Fact or Fiction: Alabama will not sign a five-star CB in the 2022 class
Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney and national recruiting analyst Ryan Wright along with Andrew Bone from BamaInsider.com and Justin Rowland from CatsIllustrated.com tackle topics and determine whether they believe each statement is FACT or FICTION.
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1. Neither five-star cornerback – Denver Harris nor Domani Jackson – will end up signing with Alabama.
Gorney’s take: FACT. Betting against Alabama is usually bad business but right now things are trending in that direction. If I had to pick right now I’d put Denver Harris to Texas A&M and Domani Jackson to USC. Alabama at one point or another was the front-runner for both of these five-star cornerbacks and I really felt if USC did not make a blockbuster hire that Jackson would have easily gone to play for the Crimson Tide. Everything changed when Lincoln Riley was hired by USC and then came after Jackson really hard. Two visits over the last two weekends is definitely telling. With Harris, Texas A&M was almost out of his recruitment but has come storming back in and a lot of its commits are recruiting him to the Aggies.
Bone’s take: FACT. Alabama appeared as the favorite for Harris early in his recruitment. He did not return to Tuscaloosa during the season after taking an official visit in June. Alabama remained in contact, but did not attempt an in-home visit. Alabama is not considered a contender at this point. The Crimson Tide heavily pursued Domani Jackson since before his commitment to USC. Alabama remained in close contact. He spent three days at Alabama in June and returned for an official visit in November. Alabama had a lot of momentum with Jackson after his official visit and considered the leader after his decommitment from the Trojans. USC coach Lincoln Riley was able to get Jackson on campus twice in the last two weeks. He grew up a USC fan and with Donte Williams, his lead recruiter, remaining on the staff it will likely help the Trojans on Wednesday.
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2. After all these important visits, high four-star OL Kiyaunta Goodwin will stick with his Kentucky commitment.
Gorney’s take: FACT. This is a very tough call because Kiyaunta Goodwin absolutely loved his visit to Texas A&M and that staff along with many commits are working on getting him to College Station. He also had other impressive visits including one this past weekend to Michigan State. But when it’s time to sit down and really figure this thing out, Kentucky has been there since the beginning. The Wildcats are also building something strong in Lexington and they’re going to play power football where Goodwin can show off his skills. This one is really tough to call and taking the field in these situations is sometimes smarter, but I’m going to stick with Kentucky.
Rowland’s take: FACT. I'm not all that confident about where Goodwin is heading. I just think Kentucky's in the best position. It wouldn't want to trade places with another team out there. Will he sign in the early period? I'm not sure. It might even be with another school. I just think UK recruiting him for five years and with the relationships involved it's likely that they iron things out and make it work. For a long time I didn't think they had anything to worry about and I do now, but I'm still going to err with UK because it seems like it would take something major to derail something that seemed pretty solid for a long time. But with him saying he doesn't know where he's going to go that obviously makes it something real to follow.
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3. Only two of the top 10 players in the Florida state rankings will end up at an in-state school.
Gorney’s take: FACT. This is a major problem that new Florida coach Billy Napier and new Miami coach Mario Cristobal have to address immediately because too many elite players are leaving the state. Cristobal should have a lot of success recruiting South Florida and keeping kids home but it probably won’t be in the 2022 recruiting class because things are just too far along right now. If five-star OL Julian Armella pulls a surprise and goes to Auburn or something then Sam McCall (Florida State) would be the lone top 10 Sunshine State player to go to an in-state program.
Wright’s take: FACT. With IMG Academy bringing top players in from all over the country, the basis of the thought is skewed against teams like Florida State, Florida and Miami but other top programs have recruited in-state prospects better than state of Florida coaching staffs. The changeover with the Gators and Hurricanes have greatly helped boost other teams’ 2022 classes.
Of them all, Georgia has done the best job landing the top two players in Jaheim Singletary and Keithan Alexander. Texas A&M is the only other outside program to secure a verbal getting defensive tackle Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy. Florida State has a commitment from four-star defensive back Sam McCall and could get one from Armella. Unless new Miami head coach Mario Cristobal can work some magic in short order, Florida State may be the only reason any of the top 10 players stay in-state in 2022.