re: Class of 2019 Recruiting MEGATHREAD: That's a Wrap Edition

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1. Derek Stingley Jr., LSU

After losing Patrick Surtain, who seemed like an LSU lock for months, down the stretch a year ago, the Tigers have been gifted another five-star cornerback to court. This time, the rare talent is in their own backyard. Stingley plays his high school football less than eight miles away from LSU’s campus, making landing the Rivals100 prospect a near necessity. Head coach Ed Orgeron can’t afford to let a truly elite corner walk out of Baton Rouge after squandering what seemed like a sure thing at the same position last cycle.

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3. Diwun Black or Nakobe Dean, Ole Miss

The deepest in-state class in years comes at a good time for new Ole Miss coach Matt Luke, who is tasked with rebuilding the program’s recruiting reputation following a scandalous stretch. There’s no better way to do such a thing than to land one or both of the state’s top two prospects. Dean already holds offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Florida State and others, so this will be no easy task. Black’s offer list isn’t much less distinguished, as USC, Tennessee, Mississippi State and Florida are all in pursuit. Luke is a player’s coach and should be in the mix for both. Finishing the cycle with neither would be a disappointment.

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Every time a major program loses a key recruit Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local, regional and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from 1-10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.

THE SITUATION

Rivals250 defensive lineman Hakeem Beamon had been North Carolina’s highest-ranked commitment before announcing his decommitment on Monday . Alabama, Clemson, South Carolina and Ohio State are at the top of his list right now, but other programs could also jump into the mix as his recruitment progresses.

LOCAL REACTION

UNC losing Beamon is big in that the program can't afford any negativity after last year's injury-riddled 3-9 campaign and a lot of late misses in the class of 2018. Plus, Beamon is from Virginia, a state the staff has been emphasizing again. The bottom line is UNC football needs positives, not negatives, and while losing Beamon came as no surprise to anyone, it's still a big blow. – Andrew Jones, TarHeelIllustrated.com

REGIONAL REACTION

Momentum is not on North Carolina’s side right now. Beamon was, by far, the highest-ranked prospect committed to the Tar Heels and now Larry Fedora and his staff need to fight out of this hole. To be fair, this couldn’t have been a surprise to the coaching staff because Beamon has been taking so many visits to other schools. They had to see it coming so, in theory, they should have been making moves to set up contingencies. – Rivals.com Mid-Atlantic analyst Adam Friedman

NATIONAL REACTION

Beamon was a key early commitment for UNC, a program that needs all the recruiting momentum it can get. This is a big-time prospect who had some major offers. UNC beat out some power players for his commitment, so to lose him really hurts. – Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell

WHAT'S NEXT?

Beamon named Alabama, Clemson, South Carolina and Ohio State his top schools and has visits to Alabama and Ohio State already lined up. He doesn’t have an offer from Clemson just yet but is setting up visits there and another one to South Carolina. Beamon wants to commit before the season but Virginia Tech and Penn State should play a role before then.

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Alabama offered three-star inside linebacker Drake Thomas on Wednesday night, the Wake Forest (N.C.) Heritage product reported on Twitter.

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