Northwestern won 10 games this past season and made it to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 45 years.
Kansas State has won 28 games the last three seasons, finishing sixth in the
nation this year with a 10-2 record, capped by a 54-21 victory over Colorado
State in the Holiday Bowl.
THE KANSAS JAYHAWKS WON 10 games this past year and defeated UCLA in the Aloha Bowl.
The Hokies of Virginia Tech won 10 games and beat Texas in the Sugar Bowl, their first major bowl appearance.
When push comes to shove, college football recruiting ain't a silver slipper, Johnny-come-lately game. Cinderellas need not apply. National signing day is for the usual crowd -- the Penn States, Florida States, Notre Dames.
The names rarely change. Just the order, and that's only because the recruiting experts don't like to be copycats.
Still, most recruiting services agree Penn State, Ohio State, Florida State, Notre Dame and Tennessee raked in enough blue-chippers to rank them in the top five nationally.
The so-called experts may disagree on which school out-recruited the other,
but they do agree Penn State and Ohio State landed the top recruiting classes.
And they agree the Cinderellas of the college football world will just have to
be patient and get a little lucky one day to join the big names.
ALLEN WALLACE OF SUPERPREP and Pennsylvania-based G&W Recruiting, two of the more respected services in the country, say the Nittany Lions signed the nation's top class. Tom Lemming, another respected recruiting expert, says Penn State came in at No. 3.
Ohio State is a close runner-up -- the Buckeyes are ranked No. 1 by Chicago's Lemming -- and Notre Dame, Tennessee and Florida State round out the top five. Rashard Casey, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound quarterback from Hoboken, N.J., and 6-foot-6, 240-pound linebacker Courtney Brown of Macedonia, S.C., are on everybody's top 10 list.
They'll play for Joe Paterno this fall. It's that kind of talent, along with landing wide receiver Titcus Pettigrew from Clemmons, S.C., and running back Joe Dawkins of Hackensack, N.J., two of the nation's most heralded players at their positions, that build a strong case for No. 1 for Penn State.
Brown is considered by many to be the nation's best high school linebacker. Casey is ranked with Kentucky signee Tim Couch and Baylor signee Odell James as the country's top quarterback prospects.
Ohio State signed two of the most-wanted defensive players around in linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer of Westerville, Ohio, and cornerback Mike Burdon of Palatine, Ill.
Rounding out this year's top 10 signing classes are Southern California,
Nebraska, Louisiana State, Michigan and Colorado.
FLORIDA, BAYLOR AND TEXAS were right on the fringe.
There were several blue-chippers still unsigned going into signing day which, according to Wallace, could rearrange the order.
"There's no question that Penn State and Ohio State did well," Wallace said. "I think Southern California had a big year. Of course, Notre Dame always does well, along with Florida State."
Two surprise schools that cracked the experts' top 15 list were Louisiana State and Baylor.
Lemming even went so far as to rank LSU's class No. 4 nationally, and Baylor No. 9.
Helping jump Baylor into the upper echelon was landing James, a 6-4,
205-pound strong-armed quarterback out of MacArthur, Texas, 6-3, 220-pound
linebacker Chris Thierry of Baytown, Texas, and running back/kick returner
Elijah Burkins of Port Arthur, Texas.
LSU LANDED A COUPLE OF big recruits in defensive end Derrion Yates of Houston, Texas, and running back Cecil Collins of Leesville, La. And what about the Cinderellas?
The news isn't good.
Despite winning all our hearts and enough attention to fill a roomful of scrapbooks, Northwestern's 1996 recruiting class is no better than seventh in the Big Ten, according to G&W Recruiting.
Kansas State and Kansas could do no better than seventh and ninth, respectively, in the newly expanded Big 12.
As for the Hokies, G&W says their '96 recruiting class is fourth-best -- in the Big East. Behind Syracuse, Miami and, in something of a surprise, Pittsburgh. So much for fairytales.
In addition to writing this exclusive column for SportsLine USA, Charles Hollis covers college football for The Birmingham News.
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