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2006 MAC Football Recruiting - EMU Eagles

Overview
The Eagles welcome 22 new players by signing ten from the state of Michigan, three from Indiana, and one each from Ohio, California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Georgia, and Wisconsin. Two Michigan recruits Richard Franklin and Stephen Johnson, were named to the Dream Team All-State selections while the other eight all were listed within the state's top 50 prospects. The class consists of 11 players on each side of the ball with no QB or kicking prospects. Seventeen players are freshmen while three come from prep schools with one JUCO. Running back, TE, defensive line and defensive backs were all points of emphasis within this class.

Quarterbacks
No player marked as a QB prospect is listed within this class.

Receivers
Hunter is a 4.4/40 speedster who drew interest from Big Ten schools before picking EMU over BGSU. Weeden earned all-state honorable mention honors averaged 13-yards per grab as a senior and nearly 30-yards per kick off return. Weeden picked the Eagles over Ball State. Eastern brings in three very nice TE prospects led by 6-4 250-pound Anthony Daniels - Daniels was rated the #31 overall prospect in Michigan as a senior. LaPorte comes to EMU from the Milford Academy in New York state, one of three Eagles prospects this year from that program. LeDuc is a big WR or undersized TE prospect with reported 4.6/40 speed.

Offensive Line
Schmeding is an impressive JUCO prospect from Lackawana (PA) Junior College, a program known for producing excellent offensive line prospects. He picked EMU over reported offers from Marshall and East Carolina. Paul Johnson was a lightly recruited prospect from Florida with a lot of potential at 6-6 280 pounds, picked EMU over FIU and FAU.

Defensive Line
Eastern signed five defensive line prospects, the most prospects in a certain area within this class. Emedobi made 38 tackles as a senior missing nearly half of the season with an ankle injury - runs a reported 4.9/40 and picked EMU over I-AA offers. Stephen Johnson was named to the Michigan all-state dream team. Krevis is a top-40 prep school prospect nationally, recorded a team-high nine QB sacks and has 4.75/40 speed. He drew serious interest from Big East, ACC and Big Ten schools and had offers from UCF and Buffalo. Radney is a top-50 rated prospect in Michigan. Young is a JUCO from Northern Iowa CC, prepped in Wisconsin. He began his career as a safety before bulking up to a rush DE prospect, picked EMU over I-AA offers.

Linebackers
Andre Hachett is the top overall prospect in this Eagle class as he was rated the #7 prospect in Indiana and earned all-state honors. His impressive senior resume includes making 135 tackles. He picked EMU over Toledo, Indiana, WMU and Miami (OH). Pratt is the #29 rated prospect in Michigan and excelled on both sides of the ball earning several other MAC offers; he recorded over 100 tackles during both his junior and senior years.

Defensive Backs
Another area of high concentration was the defensive backfield as EMU welcomes four prospects. Almond is from California but had local Michigan ties, picking EMU over reported offers from Montana and Boise State. Burke is from the Milford Academy and has reported 4.4/40 speed, picked EMU over I-AA schools. Downard earned first team all-state honors in Ohio as both a DB and WR - picked Eastern over BGSU. Mitchell is rated as the #24 prospect in Michigan and drew the attention of most Big Ten schools prior to his ankle injury during his senior year.

Specialists
No player marked as specialist is listed within this class.

Final Analysis
Eastern recruited Michigan better than any other MAC school nabbing 10 of the state’s top-50 prospects. Part of that had to do with Jeff Genyk’s approach to become the number one Michigan MAC school and another part is due to their limited recruiting budget. EMU signed some terrific RB prospects and at least two will likely see significant playing time this fall. Tom Schmeding and Andre Hatchett are real steals for this program. Throughout the class there is an influx of speed. Genyk continues to recruit well and this year EMU finally started to cross over and get a few prospects who normally would have signed with WMU, CMU, Toledo or BGSU. Overall this class rates as EXCELLENT compared to other conference schools but is outstanding when compared to historical Eagle classes.

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