Incarnate Word on Wednesday announced its football Signing Class of 2012 and within minutes the group was viewed as perhaps the best in the Cardinals now-five-year history of new players.
The group of 29 players covers the major markets in Texas and points in between with a heavy emphasis on UIW's home territory of San Antonio.
New Coach Larry Kennan said some things were different this time around in recruiting. “A couple of things made a difference,” Kennan said. “We were selling a new coach who wears a Super Bowl ring (1986 Los Angeles Raiders) and we sold the fact that shortly we will be a Division I program. At the end we felt like we competed at a higher level. When you are recruiting the better players you are competing against the bigger schools.”
“I think this class is considerably better than I ever imagined, particularly locally,” Kennan said. “And I have high standards for our program.” The coach continued. “We said we needed more guys who can run fast and guys who are bigger. We got 18 to 20 guys who will contribute next year, guys who will help right now.”
Ten of the signees represent nine high schools in San Antonio and if players from the surrounding area are totaled in the local number grows to 15. The surrounding area includes such schools as Schertz Clemens, Devine and Smithson Valley.
The Houston area is prominent on the Cardinals signing list. Players are coming to UIW from six schools in that part of the state, schools such as Fort Bend Austin, Cypress Creek, and Katy Cinco Ranch.
The offensive side of the ball was a particular interest of the Cardinals coaches as they scoured the state for talent. While talents may dictate where players perform after they reach campus 16 of the 28 total are listed at offensive positions. And among those, seven are interior linemen averaging 6-4 and 280. Referring to the abundance of top offensive linemen, Kennan said “one of my philosophies is that you play a lot of guys.”
Additionally, the influence of Coach Kennan is evident. With his history of working with elite NFL quarterbacks—Eli Manning, Tony Romo, Drew Bledsoe to name a few—Kennan and his staff signed four quarterbacks including San Antonio's Jake Cardenas (Harlandale) and Cohner Mokry (Johnson).
When this group takes the field next fall wearing the Cardinals red, black and white, it will be joined by the first-ever signing class from 2008. Most of that 2008 group will be seniors giving UIW the most experience the team has had over its soon-to-be-four years of competition. “We owe it to those guys to be the best we can be,” Coach Kennan said of that initial signing class. “They signed where there was no stadium, there were no jerseys, there were no footballs.
For the 2012 season and continuing play in the Lone Star Conference, Incarnate Word has a pair of notables on its schedule. On September UIW will travel to play at Sam Houston State, the 2011 runner-up in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subseries. Then, less than a week later, September 14, the Cardinals will be in Cowboys Stadium to play Eastern New Mexico as part of the three-day, six-game Lone Star Conference Football Festival.
UIW FOOTBALL SIGNING CLASS OF 2012
