ACC Winners and Losers from the Early Signing Period
The Early Signing Period, in which a vast majority of players signed, is now behind us. Today we continue a five-day series looking at the winners and losers of each power conference and up next is the ACC.
NSD WINNERS AND LOSERS: Pac-12 | Big Ten | SEC
TEAM RECRUITING RANKINGS: ACC | BIG TEN | BIG 12 | PAC-12 | SEC | OVERALL
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MORE NSD: Highest-ranked defensive prospects still available | How new Power Five coaches fared | Top Group of Five signees | Ten biggest recruiting stings of the 2024 cycle | Gorney Awards | How each Power Program announced its signees | Five teams with work left to do | Latest on the top unsigned offensive players | All the news, analysis and interviews | Winners and losers | Who's still left? | UGA leads the race for No. 1 | National Signing Day Studio Show
NSD INTERVIEWS: Florida signee Gregory Smith | South Carolina coach Shane Beamer | Georgia Tech signee Anthony Carrie | Rutgers coach Greg Schiano | NC State coach Dave Doeren | Oregon State coach Trent Bray | TCU coach Sonny Dykes | Florida State coach Mike Norvell | Stanford coach Troy Taylor | Arizona coach Jedd Fisch | Illinois coach Bret Bielema | Washington State coach Jake Dickert | Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith | Auburn signee Amaris Williams | Syracuse coach Fran Brown | Georgia Tech coach Brent Key | No. 1 prospect Jeremiah Smith | West Virginia coach Neal Brown | Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry | Auburn coach Hugh Freeze | Amaris Williams announces live on Rivals | Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham | Clemson coach Dabo Swinney | Nebraska coach Matt Rhule | Purdue coach Ryan Walters | Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire | Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea | Larry Tarver discusses flip to Nebraska | Legendary coach Lou Holtz | CFB analyst Yogi Roth | Fitz and Gorney preview the big day | John Garcia Jr. previews signing day in the Southeast
CLASS OF 2024 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State
TRANSFER PORTAL: Latest news | Transfer search | Transfer tracker/player ranking (football) | Transfer team ranking (football) | Transfer tracker/player ranking (basketball) | Transfer team ranking (basketball) | Rivals Portal Twitter
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WINNERS
Miami's strong close
Mario Cristobal and company didn't have a perfect National Signing Day but they came close. As predicted, five-star defensive lineman Armondo Blount flipped back to the Hurricanes. He was committed to Miami earlier in the recruiting process but flipped to Florida State and then changed his mind last week. Also on signing day, Miami added top-100 linebacker Adarius Hayes, flipping him from Florida. Last year Miami flipped Rivals250 running back Mark Fletcher away from Ohio State. This year the Hurricanes again flipped a Rivals250 Ohio State running back commitment in Jordan Lyle in the days leading up to signing day.
Miami very nearly got No. 1 overall prospect Jeremiah Smith to change his mind at the very end but fell just short. Even with missing out on Smith, Cristobal has the Hurricanes set for an huge infusion of high-end talent. The Hurricanes have the No. 1 class in the ACC and No. 4 overall. Three five-stars, 12 four-stars and a total of 11 Rivals250 prospects, eight of which are in the top 100.
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Matt Luke's impact already being felt at Clemson
Dabo Swinney has had it with the criticism of his team's offensive line and decided to bring in respected offensive line coach Matt Luke to get things fixed. The early returns since Luke's arrivals at Clemson have been impressive. On signing day the Tigers added commitments from four-star Elyjah Thurmon and high three-star Mason Wade, who flipped from Duke. Both prospects were at Clemson for official visits the weekend ahead of NSD.
The additions of Thurmon, Wade, linebacker CJ Kubah-Taylor and defensive back Joe Wilkinson have Clemson sitting at No. 2 in the ACC team rankings, ahead of Florida State and North Carolina.
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In-state assault by the Wolfpack
NC State didn't get as much press as it deserved this season. The Wolfpack finished with five-straight wins on the field and then pulled off a major flip of in-state four-star receiver Keenan Jackson on signing day. Dave Doeren and his staff swiped Jackson away from the rival Tar Heels, something that rarely happens but has worked out well for the Wolfpack in the past. Remember, this year's Butkus Award winner Payton Wilson was committed to North Carolina at one point before flipping to NC State.
The Wolfpack signed five receivers if you include athlete Jimmar Boston in that count. Three of those five receivers are four-star prospects, with No. 90 overall prospect Jonathan Paylor leading the way.
NC State was able to hold onto four-star quarterback commit Cedrick Bailey and four-star running back commit Ronnie Royal despite multiple teams pursuing them.
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Georgia Tech comes up big on Signing Day
Brent Key and his staff won a major recruiting battle on NSD by reeling in Rivals250 running back Anthony Carrie. The South Florida standout, who is a former Michigan State commit, took an official visit to Texas A&M the final weekend before signing day. The Aggies appeared to have momentum coming out of the trip to College Station but the Yellow Jackets fended off new Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko to get Carrie's signature.
The other big addition for Georgia Tech was Amontrae Bradford. The in-state defensive end flipped to the Yellow Jackets after having been committed to Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes since early October.
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Fran Brown's overhaul continues
Syracuse continued its impressive run of adding big-time prospects out of the high school ranks on National Signing Day. Defensive lineman Maraad Watson, who flipped from Kent State, had taken a visit to Tennessee earlier the weekend before signing day but still decided to sign with Fran Brown's squad. In the days leading up to NSD, Syracuse picked up commitments from well-known defensive end KingJoseph Edwards out of Georgia, Fatim Diggs out of southern New Jersey and defensive end Caden Brown from Brooklyn, who had been leaning toward Rutgers.
Syracuse currently sits at No. 50 in the overall team rankings and No. 10 in the ACC team rankings but, thanks to its outstanding transfer class, No. 35 in the Comprehensive Team Rankings and No. 8 in the Comprehensive ACC team rankings.
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LOSERS
Déjà vu in Tallahassee
National Signing Day must trigger PTSD for Mike Norvell and Florida State fans. Highly ranked prospects have a tendency to flip from the Seminoles at the end of the cycle. Travis Hunter did it in the 2022 class. The next year it was Keldric Faulk flipping to Auburn. This year five-stars KJ Bolden and Armondo Blount continued that tradition.
Losing two five-star commitments on signing day is as rare an occurrence as there is in the recruiting world. Bolden chose the Seminoles over Auburn and Georgia in August but flipped to the Bulldogs last week. The Seminoles had flipped Blount away from Miami earlier in the process but ended up losing him back to the Canes after he took a last minute visit to Coral Gables.
Florida State fans can take solace in the fact that this is still a very good recruiting class without the two five-stars. The program ranks No. 11 in the overall team rankings and No. 3 in the ACC team rankings with nine Rivals250 signees and a total of 14 four-star signees.
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Manny Diaz gets off to a slow start
To be fair, the Blue Devils only named Manny Diaz as Elko's successor less than two weeks before National Signing Day so he was playing catch-up as soon as he started on the job.
Still, Duke lost some really important commitments down the stretch. On NSD, Clemson flipped high three-star Mason Wade and Washington flipped Paul Mencke Jr. Four-star quarterback Tyler Cherry committed to Duke in May but he signed with Indiana after an official visit there right before NSD.
This Duke recruiting class has fallen back to No. 55 overall and No. 11 in the ACC team rankings.