S. Carolina RB transfering to I-AA

[Coastal89]

Extra points. Tailback Taylor Rank, a redshirt freshman from Vancouver, Wash., plans to transfer to a Division I-AA school closer to his home

Does anybody know where he might be going?

Here's his bio from the Gamecocks website:

Taylor Rank :: Vancouver, WA :: Evergreen :: B :: 6-0 :: 182

- Named the Class 4A Player of the Year in the state of Washington
- Rated the 44th best safety in the country by Rivals.com
- Rated the 8th best player in the state of Washington by SuperPrep
- Named All-Area and All-League as a junior
- Named to the All-West Team by Tom Lemming
- Rated the 74th best player in the west by Tom Lemming
- Originally from Georgia and moved to Washington his sophomore year
- Started at outside linebacker and tailback as a junior
- Started at safety and tailback as a senior
- Seattle Times Class AAAA State MVP
- 2003 Tacoma News Tribune 'Nugget in Waiting'
- Carried the ball 28 times for 211 yards and three touchdowns in the 2004 state championship game to rally his school from a 14-0 deficit and lead them to the state title
- Ran for 2,013 yards and 33 touchdowns as a senior
- As a junior, ran for 1,300 yards on 143 carries, scoring 18 touchdowns
- In his career rolled up 4,000 all-purpose yards and 57 touchdowns
- Played for Coach Cale Piland at Evergreen High School
- Coach Piland on Rank: "Taylor is a very special player. He has a rare combination of speed and balance and on top of that, he has all of the intangibles. Taylor is a great leader. He can lead by example or he can lead by being vocal.

[grizband]

Extra points. Tailback Taylor Rank, a redshirt freshman from Vancouver, Wash., plans to transfer to a Division I-AA school closer to his home

Does anybody know where he might be going?

Here's his bio from the Gamecocks website:

Taylor Rank :: Vancouver, WA :: Evergreen :: B :: 6-0 :: 182

- Named the Class 4A Player of the Year in the state of Washington
- Rated the 44th best safety in the country by Rivals.com
- Rated the 8th best player in the state of Washington by SuperPrep
- Named All-Area and All-League as a junior
- Named to the All-West Team by Tom Lemming
- Rated the 74th best player in the west by Tom Lemming
- Originally from Georgia and moved to Washington his sophomore year
- Started at outside linebacker and tailback as a junior
- Started at safety and tailback as a senior
- Seattle Times Class AAAA State MVP
- 2003 Tacoma News Tribune 'Nugget in Waiting'
- Carried the ball 28 times for 211 yards and three touchdowns in the 2004 state championship game to rally his school from a 14-0 deficit and lead them to the state title
- Ran for 2,013 yards and 33 touchdowns as a senior
- As a junior, ran for 1,300 yards on 143 carries, scoring 18 touchdowns
- In his career rolled up 4,000 all-purpose yards and 57 touchdowns
- Played for Coach Cale Piland at Evergreen High School
- Coach Piland on Rank: "Taylor is a very special player. He has a rare combination of speed and balance and on top of that, he has all of the intangibles. Taylor is a great leader. He can lead by example or he can lead by being vocal.
Well, I read on Bobcatnation.com that he is transferring to MSU, or may already be there.

[slostang]

It sure would be nice if Cal Poly could get a transfer like this every once in a while. Oh well, I guess they will have to keep doing it the old fashion way, recruiting high school players.

[catbob]

If Rank does come in (one poster said it was confirmed in the Bozeman Chronicle but I didn't find the article - though I don't have access to the subscription part of the website), MSU is loaded at RB. Groves should be the #1 guy going in (ran for 93 in the scrimmage yesterday), and Taito was highly touted out of HS and I have heard the coaching staff is very high on him, but he is out for spring ball. Both Groves and Taito will be sophmores and with Rank being a RS-FS, MSU may have one prolific ground game.

Which we need badly cuz the passing game is going to be a project. :)

[CatFan22]

All the fingers have been pointing here at MSU. I have heard he is already here, but I cannot confirm that for sure. I know that coming out of high school his college of choice was a tossup between MSU and South Carolina. I remember actually being shocked that he chose South Carolina over MSU, but I am not very concerned anymore. ;) :)

[catbob]

It is official, along with Reyshawn Bobo, and 6'2 220 pound LB/DE, from Washington State.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MT_SPORTS_BRIEFS_MTOL-?SITE=MTBOZ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-04-10-13-02-45

[grizband]

All the fingers have been pointing here at MSU. I have heard he is already here, but I cannot confirm that for sure. I know that coming out of high school his college of choice was a tossup between MSU and South Carolina. I remember actually being shocked that he chose South Carolina over MSU, but I am not very concerned anymore. ;) :)
I wonder if that is a first, choosing between MSU and South Carolina? Seem like worlds apart too me. If this is true, and he is already at MSU, this is a great pick up for them.

[walliver]

I know that coming out of high school his college of choice was a tossup between MSU and South Carolina. I remember actually being shocked that he chose South Carolina over MSU

I'm interested in your reasoning. Obviously it is a strange combination, choosing between Montana, and USC (which is located in the hottest, most humid, place this side of Hades - Columbia in the summer is intolerable). But obviously, playing at USC would have allowed him to:

1) Play for Steve Spurrier (who some people actually like [I've heard])
2) Play in the SEC
3) Play on National Television (over the air and on cable channels people can actually get)
4) Meet Southern Belles
5) Tell 'c*ck jokes all the time
6) See the ground during winter

[kmax]

I'm thinking there was a bit of sarcasm in that comment from Catfan22.

If I remember correctly back 1 year to last years recruiting MSU was going after Rank very hard, as were several other schools including the Griz. When Spurrier was named coach at USC he almost immediately made an offer to Rank and Rank took it without hesitation. I seem to even remember a few articles quoting him as saying he took the opportunity right away just for the chance to play for Spurrier.

[Ronbo]

We had Rank on our interest list but never made an offer. We offered another running back from Washington, Thomas Brooks Fletcher, prior to Ranks decision. I'm not sure if we would have offered him if he hadn't been offered by S. Carolina as we only brought in 1 running back that year. We had Lex Hilliard back for two more years. This year with Lex being a Senior we brought in 2 running backs.

[GrizFoo]

You can't trust those recruiting sites completely. The Griz wanted Rank and had him rated out as the highest RB, but knew they had little chance of getting him.
TBF was next and rated out higher, for the Griz, than the other RB's from Washington who went to I-AA like Pearson, Taito, and Davis.
Of course opinions vary, EWU could have had Pearson or Davis rated higher than TBF, and the cats could have had Taito rated higher.
Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing all of those guys, especially TBF and Rank.