Nearly two years after the first prospects in the 2020 class were rated, all evaluations are now complete and Rivals has finalized the position rankings for the class. We now move to look at the defensive backs, where there was a lot of debate at cornerback and safety until the very end.
Final 2020 Position Rankings: Cornerbacks | Safeties
2020 RIVALS RANKINGS WEEK:
Monday: Top 10 released
Tuesday: Rivals100 released | Breaking down the new five-stars | Mind of Mike
Wednesday: Rivals250 released | Rivals Roundtable
Thursday/Friday: Final position rankings released
Saturday: Team rankings breakdown
Sunday: Final state rankings released
TEAMS WITH TOP COMMITS: LSU and Texas A&M
The SEC is getting stronger across the board in the 2020 recruiting class with LSU and Texas A&M leading the way. The Tigers signed the top cornerback in the country in Elias Ricks, who played his high school ball at Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei before transferring to Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy for his senior season, and they also landed the third-best safety in Jordan Toles, from Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances. Toles is a high-level athlete who loves to hit and Ricks is an interception machine who completely locks down his side of the field.
The Aggies loaded up at defensive back as well. After an outstanding week at the Under Armour hame, Jaylon Jones moved up to a five-star prospect at cornerback and then four-star safety Antonio Johnson had a phenomenal week - and one absolutely dominant practice - at the All-American Bowl as he moved up to the second-best safety overall. LSU and Texas A&M were the two teams leading the way as both had two signees among the top three at corner and safety.
PLAYERS ON THE RISE: Demorie Tate and Dontae Manning
All-star events are an incredibly valuable evaluation tool and both Tate and Manning had outstanding showings over the last few weeks that led to rankings bumps. Tate had a strong showing all week at the Under Armour game even if he was quiet in the game and Manning had back-to-back outstanding performances at UA and then following that up at the Polynesian Bowl.
Tate, a Florida State signee, bumped up to the fourth-best cornerback in the class and one spot away from five-star status. Manning, who signed with Oregon, made an even bigger leap from No. 17 at cornerback to sixth overall and earned the highest four-star rating as well.
PLAYER TO WATCH: Avantae Williams
There was a lot of discussion about whether Williams should remain the top-rated safety in the class or whether Johnson should eclipse him, but WIlliams hung on - and now an interesting few weeks are coming up before signing day.
The DeLand, Fla., standout had been committed to Oregon for months but he backed off that pledge and now he has a visit to Florida this weekend and he’s supposed to see Ole Miss before National Signing Day. Miami, Georgia and others could be hanging around as well. It looks like the Gators lead in a big way here but his recruitment has been unpredictable so far, so a surprise might not be, well, all that surprising.
