Tennessee didn’t reach the SEC championship game. It doesn’t undo any of those four losses. But landing the commitment of ESPN No. 1-ranked prospect Smith Tuesday gave Tennessee coach Butch Jones some much-needed good news in the perception department. He’d be wise to shout it from Rocky Top right now. While it doesn’t count as a win in the standings, Jones can at least claim to have beaten out Alabama and Ohio State in something related to football, keeping Smith in state at Tennessee.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/18222495/tennessee-volunteers-secure-espn-no-1-prospect-ot-trey-smith


Baylor makes interesting hire
New Baylor coach Matt Rhule inherits the smallest recruiting class of any Power 5 program and has only 56 days to fix it. Most observers believed Baylor had to hire somebody with deep Lone Star State recruiting roots, something Rhule doesn't appear to have, but several veteran Texas high school coaches said that might not be such a bad thing.  

One coach said "Baylor needed a clean slate and now they have it with every high school coach in the state." Another said it would be smart if Rhule has somebody on his staff with Texas ties, but "Texas high school coaches respect other good coaches. He's a good coach." 

The Bears have one commitment in the 2017 class with national signing day on Feb. 1, so don't be surprised if Rhule looks at a number of prospects pledged to the Owls to fill Baylor's class. One player to keep an eye on is longtime Owl three-star quarterback commitment Toddy Centeio of Palm Beach (Florida) Dwyer. Centeio is supposed to make an official visit to Philadelphia this weekend, but the visits is up in the air because of the news. "We are waiting on more information right now, but we would talk to others," Centeio's father, Todd Centeio, said.

Local recruiting notes

Wildcats looking to fill final pieces, hold on to commits
Commit list: http://www.espn.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/2306/class/2017

With 15 commits, the Wildcats are looking to add defensive line, linebacker and defensive help with the final pieces of their 2017 class. 

The most coveted prospect is three-star safety Evan Fields of Midwest City (Oklahoma) High School. Fields received an in-home visit Wednesday night from Wildcat defensive coordinator Tom Hayes, and he could have a decision before Christmas. The Wildcats are battling Oklahoma State and Arizona State, but earlier this morning he did land an offer from Notre Dame and that could be a game-changer for his recruitment.

K-State is also going to have a battle on its hands to keep other schools away from longtime commitment and top-ranked junior-college safety Elijah Walker of Cerritos College. Fields just landed a TCU offer Wednesday night and others likely will be on the way. The good news is that Walker is close with former teammate and K-State cornerback D.J. Reed, and with Reed there for another two years that could be a big selling point for the Wildcats.

KU adding juco players to commit list
Commit list: 
http://www.espn.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/2305/class/2017

+The Jayhawks got the coveted quarterback many fans have been clamoring for two weeks ago when Peyton Bender, the Washington State transfer from Itawamba Community College committed. Bender is the third-ranked pocket-passing quarterback and the 36rh ranked player in the ESPN Junior College 50.

+KU also received huge news, literally, Tuesday night when Hutchinson Community College defensive tackle J.J. Holmes pledged. Holmes is a 300-pounder and the 15th ranked juco defensive tackle in the country and a good recruiting victory for the Jayhawks over Missouri. He visited the Tigers last weekend and then picks KU two days later.

Tigers looking to close strong
Commit list: 
http://www.espn.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/142/class/2017
+Mizzou had 13 prospects on campus last weekend for official visits, including seven players already committed to them, and will have as many as five more in Columbia this weekend. It’s this type of push that shows the Tigers would like to have most of their class wrapped up before Christmas. 

+The priority position left for the Tigers is defensive tackle. The Tigers right now have one true defensive tackle committed in No. 11 defensive tackle Rashad Brandon of ASA College, but other commits list Nate Anderson of New Mexico Military Academy could also grow into the position. That being said, the Tigers would like to have five defensive tackles (three juco and two high school) in this class, which makes players like Tulane commit Caleb Sampson, who visits this weekend, important. Another juco name to watch is four-star Walter Palmore of Eastern Arizona, who visits in January.

+As mentioned earlier, Graves was in Columbia this past weekend and even at the Simone Award ceremony he didn’t answer any recruiting questions. Other schools have remained in contact, but sadly there are qualifying questions marks that could force him to go the junior-college route initially. It wouldn’t be shocking to see a school, maybe Missouri, sign and try to place him in a local juco.