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The month-long sprint of June official visits came to a close last weekend, and as programs crossed the finish line, the final days of an intense period of the recruiting calendar brought another wave of commitments and news.
Here’s a look at all the major storylines from the past week in recruiting.
Note: All rankings are per the 247Sports Composite.
1. Four-star quarterback and top-200 prospect Antwann Hill, who plays for Houston County High School in Warner Robins, Ga., grabbed headlines this weekend when he committed to Memphis over Florida. It’s always news when a blue-chip prospect commits or signs with a Group of 5 school, especially when it’s a quarterback, and Hill would be one of the highest rated recruits in the program history (No. 182 overall) should he sign with the Tigers in December.
The last time a top-200 quarterback signed with a G5 program out of high school was the 2021 recruiting cycle, when then-AAC member SMU landed Preston Stone, the No. 111 overall prospect in that class. Here’s the full list of blue-chip quarterbacks who have picked G5 schools coming out of high school over the previous five recruiting cycles (2020-2024): Stone, Shedeur Sanders (Jackson State, 2021), Evan Prater (Cincinnati, 2020) and Mason Garcia (East Carolina, 2020).
Something like Hill’s commitment doesn’t happen every cycle. But will it become more common as time goes on?
Disclaimer: We’re not saying what follows is Hill’s motivation at all. But one of the best paths toward playing time at the Power 4 level (and the nice NIL pay day that comes with it) for a quarterback these days is proving yourself at the G5 level. The transfer market suggested as much this past year, while highly touted recruits who sat behind talented quarterbacks at P5 programs had to drop down to the G5.
Quarterbacks need to get snaps, and the clearest route to playing time comes at the G5 level. Hill opted for Memphis over Florida, which already has five-star quarterback DJ Lagway, who could hold down the starting role for at least two more years after this season.
2. Auburn completed an expected flip on Friday when it received a commitment from four-star in-state running back Alvin Henderson, who had been committed to Penn State for two months.
Henderson is the No. 113 overall prospect and the No. 11 player in the state of Alabama this cycle. His commitment pushed the Tigers’ class to fifth nationally and came a week after Auburn landed a commitment from top-100 prospect and four-star in-state safety Eric Winters.
There are 17 blue-chip prospects in the state of Alabama in the 2025 cycle. Auburn coach Hugh Freeze has landed commitments from six of them to Alabama’s four. This is one of the main reasons why Freeze was hired: to make the Tigers more competitive on the recruiting trail, where they fell behind during Bryan Harsin’s tenure.
3. Not that Alabama’s recruiting is hurting in any major way right now. Kalen DeBoer continues to build an impressive first full recruiting class as the Crimson Tide’s head coach. It was a big week for Alabama in the trenches. The Crimson Tide landed commitments from top-100 prospect and four-star in-state offensive lineman Micah DeBose, a former Georgia commit, along with four-star Northern California offensive lineman Jackson Lloyd, who was being pursued by Ohio State and USC, among others.
DeBoer’s teams at Washington received a lot of attention for Michael Penix Jr. and his dynamic receivers, but the offensive line was another major strength that helped guide the team to the national championship game. Now, he’s attempting to build a similar foundation up front at Alabama.
4. It was a good week for Tennessee’s offensive line recruiting efforts as well. On Monday, the Volunteers received a commitment from four-star Bishop Gorman offensive lineman Douglas Utu, a top-100 prospect who was pursued by Michigan, Alabama, Nebraska, Washington and several others.
Utu is one of the top-rated O-line prospects in the West and the second top-100 prospect in Tennessee’s class. On Thursday, the Volunteers notched a recruiting win in a territory much more familiar to them from four-star in-state offensive lineman Nic Moore.
Tennessee has added four commitments this month, which has pushed its class ranking to 12th nationally.
5. USC suffered some significant losses last week when blue-chip defensive linemen Isaiah Gibson and Justus Terry — two Georgia natives and top-50 prospects — decommitted on back-to-back days. They were two of the three highest rated players in the Trojans’ class.
After those setbacks, USC’s class fell from fringe top-five status to 18th. It always seemed like a pie-in-the-sky notion that the Trojans would sign two high-level defensive line recruits from the Southeast in one class when the program has never really done that before.
In the end, those doubts turned out to be justified. Lincoln Riley wants to recruit nationally, and that’s an admirable approach but a difficult one, especially when trying to rebuild a program. USC isn’t recruiting at an elite level nationally and isn’t prioritizing Southern California as much as previous staffs did, and frankly, it isn’t having the same success other staffs did in the region.
Five-star corner Dijon Lee is a Southern California product scheduled to commit this week, but USC is not among his list of finalists. Four-star linebacker Noah Mikhail commits this weekend, and the Trojans are definitely in the mix for him, but they’ve never seemed like the clear-cut favorite.
So Riley and USC have plenty of work to do for the rest of this cycle.
6. Georgia always loomed as a very serious threat to USC’s hold on Gibson and Terry. Unsurprisingly, Gibson announced his commitment to the Bulldogs on Monday afternoon.
The Bulldogs obviously have an excellent track record of sending defensive players to the NFL, particularly along the defensive front, and Gibson immediately becomes one of the top players in their class.
Earlier in the day, Georgia landed a commitment from four-star offensive lineman Dontrell Glover. The Bulldogs’ class is now 15 members deep. Fourteen of those commits are blue-chip prospects, and only one player is ranked outside the top-400 nationally.
7. LSU recently lost a commitment from four-star in-state corner Jaboree Antoine, the No. 61 overall player in the country, but it’s still difficult to argue that the Tigers didn’t have a good week. On Thursday, four-star Marion (Ark.) offensive lineman Carius Curne, the No. 109 overall prospect and former Arkansas commit, gave a verbal pledge to LSU, which now has commitments from three top-150 OL prospects in this cycle.
On Saturday, four-star Robinson (Tampa, Fla.) edge rusher and the No. 120 overall prospect LaJesse Harrold committed to the Tigers.
It had been a relatively quiet June for LSU heading into last week, but those are two strong commitments for a class that now ranks ninth nationally. The average player rating for the Tigers’ 12 commits is 93.71, which is the second-best mark in the country.
8. The 2026 quarterback dominoes continue to fall, particularly in Southern California. On Friday, four-star Downey (Calif.) quarterback Oscar Rios committed to Purdue. On Saturday, four-star Newbury Park (Calif.) quarterback Brady Smigiel committed to Florida State.
Smigiel is the No. 53 prospect in the 2026 cycle. Not too far behind him is Narbonne (Harbor City, Calif.) quarterback Jaden O’Neal, who is ranked 64th overall. On Monday, O’Neal announced his commitment to Oklahoma.
Six of the top-10 quarterbacks in the Class of 2026 are now committed.
9. For the first time in a few months, Colorado and Deion Sanders have received a commitment for the 2025 class. Four-star Lipscomb Academy (Nashville) offensive lineman Chauncey Gooden pledged to the Buffaloes on Monday morning. There was a lot of discussion about the ineffectiveness of the Buffaloes’ offensive line last season, so any addition of blue-chip talent is noteworthy for the program.
Gooden is only the fourth commit in the class, though, and just the second blue-chip prospect in addition to four-star corner Alex Graham. Sanders and Colorado signed a small high school class last cycle and it seems likely he’ll do so again this cycle.
10. There was some more recruiting movement in the Big Ten over the past week. Ohio State received a commitment from four-star edge rusher and top-100 prospect Zion Grady on Monday. Grady, the No. 6 overall player in the state of Alabama, is the second top-100 prospect the Buckeyes have landed from the state, along with five-star corner Na’eem Offord. Ohio State’s class is still No. 1 nationally.
Penn State has picked up three blue-chip commitments since Saturday. The wave started with four-star Imhotep Institute (Philadelphia) running back Jabree Wallace-Coleman committing on Saturday. A day later, four-star edge rusher Cortez Harris, a Maryland native, committed to the Nittany Lions. And Monday, Penn State went into Texas and landed a pledge from four-star edge rusher Max Granville. That was the sort of recruiting the Nittany Lions needed after decommitments from Henderson and four-star linebacker D.J. McClary, a New Jersey native, who flipped to Rutgers.
Michigan’s class is coming together after a slow start. On Monday, IMG Academy running back Donovan Johnson and four-star Archbishop Shaw (Marrero, La.) wideout Jacob Washington committed to the Wolverines.
Michigan has added seven commitments this month to a class that is ranked 15th in the nation.
Elsewhere …
• From a blue-chip perspective, it’s been a slow month for the Florida ACC schools, but both Miami and Florida State jumped into the fray this past week. Miami landed a commitment from four-star Miami Central (Fla.) corner Amari Wallace last Thursday, while Florida State earned a pledge from Greene County (Greensboro, Ga.) four-star defensive lineman Kevin Wynn. The Seminoles have just five commitments in this class and rank 66th nationally. The Hurricanes are sitting outside the top 25 of the team rankings as well, at No. 32.
• BYU landed the first blue-chip commitment of its class from four-star Sultana (Hesperia, Calif.) receiver Lamason Waller, whose future is likely at receiver even though he’s listed as an athlete.
• South Carolina, Mississippi State and Oklahoma State all added four-star prospects to their class in the past week. The Gamecocks and Bulldogs both went in-state to land those prospects: Four-star edge rusher Jaquavious Dodd committed to South Carolina, and blue-chip offensive lineman Mario Nash Jr. committed to Mississippi State. Oklahoma State received a commitment from four-star defensive lineman Michael Riles, who hails from Port Arthur, Texas.
• Washington has moved up nearly 30 spots in the team rankings from the start of the month, a rise built upon eight June commitments. Four-star athlete Jonathan Epperson, who might project at linebacker down the road, committed on Monday and gave the Huskies’ their third blue-chip commit of the cycle.
(Photo: Justin Ford / Getty Images)
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Courtesy : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5588593/2024/06/25/college-football-recruiting-antwaan-hill/