STARKVILLE — Dan Mullen isn”t concerned with recruiting rankings.
Nor does he care about anyone”s perception of why his Mississippi State Bulldogs had six players de-commit and only land one Dandy Dozen player.
To him, the 22 players in the 2010 class fit his mission of landing the top players in-state and filling needs.
The internet, at least in terms of where MSU”s class ranks nationally, begs to differ. Scout.com ranks MSU”s class No. 43, while Rivals.com ranks it No. 42.
MSU”s in-state rival Ole Miss, has a class ranked in the top-20 and is buoyed by the signings of All-Americans Nick Brassell and C.J. Johnson. Four-star Madison Central wide receiver Tobias Singleton also inked with the Rebels today.
While Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt hailed his in-state haul during his press conference in Oxford, Mullen wasn”t fazed that two of his former verbal commitments — Brassell and Johnson — wound up in Oxford.
“As you can see with the numbers, [defections didn”t hurt] because we really didn”t have spots for everybody,” Mullen said Wednesday. “We were gonna have to balance out the numbers in the end.
“I guess a commitment in my mind, and maybe in the media”s mind is very different. A commitment, in my mind, is someone that”s coming to Mississippi State and not taking other visits. If you”re visiting other places, I never considered you committed in the first place.”
Mullen”s response to depth at receiver and defensive line possibly turning off players,
“If guys are nervous of competition, I certainly don”t want them on our roster because every day in our program we have to compete at everything we do,” Mullen said. “That”s what helps you win. There”s no shortcuts to the top of the mountain.”
MSU landed 15 in-state players, more than Ole Miss and Southern Miss combined. Mullen”s first three recruiting classes at MSU have included 51 players from Mississippi.
Mullen took another shot at the internet recruiting sites when talking about a pair of receivers he did sign — Joe Morrow and Devin Fosselman — as opposed to pair he got beat on — Singleton and Brassell — who were rated higher by both Scout.com and Rivals.com.
“I talk to a lot of high school coaches that go down and watch all the talent at the Mississippi-Alabama All-star game, and they said the two top receivers were Fosselman and Morrow. If they”re the two top receivers, we”re pretty happy to get those guys.
“Figuring we got 15 players from the state of Mississippi and the two other schools in-state didn”t get that many combined, I”d say we”re still on path with what we”re looking to do.”
The gem of MSU”s class is Stone County safety Dee Arrington, who ended his senior season with over 100 tackles and was named a Parade All-American. He”s noted as a big-hitter and is one of five defensive backs signed by MSU.
MSU added out-of-state defensive ends Preston Smith and John Harris, along with defensive tackles PJ Jones and James Maiden.
The one position MSU failed to address was linebacker, where it signed one player in Rosa Fort”s Bernardrick McKinney.
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