i dont know but 3 walk-ons have played ahead of recruits we've gone gaga over the past few years )lthough it looks like one of our top recruits moved ahead of one walk-on)
Well, to be fair we're only talking about one full class that has been on the field for a full year (the class that came in in Feb. '10 is Marrone's first full class, the Feb. '11 group is the second). There's not a lot of true freshmen that I'd expect to unseat Nassib, Chew, Bailey, Lemon or Provo. And, for that matter, DC3 or Sales in '10.
Also, to be fair, the guys we've seen have shown the potential to be pretty solid players, at least in my opinion. Gulley, Kobena and Wales seem like decent prospects and Rene has gotten on the field. The reports have been pretty good on AAM, Foster and Hale as well as West -- even though we've seen none of them. Copa and Miller were injured, and Timbers didn't make it.
I think what you're seeing is likely a combination of recruiting good raw athletes that need seasoning, GRob being a better recruiter than he gets credit for, a coaching staff that will go with experience and intelligence over raw talent if it's relatively close, and a pair of recruiting classes that have been defense, OL and QB heavy. It's fair to say we haven't hit any home runs, but I think it's too early to get overly concerned about an experienced walkon with good hands playing over a true freshman at WR.