Randy Smith
I can honestly can say that I don't like the early signing periods in college football. It comes too close to Christmas and takes some of the luster off the real signing day festivities on the first Wednesday in February. Oh I can see the benefits to college teams by having a good portion of their recruiting wrapped up before Christmas, but I still think it was better before the NCAA opened up December 18, 19 and 20 for student athletes to make the choices and sign on the dotted line.
According to USA Today, the Tennessee Volunteers have the number 19 rated class for 2020 heading into tomorrow.
The Vols have nine four-star and seven three-star recruits so far, which is pretty good. But that list of commitments is only eighth in the SEC. Eight of the top 20 recruiting classes in the country are from the SEC with three of the top five and six of the top 10 schools from there as well. Of course, the rich keep getting richer. Alabama and Clemson are the top two with LSU third, Ohio State fourth and Texas A&M rounding out the top five. The Aggies seem to be having Jimbo Fisher's best group since he took over in College Station two years ago and Alabama is......well, being Alabama.
The Crimson Tide has the top-rated class in the nation for 2020 so far with 24 total commitments, including five five-stars, 14 four-star players and three three-star commits. That's impressive. So is Florida, which is ranked sixth. Dan Mullen is having a great recruiting season at the end of his second season at Florida and he was only two or three great players away from seriously challenging Georgia in the SEC East in 2019.
While the true college powers continue to rake in the nation's top prospects, the other college programs are forced to take whatever is left - the scraps from the table so to speak, though the scraps being tossed down from the top 10 are really pretty good. For instance, Tennessee has as the Vols' top prospect so far four-star quarterback Harrison Bailey from Marietta, Georgia. Bailey led his Blue Devils squad to a state championship last week with a 17-9 win over Lowndes High from Valdosta. Bailey, who stands 6-5 and weighs 224 pounds, is one of the best quarterback prospects in the country and I'm sure that Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt is looking forward to getting Bailey in camp.
So tomorrow when the names start cropping up on the dotted lines just remember we do this all over again in less than two months.
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Randy Smith can be reached at rsmithsports@epbfi.com