The December signing period is technically the early signing period, but it's become the main signing period over the last couple seasons with those signing in February being the stragglers. Not that they aren't bad players or anything, just majority sign in December.
I can't say I'm not surprised. Kevin Blue was obviously operating on another level in terms of athletics. He did a lot of work to bring us up to speed in the D1 environment. He will be extremely hard to replace.