Dawgs Debut at #2

With 20 early commitments, Georgia Debuts at #2 behind Texas in Scout.com's National Recruiting Rankings.

Bolstered by 24 early commitments, including 17 before the May evaluation period even began, the Texas Longhorns have taken the early lead in the Scout.com Class of 2006 Team Recruiting Rankings released today.

Georgia, which also benefited from a large number of early commitments (20), currently is No. 2. Ohio State, Louisiana State and Michigan round out Scout.com’s top five.

Consumers can access Scout.com’s Team Rankings via the following web page:

http://teamrankings.scout.com

The rankings are updated daily and several times daily as National Signing Day approaches. They can be sorted by numerous variables, including number of commits, five-star commitments, offensive and defensive commitments, among others. Scout.com also ranks by conference and position.

Historical team rankings also are available back to 2002.

Among Texas’ 2006 commitments are Eddie Jones, of Kilgore, Texas, the No. 1 defensive end in the country, according to Scout.com; Sherrod Harris, of Arlington, Texas, the No. 9 quarterback, and Emmanual Moody, of Coppel, Texas, the network’s No. 9 running back nationally. In all, the Longhorns have six commitments from players ranked among Scout.com’s National Hot 100.

"Mack Brown struck like lightning and put together a great class for Texas before the regular season even started," said Jamie Newberg, national football recruiting editor for Scout.com. "Texas secured some impressive players on offense, but defense is where Brown actually mopped up. Jones is a stud and the linebackers, Sergio Kindle and Dustin Earnest, are probably the strength of the Longhorn commitments.

"Georgia also has put together a great, early class, led by the likes of quarterback Matt Stafford. We know teams such as Florida State are great, late closers and, shoot, we know we’re going to hear from USC before it’s over. The race for the mythical national recruiting championship is going to go down to the wire."

Tennessee was declared No. 1 in recruiting by Scout.com for 2005, while Southern Cal was No. 1 in 2004.

Georgia’s early showing has propelled the Southeast Conference to the top of the Conference Rankings, with Texas-led Big 12 second.