Nearly 75 percent of the Rivals250 in the class of 2019 were committed to college programs entering their senior year. That leaves a very small pool of potential prospects as programs gear up for the Early Signing Period, which starts on Dec. 19. This week we take a position-by-position look at the top prospects still on the board.
The highest-ranked inside linebacker in the 2019 class, Dean kicked off his official visit tour early with a trip to Alabama back in June. Other summer visits to Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss and Texas A&M were unofficial. If those trips revealed a top team for Dean, he has kept it to himself and the four-star hasn’t updated his favorites list since March. Fall official visits are being set, however, with Georgia (Oct. 6) and LSU (Dec. 7) locked in and others fighting for the final two spots.
After trimming his list of 20-plus scholarship offers to a top eight in June, To’oto’o pared that group even further by naming a top five at the end of August that consisted of Alabama, Cal, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington. The northern California product is serious about looking nationally and the SEC programs, Alabama and Tennessee, are looking like the teams to beat going into the fall. Official visit dates and locations are expected to be announced next by To’oto’o.
The top three prospects on this list are all designated as inside linebackers, but Heimuli has a skillset that could project throughout the linebacker corps. He named Washington an early leader and has saved his final official visit in December for the Huskies. Chris Petersen’s program will be tough to beat here, but several schools are going to take their shot. A summer tour took him to schools in the southeast and Midwest. Alabama, Ole Miss, Nebraska and TCU emerged from those trips to be included in his top eight.
When looking for late additions in a class, coaches love to find prospects who have elite talent but have fallen through the cracks. That is exactly what Williams could be for teams still in the market for linebackers. The four-star plays in lightly-recruited northwest Indiana and the 12 offers he has accumulated have slowly trickled in. Williams is wide open to interest from new schools and is expecting his senior season film to generate more looks.
If linebackers are what you need, California is where you’re going to find them. Of the top five ranked linebackers still uncommitted in the 2019 class, Goforth is the third from the Golden State. Officially Goforth remains wide open to each of the nearly two dozen schools that have offered him, but local programs UCLA and USC are definitely among the strongest contenders, and Goforth has also talked about Oregon and Vanderbilt as two schools he wants to visit this fall.
One of the best stories of the off-season, Casey just one FBS offer following a lost junior season due to a shoulder injury. Then the Louisville native blew up at the Rivals 3 Stripe Camp presented by adidas in Nashville, earning position MVP honors and an invite to the Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge presented by adidas, and within days landed four new offers from Oregon, Louisville, Kentucky and Syracuse. Casey goes into his senior year with a dozen total offers and an opportunity to earn more with a big season.
Five of the 12 four-star prospect in the 2019 class at IMG Academy are still uncommitted, which is lower than the 74 percent of four-stars committed nationally. Jones is one of those five, but where many of his teammates have in-state programs on their list, the native of south Florida is looking north. Purdue is set to receive the first official visit from Jones on Oct. 6, with Louisville, Kentucky and LSU among the top contenders for his remaining four official visits.
DiCosmo comes into his senior season on the cusp of four-star status and could get that bump with a big senior season. Success as a senior could also impact his recruitment and draw more schools in. The New Jersey native already boasts an impressive list of offers that totals 30 schools, and he pared that to a top five of Clemson, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Stanford back in May. At the time he suggested a commitment was coming soon, but four months later he remains uncommitted.
There was an expectation in the Lone Star State that Gbenda would pop for the home-state Texas Longhorns once they offered last March, but Gbenda has proven time and again during this recruitment that he marches to the beat of his own drum. A top 10 was released in July that of course included the Longhorns, but also programs like Michigan and Notre Dame and Texas A&M. When the list was released, though, Gbenda noted he was still open to new schools.
The second Mississippi representative on this list, Edwards had committed to LSU back in March, but stepped away from that commitment in July. He held just a handful of offers when he made the commitment to LSU and has not generated many new ones since. In-state schools like Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Southern Miss each offered at one point, but where he fits into their recruiting plan now remains to be seen. Edwards is wide open going into senior year.
