NSD 2023: National Signing Day was full of surprises, good and bad
Rivals is still sifting through all of the moves that went down during the first two days of the Early Signing Period, with most of the top prospects officially off the board.
With that, of course there were surprising moments and surprising programs relative to expectation as pen met paper this week. Of course, a surprise can come on the positive or negative side of the spectrum.
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MORE NSD: Highest-ranked defensive prospects still available | 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
TEAM RECRUITING RANKINGS: ACC | BIG TEN | BIG 12 | PAC-12 | SEC | OVERALL
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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GOOD SURPRISES
Clemson
The Tigers adding a pair of prospects on Wednesday, alone, wasn't the biggest surprise of the day. Four-star offensive lineman Elyjah Thurmon was all but expected to end up at Clemson and the Tigers would round out the offensive line haul later with the flip of Duke commitment Mason Wade.
The more surprising facts around Dabo Swinney's program is that the strong run it went on leading into this week and the two Wednesday additions were enough to push Clemson into the top 10 of the team rankings. During the season and certainly after, we would have been surprised to learn of the Tigers closing to the point where their class would rank higher than Florida State, Michigan, LSU, Florida, USC and others.
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Georgia Tech
Another program that had a strong December overall, Georgia Tech finished on a high note with two more additions, neither 100-percent expected coming into the week. First, it flipped in-state defensive lineman Amontrae Bradford from Deion Sanders and Colorado. Later, the Yellow Jackets went head-to-head with Texas A&M and won out for Rivals250 running back Anthony Carrie.
The Aggies had more buzz than Tech coming out of the trip, but Carrie admitted he knew he was Atlanta-bound in the middle of the mid-term test the very next day. He followed through and the Yellow Jackets hold a fringe top-25 class.
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Mississippi State
Jeff Lebby has been busy adding talent since taking over in Starkville, adding five new commitments in December before the Early Signing Period opened. Three more Bulldogs would make things official on Wednesday, each skill position prospects with impressive size.
None came from within state lines, adding to the surprise. Wide receiver Ricky Johnson flipped from Stanford, defensive back Elijah Cannon flipped from FAU and Texas native Jatavious Johnson was once committed to Colorado State.
Just as impressively for State, there hasn't been a single decommitment since Lebby was hired. The Bulldogs' top-30 class could take another step forward if top uncommitted in-state recruit Braylon Burnside joins the fold on Jan. 3.
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Ohio State
The Buckeyes recruiting well, in general, shouldn't surprise anyone as they'll run away with the Big Ten title as part of another top-five class. However, coming into signing day, we were monitoring several high-profile Ohio State commits that were on flip watch. That list included a pair of five-stars at the top of it in No. 1 recruit Jeremiah Smith and defensive lineman Eddrick Houston.
The worry meter for each prospect saw different stretches of buzz, too. Smith's drama came after he announced he was sticking with the Buckeyes as he didn't send in the Letter of Intent until late in the evening.
Houston's flip buzz was leading into signing day as he took trips to both Alabama and Clemson last weekend. At one point, sources not only expected a flip, but didn't know which threat was more likely.
In the end, Ohio State held on to both. The only defection it suffered was four-star wide receiver Jeremiah McClellan to Oregon.
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Oregon
Speaking of McClellan, that pickup did not look like a lock coming into the week. The Midwest star even told our Adam Gorney there wasn't any drama leading into the Early Signing Period, yet he flipped to Oregon and signed with the program immediately.
The Ducks weren't done in the flip game for the day, either. Closer to the evening hours it would flip another blue-chip wide receiver, this time against old Pac-12 rival USC. Ryan Pellum defected from his home-state school for the Pacific Northwest, solidifying another top-10 class for Oregon in the process.
Oregon added four-star DT Jericho Johnson on Thursday night to keep the momentum rolling.
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Nebraska
What is going on with the Cornhuskers in Miami? The program was already the talk of the recruiting world after adding No. 1 quarterback Dylan Raiola on Monday, but it saved the defensive work for Wednesday in adding three south Florida natives to the fold. It included a pair of four-star flips, too, as cornerback Larry Tarver moved on from Maryland for the Big Red and linebacker Vincent Shavers picked Nebraska after being pledged to Miami for months.
Another defender with a hefty offer list selected Nebraska in lengthy cover prospect Amare Sanders, helping the smaller group of prospects push Matt Rhule's program to No. 17 overall.
BAD SURPRISES
Colorado
The Buffs hold the top transfer portal group in the country right now, so prep commitments aren't as critical to Deion Sanders' program, but even by those standards it was a surprisingly tough day in Boulder.
Not only did No. 1 offensive tackle and five-star class headliner Jordan Seaton elect not to sign, he is now reengaged with several programs looking to make the kind of late flip that has typically benefited Colorado under Sanders.
It also lost out on signing multiple longtime commitments like Bradford, who flipped to Georgia Tech, and Zycarl Lewis also did not put pen to paper. It was never going to be a big class from the prep perspective, but barely signing over 50 percent of a current group of commitments is just unacceptable.
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South Carolina
The Gamecocks didn't have a horrible day or plummet down the rankings, their class ranks No. 29, and they did add a rock solid wide receiver in Debron Gatling Wednesday. Maybe he took the spot of four-star Z'ymarion Lang, but the prospect signing with Toledo was a head-turning development.
Beyond that move, South Carolina suffered a traditional flip from Mike Locksley and Maryland swiping Rivals 250 defensive back Brandon Jacob after having been on board with Shane Beamer and company for more than eight months.
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USC
The Trojans' class sits outside the top 20 and, despite a nice run leading up to the Early Signing Period, USC struck out on some late targets on Wednesday, mainly five-star quarterback DJ Lagway. It's odd and certainly surprising to see Lincoln Riley miss at that position in general, much less with two primary targets in the same cycle.
The Trojans were in the Raiola running for years and really pressed to flip Lagway over the last few weeks.
On top of that, Oregon swiped one of the Trojans' headliners in local standout Ryan Pellum. USC only signed four offensive recruits beyond the offensive line including one at wide receiver with Pellum bound for Eugene.