Ad Disclosure
We might not know what exactly to expect from the first Early Signing Period, but we should at least have an idea of what to watch for.
The Early Signing Period will kick off on Wednesday, and likely with no shortage of criticism. Some will love it, many will hate it and the rest of us will be trying to decipher if the positives outweigh the negatives. There are plenty of things worth watching for.
These are my top five:
1. Can Ohio State finish the week No. 1?
By Friday, there’s a decent chance that the Buckeyes have the vast majority of the No. 1 class in America signed. Heading into the Early Signing Period, OSU has the No. 1 spot despite the fact that blue chip quarterback Emory Jones dropped his commitment, as did 5-star defensive end Brenton Cox.
Besides just seeing how much of OSU’s class signs, it’ll be interesting to see how many more elite recruits the Buckeyes wind up with. We know that 5-star defensive end Micah Parsons is out of the picture after OSU’s self-reported NCAA violation, and 5-star Cade Mays isn’t likely to pick OSU over Clemson or Georgia.
But the 247sports crystal ball does favor OSU to land 5-star in-state lineman Jackson Carman, and 4-star defensive end Tyreke Smith could join the Buckeyes’ class when he commits in a couple weeks.
Georgia will be hot on OSU’s trail for the top spot, and surely Tom Herman wouldn’t mind grabbing No. 1 from his former team. Either way, it’s looking like Alabama will finally not have the top-ranked class in America for the first time since 2010.
2. What happens with Micah Parsons?
The aforementioned 5-star recruit won’t be going to Ohio State. That much we know. Does that mean he’s a lock to sign with Penn State?
The 247sports crystal ball still has Parsons as a 96 percent favorite to sign with Penn State, though that doesn’t guarantee anything. The former PSU commit officially opened up his recruitment back in April after he gave his verbal pledge to the Lions after his sophomore season. And, you know, he posts things like this the day before his announcement:
Parsons isn’t waiting long, either. He’s expected to announce his decision at 1 a.m. ET. If Penn State fends off Georgia and Oklahoma, the Lions will be in good shape to lock down their first top 5 class of the James Franklin era.
3. Scott Frost’s late push
One of the negatives of this Early Signing Period is that new coaches are faced with even less time to assemble a staff and salvage a recruiting class. For coaches who make it to a conference championship at their previous school like Frost, that task looks nearly impossible.
He was basically starting from scratch after Nebraska lost all of Mike Riley’s Calibraska recruits. Even longtime in-state commit Cameron Jurgens took a visit to LSU after Riley was fired. Jurgens, however, is expected to sign with Nebraska.
The question is how many out-of-state kids Frost can get this late in the game. Nebraska’s class rose up to No. 45 after falling outside of the top 50, but it’s unknown how many of Frost’s targets are waiting to sign until February. Four-star safety Cam’ron Jones could be one of those guys, as could Joshua Moore, who de-committed from Nebraska after Riley was fired.
Frost probably hasn’t slept much with all the recruiting he’s been doing the past couple weeks. We’ll see how easy he sleeps after Friday.
4. Jim Harbaugh is going to do something…right?
By the Harbaugh standard — which is sleepovers and high dives — it’s been a relatively quiet recruiting cycle for the Michigan coach. A lot of the unique things he did to win recruiting battles seem to have been put on the back burner.
Which is exactly what he wants us to think, right?
I’m waiting for Harbaugh to jump out of a plane or maybe play one-on-one hoops to land a recruit. While the Early Signing Period all but rules out that possibility in the next few days, perhaps Harbaugh will crank things up another notch if Michigan doesn’t sign the majority of its class.
Part of the reason Harbaugh is having a bit of a quieter recruiting season probably stems from the fact that Michigan’s scholarship numbers were going to be limited after signing classes of 30 and 26 the last two years.
The Wolverines are still in the mix for 5-star defensive end Eyabi Anoma and they’re expected to land 4-star defensive tackle Tyler Friday from New Jersey. How many more blue chip recruits will Harbaugh sign?
We don’t know, but if we do know Harbaugh, he won’t stay quiet forever.
5. Fleck’s Finish
So remember when P.J. Fleck got hired, offered a billion scholarships and subsequently irked everyone in the B1G West? Well, we’re about to see if that comes back to bite or help Fleck. With 26 verbal commitments, it’s hard to envision a scenario in which Minnesota undersigns in Fleck’s first full cycle.
But yeah, there will be plenty of people watching to see how many recruits sign with the Gophers this week. We know their gigantic IMG duo will sign, as will No. 1 JUCO dual-threat quarterback Victor Viramontes, but what about the rest of the class? Will Fleck wind up with the most signed recruits of any B1G school by week’s end?
And if that does happen, what does that mean for the Gophers’ recruiting efforts in January? They probably won’t have many spots left. That could make for some tough scholarship decisions from the coaching staff if and when that time comes.
Either way, it’s looking like Fleck is in prime position to land a top-30 or even a top-25 class. When was the last time that happened at Minnesota? Never.
That’s not a bad start to the Fleck era.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.