Cheat Sheet: Ohio State gets top QB; Ceyair Wright visits Michigan
Welcome to your weekly recruiting cheat sheet! Here you'll find all the biggest college football recruiting stories from this past week and what to look for this weekend so you can know your stuff while you’re watching the games.
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MORE: Rivals' Top Plays of the Week | Three-Point Stance
CLASS OF 2021 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
CLASS OF 2022 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
COVERAGE: Rivals Transfer Tracker | Rivals Camp Series
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Ohio State reels in another top quarterback
The Buckeyes already have the top-ranked 2022 recruiting class, and now they've added the top quarterback in the class. Texas native Quinn Ewers announced his commitment to Ohio State on Thursday night. The former Texas commit has been a strong Ohio State lean since parting ways with the Longhorns at the end of last month. Ewers is a very popular recruit in the 2022 class, and he is expected to bring a number of top-rated recruits with him to Columbus.
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South Carolina moves on from Will Muschamp
South Carolina fired head coach Will Muschamp on Sunday after another disheartening loss to Ole Miss on Saturday. The Gamecocks now sit at 2-5 with three games left this season. Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo was named the interim head coach heading into this Saturday’s game against Missouri.
The South Carolina administration has hired a search firm to help find their next head coach. Since the news of Muschamp’s firing, four key players have announced they’re opting out of the rest of the season. Check out all the latest news on the South Carolina coaching search and the fallout from Will Muschamp’s firing at GamecockCentral.com.
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The South Carolina recruiting class ranks just inside the top 50 in the team rankings and many of the committed prospects are feeling pretty uneasy about the future of the program. See their reactions here.
MIND OF MIKE: Will Muschamp’s time is up at South Carolina
Five programs that will benefit from Muschamp’s dismissal
Six candidates to watch for the South Carolina opening
Recruits that sealed Muschamp’s fate at South Carolina
Commitment Issues podcast: South Carolina fires Will Muschamp
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Georgia lands a Rivals100 in-state linebacker
Georgia is charging toward the Early Signing Period with a top five recruiting class, and the Bulldogs' latest addition came from in-state linebacker Smael Mondon. The Rivals100 prospect had narrowed his long list of choices down to Auburn, Tennessee, and Georgia after eliminating Florida and LSU. Mondon almost committed to Tennessee during the summer but held off and is now headed for Athens.
Rivals100 LB Smael Mondon breaks down his commitment to Georgia
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Texas pulls off an in-state flip
The Longhorns have been looking for some good news on the recruiting trail and found some in defensive lineman Byron Murphy. The in-state lineman had been committed to Baylor since June, but a recent offer from Texas made him think twice. Murphy kept the news of his offer from Texas under wraps for a couple weeks and committed to the Longhorns hours after announcing his decommitment from Baylor.
DT Byron Murphy details his flip from Baylor to Texas
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Coveted DB Ceyair Wright begins final series of visits
A number of major prospects traveled to Ann Arbor last weekend to watch the Wolverines take on Wisconsin. Even though the players couldn’t have any contact with the coaches because of the recruiting dead period, it was still a very important weekend for Michigan. Rivals100 defensive back Ceyair Wright made the trip from California to see what Michigan was like and he really enjoyed his time there. This trip was the first in a string of visits that will lead to his commitment on Jan. 2. Other likely destinations for Wright include Notre Dame, Nebraska, Utah and maybe Oregon.
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Notre Dame adds four 2021 recruits
It was a busy week for Notre Dame as the Irish try to capitalize on their on-field momentum with some successes on the recruiting trail. Their first and biggest addition of the week came in the form of Rivals250 defensive back Philip Riley. The Washington native who now lives in Florida originally committed to Notre Dame sight unseen back in May before flipping to USC at the end of September. A visit to South Bend last month helped him realize he wanted to flip back to Notre Dame and that’s what he did this week.
Notre Dame went back to the Sunshine State on Thursday and flipped offensive lineman Caleb Johnson away from Auburn. Johnson, a former Indiana native, had been committed to the Tigers since mid-May. He is the fifth offensive lineman to commit to Notre Dame in this recruiting cycle.
The Fighting Irish also landed commitments from kicker Joshua Bryan and Hawaiian linebacker Kahanu Kia. Kia chose Notre Dame over Stanford, UCLA and Utah, his father’s alma mater. Bryan was committed to Colorado before flipping to Notre Dame.
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Vanderbilt adds Georgia linebacker Errington Truesdell
Wake Forest really liked where it stood with Georgia linebacker Errington Truesdell, but when an offer from Vanderbilt came he knew he wanted to jump on it. The Commodores offered Truesdell at the end of October, and it didn’t take long for the momentum to swing in their favor. Along with Wake Forest, Truesdell had been thinking about going with an Ivy League program like Harvard. Truesdell is the second linebacker in Vanderbilt’s 2021 recruiting class.
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2022 five-star plans to commit in a month and half
There are few players in the 2022 class that are as heavily recruited as five-star Jaheim Singletary. The cornerback out of Jacksonville (Fla.) Robert E Lee is down to nine schools but hasn’t been able to visit all of them yet and it doesn’t look like he’ll be able to with the dead period now getting extended until April 15. Florida, Georgia, Miami and Tennessee are the only schools in his short list that he has visited, and each have done a good job recruiting him, but it’s his mom that the college coaches need to win over.
Five-star Jaheim Singletary talks top schools, commitment plan
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Top 50 2022 QB Ty Simpson making the rounds, cutting list in January
The recruiting process for quarterbacks is different than other positions and they usually need to work faster to make their decision. Ty Simpson, one of the top-rated quarterbacks in the 2022 class, has been taking trips to different colleges this season to try to make an informed decision when the time comes.
Last weekend, he was at Ole Miss for its win over South Carolina. Simpson is planning on making the trip to Tuscaloosa this weekend and in a couple weeks he wants to return to Tennessee to watch the Vols play Florida. He’s already been to Knoxville a couple times this year. Simpson took a trip to Clemson already this year and hopes to make a return visit as well. Auburn, Oklahoma and Texas A&M are also possible destinations for him. Expect this coveted quarterback to narrow his focus shortly after the new year.
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What to look for this weekend
The only scheduled commitment coming up this weekend is from Taleeq Robbins. The three-star defensive tackle out of Philadelphia (Pa.) Imhotep Institute Charter School was supposed to commit last Sunday but delayed his announcement a week to allow him and his family more time to discuss the decision. Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Georgia are the three finalists for him, but it is likely he chooses one of the two SEC West programs. He is close with Texas A&M commit Tyreek Chappell and Ole Miss commit Tysheem Johnson, both Philadelphia natives.
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There are three games between ranked opponents this weekend and two of them feature some recruiting battles to watch. In a battle of undefeated teams, Wisconsin travels to Northwestern on Saturday afternoon to take on the Wildcats. The two teams should be heavily involved in the recruitments of Rivals250 offensive lineman Carson Hinzman and Rivals100 linebacker Sebastian Cheeks. Each player has plenty of other schools under consideration at this time, but both Northwestern and Wisconsin figure to be battling for these commitments until they sign their National Letters of Intent.
Oklahoma and Oklahoma State get together later in the day Saturday for their annual rivalry game, and the two teams are fighting for in-state prospects Gentry Williams and Jacob Sexton. Williams, a Rivals100 prospect, is seen as more of a long shot for Oklahoma State, but the Cowboys are really pushing to get more of his attention. The Sooners are in good shape with him at the moment. Sexton really likes Oklahoma State, but the Cowboys will have to work hard to keep him away from Lincoln Riley’s squad.