Written by In The Bleachers | 12 February 2008

We are 6 days removed from the 2008 LOI day and there are really only a few things to look forward to if you are a college football fan. First is the Terrelle Pryor saga and where he will end up signing. As I understand it right now, he will visit Penn State this weekend and is still thinking about going to Oregon, but that's a long shot right now. In my opinion, it is down to Ohio State, who I believe is still his leader, and Penn State for his services. According to this statistical model done by the Mercer University School of Business and Economics, Penn State has a 35.9% probability of signing him with Ohio State second at 23.8%. I believe if Penn State is honest with him about what the plan will be after Joe Paterno retires, they will have a great shot in landing him. I will be talking about Pryor and other recruiting news on tonight's Under Center show with Adam Nettina. If you check out Adam's site, you will see how to listen live to the show. It runs every Tuesday from 8pm to 10pm and tonight I am slated to go on at 9pm EST. Once again I will record the show and put it up for a podcast so the readers of this blog can hear the interview.

Russell Shepard is a name to remember

The final recruiting rankings are out, and since Pryor's signing will have no impact on the top 5...here they are from Rivals.com.

1. Alabama 2. Notre Dame 3. Florida 4. Miami 5. Oklahoma

But if you take a closer look at the commitment list you will see that both Alabama and Miami have 32 and 33 signees respectively. Since you can only take 25 per year, that leaves a few people that the schools are expecting won't qualify and have to go the prep school route, or greyshirt and enroll in the school in January of 2009. Rivals.com usually updates this list again near fall camp time. One team name you don't see up there is the USC Trojans, but they have already had a head start on the 2009 class. As of this moment the Trojans have 9 verbal commitments for 2009. Matt Barkley is regarded as the #1 QB recruit in the 2009 class and is the marquee guy to verbal to USC so far. It use to be that Texas would be the team that jumped out front with the early verbals, but USC has beat them to the punch this year. An interesting battle that will be shaping up on the recruiting field will be one for the athletic quarterback Russell Shepard from Texas. Sheppard has already attended Texas' Junior Day, but has not committed to them yet, and now word out of Michigan is that they are hot after him since the Wolverines are skeptical that they will not get Pryor in this class. Shepard has said that he wants a chance to play QB and he would get that at Michigan and most likely start there, but at Texas he would face some stiff competition and might end up playing another position. This is a battle I would definitely keep my eye on. Don't forget bloggers that voting for the 2007 College Football Blogger Awards is underway. Check out EDSBS for all of the details on how to vote.

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