Our last recruiting snapshot was just over two weeks ago, and much has happened in that fairly short time period. ASU landed six commits during that span, with their last one being a Top-100 prospect, and now find themselves in the Top-25 group of recruiting classes earlier than ever in school history.
With 19 known commits, the number of newcomers to be added all the way until signing day won’t be great in quantity. But what about the quality you ask? That’s a whole different story and one that should be pleasing to see unfold in the upcoming weeks and months. And yes, there is a lot of juggling to be done and Blueshirts to designate in the process. But more about that later.
So, let’s examine where Arizona State stands with their 2021 class, what are the needs that still need to be addressed with this group and who are the viable prospects for ASU at each position.
(We’re going to list the commits position by position in this snapshot, but here’s a link to the full list.)
As always with these snapshots, I do like to state right away what the class numbers look like in terms of capacity. This arguably is the most significant aspect dictating the makeup of the class.
ASU has 19 known commits, plus five Blueshirts who will part of the 2020 roster but will have their scholarship count towards the next recruiting class, so in essence the 2021 class now has 24 pledges, and its 2021 class cannot be more than 20 signed players.
So currently, and yes that number will change between now and signing day, ASU has one slot available to fill in the 2021 class (25-24=1).
As a reminder the five Blueshirt players who are on the team right now that will count towards the 2021 class are:
LB Will Shaffer
TE Ryan Morgan
Punter Logan Tyler
RB Rachaad White
DB DeAndre Pierce
OK back to the one slot available to fill, needless to say, that no one should expect just a lone recruit to join the Sun Devil ranks between now and December. To make that assumption, you’re practically stating that ASU won’t have any decommits the rest of the way and that after Blueshirting a handful of players in each of the last two classes that it will suddenly not repeat that practice with the 2021 group.
There is a better chance of the sun rising in the North tomorrow than those scenarios coming to fruition.
Now, while I did previously predict that ASU will ensure it will have a few slots available at the end of the recruiting cycle in the first week of February of next year, a COVID-19 recruiting cycle puts that in question.
That’s not to say that the Sun Devils won’t add a couple of grad transfers and there’s a fair chance that they will only happen in the spring of 2021. However, at that time we could very well see over 20 commits in a class that can only sign 20 players (again the Blueshirt approach is what allows that to happen).
Additionally, keep in mind that if December’s National Letter of Intent Day is canceled, due to COVID-19 (not a strong possibility right now, but still on the table), and February’s National Letter of Intent Day, just like the “not so old days,” is the only signing day in the 2021 cycle, then you’re still not making it a point to keep a handful or so spots open during a ridiculously fluid college football recruiting environment.
Oh, and de we mention that if the Pac-12 championship still gets played on December 18 or 19th, and the December signing period remains at its original date of December 16-18, that the Pac-12 division champions will now be forced to try and juggle closing out their 2021 class while preparing for its biggest game of the year and a chance at a Rose Bowl or College Football Playoff appearance? Talk about a double-edged sword…
Let’s talk more about Blueshirts.
I’m not going to speculate out loud who are the players that will carry this designation. I honestly don’t know how much that topic has or hasn’t been discussed by the ASU coaches with current pledges, and a name mentioned here could be leaked later, so player X hears it here first and not from an ASU staff member. And in my opinion, that’s certainly not the type of question to address with them in an interview, and often times the commit himself doesn’t have a clue. This may be stating the obvious, but no player wants that Blueshirt designation nor being reminded that they are carrying that proverbial tag.
What I will say is that every commit with an overall less impressive list of offers is always a higher probability for a Blueshirt. As I like to mention all too often, you’re only as good as the leverage you have. And some of these prospects cannot claim that a decommit from ASU will undoubtedly lead then to a greener pasture, and yet some will pick that route anyway.
It’s absolutely reasonable to expect a couple of current commits, maybe even as many as three of four of them to be classified as Blueshirts down the road. And yes, some players could very well decommit from ASU, whether they do or don’t have a better option awaiting them, just to avoid the Blueshirt route. Ironically, that could benefit ASU.
If you recall, one criterion of a Blueshirt is a prospect that didn’t take an official visit. In this recruiting cycle, not only as it pertains to ASU, that has been the norm, not the exception with 2021 pledges. And with a good number of Sun Devil commits located 1,000 or 2,000 miles away from Tempe, that could open the door for players to potentially now care about proximity to their home, and decide to decommit even if there were nowhere in danger of being a Blueshirt.
So, this measure of flexibility is one that you can fully expect ASU to utilize, especially when wanting to add one or two offensive linemen grad transfers, which is a likely scenario with a position that will still be fairly inexperienced going into 2021, as it stands to lose three seniors, all starters, following the 2020 season.
The list of official visitors can be found here. Needless to say, this list is far, far from being complete with so much uncertainty regarding the season. But if you wanted a link to refer to or bookmark for later, now you have it.
The Football Scholarship Distribution chart is a good tool to view what the scholarship player numbers look like both by position and class.
So, let’s do the position by position breakdown:
With 19 known commits, the number of newcomers to be added all the way until signing day won’t be great in quantity. But what about the quality you ask? That’s a whole different story and one that should be pleasing to see unfold in the upcoming weeks and months. And yes, there is a lot of juggling to be done and Blueshirts to designate in the process. But more about that later.
So, let’s examine where Arizona State stands with their 2021 class, what are the needs that still need to be addressed with this group and who are the viable prospects for ASU at each position.
(We’re going to list the commits position by position in this snapshot, but here’s a link to the full list.)
As always with these snapshots, I do like to state right away what the class numbers look like in terms of capacity. This arguably is the most significant aspect dictating the makeup of the class.
ASU has 19 known commits, plus five Blueshirts who will part of the 2020 roster but will have their scholarship count towards the next recruiting class, so in essence the 2021 class now has 24 pledges, and its 2021 class cannot be more than 20 signed players.
So currently, and yes that number will change between now and signing day, ASU has one slot available to fill in the 2021 class (25-24=1).
As a reminder the five Blueshirt players who are on the team right now that will count towards the 2021 class are:
LB Will Shaffer
TE Ryan Morgan
Punter Logan Tyler
RB Rachaad White
DB DeAndre Pierce
OK back to the one slot available to fill, needless to say, that no one should expect just a lone recruit to join the Sun Devil ranks between now and December. To make that assumption, you’re practically stating that ASU won’t have any decommits the rest of the way and that after Blueshirting a handful of players in each of the last two classes that it will suddenly not repeat that practice with the 2021 group.
There is a better chance of the sun rising in the North tomorrow than those scenarios coming to fruition.
Now, while I did previously predict that ASU will ensure it will have a few slots available at the end of the recruiting cycle in the first week of February of next year, a COVID-19 recruiting cycle puts that in question.
That’s not to say that the Sun Devils won’t add a couple of grad transfers and there’s a fair chance that they will only happen in the spring of 2021. However, at that time we could very well see over 20 commits in a class that can only sign 20 players (again the Blueshirt approach is what allows that to happen).
Additionally, keep in mind that if December’s National Letter of Intent Day is canceled, due to COVID-19 (not a strong possibility right now, but still on the table), and February’s National Letter of Intent Day, just like the “not so old days,” is the only signing day in the 2021 cycle, then you’re still not making it a point to keep a handful or so spots open during a ridiculously fluid college football recruiting environment.
Oh, and de we mention that if the Pac-12 championship still gets played on December 18 or 19th, and the December signing period remains at its original date of December 16-18, that the Pac-12 division champions will now be forced to try and juggle closing out their 2021 class while preparing for its biggest game of the year and a chance at a Rose Bowl or College Football Playoff appearance? Talk about a double-edged sword…
Let’s talk more about Blueshirts.
I’m not going to speculate out loud who are the players that will carry this designation. I honestly don’t know how much that topic has or hasn’t been discussed by the ASU coaches with current pledges, and a name mentioned here could be leaked later, so player X hears it here first and not from an ASU staff member. And in my opinion, that’s certainly not the type of question to address with them in an interview, and often times the commit himself doesn’t have a clue. This may be stating the obvious, but no player wants that Blueshirt designation nor being reminded that they are carrying that proverbial tag.
What I will say is that every commit with an overall less impressive list of offers is always a higher probability for a Blueshirt. As I like to mention all too often, you’re only as good as the leverage you have. And some of these prospects cannot claim that a decommit from ASU will undoubtedly lead then to a greener pasture, and yet some will pick that route anyway.
It’s absolutely reasonable to expect a couple of current commits, maybe even as many as three of four of them to be classified as Blueshirts down the road. And yes, some players could very well decommit from ASU, whether they do or don’t have a better option awaiting them, just to avoid the Blueshirt route. Ironically, that could benefit ASU.
If you recall, one criterion of a Blueshirt is a prospect that didn’t take an official visit. In this recruiting cycle, not only as it pertains to ASU, that has been the norm, not the exception with 2021 pledges. And with a good number of Sun Devil commits located 1,000 or 2,000 miles away from Tempe, that could open the door for players to potentially now care about proximity to their home, and decide to decommit even if there were nowhere in danger of being a Blueshirt.
So, this measure of flexibility is one that you can fully expect ASU to utilize, especially when wanting to add one or two offensive linemen grad transfers, which is a likely scenario with a position that will still be fairly inexperienced going into 2021, as it stands to lose three seniors, all starters, following the 2020 season.
The list of official visitors can be found here. Needless to say, this list is far, far from being complete with so much uncertainty regarding the season. But if you wanted a link to refer to or bookmark for later, now you have it.
The Football Scholarship Distribution chart is a good tool to view what the scholarship player numbers look like both by position and class.
So, let’s do the position by position breakdown:
