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NCAA Recruiting By The Numbers - Buffalo

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Well now that national signing day is over its time to step back and take a look at how coach Lance Leipold did.

There is no good way to measure what a recruit will be so I'm not going to obsess about national rankings or conference rankings. The best performing UB team of the Modern era was a motly crew in 2008 which consisted of a group of players nobody was drooling over. A close second was the 2013 team led by two current NFL guys who each had zero offers outside of Buffalo.

So when we start to disect this years class it's not in an effort to say "how awesome are these guys" or "man we really did not do well".

The quality of this class won't be known until 2017 at the earliest.

By then hopefully we can see Tyree Jackson fake the hand off to 1,500 yard rusher Johnathan Hawkins before throwing Emmanuel Reed his 10th touchdown reception of the seasons.

Still it's nice to look at who we got, where they came from, and what other teams wanted them.

Players Sitting on P5 Offers - 2 or 3

On paper the big name is Johnathan Hawkins, a running back out of Mill Creek high school in Hoschton, Georgia. Hawkins transferred from Central Gwinnett High School. Before he suited up he was holding offers from Arkansas, Auburn, and NC State.

On top of those offers Hawkins had a lot of other interest.

Buffalo also pulled a late recruit named Emmanuel Reed out of Florida who was reportedly holding offers from Wake Forest and Cal.

Finally they pulled Torey Hendrick a JUCO who would have been at Iowa last season had it not been for one missed college credit.

Players with G5 Offers - 11

Many of UB's G5 offer holders were also drawing serious interest from P5 schools. For example, Tyree Jackson had drawn a ton of interest from schools like Pitt. Despite some courting from Pitt and a late offer from UConn.

Aside from Jackson and Reed other incoming UB players with offers from "G5" schools were.Cameron Lewis, K.J. Osborn, Evin Ksiezarczyk, Duke Hwang, Justin Brandon, Roubbens Joseph, Torey Hendrick, and Tyler Mabry.

Players Holding MAC Offers - 6 Taking players wanted by other G5 schools is nice but getting a kid to pick you over a conference mate is better. Buffalo did that five times including Tyree Jackson.

Justin Brandon is an interesting prospect who had been sitting on a Ball State offer for six months. Then Lance Leipold was hired by Buffalo. There is a real possibility he will be bringing a 4-3 defense to a team manned as a 3-4 unit. Brandon, a defensive lineman, was offered and jumped at the chance.

Other players taken by UB over other MAC schools were Emmanuel Reed, Tyree Jackson, Cameron Lewis, Charles Harris, and Matt Seybert.

Players from Canada - 1

UB is well positioned to take advantage of  Canada and usually the do take an athlete or two from the great white north. Last year there was Chris Merchant, a pro style quarterback. This season UB pulled a receiver named Dev Lamour who played a lot of 7 on 7 ball with Merchant.

Players from MAC States (Other than New York) - 7

No Ohio for the first time in a long time. As conrad said on Last Bull In.... Errr Bull Rundown  that is damn curious.

It's said that the "Rust Belt" is a dying area but in reality it's more a matter of a lowing growth than a die off. Yes the south and west are growing faster the the states that compromise the MAC have seen population growth every year for decades.

Factor in that Texas has 12 FBS schools and all the sudden what we can get from Ohio does not seem too bad. Throw in Michigan and some of the other MAC states and suddenly the pickings are pretty solid.

An example is Matt Seybert who was an early commit out of Michigan who stayed through the coaching change in Buffalo.

MAC States, minus New York have provided UB with Seybert, Tyree Jackson, Cameron Lewis, Justin Brandon, Roubbens Joseph, and Charles Harris

Players from NYS - 6

The entire state of NY has three FBS programs. There is a P5 school in Syracuse, a service adacemy at west point, and a State University in Amherst. While the state is not generally considered a huge source of Division one football talent there are enough future NFL players in the Empire State for UB to pick up good players.

Thise season the Bulls have picked up Christian Gonzalez, Evin Ksiezarczyk, Brandon Smiley, Duke Hwang, Cameron Skipworth, Michael Cummings.