February 3rd, 2011
Franchione adds 22 in first Bobcat recruiting class

STAFF REPORT

With less than a month to recruit, new Texas State football coach Dennis Franchione announced 22 signings Wednesday, the first day football recruits could sign letters of intent.

Franchione leaned heavily on bolstering his new program along the line of scrimmage, signing five offensive linemen and three defensive linemen. The Texas State staff also added three wide receivers, two linebackers, four defensive backs, two tight ends, two running backs, and one punter/place kicker.

The university announced Franchione as the new coach on Jan. 7, with signing day scheduled for Feb. 2.

“I have been through some transitions before, but this may have been the shortest amount of time to recruit with which I have ever been involved,” said Franchione. “Following the coaches convention, we had six days or three weekends for official visits and spent 11 actual days on the road recruiting. If someone had told me on January 6 when I took the job that this is how it would turn out, I would have said, ‘Dang good, I’ll take it’. What did help, was having some real positives with which to work.”

Franchione noted that Texas State is moving to the Western Athletic Conference in 2012, enhancing the football program’s prestige. In addition, Bobcat Stadium is being expanded. And, Franchione said, recruiting coordinator Charlie Reeve, a holdover from Brad Wright’s staff, was key.

“I want to commend Charlie Reeve for merging our transition because he deserves a lot of credit for how this turned out,” Franchione said. “He kept this going in the right direction. I also want to praise our staff because of their tireless effort and without their previous connections, this could not have happened.”

Franchione not only had little time to recruit, but he also had little time to even assess the team’s needs.

“Transition years are a bit blind in terms of recruiting because you don’t know what you really have on your team,” Franchione said. “All you can do is look at a depth chart and see what people have been. The offensive and defensive linemen were the things that jumped out to us. We felt like we had to get some new players on the offensive line since we lose so many players there after next season. We needed to bring in some players to help bridge that transition.”

Following is a listing of the recruiting class, by position group:

Offensive linemen
Jackson Costello, 6-4, 293, The Woodlands (College Park High School).
Zach Crawford, 6-2, 280, Austin (Westwood High School).
Anthony Evans, 6-1, 285, Abilene (Cooper High School).
Matt Freeman, C, 6-2, 264, Abilene (Cooper High School).
Stephan Jacobs, 6-3, 264, Houston (Nimitz High School).

Tight ends
Chase Harper, 6-5, 260, Austin (Pflugerville Connally High School/Navarro College).
Kyle Doll, 6-5, 220, College Station (A&M Consolidated High School/Blinn College).

Wide receivers
Justin Bean, 6-2, 197, Tupelo, MS (Tupelo High School/Itawamba Community College).
Brad Miller, 6-5, 220, Sealy (Sealy High School/New Mexico).
Shaun Rutherford, 6-0, 192, Bay City (Bay City High School/Blinn College).

Running backs
Tim Gay, 5-11, 185, Houston (Chavez High School).
Chris Nutall, 5-8, 185, College Station (A&M Consolidated High School).

Defensive linemen
Darius Hood, DT, 6-0, 280, Plano (Plano East High School).
Samuel Mayes, DT, 6-0, 275, Spring (DeKaney High School).
Tylond Robertson, 6-3, 235, Hempstead (Hempstead High School).

Linebackers
Joshua ‘E Robinson, 5-11, 235, Abilene (Cooper High School).
Keishe Wilcox, 6-2, 215, League City, Texas (Clear Springs High School).

Defensive backs
Jeremy Dickey, S, 6-0, 195, Liberty (Liberty High School/Tarleton State).
Josh Medford, 6-0, 184, Henderson (West Rusk High School).
David Mims II, 5-10½, 175, Daingerfield  (Daingerfield High School).
Jarvis Walker, S, 6-2, 212, Marrero, LA (Archbishop Rummel High School/Kentucky).

Punter/place kicker
Will Johnson, 6-3, 192, Bryan (Rudder High School).