How The Weis Stole Commitments

After going 1-11 and o-for in the Big 12, the football season ended earlier for the Jayhawks than all 11 of their opponents this year. KU missed out on post-season play for the 4th straight year while the South Dakota State JackRabbits advanced deep into the FCS playoffs, and all ten of KU's Division 1 opponents made bowl games, giving KU the toughest schedule in all of college football, according to Phil Steele and Sagarin. KU fans are forced, once again, to utilize petty (or substantial, although I don't condone it) wagers or schadenfreude this bowl-season if they want to keep a vested interest. Or they could keep tabs on KU's recruiting class, but that can't be too good anyways... Despite obvious incremental improvement in all phases of the game, and 5 (if not 6) close, competitive losses, 2 blowout losses in the final two winnable games and inept quarterbacking and wide receiver play was more than enough buzzkill to scare off big-name recruits. Kansas wasn't supposed to win recruiting battles with anybody in the Big 12, much less 11-1 Kansas State. But they did. Shun the non-believer! But... how? Well, Weis, mean and green, milked every JUCO resource known to mankind from the day he took the job at KU, and his doggedness and resolution won over some of the best mid-year transfers in the country, pulling KU to the 32nd ranked class in the nation and anywhere from 4-6 in the Big 12, according to Rivals.com. Here are some of the presents that Weis has stolen and inked so far. I just hope they can fit under his tree!
I'm feeling particularly saucy after all of the Christmas jest, so how about we start this assay with a bang.

Source: Scout.com

Marquel Combs, all 6'3", 305 pounds of him, headlines the first JUCO's to sign the dotted line. Built kind of like a cross between a boar and an ox, Combs plays with a consistent ferocity, if not uncanny, infrequent in most JUCO defensive linemen.

Combs is relatively new to football--he was basically pushed into football by his Uncle (which must have taken great might and vigor), so he slipped through the cracks and into Junior College Football. He won't be sliding under anybody else's radar anymore. Rivals.com ranks him four stars and the tenth best JUCO prospect; ESPN anointed him the top dog.

With offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Boise State, Boston College, BYU, California, UCONN, Indiana, Iowa State, Kansas State, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, N.C. State, Oregon State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, South Florida, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Utah, Washington State, among others, I can only ask myself, of all those schools, what brought him to the mecca of College...Basketball in the middle of barren wasteland? If I had to guess, it would be a combination of, but not limited to: the allure of immediate playing time, those shiny things on Charlie Weis's digits, and Dave Campo.

I'll bet my house that Combs is the starter on opening day, especially with the added benefit that he will be here early in the spring. KU will be getting a plug in the middle of the defense that will likely call for double teams, and a nice surge (hopefully James McClinton-esque) that kind of belies the duties of the position.

Zach Fondal will hopefully help a grave position of need: the offensive line. KU loses a lot of experienced talent to graduation, so the 6'5", 290 pounder from Navarro will look to do just that. Fill up vacated space. 

Now this is based solely on a few highlights, but I could see Fondal filling a role not unlike Aslam Sterling's this past season. He is light on his feet, given his circumstances, and has "potential" written on every square inch of his body. Gradually, he sees the field more and more, and moves either from outside to inside (like Sterling), or inside to outside (also like Sterling). I would be more than pleased if Weis found Aslam 2.0.

Now, maybe I'm in the minor, minor minority on this one-- wait, there is no way! We all love big, bad Samoans with locks of black, manly hair sprouting out from under the crevice of their helmets, don't we? If nothing else, Ahongalu Fuismalohi will be fun to look at on the sidelines, and will be, without a doubt, the first dude we trot off our bus. ESPN seems to like him, at the 95 spot on the JUCO list, and so do I. I think he should be a nice run-blocking guard for the next few years. I could just seem him saying all Schwarzenegger like, you mess with Jake (Heaps), you mess with me. You mess with the bull, you get the horns.

Tedarian Johnson earned offers from Iowa State, Memphis, Mississippi State, Texas Tech, and Troy, but committed to Kansas shortly after his visit for the TCU game. At 6'3", 285 pounds, Johnson will be a nice body up front on the defensive line. I am still having a wicked time trying to understand how the dearth of depth on the defensive line in Mangino's final years and Gill's entire regime is suddenly stockpiled and teeming. 

In light of the fact that there isn't exactly a large, accessible reserve of defensive linemen that KU can just pilfer through and sign, Charlie Weis has been extraordinarily creative in how he has recruited them. Chris Martin, another JUCO with a length backstory, is example A. 

Coming out of high school, Martin was one of the highest ranked players in the 2010 class. Oregon, Oklahoma, USC, Florida, Georgia, and Notre Dame all offered him. And that is just the short of it. He originally committed to Charlie Weis and the Fighting Irish, but when news broke that Weis was given the pink slip, Martin was one of the first to reopen his recruitment.

Martin signed with Cal, as the number one prospect in Colorado, the number two defensive end, and the number eighteen prospect in the nation, but then, with a sudden change in heart, headed south to the University of Florida. There he was a nuisance to Charlie Weis's offense in inter-squad scrimmages, but also a bit of a nuisance to his social networking followers (for his outspokenness) and also to local law enforcers. On January 29th, 2011, Martin was cited by Gainesville police for possession of marijuana. 

So, after tripping up a little bit, Martin stepped out of the limelight of Division 1, and tasted a little bit of humble pie at the JUCO level. His final stop was City College of San Francisco. 

Kansas will be getting a fast, strong, and hopefully more mature defensive end that should start from day one.   My favorite attribute about Martin? He can swat passes out of the air while being engaged in a block. That is essential in a spread-heavy Big 12.