FAU Football Recruiting: A Glance At The 2016 Recruiting Class

Head coach Charlie Partridge will be wrapping up his third recruiting class this Wednesday and unlike his previous two classes which received tons of fanfare and attention, this class has been rather quiet. That's not to say that Partridge and co. are slacking, but rather an observation that they took a different approach to this year's class and targeted needs and under the radar guys rather than pursue high-profile recruits (i.e. Jordan Scarlett).

Although 247Sports has FAU as the sixth best class in Conference USA, this class compares favorably to last year's haul that featured highly-touted quarterback Daniel Parr. In terms of quality points, there is only a .0034 difference between the two classes.

Throw in the fact that this year's class has as of now 17 commits compared to last year's 26 and you could make the argument that this year's class is better than the 2015 class.

Just like every year the class is stacked with guys from the Sunshine State as all but two players are from Florida. With the departures of Trevon Coley and Brandin Bryant from the defensive line, Partridge added 6'1", 280 DT Kevin McCray and 6'1", 245 DT Will Davis to help bolster the line. McCray has several offers from P5 schools and could see some early playing time next year as the team tries to fill Coley's shoes as he has ideal size for a nose tackle.

McCray fills the biggest need, but the best recruit according to 247Sports resides on offense as quarterback Steven Frank is the lone signal caller in this year's class.

The Oswego, Illinois, product holds several offers from the MAC and P5. He projects as a pro-style quarterback at the next level as Partridge continues to move away from the previous regime's desire for dual-threat quarterbacks.

With Daniel Parr being eligible to play this year after redshirting and Jason Driskel being a redshirt-sophomore, the quarterback position looks to be in pretty good hands going forward. At the rate quarterbacks are transferring nowadays its good that Partridge took a quarterback in this year's class just to add depth at an always fluid position.

Due to FAU brining in big classes over the last two years this class will be relatively small. As of now the class is split pretty evenly as there are nine commits who project to be defensive players versus eight offensive players.

Although some fans are expecting a pretty tame National Signing Day in Boca Raton with all of their current commits expected to sign, a source tells me we could be in store for one more surprise.

Either way, when the letters start coming in tomorrow, don't take the lack of noise as a sign that things are going downhill as Charlie Partridge is well on his way to brining in another another stellar class to FAU.

Check back for additional updates throughout the week as National Signing Day draws closer.