USF Signs Top Class In AAC For Second Season
February 04, 2015 | Football, General
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Coach Willie Taggart Welcomes 20 Signees To Bulls Program
TAMPA, FEB. 4, 2015 – For the second-straight season, the University of South Florida football program's signing class has been ranked as the best in the American Athletic Conference.
Head Coach Willie Taggart received National Letters of Intent from 19 student-athletes Wednesday as he welcomed a new crop of Bulls on National Signing Day. They joined one 2015 signee who enrolled at USF in January and a four-star fall transfer that are currently on campus participating in the team's winter conditioning program. The Bulls have 20 2015 signees and 21 total members in the class of 2015.
Taggart's third USF recruiting class, second on a full cycle, was once again rated the best in The American by 247Sports as of 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, giving the Bulls back-to-back classes rated the best in the conference. Rivals ranked the Bulls with the No. 57 class nationally as of 1:00 p.m., better than 10 “Power Five” conference programs.
Twenty players in the Bulls 2015 class earned a three-star rating from at least one recruiting service. That list does not include four-star offensive lineman Reilly Gibbons (St. Petersburg) who signed with Stanford in 2014, but announced his decision to become a Bull in the Fall and joined the USF program in January.
The Bulls welcome five players to the roster that hail from the Bay Area, bringing Taggart's total of Bay Area recruits to 17 in the last two seasons. The Bulls added 19 players from the state of Florida as well as players from Texas (1) and Ohio (1).
USF added nine players on the defensive side of the ball and 12 on offense to its roster.
On defense, the Bulls added defensive backs Malik Dixon (Port Charlotte), Nate Ferguson (Tampa), Ronnie Hoggins (Coconut Creek), Khalid McGee (Miami) and Jaymon Thomas (Immokalee), linebackers Danny Thomas (Fort Lauderdale) and Nico Sawtelle (Jensen Beach) and defensive lineman Marlon Gonzalez (Cape Coral, Fla.) and Kirk Livingstone (Fort Lauderdale).
On offense, the Bulls added quarterback Brett Kean (Lakewood, Ohio), running back Trevon Sands (Miami), wide receivers Deangelo Antoine (Orlando), Chris Barr (Jacksonville), Jarvis Baxter (Garland, Texas), and Jordan Reed (Tampa) and offensive lineman Billy Atterbury (Clearwater), Blen Bethel (Miami), Cameron Campbell (Pembroke Pines) and Marcus Norman (Sebastian) and tight end Mitchell Wilcox (Tarpon Springs).
Danny Thomas and Reilly Gibbons are already attending classes at the University. The Bulls added two players from the junior college ranks in Baxter (Trinity Valley CC) and Bethel (Arizona Western CC).
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