Signing Day’s almost 2 months away, and Baylor is down to only 1 committed recruit

There are teams that get a late start in recruiting, and then there’s whatever Baylor’s doing on the recruiting trail right now.

Sunday morning, Texas DB prospect Noah Daniels announced he would be rescinding his verbal commitment to Baylor. That leaves 3-star safety Jalen Pitre as the lone verbal pledge in the Bears’ 2017 class.

Baylor’s two-man class was ranked No. 138 coming into Sunday morning, according to the 247 composite. It dropped to No. 160 with only Pitre in it. Baylor joins the likes of Incarnate Word, Sacramento State, Dartmouth and Saginaw Valley State with one-player recruiting classes. More than 100 teams in college football have double-digit commits in their 2017 class.

Of Power 5 schools, only TCU, Texas, Stanford, Arizona State and Utah have classes with single-digit commits. But all of those teams have at least one 4-star player in their classes, so where there may not be quantity, there is at least quality.

In the wake of Baylor’s sexual assault scandal, multiple players have been opting to go elsewhere. The 2015 recruiting class saw immediate defections when Art Briles was fired, and a slow bleed has gotten things to this point. SB Nation recruiting analyst Bud Elliott summed things up:

“From 2012-15, 15 percent of Baylor’s signees were rated four- or five-stars, a trend that was rapidly increasing as the Bears established themselves as a program. But after the scandal, Baylor’s 2016 signing class was slashed to just 17 members, with only one blue-chipper. 2017 is even worse. Baylor has just two commitments, and there is zero chatter about BU’s chances at top prospects.

“Even if the new staff hits the ground running, which it won’t, the 2016-17 classes are going to set Baylor back on the field significantly.”

Life has already come at the Bears very fast on the football field. They’ll scrape into a bowl game because of a 6-0 start, but as they got into the meat of their schedule, things got tough. Baylor is still in the midst of a five-game losing streak following the hot start, and that includes getting shelled by Patrick Mahomes and Texas Tech on Black Friday.

Reportedly, Chad Morris could be on his way to Waco as new Baylor head coach. If he ends up taking the job, he’ll have quite the uphill battle recruiting-wise. Even if the quantity is there, the quality will be nothing near what Baylor’s used to.