SEC Winners and Losers from the Early Signing Period
The Early Signing Period, in which a vast majority of players signed, is now behind us. Today we continue a five-day series looking at the winners and losers of each power conference and up next is the SEC.
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MORE NSD: Highest-ranked defensive prospects still available | How new Power Five coaches fared | 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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WINNERS
Georgia keeps Bolden home
One of the funkiest stats to dive into regarding Georgia's run to the top recruiting class is that it held the post without holding the commitment of a top-10 prospect within state lines. Of course that changed in a major way on Wednesday, when the nation's top safety recruit and longtime Florida State commitment KJ Bolden flipped to Kirby Smart's program.
It was one more example of the coach's plan and coaching ability, especially through transition in secondary coaches. Bolden was long considered to be on flip watch, but many of us were tracking Auburn as the program with the best chance of upending Florida State until last week.
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Auburn a thorn in rivals' side
Hugh Freeze and company not only had a strong close, but Auburn beat and/or flipped recruits from multiple SEC programs along the way. The class is No. 8 overall and actually has a higher average ranking than Alabama (3.81 to 3.8) through the Early Signing Period.
The Tigers picked up Rivals250 pass rusher Amaris Williams after his long pledge to Florida. Auburn won a back-and-forth battle over Florida and Alabama for big Peach State offensive lineman Favour Edwin and held off flip attempts of wide receiver Perry Thompson along the way.
It's pretty clear Tigers recruiting is still on the ascent. The Iron Bowl recruiting battles are seemingly closer than ever, with each program signing three of the state's top 10 prospects thus far. The state's top unsigned recruit, Ryan Williams, figures to be a big battle through his expected decision date of Feb. 9.
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Another big 'Bama close
Not to be outdone, Nick Saban is still the very best during this time of year. Alabama added three prospects on Wednesday, including two big flips in landing top-10 running back Kevin Riley (from Miami) and surprising many in swiping two-way star Aeryn Hampton from Texas at the 11th hour. Both were long-term plays that helped Alabama lock in a top-three recruiting class despite more work to be done through the New Year with Williams.
Saban's program also held off several programs looking to make late runs at longtime commitments such as tight end Caleb Odom and secondary prospect Jameer Grimsley.
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Lagway and LJ stick with Florida
If there were two prospects Florida really could not afford to lose on National Signing Day, even despite many defections, it would have been five-star quarterback DJ Lagway and in-state defender LJ McCray.
Each was pushed by multiple programs, but ultimately decided to stick with Billy Napier's vision even though neither was to be announced by the program until late in the afternoon, making plenty of Gator fans sweat a bit more until the end.
Lagway was targeted by Lincoln Riley and USC while McCray was a prime target for Auburn. The end of the 2024 cycle was not great for Florida (more on that later), but the bare minimum was holding onto the class headliners and that was accomplished.
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That sneaky Mike Elko
There were a lot of ups and downs at Texas A&M following the transition from Jimbo Fisher to Mike Elko, but in the end the Aggies finished with a quality bridge class. Numbers are still somewhat low, with just 14 signees reported. And yes, everyone is awaiting the final word from five-star Terry Bussey and four-star Dominick McKinley, but both remain committed to the program.
Texas A&M did flip four-star Florida wide receiver commitment Izaiah Williams on Wednesday, just after adding his teammate in Rivals250 pass rusher Solomon Williams to the fold. Another former Gator commitment, Kendall Jackson, committed to the Aggies on Tuesday and helped to round out the class.
What the Aggies may lack in quantity, they make up for in quality as their class boasts the highest star ranking average in the country.
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LOSERS
Florida's fall to forget
Going into the season, one could argue, Florida football recruiting was as hot as any program in the country. The Gators' class rose as high as No. 3 in the team rankings and it was clear the program had shifted to a higher level in the talent acquisition department under Billy Napier compared to previous regimes.
Of course officially landing the top group was the next step and a poor season marked the beginning of the end of that campaign. In all, eight prospects defected from Florida over the last six weeks of the 2024 cycle, including a trio of four-stars on National Signing Day itself.
The Gators now hold the No. 20 class nationally, the lowest mark in Napier's tenure, while in-state rivals Miami (No. 4) and Florida State (No. 11) battled for the recruiting state championship.
Florida signed just one top-20 recruit in the home state and it was local legacy recruit Myles Graham, whose legendary father went viral in bashing the staff the day after his son put pen the paper.
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A Sam Pittman-coached program light in the trenches
Arkansas holds some quality in its class and there are some strong trends within it, particularly in signing four strong prospects from the state of Alabama, and four-star linebacker Bradley Shaw would make five if he commits to the Razorbacks as expected.
Otherwise, though, the group is one of the smallest in the SEC (only Texas A&M and South Carolina signed fewer) and is void of the two groups one would always expect Sam Pittman to continue to compile -- the offensive and defensive line.
Just two offensive linemen and two defensive linemen were brought in for a program in need of reestablishing its culture up front. Arkansas was bottom four in the SEC in rushing and second-to-last in stopping the run in 2023. At least Pittman has put in some work in the portal, with three offensive line players committed thus far.
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Shane Beamer's state of Florida pipeline halted
South Carolina is a regional recruiting program, often competitive within state lines and certainly in Georgia, two elements that rang true again in the 2024 cycle. Florida has long been the third pipeline for USC to conted within, but it evaporated in the current class.
After signing at least four Floridians in 2022 and 2023, the Gamecocks did not ink one on Wednesday. The most fertile state in the country absent on the commitment list is as strange as seeing such a small haul coming to Columbia. The top of the class is strong, but only Texas A&M signed fewer recruits in the league this week.