By Andrew Hornback

With only 55 days between his hiring as the University of Louisville head football coach and national football signing day, Charlie Strong was able to boost U of L’s recruiting class from 80th to 45th in the Scout.com recruiting class rankings, and 51st in the rankings from Rivals.com.

“We’ve been extremely busy,” said Strong. “But it’s been very rewarding, as we continue to try and build a football program here.”

Two four-star recruits head the class, in wide receiver Michaelee Harris from Miami, Fla. and quarterback Dominique Brown from Cincinnati, Ohio. Three-star running back and high school teammate of Michaelee Harris, Corvin Lamb, also signed with the Cardinals.

Strong’s two Kentucky recruits, who were the two highest-rated players in the state, according to Rivals.com, were wide receiver Stephan Robinson from Central High School and defensive tackle Brandon Dunn from Pleasure Ridge Park High School. Robinson recorded 673 yards on 33 catches for 6 touchdowns as a senior at Central.

Overall, the Cardinals brought in seven players from Florida, the state in which Strong has been considered an elite recruiter, as well as a very important state for the Cardinals to re-establish recruiting ties. Strong also signed four players from both Ohio and Georgia, two from both Kentucky and New Jersey, and one from Alabama.

“Strong definitely did an outstanding job putting together the class that he did,” said Randall Thomason, Big East editor of Rivals.com. “He made a splash almost immediately….There were a lot of heads turned by the job Strong was able to do, after taking over from Kragthorpe. There is no question the class is an upgrade over what it would have been otherwise.”

Another top recruit in the class is three-star Kamal Hogan, the top-rated running back out of New Jersey, who chose the Cardinals over Syracuse University and the University of Central Florida. Hogan has a recorded a 40-yard-dash time of 4.44 seconds.

“You can recruit to the city of Louisville,” said Strong. “And there is a lot here to offer. You’ve got the Muhammad Ali center, where we took [the recruits] on Saturday night to dinner. You can take them to a basketball game when you have a legendary coach here like Rick Pitino.”

The Cardinals also received a late commitment from three-star linebacker Preston Brown, who originally committed to the University of Cincinnati before visiting Louisville just weeks before signing day. Brown was the 75th-ranked linebacker in the 2010 class.

“With us being a BCS school, we’re going to be able to recruit good student athletes here,” said Strong. “When I took the job, I got on a Web site and saw who Cincinnati had recruited. And you always look for big linebackers. And we need that in this program. Cincinnati is 90 miles from here, and that’s an area we really need to get into.”

At 6-foot-3 and 197 pounds, three-star linebacker Deon Rogers from Port St. Lucia, Fla. is another promising player who signed with the Cardinals. Rogers was the 43-ranked outside linebacker in the 2010 class, and boosts exceptional speed in comparison to others at his position, with a 40-yard-dash time of 4.48 seconds.

“These guys are well-known names,” Rivals.com national analyst Mike Farrell said to The Courier-Journal about Strong’s Florida recruits. “They are guys all the young kids know. And when they go back they will know Louisville.”

While high school recruits from Florida have made an immediate impact in the past at U of L, this year they helped the Cardinals establish the third-ranked class in the Big East, behind West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh.

“West Virginia and Pittsburgh kind of separated from the rest of the pack in the Big East,” said Thomason. “Pittsburgh’s class has very good depth, while West Virginia has some strong top-end talent heading to Morgantown. Louisville’s class is a good group, but the top two in the league are pretty easy to identify.”

With spring practice beginning on March 24, Strong and his staff have already shifted their focus to the 2011 recruiting class, as well as preparing the current Cardinals for the 2010 season.

“We’re a BCS school in the Big East and we want to contend,” said Strong. “And in order to contend, we have to get good football players in here.”