Tag: Recruiting Classes

National Signing Day: 5 Schools That Crushed This Recruiting Season

National Signing Day. Who had a big recruiting 2022 seasons? Here are 5 teams and head coaches that did a fantastic job bouncing back after a mediocre 2021.

Who had the big college football recruiting hauls? Here are 5 programs that did a fantastic job in 2022 after struggling in 2021.

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– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

2022 College Football Schedules: All 130 Teams

The February version of college football National Signing Day doesn’t have the hold on the sport like it used to – it’s the landline phone line in a 5G world – but it closes out the recruiting season.

Sort of.

Some programs were already done recruiting back in December, but everyone is always pitching and holding on to their own guys with the transfer portal a bigger deal now.

Why bother with a whole slew of young prospects when you can go shopping and get the mature guys you need?

But recruiting high school players is still a big deal for your base.

No, not everyone is going to transfer, and no, you can’t live off of getting guys through the portal. You need the cake to put the transfer portal frosting on.

Texas A&M destroyed it this recruiting season. Shock of shocks, Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Penn State – the normal big guys did big recruiting things. But you knew that.

What teams off the normal recruiting radar crushed it this season? More to the point, which schools and coaching staffs bounced back massive after a mediocre 2021?

5. Stanford Cardinal

It certainly helped a wee bit that USC and Oregon are in a transitional period and need a year or so to get back up to speed in the high-end recruiting world, but it’s not like Stanford is competing for the same guys as the rest of the Pac-12.

David Shaw’s 2020 class wasn’t bad, but the 2021 haul was a bit lacking.

There were a few nice parts, and the Cardinal always gets a star lineman or two, but it missed the WOW factor for a program that started to fall off. After a 3-9 season coming off a four-win 2020 – granted, there were only six games – and 4-8 2019, the reciting class needed guys.

Shaw hasn’t done a whole lot in the transfer portal, but he did what he must for the program and got the right guys from across the country for the right spots.

When Stanford rocks, its lines are dominant and the running game works. In come the infrastructure players with both lines improving, Sam Roush out of Tennessee is a top tight end, and he’s got two terrific-looking offensive tackles in Lucas Heyer and Fisher Anderson.

Again, it’s different because some programs aren’t quite there yet, but Stanford had one of the best recruiting runs in the Pac-12.

NEXT: Michigan State Spartans

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Nation’s top offensive tackle commits to ACC program

Not the most surprising thing but still a bummer…

Five-star offensive tackle Zach Rice, who ranks seventh overall in the 2022 247Sports Composite rankings listed Notre Dame among his five finalists, but the Irish didn’t win his services Thursday night as he announced his plans to attend North Carolina.

Joining Notre Dame and North Carolina as finalists were Alabama, Ohio State, and Rice’s home-state Virginia.

Rice becomes North Carolina’s 15th overall commitment in the 2022 class that is currently ranked ninth nationally by 247Sports.  He’s also their second five-star recruit in the class based off those same Composite rankings.

Notre Dame currently checks in fifth in the 247Sports team rankings that include five-star linebacker Jaylen Sneed of Hilton Head Island.

Related:

Notre Dame’s current 2022 recruiting class commitments

Notre Dame’s all-time results against each ACC football team

Notre Dame’s statistical leaders through six games

 

Recruiting 2021: 5 Teams Crushing It This Recruiting Season

Who’s having a big recruiting season? Here are five teams and head coaches doing a fantastic job in 2021 after a mediocre 2020.

Who’s having a big recruiting season? Here are five teams and head coaches doing a fantastic job in 2021 after a mediocre 2020.

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

You know who has the top 2021 recruiting classes without even looking.

If you guessed Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and a whole slew of SEC schools, you’re right. But there are always schools who surprise in the process and come up with big, important classes that can shape a program and future conference races.

Sometimes the class looks good because of bulk signings, sometimes it’s talent, and sometimes it’s a good blend of both.

Here are five programs bringing in somewhat surprising classes to be among the best – even if they aren’t pushing Alabama – of the 2021 recruiting season.

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5. Pitt Panthers

The ACC is Clemson’s show and everyone else is a guest – especially with Florida State having a rough time getting this recruiting thing going again – but North Carolina has been excellent with Mack Brown back and Miami is putting together a fantastic 2021 haul.

Suddenly, Pitt is right there knocking on the door with a potential top 5 – or better – ACC class.

Pitt usually comes up with decent classes, but it almost never gets the top tier talents who have their choice of any program. However, when you have one of the most devastating pass rushes in college football over the last few years, top defensive linemen will notice you.

– 2021 Pitt Schedule Analysis, Best & Worst Scenarios

It helps to pump up that Pitt is Aaron Donald’s school, and it doesn’t hurt a class when his nephew – Elliot Donald – signs on. He’s not alone with a few other fantastic prospects coming in for the D line to go along with talent for the offensive front.

Depth and bulk play a factor here. Pitt needed to load up on recruits, but there’s quality to go along with the quantity.

And, yeah, it got another Donald at defensive tackle.

NEXT: Missouri Tigers

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Recruiting 2021: 5 Teams Crushing It This Recruiting Season

Who’s having a big recruiting season? Here are five teams and head coaches doing a fantastic job in 2021 after a mediocre 2020.

Who’s having a big recruiting season? Here are five teams and head coaches doing a fantastic job in 2021 after a mediocre 2020.

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

You know who has the top 2021 recruiting classes without even looking.

If you guessed Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and a whole slew of SEC schools, you’re right. But there are always schools who surprise in the process and come up with big, important classes that can shape a program and future conference races.

Sometimes the class looks good because of bulk signings, sometimes it’s talent, and sometimes it’s a good blend of both.

Here are five programs bringing in somewhat surprising classes to be among the best – even if they aren’t pushing Alabama – of the 2021 recruiting season.

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5. Pitt Panthers

The ACC is Clemson’s show and everyone else is a guest – especially with Florida State having a rough time getting this recruiting thing going again – but North Carolina has been excellent with Mack Brown back and Miami is putting together a fantastic 2021 haul.

Suddenly, Pitt is right there knocking on the door with a potential top 5 – or better – ACC class.

Pitt usually comes up with decent classes, but it almost never gets the top tier talents who have their choice of any program. However, when you have one of the most devastating pass rushes in college football over the last few years, top defensive linemen will notice you.

– 2021 Pitt Schedule Analysis, Best & Worst Scenarios

It helps to pump up that Pitt is Aaron Donald’s school, and it doesn’t hurt a class when his nephew – Elliot Donald – signs on. He’s not alone with a few other fantastic prospects coming in for the D line to go along with talent for the offensive front.

Depth and bulk play a factor here. Pitt needed to load up on recruits, but there’s quality to go along with the quantity.

And, yeah, it got another Donald at defensive tackle.

NEXT: Missouri Tigers

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Notre Dame’s Most Recent Visitor Chooses Rival

The most recent recruit to visit Notre Dame chose elsewhere on Monday. Find out where Tristan Bounds is headed!

Notre Dame offered a scholarship to offensive tackle Tristan Bounds on May 1 and Bounds took it upon himself to make a few college visits by finding a loophole in the instituted NCAA dead period.

Now Bounds has made up his mind and he won’t be attending college at Notre Dame but instead to a nearby rival who isn’t on the schedule for over another decade.

Bounds is rated as a three-star offensive tackle and chose Michigan over offers from Notre Dame, Louisville, North Carolina State, Nebraska and Texas who were just a handful of the 25 offers he receieved.

Michigan now has 17 commitments to their 2021 recruiting class that is rated the sixth best in the nation according to 247Sports.

Notre Dame remains sitting with 10 commitments in their ’21 class, two of which play on the offensive line.

New Notre Dame Duo Among Sports Illustrated’s Top Ten

I really want there to be a college football version of NBA JAM now.  

In an almost NBA Jam style discussion, Sports Illustrated rated the ten best quarterback and running back duos that have signed their letters of intent this winter.  It simply takes who they think are the ten best, not putting them in any order 1-10.

Notre Dame was represented as quarterback Drew Pyne and running back Chris Tyree drew praise.

Pyne looks like the immediate depth the Irish needs at the quarterback position coming off of a prep career in which he tallied 125 total scores (20 rushing) as a four-year starter. Tyree is one of the fastest and quickest incoming players at any position when healthy. Don’t let either undersized talent fool you heading into their time in South Bend.

The only real takeaways I have from this list are three things:

  1. The most-elite programs mostly make up this list with Clemson, Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Texas A&M and Oregon appear on it.  The only surprises really are Tennessee and South Carolina.
  2. This is built a lot on repuatation and Notre Dame appearing on the list speaks highly of how the Fighting Irish are at least preceived in that regard.
  3. I really want there to be a college football version of NBA JAM now.

On that last point, what would Notre Dame’s most-lethal pairing of a quarterback and running back be all-time?

Mirer and Bettis or Brooks in the early-nineties?

Tony Rice and Ricky Watters?

Brady Quinn and Darius Walker?

Recruiting 2020: 5 Things That Matter After National Signing Day

5 observations and things that matter after the 2020 recruiting season and National Signing Day are over.

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5 observations and things that matter after the 2020 recruiting season and National Signing Day are over.

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

2020 Recruiting Analysis, Team Rankings, Top Players 
AAC | ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | Pac-12 | SEC

There are still a few storylines in the 2020 recruiting season – like RB Zachary Evans not deciding on a school yet – even though National Signing Day came and went, but for the most part, it’s on to 2021.

Here are five observations and things that matter now that it’s over.

5. National Signing Day is Blockbuster …

And the Early Signing Period is Netflix.

I used to hate National Signing Day.

The lead-up required weeks and weeks of research and discussion and speculation all for one silly day when older men made a really big deal about where a bunch of kids were going to college.

The worst part about it all was the lack of a true payoff. It was all speculation about how good the undeveloped talents could be three or more years – for the most part – after they signed.

NSD took on a life of its own outside of the normal college football world. It became an occasionally creepy time with message board threats, genuine anger, and a whole lot of pressure. It was also a celebration.

And I sort of miss it.

The first Wednesday in February used to be the one big day of the college football offseason.

The NBA has its free agency period and trade deadline, the NFL has its draft, and baseball has its hot stove league. National Signing Day was a chance for college football fans to look ahead to what might be happening with their respective programs, and it was a time to talk college football before settling in for a big snooze over the following six months.

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Now, most top players are all but locked in several months, if not years, in advance. The Early Signing Period in late December is when everyone of note signs on – which totally gets blown off nationally because the bowl season is in full gear – and the transfer portal has become more important than either of the two signing days.

Not all that long ago, National Signing Day was wall-to-wall all-day TV coverage on at least two of the all-sports station. Every major web site treated it like Christmas because of all the page views and traffic, and it was a  major, major thing.

This year? It was an hour-long wrap-up show – if that – on one of the ESPN networks or conference-only channels, because nothing really happened.

Anecdotally, I used to be hit up for at least 15 radio appearances across the country on NSD. This year, I was had the same 15+ requests, but the talk was 95% about Mark Dantonio.

National Signing Day just isn’t a thing anymore. The hype and craziness around recruiting has peaked, and now it’s more business-like and subdued.

It’s just another day in the college football offseason.

However, there are parts of this that really do matter, starting with …

NEXT: New coaches get a whole lot of talent to work with

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