College Football Recruiting: 5 Teams Recruiting Themselves into a Hole

Sometimes when you get going in the recruiting cycle, you get off to a bad start. From mis-evaluating players, going after the wrong recruits to just not being able to close the deal with a commitment.

For this read, I'm going to give you five programs that for whatever reason are technically "recruiting themselves into a hole." These teams are not adding a wealth of talent to their rosters and are not really in the hunt for any top tier elite talent.

I mean no harm to any of the programs on this list, just discussing the flip side of recruiting. 

5. Purdue

Purdue has a 5-commit recruiting class at the moment, with the top recruit being 3-star TE Ryan Morris and DS Jordan Shine.

PK Paul Griggs from Charlotte, NC is one of two commits that have serviceable film. The Boilermakers have always been a program that focuses on recruiting tough players and developing them with good coaching, but they need a spark this year.

They're not on a good pace right now.

4. Minnesota

I'm not sure what to make of the Golden Gopher recruiting class. It looks good on paper. 

But in reality, Kill's 16 commitment class is chalked full of 2-star and non-rated players. And to make matters worse, one of his commitments is a dreaded "soft verbal" from 3-star WR Andre McDonald.

Kill's going to be fine for Minny, and he will even start to get some top-tier recruits. But this year may be a tough one on the recruiting trail for him.

3. Pittsburgh

Seven pledges for Todd Graham in July is a good look and and when you initially view the Panther class, you like it.

Then you look at the players and see that five of the seven commits are mere 2-star recruits and the highest-rated player is 3-star DE in Myles Hilliard.

Todd Graham is new on the job and I'm sure he's grinding, but quality has to be stressed a bit more.

2. Kansas State

Kansas State's recruiting class doesn't look good at all right now. Usually the Wildcats, especially under Bill Snyder's tenure, tend to lean on JC recruits for the gist of their recruiting classes.

Well, right now they have no JC pledges and just three overall high school commits. The highest-rated player is a 3-star LB in Will Davis.

If K-State doesn't get going on the trail, this could be one of the worst classes in school history.

1. Kansas

After stressing recruiting in his opening presser, the impact has yet to be felt from what Turner Gill wanted to happen. Maybe next year things will get better for Jayhawk recruiting, but 2012 looks bleek.

The 2012 Jayhawk class, right now, is a three-commit unit with a 2-star CB in Daniel Gray, a 3-star OT in Brian Beckmann and a non-rated player in CB Derek Keaton.

Gill may be headed for one of the worst classes in the country and recruiting KU into a hole.