By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

The Fort Hays State University football team will return 10 of 11 offensive starters and has plenty of depth at several positions, especially wide receiver. With the large amount of returnees, Tiger coach Kevin Verdugo said the "ideal number" of high school recruits would be between 10 and 12 players.

On Wednesday's National Signing Day, FHSU signed eight high school players, including four from Oklahoma.

"We have a couple that aren't in yet and that aren't on the board, but they will come in in the next five to seven days," Verdugo said.

While the 2009 class was heavy on wide receivers, Verdugo focused on defense after Fort Hays produced a 6-5 season last fall. FHSU, which lost defensive backs C.J. Lovett and Gordon Butler, both four-year starters, brought in three transfers for the secondary to help improve a defense that set a school record with 402 points allowed.

"Coming from very, very good programs that can help shore that up," Verdugo said.

From the high school ranks, Fort Hays signed defensive back Nelson Medeiros from Edmond, Okla., a first team all-state player. Charles Scott, a defensive back from Monroe, La., will come to FHSU after he earned a 2009 Defensive Back of the Year Award.

After signing a dozen new wideouts last season from the prep and junior college ranks, the Tigers brought in just one wide receiver, Matt Baugh, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound wideout from Phoenix. Baugh had 51 catches for 1,064 yards and 13 touchdowns last fall. He adds depth behind returning starters Cordarol Scales, O.J. Murdock and Robert Mercer and a solid corps of young wideouts in Kent Herman, Damian Mayberry and Chris Williams, all members of the '09 class.

"The receiver spot, not only do I think we are in good shape this year, but I think we are in good shape next year also," Verdugo said.

Kyaunn Thompson, a 5-11, 180-pound running back from Moore, Okla., was the lone running back signed by Fort Hays.

"All the running backs from every place and every area that we recruit get put into a pool and then you sit down as a staff and you rank them in order of where you want to recruit them and how good they are compared to everybody else that is in that pool," Verdugo said. "This year with running backs, there were four guys that we kind of liked and then after that, there was a huge dropoff."

Fort Hays has brought in transfers in the spring and summer in the past several years, a trend that's likely to continue again this season.

"I think you go recruit the places and the kids that can help you win and that's what we have tried to do," Verdugo said. "Those guys (transfers), the thing about them is you don't have the opportunity to get players like that until really later on in the process. We will find out here as we go along as far as guys like that that can get into the fold."