Ill Play There

By: Jason Bishop

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

National Early Signing Day has come and gone for college football and here is what the top 10 looked like:

 

1.Texas A&M

2.Alabama

3.Georgia

4.Ohio State

5.Texas

6.Penn State

7.Notre Dame

8.North Carolina

9.Michigan

10.Oklahoma

Here are some of my take aways from National Early Signing Day:

Texas A&M-This is Jimbo Fisher’s first #1 class, however A&M has consistently been in the top 10 over the last few years. This has not translated into being relevant in the National Championship picture or even in the SEC West.

Notre Dame and Oklahoma-Both of these programs did well to finish in the top 10, considering they both lost their head coaches weeks before National Early Signing Day.

North Carolina-The Tar Heels once again finished inside the Top 10, second straight year. Possibly a rising ACC power?

Kentucky-The Wildcats finished with the 11th class in the country. Yes, you read that right, 11th! Kentucky is making a case to replace Florida as the second-best team in the SEC East.

Florida State and Tennessee-Two blue bloods hoping to wake up the echoes. Their recruiting classes will help. FSU finished 13th and Tennessee 14th.

Clemson-The Tigers were a perennial Top 5 program when it came to recruiting for a decade. Looks like the guard is changing in the ACC as the Tigers finished 17th.

Georgia Tech-The Yellow Jackets have recruited well the last few years under Geoff Collins, without a lot of wins to show for it. Tech finished 25th last year, but dipped to 41 this season. A bad omen for Geoff Collins.

UCF and Cincinnati-These two soon-to-be Big 12 teams have been the flies in the ointment of the college football playoff and you would think that would translate to better recruiting classes, it hasn’t. Cincinnati finished 38th and UCF 42nd.

Vanderbilt-Something must be in the water in Nashville as the Commodores netted a top 40 class for the first time in… who knows how long. 38th

Florida-The Gators’ dumpster fire only gets worse. The mighty Gators ended up with the 50th ranked class in the country. New Hire Billy Napier was left with a mess. Recruit after recruit decommitted from the swamp. Good luck, Billy.

Miami-Another big mess to clean up in the state of Florida. Mario Cristobal will have his work cut out for him too. The Hurricanes finished 62nd.

USC-The mighty Trojans finished with only 6 commits. SIX! Good enough for 81st.

Georgia State-The Panthers must get credit. They cracked the top 100 with the 84th class. This program keeps getting better.

Georgia Southern-The Eagles must improve from being outside of the top 100 to compete. They reeled in the 109th class.