The Opening Finals, the year’s biggest national recruiting event, is done. And even if you’re not a big recruiting obsessive (though if you care about a college football team, you kinda should be), there are still some easy takeaways for fans who just wanna know which college teams are happy about things.
The 8 college football teams whose stocks were most boosted by The Opening
Catch up on the recruiting extravaganza’s biggest takeaways in two minutes.
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Based partly on our All-Opening Team, assembled by our two people who were at the whole camp, here are the eight-ish teams who enjoyed the weekend the most:
- Ohio State: Get the obvious one out of the way. The school with the No. 2 class (and the best chance of finishing No. 1) had eight commits at The Opening, the second most of anybody. DBs Josh Proctor and Jaiden Woodbey and RB Jaelen Gill were All-Opening. And that’ll get even more impressive if All-Opening TE Jeremy Ruckert and OL Jackson Carman pick OSU, as predicted.
- Miami: The U had 10 commits there. Of course Miami’s happy. OL commit Delone Scaife, only a three-star, was All-Opening.
- USC: Among current commits, OL Justin Dedich and LB Palaie Gaoteote were All-Opening, and All-Opening WR Jalen Hall and DB Bryan Addison are favored to USC.
- North Carolina: The Heels gained one of the camp’s two new commitments: All-Opening WR Jordyn Adams, a two-sport star who went viral in a sport he doesn’t even play.
- Tennessee: The Vols landed the camp’s other new commit, four-star DT Greg Emerson (who suffered a leg injury at The Opening), and now hold pledges from four of 2018’s top 36 at the position.
- TCU: QB commit Justin Rogers led an injured team to the 7-on-7 final and ranked as one of our two All-Opening QBs. The Frogs’ weekend could’ve been even better if four-star WR Ja’Marr Chase’s scheduled announcement hadn’t been botched by the NFL Network; he’s favored to pick TCU over LSU, but has now delayed his choice.
- Georgia: DL commit Nolan Smith is the only 2019 recruit to make All-Opening. The Dawgs are also the favorites for OL MVP Jamaree Salyer and All-Opening OL Trey Hill. UGA’s also in the running to be ...
- The team that lands Justin Fields: The event’s breakout star was already the No. 1 dual-threat QB, No. 3 overall recruit, and a top target for plenty of powers. The Peach State QB has plans to visit Auburn and UGA again, with Alabama, Florida, and Florida State also on the list soon.
- Penn State: Despite having to watch former commit Fields dominate while knowing he’ll play elsewhere, PSU fans enjoyed All-Opening performances by RB Ricky Slade and WR Justin Shorter (more bittersweetness: the latter was often Fields’ favorite 7-on-7 target).
- Your favorite team: I thought the national media overlooked how great your many commits/targets looked out there, but will soon learn the truth.
