Being home for the holidays certainly is something you take for granted as you get older. This year I have been trying to spend as much time with my parents as possible, and I recommend that each of you do the same.

During the game last night, my mom remarked to my dad that we only seem to have freshman/sophomore or seniors, on the team, and I suppose, that is something that I realized, but never really thought about. So I decided to look up the recruiting class that would be juniors/redshirt sophomores... more after the jump.

So here is the class of 2009, complete with *'s.

Tariq Allen LB Irving, TX 4 stars gone
Thomas Ashcraft OL Cedar Hill, TX 4 stars redshirt- so
Eryon Barnett DB, Euless, TX 4 stars redshirt
Marcus Davis DB League City, TX 4 stars gone
Garrett Gilbert QB Austin, TX 5 stars gone
Trey Graham TE Waco, TX 3 stars part of our black hole at te, redshirt
Calvin Howell DT San Antonio, TX 4 stars redshirt
Derrick Johnson DT Hoxie, AR 4 stars gone
Dominique Jones DE Kilgore, TX 3 stars prob gone?
Paden Kelley OL Austin, TX 3 stars redshirt
Kyle Kriegel DE Elysian Fields, TX 3 stars redshirt
Barrett Matthews TE Galena Park, TX 3 stars gets some looks at te, and h-back
Tevin Mims DE Round Rock, TX 4 stars gone

Patrick Nkwopara LB Grand Prairie, TX 3 stars gone
Alex Okafor DE Pflugerville, TX 5 stars starter, only player so far who has been a real asset
Garrett Porter OL Odessa, TX 4 stars redshirt... a lot of these lineman havent even ever cracked the 2deep...
Greg Timmons WR Aldine, TX 4 stars gone
Kenny Vaccaro DB Brownwood, TX 4 stars play maker on D, 2nd asset from this class
Mason Walters OL Wolfforth, TX 5 stars was injured early in his career, but has now become the leader of our OL, 3rd asset
Chris Whaley ATH Madisonville, TX 4 stars nonfactor at RB, but has really shown promise at DT, asset for next year for sure

So as you can see, a shockingly high number of players from this class did not end up the way we all hoped. Has there been another class with soo many 4* players that never contributed anything? I know they were recruited by the staff that was mostly fired, and some of the cases were just bad luck, but it is still shocking to see so few players from a class contribute anything.
I would love to analyze this more, but I am late for lunch with my parents. Living in DC for almost 5 years has also taught me to appreciate the value of good BBQ!