Through many years college football recruiting has been limited to a select number of schools whom you expect to pull the top players in the country. However, this year we began to see a trend that has been absent of late. We began to see schools that aren't boasting national championships or great tradition win over star studded recruits.
Of course, this trend all began with Ole Miss #5 ranked recruiting class under Hugh Freeze a few years back but now you see Houston, Maryland and UAB (who doesn't even have a game scheduled this year) succeed on the recruiting trail. Houston was able to reel in Ed Oliver and Courtney Lark, two high caliber 4 and 5 star recruits who could have gone almost anywhere in the country. Maryland, struggled late in the process but was able to finish off with some pretty good talent coming in under first year head coach D.J. Durkin.
The shocker that most people have yet to take notice of is UAB. A program that was buried less than a year ago is back and they are starting the process early of getting talent down to Birmingham. They have a slew of JUCO players coming in who were once 5 and 4 star recruits destined for prime time universities. One that the people of Alabama should remember is Brandon Hill, once a University of Alabama player, Hill transferred to Mississippi Gulf Coast C.C. where he was a force of nature. He along with others turned down a number of D1 offers to go play for Bill Clark and the Blazers. They see the passion of a town and it has been taken in.
However, they have their program back and they have hope for a bright future with a good coach coming back and some stud recruits taking interest in the program. I'm curious as to where they end up in a few years and you should be too. Look for the UAB football program to be on the rise in the next few years if they can sustain the financial aspects of the move.
