Rivals rankings director and national transfer portal analyst Adam Friedman is joined by national recruiting analyst Sam Spiegelman, Josh Henschke of TheMaizeandBlueReview.com and Paul Strelow of TigerIllustrated.com to tackle three topics and determine whether they believe each statement is FACT or FICTION.
MORE FACT OR FICTION: Texas is the clear front-runner for Jaime Ffrench
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CLASS OF 2025 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State
CLASS OF 2026 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State
TRANSFER PORTAL: Full coverage | Player ranking | Team ranking | Transfer search | Transfer Tracker
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1. Five-star Tennessee commit David Sanders Jr. will go wire-to-wire as the top-ranked OT in the 2025 class.
Friedman: FACT. I’ve been a big fan of David Sanders Jr. from the very start of this rankings cycle and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. The Tennessee commit is looking more and more college-ready every time we see him and he’s come back from offseason shoulder surgery nicely. Sanders has the natural athleticism and technical foundation to be able to handle the college game and, as long as he’s physically ready, he should be able to see the field relatively early in his college career.
Spiegelman: FACT. David Sanders checks off every box as far as elite offensive tackles with a college-ready frame, fantastic technique, high football intelligence, innate strength and explosiveness, and also being agile and bendable. He dominates at the high school level and has traits that should translate to Saturdays and ultimately Sundays. I’m not sure there’s another offensive lineman prospect in this class or many others in my time in this business that can stack up to Sanders. In my view, he’s a lock as the No. 1 offensive lineman in the Rivals250 for this cycle. The biggest question is where he fits in with the other handful of elite quarterbacks and potential defensive linemen, receivers and cornerbacks in this class.
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2. The 2025 class will be Michigan’s worst since the 2018 cycle.
Friedman: FACT. The 2018 Michigan recruiting class finished No. 24 in the team rankings. Michigan is currently ranked No. 15 in the 2025 team rankings so the program will be cutting it close trying to stay higher than No. 19.
This Michigan recruiting class certainly isn’t bad but losing its top commit in Nate Marshall to Auburn and the light number of commitments should worry Michigan fans. The Wolverines haven’t been overly active in the transfer portal so look for Michigan to still sign at least 20 high school prospects. Will it get enough highly rated commitments to avoid regressing on the recruiting trail? That could be a tall order for the Wolverines.
Henschke: FICTION. The characterization of ‘worst’ is subjective. If you look at the 2018 class, you had Aidan Hutchinson, Hassan Haskins and Ronnie Bell in it, all three players were key to Michigan’s turnaround. So while numbers may be light, it’s all about the quality over quantity approach and the talent in the 2025 class is certainly there despite the recent loss of Marshall. I do think the Wolverines will finish the class strong and will add some players we might not be thinking about right now in August. I always look at how a recruiting class fares once it’s come and gone through the program and that, obviously, remains to be seen.
RELATED: Michigan's 2025 commitment list
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3. Clemson will finish with a top-15 recruiting class in the 2025 cycle.
Friedman: FICTION. Clemson losing a big-time defensive line commit to Duke wasn’t on my bingo card but Bryce Davis did in fact flip from Clemson to Duke over the weekend. With that, Clemson dropped to No. 20 in the 2025 team rankings and all signs currently point to the Tigers finishing with their lowest-ranked class since 2017. In fact, the 2025 class will break Clemson’s streak of seven consecutive top-10 recruiting classes.
All that being said, Clemson has assembled a class of 14 commitments with an average star rating per commit of 3.79, a very impressive mark. Unfortunately for the Tigers, this is going to be a smaller signing class so there may only be a couple more additions. Depending on who decides to jump onboard, it may not be enough to get Clemson back into the top 15.
Strelow: FICTION. Clemson fell five spots to No. 20 with four-star defensive end Bryce Davis' defection. Its next six acquisitions would directly add to their rankings point total. But it doesn't really have any outstanding targets as circumstances stand, and there's only one scholarship spot to which it is actually seeking candidates.
Clemson will tack on a couple of prospects later, it almost always does.
Yet it would take either volume or several blue-chippers to get it back in the top-15 vicinity as others collect more, too – and odds are against the Tigers going after enough to return them to that marker.
RELATED: Clemson's 2025 commitment list
