The Golden Eagles signed 30 student-athletes for next year's season.

	Football Home HEADLINES Fletcher and McRath Added to Pre-Season Award Watch List Four Southern Miss Football Players Recognized by Blue Ribbon Magazine Seats Still Remain for Eagle's Nest for 2008 Season RELATED LINKS • Follow all of the college football action at CSTV.com • Email this to a friend

Feb. 6, 2008

Watch Coach Fedora Talk About the Class on CSTV's Generation Next

Signing Day Social Photo Gallery

Coach Larry Fedora Signing Day Press Conference
February 6, 2008

Opening Statement:
First let me just tell you how excited I am, number one that we have this thing over with today and all those faxes are in, that's probably the best thing. The best thing about today is that it is over we and we can have a little bit of fun tonight and relax (at the annual signing day party).

You have heard us say before that we are extremely excited about this class. We had certain needs. We went after those needs and filled most of those needs and feel pretty good about where we are right now.

On the commitment of five-star wide receiver DeAndre Brown:
When you land a recruit that is the talk of the state, on every radio station and in every newspaper, it is huge. Anytime that happens all you are doing is building momentum. It was not but a couple of days later that (quarterback) Bret Jefcoat jumped in the boat, I wish that would have happened the first week of recruiting to be honest with you. We are awful happy to have DeAndre and excited about what he is going to bring in the future.

On the pace of recruiting since being hired in January:
The first part of it was putting together a staff that had a mixture of ties inside the state of Mississippi, the experience that we needed and the kind of men that I wanted to have on staff - great character men and great family men. Then we had to build a great staff chemistry.

After that we tried to identify what was coming back on the team. From there, we figured out where the holes were and what we needed to feel and started attacking those areas. We basically wiped the board clean, other than the commitments, and started over.

I tried to identify the top players in the state and that was the first thing we went after, then we looked to see where we needed to find players after that.

On the excitement and turn out at the annual signing party:
I think its great, that's what college football is all about, being excited about your team and showing it. Its entertainment right, tonight (at the signing party) should be a blast. I told the assistants to come in here and have fun and to enjoy the end of this recruiting season.

On Assistant Coach Tony Hughes impact in recruiting: Tony was recruiting the entire state, so he had a feel for every player in the state. He already knew a lot of the family and the coaches, I cannot tell you how important he was to this first class.

On the 2009 recruiting class:
We have spent a lot of time watching film on the 2009 class and made a few offers to some guys today as well. We are just trying to keep up with people and not be so far behind like we were this year.

General thoughts on the recruiting process:
I love recruiting, but I will be honest, I like it more as an assistant. Because of the restrictions I have on me as the head coach I can only go into a prospects house one time and that's tough. That is the only time I get to see that kid and his parents or grandparents or whoever and that was tough to adjust. The next time I was able to see the kid was on our campus and that was it, making it tough to build a relationship that away. I have to really rely on the guys around me and those nine assistant coaches are going to be the most important factors.

On the 30 signees' academic standings:
We investigated every guy and spent a lot of time talking to principals, counselors, coaches, teachers trying to find out who these guys were. We feel pretty confident that all of these guys have a chance to be NCAA qualifiers.

On the recruitment of QB Bret Jefcoat:
Bret was obviously committed to someone else at the time. I was moving into my office and the Alabama/Mississippi All-Star game was on television and I was watching out of the corner of my eye at first. Then I sat down and really started watching the game. Those are great players from all over the state that came together for one week, put their egos in their back pockets and just decided they wanted to win.

I saw the way that Bret played and the way the players interacted with him and once we got into the recruiting phase I knew this was a guy I wanted to go after. Once we got into the recruiting process he was pretty firm with his commitment and I respected that. His parents wanted him to stick with his commitment at the time and we totally respected that. All I asked was that he come and take a look at Southern Miss, if it was the right place for him then great if it was not then we were going to shake his hand and say good luck.

Up until this last weekend we thought that he was going to stick with that commitment and we were going to move on. When he called the other night he said his heart was telling him to commit to Southern Miss and he had been thinking about it for a couple of weeks and he was finally ready to do it. Obviously we were pretty excited about it.

On the guys already on campus:
We have some junior college guys and a couple of others that are already on campus right now. When I meet with those guys I told them everyone is starting on the same page, so go ahead and jump in and learn the offense and defense and show us what you have. No one had a job at this point.

On the `star' recruit ranking system:
I think it is probably as accurate as it can be at this time. I will give you an example. Darius Barnes (DT commitment) is 17 years old. I don't even think he shaves. He is 6'4" and weighs 285 pounds. He does like 300 pushups a day, does all these sit ups and walks to school. Who knows where he is going to be when he is 20-years-old. I have recruited kids that did not have any stars and I have recruited five-stars and I have seen the one and two-stars play and five-stars not play. It is more about what's inside the kid that you cannot measure.

That's the thing about recruiting, look how much money the NFL spends on drafting older guys and they still make mistakes on guys. Because of NCAA rules we only get to be around those kids so many times and watch film and we have to make some pretty big decisions.

On summer camps:
I think that summer camps are critical, because of the limitations you have. Being able have a kid on your campus and to actually work with him and find out what his make up is, that is huge in the process.