Top recruits shutting down recruitment ahead of Early Signing Period
December is commonly the most dramatic month to cover college football recruiting, and the first week and change this year has proved it true once again. However, not every recruit is taking multiple visits and/or flirting with other programs just ahead of the Early Signing Period.
Over the last week or so, many top recruits in the SEC and ACC footprint have gone the other way with their recruitments -- shutting them down. Those reinforcing their status with a given program often has a ripple effect both for the program they're on board with and those in pursuit.
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One of the biggest risers in this week's updated Rivals250, Odom is the type of offensive mismatch every program could utilize in this day and age. While committed to Alabama since the summer, Ole Miss was steady in its pursuit of a flip and even hosted Odom for a visit late in the regular season. Following conference championship weekend, however, Odom went public with plans to shut down his recruitment and quell any expectation he wouldn't be signing with Nick Saban and company later this month.
Multiple programs have continued to pursue Beaman despite an early commitment to Saban and in-state Alabama. Visits to multiple programs went down during the college football season, but the trips to Auburn became congruent with some buzz around the Tigers potentially pulling off another flip of an Alabama recruit. Additional trips to the Plains were under consideration, but following an in-home visit from Saban and Freddie Roach during the week, Beaman went public with his recruitment being shut down. Iron Bowl battles will ware on down the stretch, but the defensive lineman won't be a part of it, he says.
Another longtime commitment challenged during the season, Robinson made in-season official visits to both Ohio State and Ole Miss in the month of November. At one point, the Buckeyes looked like a true threat for Robinson to consider a switch, but Robinson quelled the rumors coming out of Thanksgiving weekend with plans to stick with The U. To kick off the first week of December, Miami had several coaches in the Robinson household to all but wrap up this contested recruitment.
This one is bigger than many realize. On Friday evening, a day after winning a third-straight state championship for Hollywood (Fla.) Chaminade-Madonna, Bailey came out and said he was "locked in" to NC State. He has been committed to the Wolfpack since March, but local Miami offered him a scholarship on November 19 and there are many of his Lions teammates already on board with the hometown program. The offer was also linked to No. 1 overall recruit Jeremiah Smith, Bailey's top passing target for quite literally the majority of his football life thus far. Bailey preceded the newsworthy post of him in NC State gear a few hours earlier.
Another hometown versus longtime commitment situation came to a close on Friday with Tennessee pledge Braylon Staley. The football and track star is from South Carolina and has felt the heat from the in-state Gamecocks for quite some time, but he had a mock signing ceremony where he signed a National Letter of Intent to Tennessee. His father confirmed his shut down status shortly thereafter. It proves timely for UT in the flip game, as the Staley news came shortly after longtime tight end commitment Jonathan Echols flipped from UT to USF.