the recruit: Kevin Parks

Finally. Caught up to reality. From here on out I'll be trying to have these out the day of a verbal commit, or the day after if there's something that just can't wait.

Name: Kevin Parks
Position: RB
Hometown: Rowan County, NC
School: West Rowan
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 185

ESPN: 76
Rivals: three stars, 5.6, #56 RB
Scout: NR

I can be a pretty pessimistic sort. I tend to reserve excitement until I see results more often than not. (I didn't used to. My sports fanitude was full of childlike optimism and sunny outlooks no matter how bad reality was. Then Matt Millen jaded the everloving shit outta me by taking that football team to depths previously uncharted by any professional team in any sport, ever.)

But I digress. The point is that this blog has generally taken a wait-and-see attitude toward its teams, except for when it takes the oh-god-we're-doomed attitude.

But not today. This Kevin Parks kid is ri-got-damn-diculous and I cannot WAIT for him to take his first UVA handoff. Partly, I'm dazzled by his stats; who wouldn't be, when he averaged 179 yards a game his junior year and scored 43 touchdowns? That's "forty-three", people. In other words if he ran for 175 yards and 2 touchdowns in a game, he was below average.

He runs well, too. Granted, highlight videos for running backs tend to show them looking good by running through gaping holes, and his are no different. But he plays fast. He scoots. He's clearly way too fast for linebackers to deal with in open space. And his height is probably a blessing because he's stocky and tough to take down by wrapping up high, and too short for a six-foot-plus defender to get down low.

Normally I like to look at the offer list when I can't go by the ratings (or don't trust them) and unfortunately there's nothing there either, because it's way early. Illinois and ECU had offers in, and who else would have offered we can only guess. Parks is solid enough in his commitment and verbaled up early enough that the other teams are looking elsewhere. If he were still uncommitted, by now I think his kitchen table would have offers from most if not all of the North Carolina schools, and probably a few others in the region like Clemson.

So, suffice to say, I think he'll be a good one. I believe if he were six feet tall with the acceleration he has and those blingy stats, he'd be on the Rivals 250 and the ESPN watch list and all that ranking jazz. It's too early to say whether he'll make an immediate impact upon arrival, because we really don't know for sure how Brandon's offense will use running backs and if there's a great big need for them. At least two very good backs will be in front of him on the depth chart when he shows up next year, so this could be some delayed gratification. But there will be gratification. The one silver lining for having to wait so long for him to show up enrolled on Grounds is that we get to see if he'll improve on those numbers during his senior year at West Rowan. 3,000 yards? Maybe. In any case Parks' commitment is a terrific kick-start to the 2010 recruiting season.