re: Class of 2018 Recruiting MEGATHREAD: So Long Old Friend Edition

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The Mind of Mike is a scary place so why not pick it during the first ever Early Signing Period. Here are his thoughts on the day.

Georgia landed two powerful offensive linemen in Jamaree Salyer and Cade Mays and they could form a road-grading left or right side of the UGA line for a few years. Throw in Trey Hill and you have arguably the best 1-2-3 punch at offensive line in the country. The Bulldogs are the clear winner of the day after they also added defensive end Brenton Cox, defensive back Divaad Wilson (a Florida flip) and linebacker Channing Tindall, kept running back James Cook in the fold and flipped Alabama defensive back commitment Nadab Joseph. Kirby Smart is quickly moving into elite company as a recruiter. Joseph’s sudden flip from ‘Bama is probably the most surprising event of the day. I can’t stress how dominant UGA was.

Jackson Carman to Clemson is one of the biggest surprises of the day as most expected him to sign with Ohio State. He and his mother loved their Clemson visit but how often do you see a five-star kid from Ohio spurn Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes to head out of state? Not often. This is the reason Dabo Swinney is one of the best recruiters in college football. Adding K.J. Henry to the defensive line was also key for the Tigers, as he's another five-star talent who will keep the program's defensive line tradition rolling. And let’s not overlook running back Lyn-J Dixon, a former Tennessee commitment, who also chose Clemson on Wednesday. He may only be a three-star recruit, but so was Travis Etienne and we saw how well he did this season for the Tigers. Don’t undervalue the scouting ability of the Clemson offensive staff.

Emory Jones' commitment to the Florida Gators could be the most important one of the day. Dan Mullen needs a quality quarterback after the Gators had whiffed on Justin Fields (Georgia) and lost Matt Corral (Ole Miss) and he also needed a leader. Jones fits the bill on both accounts. The Ohio State decommitment was once thought to be an Alabama lean and then Florida State made a strong push but the Gators held on and Mullen has his man. Florida added two key pieces of the puzzle with Jones and defensive back Trey Dean, two guys they really needed to close on. I think Florida recruiting will take a step up under Mullen.

Has there been a bigger re-commitment this year than that of Micah Parsons? The five-star defender decided to stick with Penn State in the end. He is as disruptive as any player in this class and will be a monster for the Nittany Lions. Georgia came on late and Oklahoma impressed but Penn State did a great job here. Parsons is the prospect Ohio State had to back off due to a recruiting violation but it probably wouldn’t have mattered. James Franklin locked this one up again as Parsons had been previously committed to the Nittany Lions once before.

Ohio State had a day that can be looked at in two different ways. The Buckeyes finished the day near the top of the heap in the team rankings and signed pretty much everyone they had committed, but they did lose out on Carman to Clemson, Jones bolted for Florida and Jaiden Woodbey was still up in the air as 9 p.m. ET and likely to decommit as well according to sources. That’s unusual for Urban Meyer. Ohio State did flip wide receiver Cameron Brown from Nebraska which was nice, but I guess I’m just not used to seeing Meyer lose a couple of key battles. Dropping from No. 1 to No. 2 in the team rankings won’t make anyone cry, but it just had an odd feel to it.

Anthony Cook’s commitment to Texas is a big one and gives the Longhorns arguably the best defensive back class in the country. A long-time lean to Ohio State, more recently this had come down to LSU and Texas with the Tigers having the momentum at different times. Now Tom Herman has Texas landing the top player in state for the first time since 2011 and the Longhorns now have the top six players in the Lone Star state on their commitment list. That’s impressive.

Christian Barmore to Alabama started the day nicely for the Tide. This kid is all upside, a prospect who was being recruited (barely) as an offensive lineman who found a home at defensive tackle. He could be a star in the interior down the road for Alabama. Barmore is athletic as all get out. When you add him with five-star defensive end Eyabi Enoma, Alabama landed the best defensive line 1-2 punch of the day in my opinion.

Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt was busy between trying to get kids to sign with the Vols and coaching up the Alabama defense for the playoff but he managed to pull off one big surprise by landing JUCO star tight end Dominick Wood-Anderson. Wood-Anderson was thought to be an Alabama lean before he committed to Texas and then again to be a ‘Bama lean before choosing the Vols. He’s been compared by some insiders at Alabama to O.J. Howard, the former Tide star tight end and first-round draft pick and he should make an instant impact.

Ole Miss added some needed speed in Elijiah Moore as he flipped from Georgia to the Rebels. This was a great get by Matt Luke. Jalen Cunningham, a four-star defensive end, was expected to wait until February and take visits but he decided to sign with Ole Miss as well, another great get. Despite the sanctions, Luke is showing that Ole Miss isn’t about to lay over and quit on the recruiting trail. Quite the opposite actually.

Byron Cowart doesn’t count as a recruit in the class of 2018 because he’s a pure transfer who didn’t stop over and play at a JUCO, but it’s still big news that he signed with Maryland to try to resurrect his career. The former No. 1 player in the 2015 class has been a flop so far in his career and barely cracked the lineup at Auburn. Can he live up to his impressive potential in College Park? Time will tell.

It was important for Kansas to keep defensive back Corione Harris who was rumored to be flipping to Mississippi State and joining friend and ex-Kansas commitment Devonta Jason.

Iowa landed a key commitment from Dallas Craddieth. The Hawkeyes do as good a job at scouting and developing defensive backs as anyone in the country lately. They aren’t pushing for DBU or anything like that, but they rarely whiff at that position.

So what do I think of the Early Signing Period and is it here to stay? Overall, it has to be considered an overwhelming success with so many kids signing on the first day and it will likely steal the thunder of the February Signing Period moving forward. I’d like to see it placed a bit earlier - August would be my choice - to remove it from the coaches carousel, bowl practices and early enrollment but overall it went off without incident and seems to be a good thing for college football. It will change the way schools need to recruit, especially in the month of December, but they will adjust as they do to every new rule. And the Early Signing Period means a lot fewer surprises and less pomp and circumstance, although that will change as this becomes the main event next year and beyond.

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WHAT DOES NICK SABAN HAVE IN STORE?

Nick Saban has been critical of the Early Signing Period for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the biggest is that there are now far fewer top-tier recruits for him to try and snatch just before the February deadline. Of course, it has gone the other way as well, where prospects have considered themselves part of the Tide’s class up until the moment of truth, when Saban’s plentiful options gave him his pick of top-ranked capable players, leaving a few players to have to consider alternate options. Alabama now sits in the sixth spot in the rankings after Wednesday, with six players not yet confirmed to send in their letters of intent, and it’s all but guaranteed that Alabama won’t win its seventh recruiting title in the last eight years. Perhaps Saban has some tricks up his sleeve, but he’ll no doubt approach next season with different expectations for the Early Signing Period than he did this year.

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So Adam Anderson was that kid that Bone fricked the visit up for huh...

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rumor is Jones has qualifying problems

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The first December signing day came and went Wednesday with 15 letters of intent arriving in Tuscaloosa.

Alabama picked up two commitments and lost another to Georgia.

Now what?

The seismic shift in the recruiting calendar leaves 48 days before the traditional signing period begins Feb. 7. How it all plays out is a good question for Nick Saban.

"I can't tell you because I've never done it before," Saban said Wednesday. "I just know there's a lot of stuff going on here right now, trying to prepare for a playoff game, trying to recruit. The intensity of recruiting in December and the schedule is much more hectic and much more difficult relative to trying to see more players that you thought were going to sign at midyear, or sign early, maybe even if they weren't midyear guys.

"It's different. I would say now that we're going to recruit the rest of this recruiting cycle pretty much like it's been in the past. It's just going to be a smaller pool of players. But I can't answer the question because I have no experience with this."

The Crimson Tide is currently No. 6 in the 247Sports team rankings of this class.

Alabama has room for eight more members of the 2018 class after landing 15 on Wednesday. It has three unsigned commits in four-star linebacker Quay Walker, three-star athlete Vernon Jackson and three-star tight end Michael Parker.

Quarterback is another issue to address. Every signing class has included a passer, though none signed Wednesday. Alabama took a swing at Emory Jones who flipped his Ohio State pledge for a Florida signing Wednesday.

Almost every top pro-style and dual-threat quarterback is already signed, though four-star James Foster of Montgomery is still available.

"We have tried to recruit a quarterback and we're going to continue to try to do that," Saban said. "If we can get somebody that we feel can be a positive in the organization, we would like to get a quarterback. I would always like to have four on the roster. That may or may not be possible. We'll have to make that decision based on how recruiting continues to go."

Alabama currently has three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster in sophomore Jalen Hurts and true freshmen Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones.

Saban also said they'd continue to pursue more defensive backs to sign in February. Alabama is "probably going to lose five, maybe more" from the secondary, Saban said, with Ronnie Harrison and Minkah Fitzpatrick draft eligible and first-round prospects.

"Whether that's going to be possible or not, I don't know," Saban said. "I know that we're recruiting several other guys are very good players that may be able to contribute to it. We feel really good about the three players that we got today that are DBs. We think they're all really good athletes, really good players. Jalyn-Armour Davis is a really skilled guy. Saivion Smith is here and practicing and we can see with our own eyes that he's going to be a good player. Josh Jobe was one of the target guys we've had all year long.

"Like I said, there are still other guys out there that we think are very good that could help us in the secondary as well."

The nation's top three cornerbacks remain uncommitted in Patrick Surtain Jr., Isaac Taylor-Stuart and Tyson Campbell along with No. 4 safety Kelvin Joseph.

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