Big 12 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 conclude a five-day series naming the winners and losers of each power conference with a look at the Big 12.
NSD WINNERS AND LOSERS: Pac-12 | Big Ten | SEC | ACC
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
Steve Sarkisian’s December
Texas won the Big 12, earned a berth in the College Football Playoff against Washington and then closed really strong heading into the Early Signing Period. It was a great few weeks for the Longhorns and Steve Sarkisian.
Down the stretch, Texas landed elite four-star cornerback Kobe Black, flipped four-star safety Xavier Filsaime from Florida after months of work, flipped four-star linebacker TyAnthony Smith from Texas A&M amid its coaching change and then unexpectedly landed former Colorado four-star receiver commit Aaron Butler.
A national championship could only help in recruiting heading toward the 2025 class.
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Oklahoma in the trenches
One of the reasons why high-end four-star offensive lineman Eddy Pierre-Louis wanted to play at Oklahoma was because coach Brent Venables said winning in the trenches in the SEC was crucial and the massive recruit from Tampa (Fla.) Catholic would be a huge asset.
Pierre-Louis was one big addition but five-star defensive lineman David Stone is the best player in the class. The Sooners loaded up signing five offensive linemen and then Stone and productive four-star Jayden Jackson in the trenches.
Along with some elite playmakers like four-star running back Taylor Tatum, Oklahoma loaded up in its 2024 group.
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McGuire’s handling of Hudson
Five-star receiver Micah Hudson was expected to announce his commitment to Texas Tech numerous times earlier in his recruitment. It did not happen, and programs such as Texas A&M kept making runs at him. He even told Red Raiders coach Joey McGuire after their loss to Oregon that he wanted to pull the trigger.
Instead of pressing and putting a ton of pressure on the elite receiver from Temple (Texas) Lake Belton, McGuire used a softer touch, told Hudson he trusted in his word and two days later the five-star picked Texas Tech over the Aggies and many others.
On the Rivals signing day show, McGuire said he believes Hudson is the best receiver in the class. That could be a little bit of politicking but he’s phenomenal and should be an immediate weapon in Lubbock.
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UCF’s regional recruiting
After two nine-win seasons to start his tenure at UCF, coach Gus Malzahn suffered a 6-7 campaign and the first losing one for the Knights since 2016. But it did not negatively affect UCF’s recruiting efforts at all – especially in the Southeast.
Only two prospects in UCF’s entire recruiting class were outside of Florida or Georgia – one from South Carolina and one from Texas.
And the Knights did great locally led by four-star safety Jaylen Heyward from Rockledge, Fla., and four-star receiver Bredell Richardson from Tampa (Fla.) Carrollwood Day. Four-star running back Stacy Gage from Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas is also a big one.
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Five-star run in the conference
The SEC unsurprisingly led all conferences with 13 five-star signees but after that the Big 12 was represented the best with the most-elite prospects with five five-star signees. That’s better than the Big Ten (four) ACC (three, all from Miami) and the Pac-12 with just one in offensive tackle Jordan Seaton to Colorado.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that two of the teams – Texas with three five-stars and Oklahoma with one – are joining the SEC next year so the numbers are expected to skew even more. Texas Tech was the only other school in the Big 12 to sign a five-star in Hudson.
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LOSERS
The trajectory at Baylor
After a 6-7 season following a Big 12 championship, coach Dave Aranda said he was going to right the ship, that lessons were learned and that Baylor would get things going again. Instead, the Bears finished 3-9 this season and there was speculation that Aranda could be let go.
Aranda saved his job in Waco but recruiting did not take an uptick into the Early Signing Period. Baylor finished second-to-last in the conference rankings, had no four-star signees and one wonders where the program goes from here (maybe the transfer portal?) to stockpile talent.
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The average star rating across the league
Oklahoma State played for a conference championship this year but has an average star rating of 2.94 in this recruiting class as the Cowboys have no four-star signees.
Cincinnati, Iowa State and Baylor are all at 2.86. Houston is the lowest in the Big 12 at 2.47. Of the 14 conference teams, eight of them have an average star ranking in the class lower than three-stars. That makes things way too top heavy in the Big 12.