We are now getting right down to the end for National Signing Day, as we are only about 24 hours away from the first signed letter of intent coming across the fax machine. As time draws nearer and nearer, let's go for another quick update.
The big news at this time is that Mark Ingram, initially slated to announce on National Signing Day, will now instead announce today (Tuesday). He is holding a press conference to announce his decision this afternoon at 2:30 Central Time, and we at RBR will keep you up to date.
Definitely stay tuned for that one, because it looks like we just might have some good news in store. I was initially thinking that it would be very difficult to pull Ingram away from Michigan State, but it seems like the ol' Nicktator may very well do just that. Many of the "experts" are putting him almost as a 'Bama lock, and if you read a lot of the Michigan State forums they have almost all conceded that he is headed south to Tuscaloosa. To put it mildly, again, good news could be in store.
Now, a week or so ago the general consensus was that we had about four more spots open. Well, Harbin committed, then Lawrence, and if we get Ingram tomorrow that will leave only one spot. The problem is that we still have a lot of prospects still on the board, and I do not see us turning away any of those guys. If the initial thinking was correct -- and I really doubt that it is now -- we will be going into National Signing Day with only one spot left, but unless we strike out in a huge way on Wednesday, we are likely to garner two or more commitments. I'm not sure how it is all going to work, but it will be very interesting to say the least.
I also want to point out that the Dareus brothers are most likely a package. Thus if Marcel commits to us, we will be getting his brother Demerius as well. This, however, will pose no problem whatsoever for the numbers crunch because Demerius will not qualify academically this year, and will be headed to junior college. He has a firm offer from the staff, but it is an offer for when he gets out of junior college. So, don't let that throw you off when it comes time to crunch the numbers.
To close, we're going to have a lot up for National Signing Day. Make sure you check around 2:30 tomorrow for the announcement of Mark Ingram, and I will also have up another post tomorrow evening about the numbers crunch, the likelihood of us getting the prospects left on the board, and I am also going to get firm times for when the announcements will come on National Signing Day. Once Ingram declares, we are down to five prospects left on the board -- Julio Jones, Jerrell Harris, T.J. Bryant, Robert Quinn, and Marcel Dareus -- and we are going to do our best to keep things as up-to-date as possible.
Tomorrow evening I will do one final update, and then bright and early on National Signing Day -- I'll probably start the thread late tomorrow night to have it up -- I am going to go ahead with with a gameday-esque thread where we track all of the news and announcements in one thread. Stay tuned, I have a feeling that those who bleed crimson and white will find this NSD very much to their liking.
[editor's note, by outsidethesidelines]
If you find a link on the Internet to any live video stream of a prospects announcement, please share. Either e-mail us, comment in one of the threads, or post it in a diary.
Update [2008-2-5 8:8:42 by Todd]: