Who Won National Signing Day

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 Who won National Signing Day?

February 2nd, 2022, National Signing Day. Colleges across the country waited in anticipation as
high school seniors make their next step into where they will not only get their education for the
next four year, but also their playing careers. College football in today's day in age is best
described as the wild west. Free land, no restrictions and a whole lot of surprises. Many of them
already happened months before Signing Day. Either it came from new coaches leaving for more
promising deals, or the number one talent in the 2022 recruiting class making a historic flip to a
HBCU. It has been two weeks since Signing Day, and even though it is too soon to really tell
who are the losers and winners of National Signing Day, here are my takes on who took
advantage of the day and who took a step back behind their expectations.

Winners: Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Jackson State
Oklahoma: The University of Oklahoma’s football program in the past few months had not been in the
best of moods as they struggled to grasp a control of the football program's talent after Lincoln Rileys
departure from the Sooner state. Following Riley to Southern Cal included a majority of his coaching
staff and three major transfer players. One of those transfers was quarterback Caleb Williams, the five-
star talent that was considered to many as the best quarterback in college football today. New head coach
Brent Venables and his new staff was foreshadowed to not have a successful signing day, like most first-
year coaches do. However, they actually did well signing multiple 4-star talent, getting in quality transfer
players and even brought home-state talent cornerback Gentry Williams. Williams, according to
247sports.com, was seen as the number one player in the state of Oklahoma. Despite the Sooners losing a
lot of quality guys on and off the field, they managed to be 8th in national rankings for the 2022 signing
year. A small improvement from last year's class ranking being 10th in the nation.
Texas A&M: Before anything you must know, Jimbo has been building something special at
Texas A&M. Coming off another winning season as the Aggies head coach, they also continue
to win in the battlefields of SEC recruitment. 29 commits signed pen to paper on National
Signing Day. A signing class that included multiple 5-star recruits, 14 top five players in their
position and the number two prospect in the nation, Walter Nolen. Nolen, a 6’4 defensive
lineman out of Powell, Tennessee, shows unique skills as he has playmaking speed off the line,
violent hands and is capable of being a standout talent as he can compete at a high-major level
with speed, despite the fact that he weighs 325 pounds. According to 247sports.com, Nolen
became the most highly recruited commit in Aggies history with a rating of 0.9998 five-star. To
compare that with past Aggie commits, NFLs first pick in the 2017 Draft, edge rusher Myles
Garrett, was a 0.9993 five-star recruit for the Aggies. With that being said, Texas A&M beat out

Alabama for the number one recruitment class of 2022 and could be considered as the best
recruiting class of all time in college football. No surprise from me, as I said before, Jimbo is
building something special.
Jackson State: The power of Deion Sanders is something to fear in modern day college
football. In his first season as the head coach of the Jackson State Tigers, an HBCU school in
Mississippi, he elevated the team to national attention. Sanders and the Tigers went 11-2 for the
2021 season, winning 8-0 against conference competition in the SWAC. Now, despite them
ending the 2022 recruiting season ranked 118th in the nation according to 247sports.com,
Jackson State has recruited the best talent they have ever seen in program history in the past two
years. This of course includes this year's most shocking twist of the Tigers signing the number
one prospect in the nation, Travis Hunter. Hunter, a five-star talented cornerback out of the state
of Georgia, was expected to sign with the Florida State Seminoles on his singing day. However,
in the most thetriatic style, Travis Hunter decided to sign with Jackson State over FSU, Alabama
and other top CFB programs. Many people are still trying to puzzle why Travis Hunter made the
decision that he did. Was it NIL based? Was it because he will get to learn from one of the best
corners in the game's history in Deion Sanders? We might never get a true answer, but one thing
is certain. Coach Sanders is giving HBCU schools back the attention they deserve. Bringing in
the best talent of the future can only foreshadow that a HBCU school will produce first round
NFL talent soon and quickly. Jackson State is in for a good four years of football.

Losers: Florida State, Auburn, and Nebraska
Florida State: The Seminoles fan base was preparing to celebrate a successful signing class for
2022. A couple of five-star talents projected to sign, projected to have the best recruiting class in
the state of Florida and even projected to sign the number one talent in the 2022 class in
cornerback Travis Hunter. However, if you're reading this now, you probably can already see
that none of this happened. Florida State never did sign a single five-star player, ended up ranked
as 20th in the nation for the 2022 signing class and missed out on Travis Hunter as he
embarrassed the Seminoles on national television choosing an HBCU school over a power 5
school on CBS. Even though they still got good talent in the multiple four-star recruits that make
up a majority of their 2022 class, it was missing the expectations that they had for the 2022 class
that really got under the skin of the FSU fans. The Seminoles were supposed to beat Miami and
Florida in recruitment but somehow lost as Florida, even though they had a bad signing class
compared to the prospects they had in play, ended up being 16th in the national recruiting
rankings for 2022 due to Billy Napier changing the program at last second. A few months prior
to February, the Gators were ranked at 70th. An insane jump in recruitment that compared to
Florida State was a big spit in the face to the FSU fan base who was looking for a top 10 class

that they haven't had since 2018 according to 247sports.com. FSU has been on a gradual decline
in recruiting for a while now, but now it’s getting noticeable.
Auburn: The Auburn Tigers, despite being ranked 19th in the nation for National Signing Day
according to 247sports.com, didn't have a signing class that they wanted. On National Signing
Day, Auburn actually didn’t sign anybody new. According to auburnwire.usatoday.com, every
member of the Tigers class already signed during the early signing period in December. Auburn
lost more than they gained this year as 18 players transferred out of the university and five-star
recruits who had interest in Auburn decided to go elsewhere. Including five-star running back
TreVonte’ Citizens who signed for the Miami Hurricanes, and one of the biggest targets on
Auburn's list. Even though Auburn became another example of how having a new head coach
during recruit signing season causes talent to go away, it doesn't excuse the fact that coach Bryan
Harsin and Auburn couldn’t recruit as a program in the SEC. They finished 9th in the SEC in this
year's recruiting class out of 14 teams. A university who prides themselves on their football
program found nothing to celebrate on signing day. More or less, I think the average Auburn fan
might rather be looking forward to the basketball team in March Madness than opening day for
football.
Nebraska: The state of Nebraska football right now might as well be in consideration for being
placed into panic mode. After a 3-9 2021 season from the Cornhuskers, Scott Frost and his
recruitment staff found themselves in a horrible persuasive position. “ Hey, would you like to
play in the middle of the country as we will look to get destroyed by a majority of the Big-10”
was most likely on every recruits mind when considering signing with Nebraska. For that reason,
they fell from last year's rankings in recruitment. According to 247sports.com, they ranked 41st
nationally and 10th in the Big-Ten. The previous year, they ranked 20th nationally and were 5th
in the Big-Ten. The only positive thing I can see out of their 2022 class is that they were able to
get the number one prospected running back from a Junior College in Anthony Grant out of
New Mexico Military Institute. Out of all those players who signed coming out of high school
for Nebraska, only two of them were 4-stars.

 

Written by- Brandon Hernandez