Now that all the National Signing Day and fun is over, what really mattered from the big day of the 2019 recruiting season?
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It might not have been the National Signing Day we’re all used to in early February, but several big things happened throughout the always-important day. Here are five key takeaways.
5. The quarterbacks just weren’t that great
Theses things go in waves, but considering 2018 was the recruiting year of the quarterback, this one was going to pale by comparison.
This one was fine, but it might show just how epic last year’s was.
JT Daniels is still young and learning, but he took his lumps after being thrown out there at USC. The promise and potential are there to be great.
Justin Fields still has to show what he can do, but he was an offseason franchise-maker for Ohio State, and all that Trevor Lawrence guy did was win a national championship for Clemson as a true-frosh.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson got in right away for UCLA, and Adrian Martinez looked like a big bag of alright at Nebraska.
This year?
Spencer Rattler was one of the best of the prospects considering his all-around skills and ability to do what Oklahoma needs, but he wasn’t a top of the top guy like Fields and Lawerence were.
Auburn is hoping Bo Nix can become special right away, Graham Mertz might just be the best high school quarterback recruit Wisconsin was ever able to land, and South Carolina got a good one in Ryan Hilinski. Throw in the brand name of Taulia Tagovailoa going to Alabama, and there are plenty of interesting prospects in the equation.
But Lawrence was considered a likely No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick in last year’s class, if it wasn’t Fields. This year’s recruiting class doesn’t have that.
NEXT: The underwhelming big program recruiting classes
4. The underwhelming big program recruiting classes
It’s an annual rite of passage.
If it’s early February, you know the various recruiting outlets are going to have Alabama, Ohio State, USC, Oklahoma, Florida State and Georgia among the top ten in various spots.
And it’s also that rite of passage that fans of elite programs whose classes aren’t ranked in the top five consider it the end of life on this planet as we know it.
But when some of the regulars are well outside of the top ten, and are fringe top 25 classes, the panic sirens go off.
Florida State’s class was fine. It was a big class loaded with amazing defensive backs and talents that over 100 other program can’t even think about getting, but coming off a losing season under Willie Taggart, the class that wasn’t up to normal snuff wasn’t the positive step forward the fan base needed.
Ohio State’s class is small, but that shouldn’t matter. If Alabama or Georgia landed just 17 prospects, there would almost certainly be enough Johnny Five-Stars to make up for it. This class – like Florida State’s – is strong enough to be more than fine, but in the transitional period of coaching staffs, it’s not that great.
USC’s class was a monster last season with a whole slew of splashy gets, but after a dud of a losing season, this year’s class failed to land any of the true big prospects and got a lot of prospects who are guys – no more, no less.
Two programs that didn’t have issues …
NEXT: Texas and Oklahoma just took things up a few notches
3. Texas and Oklahoma just took things up a few notches
Texas and Oklahoma are always good at this recruiting thing. However, the disparity between these two and the rest of the Big 12 is becoming jarring.
Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan might dominate the Big Ten rankings every year, but Nebraska was in the mix this time around, and there are always a few classes hovering around the top 25, like Wisconsin’s and Michigan State’s.
Alabama and Georgia rule the SEC recruiting landscape at the moment, but LSU, Florida, and Texas A&M are in the same area code, and most of the league is fantastic at this – more on the SEC in a moment.
The Pac-12? It’s USC’s world in a normal year, but Oregon, Washington and Stanford are usually right there.
The ACC is the one league that has close to the same recruiting gap up top – with Florida State and Clemson owning the classes – but it’s worse in the Big 12.
It’s not just that Texas has emerged as a superstar again in the recruiting world under Tom Herman, or that Oklahoma continues to be amazing with the seamless transition from Bob Stoops to Lincoln Riley now well in the past. It’s that there’s no other program in the league that can consistently come remotely close to hanging with these two for talent.
Oklahoma State will have a class here and there, Baylor had a terrific recruiting season, and TCU’s was probably the third best in the conference this year. But it’s only a ten-team league, so when Kansas, Kansas State and Texas Tech are getting Group of Five-caliber classes, that’s a big percentage of the conference that’s not even close to landing the talent the two big guys are.
2. The SEC just destroyed recruiting season … again
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the SEC had another good recruiting season. Ever since the internet was invented, the SEC owned everyone’s recruiting rankings.
But no, really … the SEC’s recruiting season was really good.
Fans of other conferences despise the idea that the SEC is just plain better than every other conference because it has all of the talent, but the SEC is just plain better than every other conference because it has all of the talent.
Last year – for example – you could’ve made a case that Ohio State had the nation’s best recruiting class. Texas had an argument, and so did USC. Out of the top ten overall classes, Georgia and Alabama were the only two who were no-brainers.
In 2017, LSU came up with a whopper, and Florida, Auburn and Texas A&M had terrific classes, but again, Georgia and Alabama were the only two locks for the top ten. But this year?
It’s all SEC.
Considering this is an inexact science, you’re not crazy to make a call that Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Texas A&M and Florida is your top five in some way shape or form. You’re also not crazy if you want to put Auburn and Tennessee somewhere in the top ten mix, and assume that Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and even Arkansas belong somewhere in the top 25.
NEXT: It’s a whole new world for recruiting … and it’s a good thing
Recruiting Class Rankings
ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | SEC
1. It’s a whole new world for recruiting … and it’s a good thing
This all started last season with the early signing period that turned into the new National Signing Day.
Some thought the programs would ease into the system and wouldn’t load up on talent early, but … nope. As it turned out, get your guys, or be left out, and no one wanted to be without a chair when the music slowed down in the first week of February.
There were a few big guys who were taken here and there on the normal National Signing Day, and there were a couple of big flips, but late December matters more now.
Even more than that, this was the first year when the transfer portal became a part of the puzzle. The buzz around where a high school prospect will go still matters to the fetish industry, but on a national scale, where Jalen Hurts and Tate Martell were going to land became a far bigger deal.
Going forward, coming up with great classes of unproven talents still matters. But now, the energy and efforts into filling that one big hole – or several if you’re Miami – on the transfer market is almost as big a deal.
Even bigger than that, the early signing period is making the recruiting world even larger in a way, considering the recruits are being signed before the coaching carousel kicks in, and before the big bowls go off.
Clemson wasn’t able to fully capitalize on its national title, and – for example – Miami new recruits were locked in despite the loss of Mark Richt.
Recruiting is going national, and it’s being spread out more now. And it’s all fine.
