TOWSON, Md. - Recruiting is the lifeblood of any football program. For Towson, the date of Wednesday, Feb. 1 is more than just a culmination of a long recruiting grind. It's the continuation of the process of building a program.
Signing Day is a time when the Tigers hope to find the next impact players and future role players who will help this team not just achieve success, but sustain it.
Coach Rob Ambrose took over the program in December, 2008 and had very little time to recruit. He quickly assembled a staff and signed 15 recruits with one transfer on February 4, 2009. His first major recruiting class was a very heavily-based Maryland class, featuring 13 players from the state. So how did Ambrose's first class turn out?
The class was big on offensive linemen and five players from the 2009 class started on the offensive line at some point during the season. All five redshirted in 2009 and the following year, Eric Pike started at left tackle as a redshirt freshman.
Center Doug Shaw, guard/center Anthony Davis, guard Charles Johnson and guard/tackle Randall Harris all saw some time on the line. In 2011, the line matured with four sophomores rotating at five spots along with senior Henry Glackin, who became an All-American at right tackle (he started at left tackle in 2009).
Another recruit from that class, Peter Athens, became the starting quarterback as a true freshman in 2009, sharing time with another true freshman - Tommy Chroniger.
Unfortunately, Athens injured his knee midway through his first season and Chroniger couldn't overcome injuries in 2010 and 2011.
Towson also brought in two quality wide receivers in that class. Tom Ryan was a 6-foot-3 standout from Philadelphia while Alex Blake was a blazer from Friendly High School in P.G. County. Both played as true freshmen and in their junior seasons, they helped lift the Tigers to their first CAA Championship.
The last two recruiting classes brought starting cornerbacks Corey Ford and Tye Smith along with linebacker Kyle Polk, who started nine games in 2010. PK D.J. Soven was a punter in 2010 and became the full-time place kicker in 2011. Linebacker Kenton Powell wasn't on that original list of recruits who signed in 2010 (some players sign later than the original signing date). But, after redshirting his first season, he started six games as a redshirt freshman and intercepted three passes and finished sixth on the team in tackles.
Very few true freshmen play in their first season. In the 2011 class, Smith was one of two freshmen to play. The other? A guy named Terrance West, who won just about every Rookie of the Year accolade (including the inaugural Jerry Rice Award) and led the country with 29 touchdowns.
A lot of players make their biggest improvements physically and mentally from their freshman to their sophomore season or from their first season to their second. Who knows which players from the 2009-11 classes will step up and become impact players?
And you can't forget the transfers or "players to be named later" that Towson has brought in over the last three years. Not all have worked out but the ones that worked out were key ingredients to the amazing turnaround of 2011. Defensive end Romale Tucker (Syracuse) in 2009, safety Jordan Dangerfield (Hofstra) in 2010 and linebacker Alexander DiSanzo (Boston College) in 2011 were major impact players on defense.
On offense, Ambrose added tight end James Oboh (Florida Atlantic) in 2010, running backs Sterlin Phifer (Boston College) and Trea Jones (Colorado) in 2011 and wide receivers Gerrard Sheppard and Leon Kinnard from Connecticut last season. And, of course, quarterback Grant Enders arrived last summer from Lackawanna Junior College.
So, which players will make an impact from the Class of 2012 and beyond? We will have to wait and see.
