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Signing Day 2011

'One of the first things you look at is their feet -- and do they shave'

David Bailiff and his Rice Owls' coaching staff adeptly played a round of Texas Hold 'Em as they reeled in each and every one of their verbal pledges from their anticipated 2011 class of schoolboy stars, as announced on signing day today.

Though a goodly portion of this year's class was initially recruited by the departed offensive coordinator David Beaty and the sayonara'ed defensive guru Craig Naivar, each of those recruits made it clear they were attracted to Rice, the institution, and not any particular coaching personality, as they followed up their verbal pledges with letters of intent to come pursue their degrees and play a little ball on South Main.

"Nobody changed his mind last night," Coach Bailiff exulted, as he proclaimed this year's crop of 19 future Rice Men his best harvest in the five years since he's been on South Main.

"I like how our coaches went out and developed relationships, and really showed what Rice has to offer these young men for the rest of their lives," the Rice coach said at his 2:30 p.m. press briefing.

"And we held ‘em -- and that's an exciting thing, because there were a lot of universities that were trying to take them from us."

A definite Texas slant among this group of signees

The Rice head man's winning hand included 18 signees from within the State of Texas, plus one wild card from British Columbia, Canada.

Of the Texans, nine are from the Greater Houston area, while three each hail from the Dallas and San Antonio areas. Breaking down the Texans, seven played at the 5A level, seven at the 4A level, two at the 2A level and two played for private schools in TAPPS.

The extreme cold weather blanketing the state, particularly in the Dallas Metroplex area, caused some early-morning consternation among Rice staff when it turned out that power outages and transportation difficulties interrupted letter-of-intent transmission plans. But some help from high school coaches and a little ingenuity combined to produce a complete haul by late morning.

"The coaches really helped us out in the Dallas area, making sure we got those faxes in a timely manner," Coach Bailiff said.

It's a truism that we're used to hearing, but this time there was a strong strain of sincerity in Coach Bailiff's voice when he said he'd fulfilled all his needs, and something beyond that, as well.

"Every year you try to recruit better than you had the year before," he observed, "and I really think that going into our fifth recruiting class, from top to bottom, this is our best job."

"We've got size, speed; we've got young men who are great academic fits at Rice. If you look at that list, you'll see National Honor Society; you'll see guys that are Eagle Scouts. They're great fits, and they're guys who are absolutely driven to graduate, and they are guys who are absolutely driven to win championships."

The lone out-of-stater comes from a long way away, as in Surrey, British Columbia. Christian Covington is the son of a former Canadian Football League Hall of Famer, and was ranked as the top defensive lineman in all of Canada.

Christian checks in at  6-3, 285, and counting -- one of those guys with the big feet and peach fuzz. "His shoe size goes 16 and a half," DB quipped. "He's another young man who's got a lot of growing to do. His upside is going to be amazing. He just turned 17 in October. He runs well and is very powerful. He's been well-coached by his father and uses great technique."

But possibly the most exciting "get" is a sparkplug at the quarterback spot, Driphus Jackson, a 6-0, 195-pounder from Cedar Hill . "DJ" was featured in an MTV documentary called "'The Ride," a reality show that selected the top "under the radar" prep quarterback in the country. Out of 30 candidates, the Rice recruit earned the top prize, a berth in the US Army All America All Star Game.

Coach Bailiff obviously feels his new recruit has great potential for Rice's Quarterback of the Future. "It is amazing how Driphus can extend a play," he said. "He is always looking downfield, but when he decides to pull the ball down, he is a threat when he becomes a runner."

Owls willing to wait on Lake Travis all-stater

A little bit of patience may pay off big time in the long run, in the form of Austin Williams, a 6-1, 220-pound linebacker from Austin Lake Travis. Austin was All State, All Centex and All District 25-4A as a senior, as Lake Travis won its fourth consecutive state title. Austin was named the Defensive MVP of the state title game. Oh, and he's also Honorable Mention Academic All State and an Eagle Scout.

So why wasn't he bound for, say, Stanford, or Northwestern, or Notre Dame? It turns out he's got a two-year church mission that he needs to fulfill, so the Owls won't see him on the field until 2013. But that's fine with DB -- he'll come on with added maturity and physicality, he said. "Austin has been an important part of four state championships at Lake Travis and that says a lot," Coach Bailiff added, in summary.

One signee who has a long, long Rice pedigree is Ross Winship, a 6-4, 270-pound defensive tackle from The Woodlands. Ross' grandfather is Bob Winship, a name familiar to many Owl fans who've known him as an active supporter for decades. Bob lettered for Rice back in 1949-50. Come to think of it, those were a couple of pretty decent Owl teams.

Also, Ross' cousin is Jason Winship, a four-year letterman for the Owls from ‘93 to ‘96. Those guys won a few games for the Institute, too.

Of Ross, Coach Bailiff said, "he plays in a bad mood. He's fun to watch on video. He plays defense the way you want to see it played. He wants to tackle the guy with the ball, and he does it with a chip on his shoulder."

We'd be remiss if we didn't sign off without mention of one of a pair of Class 2A recruits, Miles Lee, a 6-4, 230-pound DE who's another one of those growing boys, according to DB. But of notable distinction is the fact that Miles hails from this writer's old high school, East Bernard (or ‘East Barnyard' as our mortal enemies from Pearland used to refer to us). That makes him one of three former Brahmas to play ball at the Institute, including Brian Mica (‘84) and R. J. Schroeder (‘54) -- two outstanding Owls.

It turns out Miles was one of 15 of this class of 19 Rice recruits who came to at least one of Coach Bailiff's summer camps, Coach Bailiff pointed out.

"Miles is one of those who came to our camp," he said, "and we were able to see that his athleticism and hip flexibility were incredible. He was fifth in the state power lifting; he's one of those guys who will be getting bigger every day. He's explosive for his size; he could run so well in camp, and change directions; he's one of those guys who was just a no-brainer when you saw him operating. Then when you get his transcript, you see he's one of those guys who's a great fit here."

"You'll look up one day soon and he's 270 and still playing."

Coach Bailiff also revealed his failsafe method to recognize diamonds in the rough from the smaller-size high school programs.

"One of the first things you look at is their feet," he confided, "and do they shave."

Apparently that "hip flexibility" has something to do with it as well.

So how's your hip flexibility, Old Timer?

Lagniappe: About 150 souls braved the cold weather to turn out at the St. Arnold's Brewery Trinkhalle Wednesday evening to hear Coach David Bailiff and his assistants talk about their recruits and exhibit a bit of game film on each of them.

Coach Bailiff was in a noticeably relaxed frame of mind as he worked the room and chit-chatted with as many Rice alums and supporters as he could fit in.

The program included a pep talk by Coach Bailiff, and then each of  several assistant coaches took the mike to say a few words about the players recruited for their positions, as videos played in the background. 

Those, by the way, were the same videos that are posted on "Signing Day Central" at RiceOwls.com, so if you haven't had a look at them, you can just click on over.

Athletic Director Rick Greenspan was with the Rice basketball team at Tulane, but his spot was filled in by his senior executive AD, Rick Mello, who took advantage of the situation to introduce himself to a number of Owl fans.

"We tell our recruits to come to Rice and help us take over the world," Coach Bailiff told his appreciative audience, who sipped several varieties of craft beer and ample hors d'ouvres.

--PTH