Hits & Misses
Miss: L.J. Robertson (RB) — Originally ranked 941. Outcome: Bust. Despite being one of the higher ranked recruits in the class, Robertson failed to make a significant impact on the field during his college career.
Development Story
Eastern Michigan's 2006 recruiting class demonstrates a trend of unranked recruits making a significant contribution to the team. Nine unranked recruits, including Andre Hatchet (LB), DeAnthony White (RB), Derrick Hunter (WR), Eric Young (EDGE), Josh LeDuc (TE), Mark Mitchell (CB), Ryan Downard (S), Stephen Johnson (DL), and Tyrone Burke (S), exceeded expectations by becoming college starters. This suggests a pattern of the program successfully identifying and developing talent that is initially overlooked in the recruiting process.
However, the class also shows a trend of underperformance among some recruits. L.J. Robertson (RB), originally ranked 941, ended up as a "Bust". Additionally, several unranked recruits, despite not having high expectations, had minimal impact on the team, reinforcing the unpredictable nature of college football recruitment.
Outcome Summary
Overall, the 2006 recruiting class for Eastern Michigan underperformed expectations. This is reflected in the S2S rerank of 108, a drop from the original class rank of 95. The majority of the class, despite being unranked, managed to become college starters. However, the underperformance of a high-ranked recruit and the minimal impact of several others weighed down the overall success of the class. While the program demonstrated some success in developing overlooked talent, the class as a whole fell short of expectations.
The key takeaway from Eastern Michigan's 2006 recruiting class is that while unranked recruits can become significant contributors, the overall success of a class can be undermined by the underperformance of higher-ranked recruits and the lack of impact from some recruits.