With most of the players who will sign early doing so on Wednesday, we’ve got a pretty firm grasp on the best Early Signing Period classes. A note about how these classes are ranked: Rankings are derived from the 247Sports Composite team rankings. The rankings include both signed and verbally committed players. Of the following list of teams, only Georgia and Texas have more than three unsigned players factoring into their class rankings.
College football recruiting’s best Early Signing Period classes
Georgia wins the day, but other strong classes showed out.
Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Of the top 25 in general, Oregon and Mississippi State have seven and six unsigned players respectively contributing to their rankings. Besides that, what you see in these classes is an overwhelming majority of players signing during the Early Signing Period. If you were a longtime verbal, than you made it official on the first day of the Period.
Georgia
Ranking entering Wednesday: 3
Ranking after Wednesday: 1
Total players signed: 18
Five-stars signed: 6
Four-stars signed: 10
Key additions: Five-star DE Brenton Cox; five-star OT Cade Mays; five-star OG Jamaree Salyer; four-star CB Divaad Wilson.
Georgia held on to the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback prospect (Justin Fields); two of the top three running backs (Zamir White, James Cook); the nation’s best outside linebacker (Adam Anderson); and its second-best guard (Trey Hill).
They overtook Ohio State around 8:30 p.m. ET after four-star LB Channing Tindall verballed to the Buckeyes. Last cycle wasn’t a blip. Kirby Smart and Georgia are absolutely a force to be reckoned with on the recruiting trail, and the Dawgs aren’t going anywhere.
Texas
Ranking entering Wednesday: 2
Ranking after Wednesday: 3
Total players signed: 16
Five-stars signed: 1
Four-stars signed: 12
Key additions: Five-star CB Anthony Cook.
I wrote the obvious after Texas signed a not-so-great transitional recruiting class after Tom Herman had only been at the school a couple months.
Texas’ recruiting class this year isn’t just subpar, it’s historically subpar, as far as recent recruiting rankings are concerned. According to the 247Sports Composite (which dates back to 2000) the Longhorns have never finished outside of the top 20, and the 2017 recruiting class ranks at No. 26.
Texas will also not sign a top-10 high school player from the state of Texas for the first time in the history of the Composite rankings.
And as could be expected, everything turned out fine and the Horns bounced back with an elite recruiting class stacked with talent. UT didn’t just sign a couple of the top Texas players, they nabbed nine of the top 15 ranked players in the state of Texas. The Horns were always going to be fine on the recruiting trail, and they proved that Wednesday. They did it on the backs of an incredibly strong DB class.
Miami
Ranking entering Wednesday: 4
Ranking after Wednesday: 6
Total players signed: 18
Five-stars signed: 1
Four-stars signed: 11
Key additions: Five-star RB Lorenzo Lingard; four-star CB Al Blades Jr.; four-star WR Mark Pope; four-star TE Brevin Jordan.
In recent years, Miami would have liked to have Signing Day happen much earlier than February. The U was notorious for loading up classes early and essentially trying to hold on to Signing Day. Under Mark Richt, the Canes are certainly finishing the race on a strong note. Signing any players out of Miami isn’t difficult for the Canes. Keeping the elite ones in South Florida has proved difficult in recent years, however, for instance four-star WR Mark Pope.
Pope is the top receiver in the state, a class leader, and represents a huge recruiting win for Richt. Over years past, Alabama and Nick Saban has come to South Florida, picked-off the premier receiver in the area, and brought him back to Tuscaloosa. Amari Cooper, Calvin Ridley, and Jerry Jeudy just to name a few. That ended today with Miami signing Pope and he is the kind of elite player that Miami needs to keep home if the Canes want to get back to competing for national championships.
Penn State
Ranking entering Wednesday: 5
Ranking after Wednesday: 4
Total players signed: 21
Five-stars signed: 3
Four-stars signed: 9
Key additions: Five-star DE Micah Parsons; four-star WR Jahan Dotson
The Nittany Lions lost QB Justin Fields earlier in the recruiting cycle, but it was not a death-knell for the recruiting class. In fact, the Nittany Lions got a big flip when WR Jahan Dotson came over from UCLA. DE Micah Parsons is unquestionably the crown jewel of the class. And wherever he plays at the next level, expect him to be a terror.
What Parsons will be in college isn’t clear, other than that he’ll be really good. Most evaluators classify him as a defensive end, but he’s worked some as a linebacker, including at Nike’s Opening recruiting showcase in the summer of 2017. Whether he’s starting plays with a hand in the grass or standing up, his primary role will be pass-rushing. Parsons is going to torch many an offensive tackle for the next few years.
WR Justin Shorter and RB Ricky Slade are other five-star talents who make this class one of the nation’s best.
Clemson
Ranking entering Wednesday: 15
Ranking after Wednesday: 7
Total players signed: 15
Five-stars signed: 4
Four-stars signed: 6
Key additions: Five-star OT Jackson Carman, (likely the day’s most consequential surprise); five-star DE K.J. Henry; four-star RB Lyn-J Dixon.
If you happened to be one of the top-nine recruiting in the country, there’s a 44 percent chance you signed with Clemson on Wednesday.
Last year’s recruiting class certainly wasn’t disappointing. But it had incredible quality instead of incredible quantity. This year’s class already has more players in it (15), and an average star rating that is nearly equal to 2017’s. That should only get better coming down the stretch run toward February’s Signing Day. For good measure, the Tigers nabbed Ohio’s best player, OT Jackson Carman, right out from under the nose of Ohio State.
He said in the spring 2017 he’d have probably already been committed to Clemson if Ohio State weren’t in Ohio. He liked Clemson’s new facilities. He liked what he said was a family atmosphere at Clemson. He gave off every signal of a player who had something pulling him one way even as the home team kept calling.
Ohio State
Ranking entering Wednesday: 1
Ranking after Wednesday: 2
Total players signed: 21
Five-stars signed: 2
Four-stars signed: 16
Key additions: four-star WR Cameron Brown; four-star OL Matthew Jones; four-star WR Kamryn Babb; five-star DT Taron Vincent.
Ohio State lost out on some players Wednesday, mainly Carman, Emory Jones and Jaiden Woodbey. The Buckeyes couldn’t hold off Georgia’s threat to overtake them as the nation’s No. 1 class, but still inked a class featuring two five-star signees and 16 four stars, tied for the most in the country.
OSU’s class is elite, and despite the questions about Ohio State’s coaching continuity or a dash of negative recruiting from Clemson to nab Carman, the Buckeyes’ class is the nation’s second-best best through Day 1 of the Early Signing Period.
Notre Dame
Ranking entering Wednesday: 6
Ranking after Wednesday: 8
Total players signed: 20
Five-stars signed: 0
Four-stars signed: 10
Key additions: Four-star CB Houston Griffith; four-Star QB Phil Jurkovec; four-star S Derrik Allen.
Florida got a quarterback, and it’s a good one. Emory Jones’ surprise flip from Ohio State was huge for the Gators and Dan Mullen’s transitional recruiting class. The Gators finished Thursday with the nation’s 14th-ranked class.
Virginia Tech and Minnesota also got solid classes and took advantage of the nature of the Early Signing Period. In recent years, the Virginia Techs and Minnesota’s of the world might not have been able to hold onto kids in the recruiting cycle’s stretch run. Bigger schools now don’t have the opportunity to flip them in January because the players are signed. The Hokies finished Wednesday at No. 17 and the Gophers finished at No. 29.
Maryland has always sat in a hotbed of talent in the DMV area. Now, they’re making location count with a No. 19 recruiting class as of Wednesday night. That’s huge for DJ Durkin as he heads into Year 3 as head coach.
The brilliance in Notre Dame’s class is that it’s working up against a pretty tough scholarship situation. The magic number for the Irish should be right around 22 signed players when things are all said and done. On Wednesday, they inked 20.
Those 20 are pretty darn good, including Griffith, Jurkovec, and Allen. It’s been a few years since the Irish enjoyed a top-10 recruiting class, but this group of players push back against any narrative that the Irish can’t recruit under a high level in 2017, or with Brian Kelly as its head coach. Remember that Kelly scrambled his coaching staff after the disappointing 2016 season. Both on the field and off, 2017 has been much better for the Irish.
Oklahoma
Ranking entering Wednesday: 8
Ranking after Wednesday: 9
Total players signed: 17
Five-stars signed: 0
Four-stars signed: 9
Key additions: Four-star OT Brey Walker; four-star RB T.J. Pledge; four-star DE Ronnie Perkins.
The cool thing is that Oklahoma showcased their signees in a cool video series Lincoln Riley tweeted out showing players leafing through cards of famous Sooners before arriving at one with their name and picture on it.
That’s offensive lineman Brey Walker opening his card. And at 6’7, 320 pounds he’s a big ol hunk of offensive line talent.
Originally at Southmoore (Moore, Okla.) through his junior season, Walker, the No. 28 overall player in the nation according to 247Sports Composite Ranking, has been committed to Oklahoma since Nov. 28, 2015. Walker is similar in size to Orlando Brown and Phil Loadholt and has the talent, footwork, and power to match. He is the complete, comprehensive offensive lineman who will fit in right away with the Sooners, and has all the makings of a star in the years to come.
The most impressive thing about Walker for OU’s purposes is that he’s an in-state talent. After seeing Texas get the commitment of the state’s No. 2 player in Anthony Cook, Oklahoma beating Texas to the punch on Walker is big.
Washington
Ranking entering Wednesday: 10
Ranking after Wednesday: 11
Total players signed: 18
Five-stars signed: 0
Four-stars signed: 8
Key additions: Four-star WR Marquis Spiker.
No secret that Chris Petersen can coach. What’s also no secret is that he’s gotten the best out of a team that, while obviously talented, was not good enough to overcome depth concerns against elite teams. Washington took a step in rectifying that by bringing in what is the best recruiting class in recent memory. The crown jewel of the class is the 12-best player to sign with Washington in the modern era, four-star WR Marquis Spiker. But that wasn’t all.
The class included two top-10 QBs (Colson Yankoff, Jacob Sirmon); a top-10 LB (Brandon Kaho); a top-10 guard (Sam Taimani); and a top-10 RB (Trey Lowe). Washington’s bringing in talent that should make the rest of the Pac-12 North shudder.
