Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney has thoughts on who should be No. 1 in the 2024 class, which five prospects will most be under five-star consideration in the next rankings release and a temperature check on some hot seat coaches in today’s Three-Point Stance:
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WHO SHOULD BE NO. 1?
I’ve seen enough: Jeremiah Smith should be the No. 1 prospect in the 2024 class.
I’m not making any promises because I’m not the only vote in the Rivals rankings meetings and there are historical trends pointing away from putting a receiver No. 1 no matter how dominant he is. But this might just be the exact right time to take the Hollywood (Fla.) Chaminade-Madonna receiver first.
After five games, Smith has 42 catches for 616 yards and nine touchdowns. Project that out into a deep playoff run for his loaded team that also features NC State QB commit Cedrick Bailey and fellow five-stars Joshisa Trader and Zaquan Patterson and we might be talking about a 100-catch season.
Everyone knows the ball is coming his way and nobody can stop him. Nobody in loaded South Florida. Nobody could stop him on the loaded 7-on-7 circuit. I’ve written before that he’s the best high school receiver since Julio Jones.
The Ohio State commit might even be smoother and a more natural pass catcher.
Only twice in Rivals history dating back to 2002 has a wide receiver been named No. 1 overall. It was Dorial Green-Beckham in 2012 and Percy Harvin in 2006.
The last No. 1 drafted receiver was Keyshawn Johnson in 1996. Before that it was Irving Fryar in 1984.
History is not on Smith’s side here as it’s a far safer bet to take the best quarterback in the class and put him No. 1 without thinking much about it. But Smith is so good, so special, that we might just have to buck trends this time.
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FIVE PROSPECTS THAT COULD ADD A FIFTH STAR
The Phenix City (Ala.) Central receiver is on the cusp of five-star status anyway, he has the length and athleticism traits to be among the top players in the country and now he’s backing it up on the field. So far this season, Coleman has 23 catches for 461 yards and nine touchdowns. He could be on the way to a 1,000-yard senior year.
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In the search for the No. 1 offensive lineman in the 2024 class, it could be Seaton, who could play guard or tackle and has been dominant so far this season. He has size, length, great power and what he’s been doing is showing a mean streak at Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy for the whole country to see.
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I keep coming back to his performance on the bench press two summers ago when he would have been among the top-10 offensive linemen in reps - at the NFL Combine. He’s only gotten stronger and Pierre-Louis also runs well. Pro teams will love to see that athleticism and as an interior offensive lineman, he’s immovable.
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Some people at Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco feel that Viliamu-Asa is maybe the best defensive player ever at the school. That’s saying something because Bosco pumps out elite players almost every recruiting cycle. The Notre Dame commit is smart, fearless and makes plays all the time so the discussions will be had.
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We didn’t love his throwing motion at the Elite 11. It has a little hitch in it. But Larry Bird’s jumper wasn’t textbook, so … we come to the Lagway discussion again. The Florida quarterback commit is having a phenomenal senior season with 1,592 passing yards with 23 touchdowns and three picks in five games. He’s on his way to a huge season and a discussion for another bump in the rankings.
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A LOOK AT THE HOT SEAT
Tom Allen: Indiana has not looked bad in losses to Ohio State and Louisville but the Hoosiers should have easily blown out Akron. It took them four overtimes to beat the Zips. Allen is 32-42 overall and 17-36 in the Big Ten. Indiana won’t be a College Football Playoff contender but can’t it be like Duke in the ACC or Oregon State in the Pac-12?
Dino Babers: Syracuse has started off great at 4-0 but those are wins over Colgate, Western Michigan, Purdue and Army. Now comes the hard part. The next three games are against Clemson, North Carolina and Florida State so Babers isn’t out of the woods yet. But then the remainder of the schedule are all winnable games so that stretch could determine whether he’s back with the Orange or not.
Neal Brown: Brown deserves credit for his team battling at Penn State and then beating Pitt and Texas Tech in the last two weeks. Things do get a little tricky coming up traveling to TCU and Houston, hosting an average Oklahoma State team and then going to UCF before BYU, Oklahoma, Cincinnati and Baylor to close out the season. Other than the COVID year, Brown hasn’t had a winning season in Morgantown. From 2002 until Brown’s arrival, West Virginia had only one losing season.
Eli Drinkwitz: Drinkwitz has done well early this season and beating Kansas State was huge for job security. He’s also recruiting well landing five-star defensive end Williams Nwaneri and probably in the top two for five-star receiver Ryan Wingo. And the Tigers should go to 5-0 after playing Vanderbilt this weekend. Then things have the potential of collapse. The schedule after that is daunting with LSU, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Arkansas to close out the season. That will be a crucial stretch for him.
Jimbo Fisher: When Fisher came to Texas A&M with the blockbuster contract and his bona fides, expectations were through the roof. The Aggies were going to be national title contenders. History is not on their side, though, as they have just one double-digit winning season in a decade and two since 1998. This program has not been a perennial power, even in the Big 12. But Fisher has recruited incredibly well and it feels like a corner could be turning. Alabama awaits, and so does Tennessee, Ole Miss and LSU. Texas A&M could beat all those teams. Yet the Aggies could lose to all of them, too.
Jeff Hafley: It’s getting tougher for Hafley to justify his position but Boston College has been an extraordinarily tough place to win. Tom O’Brien was successful there but it helped to have QB Matt Ryan running the show. Now the Eagles are squeezing by Holy Cross, losing to Northern Illinois and getting blasted by Florida State and Louisville. Winless Virginia comes in this weekend and if BC can’t win that one, forget it.
Dana Holgorsen: Holgorsen should be fine. A loss to Rice was bad – and kind of inexcusable – but he won eight games last season and 12 the year before that. I don’t think Houston dumps him after this season unless everything goes off the rails.
Steve Sarkisian: From 5-7, to 8-5, to the College Football Playoff? Texas is better than every team on its schedule, so unless things go completely haywire, there’s no hot seat here at all. There could be a title run, though.
Greg Schiano: The Big Ten is brutally tough but Rutgers is not an easy win anymore and even battled Michigan for some time last Saturday. I don’t see a hot seat here at all. Schiano is doing as good of a job as possible especially this season and the risk is hiring another Chris Ash.
Brent Venables: It feels like after some rocky waters last season that the ship has been righted and Oklahoma is back in business. The Sooners are better than every team on their schedule other than Texas and that rivalry game can always go either way. Venables should be fine.
Justin Wilcox: Wilcox said after Washington blew Cal out on Saturday night that there would be “8,000 things” to address and fix moving forward. He might be underselling it. The Golden Bears are just stuck in first gear and after playing Auburn tough, they looked completely lost against Washington. The schedule doesn’t get much easier with Oregon State, Utah, USC, Oregon and Washington State all coming up in a row.
