Half of Strong's 2011 Louisville Recruiting Class (Ranked 29th by Rivals) Drafted to the NFL

This just tweeted:

— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) July 22, 2015

I believe it's actually 11 of 22, but you get the point.  Four players in that Cardinal class had four stars.  The rest were 3s and 2s.  Davante Parker's best offers were Indiana and Kentucky.  Lorenzo Mauldin's offer sheet included UCF, South Alabama and Troy.  Jamon Brown had offers from Purdue and Illinois.  No major recruiting service ranked Louisville in the Top 25.  They had the highest NFL hit ratio of that year of any college program.

Texas was ranked #3 in the country in recruiting that year.  Three of that 22 man class have been drafted. All in the late rounds.

Strong's success at Louisville was historic:

Four years ago, none of the major online recruiting sites ranked Charlie Strong's first full recruiting class at Louisville in the top 25, but it produced three first-rounders (Teddy Bridgewater, Calvin Pryor and DeVante Parker); three third-rounders (John Miller, Jamon Brown and Lorenzo Mauldin); two sixth-rounders (Deiontrez Mount, Charles Gaines); and one seventh-rounder (Gerod Holliman).

In all, Louisville had eight picks drafted in the first three rounds in the past two years. The Cards had only seven players picked in first three rounds in the previous 10 years. U of L also had four first-rounders in the past two years compared to just two first-rounders in the 16 years before Charlie Strong was hired.

Here's the deal: Strong is going to stockpile this team with football players.  And they'll get damn good position coaching.  The real race is whether he can fix the offense in time so he can be the guy that reaps the seeds he's sowing.