5 observations and things that matter after the 2021 recruiting season and National Signing Day are over.
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Now that it’s all over, what mattered about National Signing Day 2021 and the entire recruiting period coming off the weirdest possible season?
Here are five observations and things that matter – especially if you don’t care about recruiting.
5. Yes, National Signing Day was last Wednesday
You can be forgiven if you didn’t notice that the first Wednesday in February passed without you noticing any sizable changes in your world.
There used to be a time when that date meant something to college football fans looking for something to care about in the middle of a random weeks, and was a national holiday for the fetish crowd that gets WAYYYYYYY to into the college whims of teenage guys.
But that’s all changed, and it’s good thing.
As a friend of mine put it, now it goes Early Signing Period > Transfer Portal > National Signing Day.
And that was what made the 2021 recruiting season so strange. The Early Signing Period in late December has destroyed the February National Signing Day, mainly because everyone signs on as soon as they’re able to.
2021 Recruiting
Coaching Changes & 2021 Recruiting
New Schools In The Mix | The Top Position
Alabama Dunked On Your Recruiting Class
Big Ten | Big 12 | SEC
(Why the superstar recruits don’t hold out until the last possible second as the value goes up and the “offers” become more tasty is beyond me – but that’s for another day.)
This year, though, late December meant something beyond the random bowl games, which meant that college football fans had to care about how the extended season ended, which meant that random interest in recruiting was next to nothing.
Coaches and recruiters couldn’t work like normal in the COVID year, there wasn’t a Terrelle Pryor or Justin Fields or Rashan Gary or Jadeveon Clowney who captured the recruiting world’s imagination, and there’s the one big aspect that has totally killed interest in recruiting …
Who cares about a bunch of questionable prospects who may or may not be worth the trouble when you can go get the guys you need in the transfer portal?
But recruiting still matters, especially at the highest level. Now, it’s a strength in numbers game considering so many players will be off to the transfer portal the second they see where they are on the depth chart. Obviously, the more great recruits you get, the more chances that a few will work out.
At the end of the day, whether recruiting has lost its mojo or not, you still need the guys.
Coaching Changes & 2021 Recruiting
New Schools In The Mix | The Top Position
Alabama Dunked On Your Recruiting Class
NEXT: The coaching changes in this weird year
4. Coaching changes were weirder this year
There’s normally a rhythm.
Coach is in trouble, recruits are worried about going to a program that might be in transition, schools either 1) give the coach an unnecessary extension thanks to agents pumping the idea that the lack of stability is killing recruiting or 2) recruiting really is killed as a school waits until the end of the season and make a coaching change.
However, it used to be that a coaching change in a strange situation would end up helping on National Signing Day. Top recruits still deciding would then know what the deal was, they’d know the direction going forward, and there would be a late round of big signings by the big-name multi-millionaire new head man.
Not anymore.
The Early Signing Period killed that groove because there just isn’t enough time for any new coach to do anything other than keep the guys who already committed – there aren’t a whole lot of top recruits left to get in early February. Throw in the transfer portal and the crazy 2020 season, and it was even weirder than ever for the new head coaches.
Here are some of the key classes from schools with big-time new coaches.
Tennessee
New head coaches never have time to work, but Josh Heupel really didn’t have a chance. Jeremy Pruitt came up with a good class throughout the 2020 process – by the way, players are always the ones who get totally screwed in this since they’re locked in after they sign – with enough talent for Heupel to work with. It’s not a top-five caliber haul, but it’s good enough.
Texas
It’s disappointing because of who Tom Herman couldn’t get – and that was part of the problem. If you’re the Texas head coach, you have to lock down the next-level offensive line talents of Tommy and James Brockermeyer out of Fort Worth, but they went to Alabama. Steve Sarkisian will get the offensive talent with a little time to work, but let’s start with this – Texas shouldn’t be getting outrecruited by Mack Brown.
– 2021 Big 12 Recruiting Rankings. Top Players, Team Breakdowns
Auburn
This should be the biggest jump in recruiting class status from 2021 to 2022 – expect Bryan Harsin to crush and kill on the path over the next 12 months. It’s not fair to call this a lost recruiting year, but for a program that lives off of beating Alabama, yeah, it was a struggle.
Illinois and Arizona
Put these two in roughly the same bucket. Bret Bielema at Illinois and Jedd Fisch at Arizona had no time to work, and it showed with light classes without any major stars. They each got a few guys after the Early Signing Period, but it’s going to be rebuilding time in the recruiting world for both.
New Schools In The Mix | The Top Position
Alabama Dunked On Your Recruiting Class
NEXT: Some new schools were in the overall mix of great recruiting classes
3. Some new schools were in the mix of great recruiting classes
So everything has changed, everything is weird, and everything is moving around a bit in how business is done in the college football recruiting world. That’s a positive, and it’s good for schools outside of the norm to take advantage of the situation.
There’s always an outlier or three in the recruiting rankings based on one or two star gets who screw up whatever formulas the various systems use. However, this year was a bit different with some new trends starting to form.
Of course Alabama, Ohio State, and all the normal big names got their share of superstars, but here are a few who made an interesting splash outside of the normal obvious recruiting giants.
Oregon
It’s not a given that Oregon is the star of Pac-12 stars when it comes to recruiting. Willie Taggart got the ball rolling to help turn a top 20ish class program into one that could compete with anyone, and Mario Cristobal – who was a big part of that upgrade – took things to a whole other level. His 2020 class was great, but this 2021 version is truly fantastic.
Maryland
This is going to be a regular thing now. Mike Locksley still has to start winning things on the field, but he and his staff are proven superstar recruiters, and they’re loading up with talent over the last few classes.
– 2021 Big Ten Recruiting Rankings. Top Players, Team Breakdowns
Missouri
It stinks when a great class is lost in the shuffle of all the SEC mega-classes, but Mizzou just upgraded its talent level with a whole lot of promising new parts in a big class. Expect this to be the norm under Eliah Drinkwitz.
Wisconsin
The Badgers have lived off of the recruit-to-a-type thing, but that changed with this class. Not only did they go get offensive linemen, they got a slew of really, really good ones. Not only did they go get defensive end, they got a slew of really, really good ones. Now they got the talent to fit the type. It helped that …
The Top Position
Alabama Dunked On Your Recruiting Class
NEXT: The one difference-making position
2. The offensive tackles rocked
These things go in cycles. Last year was about all the great defensive tackles, and this year the offensive tackles have turned into the massive stars in the recruiting season.
It’s a glamour position, and it’s one of the areas that hardest to figure out. If you’re going to run a high-powered precision passing game, you need the blockers.
Alabama might have landed big-time superstars for every spot, but the offensive tackle combination of Tommy Brockermeyer and JC Latham was amazing even for Nick Saban.
Wisconsin’s class jumped up a whole other level by getting Nolan Rucci away from any big-name school you can think of, and JP Bezschawel and Riley Mahlman will be future starters somewhere up front.
Georgia’s Micah Morris and Amarius Mims have all-star upside, Oregon landed Kingsley Suamataia, Jonah Miller and Bram Walden, and Iowa, Notre Dame, and Texas A&M were others whose classes might be made with their tackles.
And again, the best went to one spot …
Alabama Dunked On Your Recruiting Class
NEXT: Alabama’s recruiting class just dunked on your recruiting class
1. Alabama’s recruiting class just dunked on your recruiting class
Put Texas A&M, Ohio State, Oregon, Clemson, Georgia and LSU in a bucket, pick one out, and you probably have the No. 2 class. There’s no questioning who’s No. 1.
Yawn.
Another year, another amazing Alabama recruiting class. However, unlike recent seasons when the Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State, and maybe a random year when USC or Florida State were loading up, this time around it really was Alabama and everyone else.
You’re going to hear a lot about how this might have been Nick Saban’s best recruiting class yet, and it could be. That’s asking too much, though, considering how good that 2017 class was …
Tua Tagovailoa, Najee Harris, Jedrick Willis, Alex Leatherwood, Dylan Moses, Xavier McKinney, Mac Jones, Henry Ruggs, and some DeVonta Smith guy.
Yeah, 2021, good luck matching that.
That one was considered miles ahead of Georgia, Michigan, and Ohio State, and as it turned out, two national championships came from that group.
– 2021 SEC Recruiting Rankings. Top Players, Team Breakdowns
Personal belief – the whole star-system is overrated. Getting one five-star guy is great, but it gets too much hype. Get a slew of them, and then get a bunch of four-star guys. It’s all about the numbers.
That one Johnny Five-Star might be just okay. Give five, and if three of them live up to the hype, look out.
Alabama has at least four Star of the Class talents coming in, and it’s probably more like ten or so. But that’s what happens when you have a rock-solid proven track record of sending a gajillion guys to the NFL.
If you’re Nick Saban’s left tackle, you’re going to be a multi-millionaire pro. If you’re one of Nick Saban’s top three wide receives, you’re going to be a multi-millionaire pro.
That goes for the star Alabama defensive back, and middle linebacker, and running back, and even quarterback – which you couldn’t say until recently.
Basically, if you’re sick of Alabama being really awesome, you’re still not going to be happy.
