HILLIARD, Ohio – Only a handful of participants at Sunday’s Rivals 3 Stripe Camp presented by adidas had already made their commitments. Three-star quarterback Sam Johnson III would announce his to Boston College a day later, but here are predictions on a few more participants and where they could land.
MORE RCS COLUMBUS: Ten prospects now on recruiting radar | The Helmholdt Awards | Five teams with buzz | Helmholdt's takeaways | Prospects earning their stripes | Full Rivals Camp Series schedule
The situation: After having significant recruiting success in the state of Ohio during the Mark Stoops’ era, Kentucky has started to expand its presence even deeper into the Midwest. It found success in Michigan during the 2018 class, landing a pair of top 10 prospects from the Great Lakes State. Grant was supposed to make his commitment the weekend of May 5, and the expectation was Kentucky was the likely pick. That decision was postponed and official visits are expected to be taken to Iowa State, Kentucky and Purdue in the coming week. The Wildcats still look to be the team to beat, but watch out for Purdue.
The pick: Kentucky
The situation: Before the camp on Sunday, Devonshire listed Indiana, Ohio State and West Virginia as the three schools he talks to regularly. Ohio State has always been a dream school for him and he's visited the Columbus campus countless times, but West Virginia has built a very solid pipeline to Devonshire's high school and the Mountaineers aren't going to give up here. Meanwhile, Indiana helped itself with a better-than-expected recent visit. Devonshire is expected to camp at Ohio State this summer and this prediction could change based on outcome of that performance. For now, West Virginia looks like the likely landing spot.
The pick: West Virginia
The situation: This is a unique situation because Briggs is a unique recruit. He legitimately had no interest in college football growing up. He never watched it and never was initiated into the pageantry and tradition of the sport until he became a college recruit. So, the built-in biases many kids have toward blueblood programs coming into the recruiting process do not really exist with Briggs.
The other unique aspect of this recruitment is that Briggs does not plan to get serious about it until next fall, and that may cause a few schools to move on. Cincinnati will recruit Briggs hard to the end, both of his parents are alums of the school and Luke Fickell has already shown his ability to keep local four-star talent at home. Do not be surprised if he does it again here.
The pick: Cincinnati
The situation: More than 20 schools, representing four of the five power conferences, have offered Fletcher and official visits are upcoming to Kentucky, Wisconsin and Michigan in the next six weeks. However, none of those schools were the one Fletcher grew up rooting for. None were called the “dream offer” when they came through, and none have their offer announcement pinned at the top of his Twitter profile. Michigan State is all of those things, and Fletcher played up a May 7 visit to East Lansing with his grandmother that he would call an “amazing time.” This decision is supposed to get done this summer, and the Spartans look tough to beat.
The pick: Michigan State
