ESPN Bruce Feldman Blog

Recruiting talk dominated this week's mailbag and we'll begin with one of the more interesting twists leading up to signing day:

From Kevin in Phoenix: What a big day for the Sun Devils! How surprised were you that Arizona State could beat USC for Vontaze Burfict after a 5-7 season? USC didn't use to lose five-star players to us and especially not late.

Feldman: I was surprised even if there had been some growing buzz in the past few weeks about ASU closing in on Burfict. It helped ASU's cause that it already has three of Burfict's old high school teammates in its program (RB Ryan Bass and linebackers Shelly Lyons and Brandon Magee). Plus, Sun Devils recruiting coordinator Matt Lubick has established strong relationships not only with the coaches at Centennial High in Corona, Calif., but also the counselors.

Burfict's mother, Lisa Williams, said a big reason for him switching to ASU was how the Sun Devils stressed academics during the recruiting process. "A lot of things Arizona State presented to us about the academics were all documented for us," she says. "You could see it in black and white on paper. It wasn't just 'football, football, football.'"

Burfict's shift actually started prior to Christmas when he told his mother he wanted her to join him on his visit to ASU. "I said, 'No, what are you talking about? We're going to USC,'" she said. "But I then I talked to Coach Lubick and we talked about the academics and it was like pieces of a puzzle fitting together."

On signing day, ASU coach Dennis Erickson gushed about his new linebacker when asked how he compares to the talents of Ray Lewis, the All-Pro linebacker he coached at Miami: "You watch [Burfict] on tape, and every time he plays he dominates," Erickson said. "When he hits you, it hurts. He's got that kind of attitude. I hate to put pressure on a freshman coming in because it's a different game; I don't care how good you are. But this guy is beyond his years. In fact, I'm going to start coaching middle linebackers now."

From John in Orlando: Can a kid like Orson Charles [out of Tampa Plant] end up at Miami even if his HS coach says none of his players will ever attend UM [after the Robert Marve circus] ... How much influence does the HS coach have and what happens to the kid if he chooses against his HS coach's wishes? Isn't it ultimately the kid's choice?

Feldman: It happens from time to time where a player goes against his high school coach's advice, but it's not that common if there is such a blow-up. Even if UM is short on tight ends, I still think it's a long shot that he would pick UM. I suspect Georgia or USC seems like a more viable option.

From Ryan in St. Petersburg, Fla.: What is your take on the Bryce Brown saga, specifically him waiting until March to sign? I really don't get the point. I see people comparing it to Terrelle Pryor, but Pryor was playing basketball and didn't get the chance to take his visits. Brown is under no such constraint and appears to be pretty lackadaisical about the whole process. Is this a foreshadowing of a "me-first" athlete, or just an ill-prepared one?

Feldman: People may not like some of the things that kids do throughout the recruiting process, whether that means tossing away the hats of another school that had recruited them hard, showing up to an announcement in a limo or a player dragging on his decision-making process past signing day, as long as there are schools still willing to save a spot for them, it's within their right to play it how they see fit. I did wonder the same thing you did about whether some of this does, in Brown's case, reflect an athlete with a "me-first" mentality. You'd presume the coaches who have spent so much time chasing him and his mentor Brian Butler have reconciled all of this.

As an update on the entry I did from last week about Brown and Butler, that premium Web site business that Butler had is no more, reports Thayer Evans:

Butler said he made the change after talking to his webmaster and Arthur Brown Sr., the father of Bryce Brown. "We can get more hits that way, which will build the revenue for advertising, which is the most important source of revenue anyway," Butler said in a telephone interview. "It was a pretty easy thing to weigh out with the amount of subscriptions we were getting, which were very few. It was an easy business decision."

From Bill in Norfolk, Va.: Why can't Va. Tech get the 5-star players like Bobby Massie and Tahj Boyd ? Also doesn't Va. Tech need to look outside of Va.?

Feldman: It's a complicated question about the rankings of Tech's recruiting classes. Obviously, the Hokies have consistently put together very talented teams that win on Saturdays at a very high rate. You combine the school's wins over the past six or seven years and they're as good as anyone. I think a big reason for the lack of touted recruiting classes starts with the Virginia area, where Tech thrives, which is generally underrated. There is a lot of talent that comes from several pockets in the state. Another factor is, fair or unfair, the lack of cachet of the program's name. The reality is Texas, FSU or USC could land the same kid as VT and the likelihood is if he's with one of the glamour schools he has a better shot of getting labeled as a 4-star than if he's chased by the Hokies. Looking back over the years, Darryl Tapp was a 3-star guy; Duane Brown was a 3-star guy; Noland Burchette was a 2-star; DB Jimmy Williams a 3-star; and David Clowney a 2-star.

Oddly enough looking back many of the Hokies' guys who came in with some hype (Marcus Vick, Kent Hicks, Stephen Friday) didn't live up to it. Now that's not to say the Hokies haven't come up empty sometimes. This year it's been reportedly pretty frustrating because Tech missed on all three of its top QB targets in state (Bryn Renner, Kevin Newsome and Tahj Boyd), and maybe that's a reflection of the struggles OC Bryan Stinespring has had getting the Hokies' offense cranked up.

RANDOM STUFF

• Quite the dustup with Lane Kiffin and his blast on Urban Meyer Thursday. Colleague Chris Low has the angles covered here.

I also got a chuckle out of this take from the blog Rocky Top Talk, which presents five theories for why Lane Kiffin decided to level a somewhat serious accusation on such flimsy evidence:

"My favorite: 2. The prison rules theory. The movies tell me on your first day in prison, you're supposed to kick someone's [Fulmerized] or becomes someone's [Fulmerized]. Coach Kiffin has chosen to shiv the biggest, baddest dude on cell block D. Only, instead of grabbing his shiv, he accidentally grabbed a plastic straw he stole from the cafeteria. Oops."

As you know, the Vols have to go face Meyer's team in the Swamp. No doubt Meyer will be looking to spank Kiffin pretty good. Then again, did anyone think Florida was going to be up 27-3 in the third quarter and go into the victory formation? Meyer was going to try to hang 70 on Tennessee regardless. Can UF score 100 on another SEC team?

• There's oversigning and then there is O-VER-signing. Chip Towers digs into this topic and notes Houston Nutt signing a whopping 38 prospects:

"I know it seems like a high number," Nutt told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger of the Rebels' 2009 class. "But it helps Mississippi. It helps out junior colleges … . I've got some guys who want to be a part of our program, but probably won't make it academically. They've got a chance to go to a [junior college] and still be a part of our family."

Writes Towers: "The trouble with that is, if these kids are so far off from being academic qualifiers, should a team be bothering to sign them? And if they're not very far off from qualifying, isn't there the potential for controversy if some of these players meet qualifications before fall camp? What happens then? You either have to tell them they can't come, tell them they have to pay their own way or you have to boot somebody off your existing roster to make room."

My three cents: I must say I was surprised when I saw that number 38 given how adamantly opposed Ole Miss AD Pete Boone was to oversigning two years ago.

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