Behold! NIU's Class of 2010!

Just like coaches who run into last-minute signing snags, my plan to post some NIU knowledge at 1 p.m. didn't come to fruition. I was waylaid by an overly long drive to Iowa City. Really wanted to hit that Dairy Queen at World's Largest Truckstop, too.

Anyway, better late than never, here's some stuff on NIU's class. You can find a more story-like creation on the Herald web site in a little bit.

NIU RECRUITING IN A BOX

Already on campus (3):
RB Jasmin Hopkins (Fort Scott CC, jr.)
WR Akeem Daniels (Miramar, FL, fr.)
S/CB Demetrius Stone (Pembroke Pines, FL, soph.)

Juniors (2):
RB Hopkins
QB Casey Weston (Northwest Mississippi CC).

Sophomores (2):
CB/S Stone
OT Matt Battaglia (Marist/Harper JC).

Redshirt freshman (1):
WR Jayme Wells (Combined Locks, WI) adding football to his baseball duties. The 2009-10 school year, when he only turned out for baseball, will count as his redshirt football season. He'll have four years to play four seasons.

Freshmen offense (8):
FB C.J. Compher (Sycamore HS)
WR Daniels
WR Da’Ron Brown (Morgan Park HS)
TE Luke Eakes (Kansas)
OT Tyler Loos (Sterling HS)
OT Tyler Pitt (Georgia)
C Michael Gegner (Indianapolis)
G Blake Goodell (Michigan)

Freshmen defense (7):
DE Joe Windsor (Missouri)
LB Mike Hellams (Bolingbrook HS)
LB Cameron Stingily (Romeoville HS)
LB Jamaal Bass (Florida)
LB Greg Barksdale (Crete-Monee)
S Jimmie Ward (Mobile, AL)
S Dechane Durante (Charlotte, NC)

Freshman special teams (1):
K Mathew Sims (Hannibal, MO)

Preferred walk-ons/potential scholarship guys who’ve committed and NIU announced on Wednesday:

P/K Tyler Anderson (Rockford Guilford HS)
DT Frank Boenzi (Geneva HS)
S Zak Giller (Michigan)
RB Marckie Hayes (Sycamore HS)
S Michael Santacaterina (Geneva HS)

SOME KILL QUOTES:
"The biggest thing (this class) brings is kids that want to be here. The key to this class is getting very good offensive linemen and we feel like we’ve done that. The skill players that we did recruit, they all can run. And they’ve been productive, whether it’s been high school or junior college.
"We needed to get some safety bodies. With Jimmie Ward, Dechane (Durante) and Demetrius (Stone), we did that.
"We wanted to increase our speed at linebacker and we feel like our linebacking recruiting corps is excellent. And we throw George Rainey in there who (was academically ineligible) last year, it really looks good.

ON BATTLING “BIGGER” SCHOOLS FOR RECRUITS
"We have to try to go get the best that we can get. And we have to be realistic of what we’re doing. But you start recruiting and sometimes nobody else is recruiting them -- and you look at the film and say, 'Boy, this kid is pretty good. Who’s on him?' -- so then we get on him. And then (later), word leaks out that this kid is pretty good and then you’re competing.

“But the bottom line is comes down to? How big your stadium is. If you have an indoor (facility). Is it the Southeastern Conference?

On how NIU got Hopkins, the national junior-college player of the year whom Kill compares to Garrett Wolfe:
"Here’s the reason: (Former SIU RBs) Brandon Jacobs, Arkee Whitlock, Muhammed Abdulqaadir. Michael Turner. Garrett Wolfe. The running back tradition between where I was (Southern Illinois) and where we’re at now. That Fort Scott coach said, 'Hey.' When he didn’t go to North Carolina -- I think that’s what the kid wanted to do and it fell through -- and (his coach) called us.
"He goes, 'I heard this is where I need to send this kid because you run the ball.' And the guy that recruited Brandon Jacobs out of high school is on that (Fort Scott) staff. Sometimes you’ve got to be lucky in who you know."

LW