With the conclusion of National Signing Day, the 2023 college football recruiting class is pretty much locked up. Just one year after Nick Saban claimed that Texas A&M “bought every single player on their roster,” the Crimson Tide took the No.1 spot on this year’s recruiting rankings. They finished with the third best class of all time (behind Texas A&M last year and Alabama in 2021) and signed a record nine five-stars. I have a hard time believing that in a world full of NIL deals, money had nothing to do with Alabama’s record class.
Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio State rounded out the top five rankings behind Alabama. Texas landed the famous Arch Manning and Oklahoma had a great class despite a down year. The Sooners and Longhorns are showing they can compete with the best of the SEC pending their move over to the conference.
February’s national signing day never boasts as much action as December's, but this week finally ended the Jaden Rashada saga. For those who have not heard the story, Rashada, a four-star dual-threat quarterback, originally committed to Miami. Then, in November, Rashada flipped his commitment to Florida and was going to get a rumored $13.5 million NIL deal over his time in Gainesville. However, reports emerged in early January that the deal was falling apart, and when Rashada did not enroll early like he planned to do, it was clear the commitment to Florida was likely over.
Rashada visited TCU and Arizona State in the last few weeks, and he ultimately chose to sign his national letter of intent with the Sun Devils. This is a huge get for first year coach Kenny Dillingham, a pickup that shot their recruiting ranking up from 40th to 27th nationally. Arizona State needs the added talent because last year's recruiting class finished 106th overall. To put into context how horrible that is, there are 65 total power 5 schools, so at worst Arizona State should finish in the before 65.
I do find it slightly amusing how crazy the entire recruiting process got around Jaden Rashada. Sure, he has shown good talent and has lots of room to add strength, but can you imagine a world where an NFL team was throwing around crazy amounts of money all for a guy ranked 44th overall, or in NFL terms, a middle of the second round guy? College football recruiting has always been crazy, but as NIL money becomes more publicized, the high amounts of money are way more visible.
On flip side, the Missouri Tigers faced some regression in this year’s recruiting rankings.They finished 13th in the SEC, only behind Vanderbilt, and 44th overall. This is a big decline from their 18th overall finish last season that included five star Luther Burden. The Tiger’s highest rated recruit in this class is four-star tight end Brett Norfleet. Norfleet is also a Missouri baseball commit, similar to quarterback Sam Horn on the roster. Norfleet uses his size as his advantage in 50-50 balls and also had offers from Alabama, USC, and Miami.
To make up for the weaker recruiting class, the Tigers hit the transfer portal. They are bringing in former five-star receiver Theo Wease from Oklahoma to replace Dominic Lovett who left for Georgia. With the quarterback position far from secure, Missouri brought in Miami transfer Jake Garcia. Garcia played in the majority of Miami’s games this season, and it will be interesting to see what new offensive coordinator Kirby Moore does with Garcia. With Cook out for spring practice and Horn playing baseball, Garcia will likely get first team reps during spring training.
In other college football news, Kirk Ferentz announced that he does not plan on making any changes to his coaching staff which means his son Brian Ferentz will remain as the offensive coordinator. Kirk Ferentz blamed last season's offensive struggles on “injuries, inexperience and other personal factors.” I was originally excited to see how Michigan transfer Cade MacNamera could take the Iowa offense to a different level, but with Ferentz calling the plays, I am not expecting to see many changes in Iowa’s offensive philosophy.
Most of the offseason moves are all done, and spring practices will be starting up soon, meaning college football season may not be as far away as it seems. There are still a few major coordinator jobs on the market, including Notre Dame's offensive coordinator, that could attract some big names.
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