Welcome to the solid verbal.
Holl that for me. I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy.
You want to be happy for a day a of steak?
Is that?
Whoo whoo and them and tie hey, everybody, and welcome to the solid verbal. And it is. It's not signing day, but it's not only early so it's kind of signing day, but it's signing period. But there's an official signing day in early February. I don't know. I don't know if anybody truly actually knows. But in instances like this, when we bring on Brandon Hoffman, that's just what we do from twenty four to seven sports two four seven or twenty four to seven, twenty four to seven works.
I feel like that's what I do, is do this recruiting gig twenty four day? How many days? Seven days in the week, twenty four See, that's that's what it is. Now your saving period.
Yep, it's a signing period. We are recording this the day after you have eaten, slept, and presumably drank recruiting for these past few hours. He's showing off his coffee mug. If you're watching the video version of this. Okay, so it's Jackson State and Travis Hunter is the headline because of how unusual and knew that situation is coupled with how nil has begun in college football. Did you have any inkling leading up that this was a possibility? Was
this anything on your radar whatsoever? And when you saw it? What was your reaction?
So I got this question asked a couple times yesterday. It's just the biggest shocker. I mean, it doesn't even have any competition. The closest I could imagine and think of was when the Anthony Thomas flip from USC to Oregon in twenty eleven. That was you know, there was
still three days. I think there was the Sunday the legendary message board post of the guy who saw him at the airport coming back from a visit, and then over the next couple of days there was a lot of talking is the Anthony Thomas going to go to organ or to stick with you a c That was big. The next year, I remember Deontay Greenberry flipping from Notre
Dame to Houston on signing day. You know, d Anthony Thomas, he was the number one player on the West Coast, and at the time Oregon was a month off of playing for the National title s he was still in probation,
so that makes sense. The next year, Deontay Greenberry leaving Notre Dame, which you know, Brian Kelly hadn't quite gotten it going Houston was just coming off of Kevin Sutherland's big season when he went to A and M. Still, it made a little bit of sense when the first text that we got in our group thread yesterday about Jackson State potentially being where Travis Hunter ended up and that he had scrubbed Florida State from Did I just say President State.
Sorry, Florida State? Yeah, this season, Yeah, he.
Had scrubbed the Florida State stuff from his Instagram, So of course I'm an old guy. I go to Twitter, there were still Florida State stuff there. Then all of a sudden you started to see it really taking over social media. Five ten minutes later, the first I think Steve Wilcom finally mentioned it on CDs Sports HQ, and that's when it became real. Yeah, it took a go, you know, a good thirty forty minutes to wrap our heads around, like did a kid just really decommit from
Florida State to go to Jackson State. And the answer to that was yes, yes.
He did put into context who Travis Hunter is both within this class and during your time following recruiting. Obviously, you don't know exactly how good any of these guys are because they're playing against highchool kids, but you're projecting. You're in the job of projecting and seeing how a kid develops. Is there a corner who is comparable? I was seeing a lot of like he is the highest rated corner or athlete or anything in the history of the twenty four to seven two four seven rating system.
It was was that true to your eyes? Is he you know? Is he Patrick Peterson?
Is he like?
Who is he historically?
Like? Is he?
Does he have a comp or is he a guy sort of standing alone?
I think that the comp that I saw, So I saw him in February out of the Pylon seven on seven in Mulitz and he was playing receiver but also played some dB when I watched him.
This is going to kind of sound like a crazy comparison because their body tests are so different, but he was a little bit like watching the Dori Jackson with the way he could float, flip his hips.
But he actually could cover right.
And then it was like watching Jalen Ramsey with his ball skills and his coverage ability. So imagine Jalen Ramsey moving around like a Dori Jackson or Dori Jackson moving around like Jalen Ramsey. That's what Travis Hunter was. And I mean I've seen the Marquis Lee types, the Juju Smith's, guys that were receivers that could have probably been star safety's Keenan Allen. Then he saw some guys that played
safety that could have been star receivers. I firmly believe Travis Hunter could be the best receiver in the country in this class. But he has such a unique style to his game that he's going to be a lockdown NFL corner after being a lockdown what is it slack CS corner. But I would say Jalen Ramsey to me was probably the closest com just in terms of the things that he can do as a dB. They're just so unique, so rare.
The things that I mean, Look, we have all the coaching changes, so that's going to be fascinating. We can get into some of that and how the calculus has changed with basically no time to recruit for a new school. But fascinating to me was also what's happening in Texas right now because what Jimbo Fisher was able to do and I think he brings over the longtime Georgia recruiting coordinator and he sort of spearheaded efforts and improved efforts at Texas A and M. And obviously what Texas was
able to do with Sarks first full recruiting cycle. I don't know if either one of those stood out to you in terms of a surprise the heights that they reached, or the types of kids, or if they're new types that the school wasn't necessarily getting. What was the more interesting story to you between those two schools this cycle.
Well, I think for me it would have to be Texas A and M because we know they've been able to recruit at an elite level. They did it under Kevin Sumlin when they first got into the SEC. What I think was the most impressive was and it reminds me now again, if you're a Texas A and NFN, turn your head. I don't want to scare you, but it reminds me a little bit of the twenty ten Florida class that, of course a lot of people say is what ultimately caused all the heart problems Urban Meyer had.
But you know, he was getting guys from all over the country, going up into New York to get guys going to Pennsylvania, coming out to California, staying in Florida, and truly Florida went national that year with its d line recruitment. Now you look at this class, this is one of the best defensive line classes I've ever seen. You got Walter Nolan from Tennessee, you got Gabriel Brown,
Lodindi from Florida, you got any from Pennsylvania. So again that's where the Florida similar is kind of are similar. Anthony Luca is from Arizona, and you got the fifth best defensive alignment in that class is a kid from their own state. And you know he's the number twelve player in the state of Texas. But that's the fifth best defensive lineman in Texas A and M side signed in Malik Celia. So you look at what Texas A
and M has done on a national level. We're used to Texas A and M recruiting well in the state of Texas. But to see them, you know, I mean, shoot, this is the other crazy thing. They you know, one of them is a kicker, but they got an offensive lineman and a kicker from the state of Washington. What is Texas A and m ever really recruited the.
Northwest other than Scott Woodward.
Yeah, yeah, there you go than Scott Woolward. You know, it's it's in I mean you just look at this class and you see, yeah, it's still its strength is in Texas, but a good chunk of their class was made up nationally. We we knew Texas was going to be able to recruit. Texas's problem has never been recruiting, right,
you know, Steve Sarkasian's problem has never been recruiting. But I will say that Texas's offensive line class, you know, and we've talked in the past about when Nick Saban's assistance. The guys that have been former college head coaches, NFL head coaches, you know, those guys know how to recruit. They kind of understand how to run a room. And I think Kyle Flood has done one of the best jobs from a position coach standpoint at Texas this year.
And you know, we all thought Pete Kwaikowski, And when I say when we all for sure me I thought peak Kwikowski was the best assistant coaching higher he made. And there might be some people that disagree with the way the Texas defense played this year, but well, Kyle Flood has done. From a recruiting standpoint, Texas's offensive line class, getting Kelvin Banks fresh off of his Oregon de commitment, you know, getting Cameron Williams who also decommitted, getting leek
Ago out of Washington. They're in the mix for Devon Campbell. I think Texas's offensive line class is good, but it's overshadowed. I would say the biggest surprise is just how well Texas and and recruited nation to the point where right now they have the number one class in the country.
Do you think they did anything different? Obviously they're going to be snickers about, you know, nil and being paid and everything like that. What changed? What I mean, was it the new recruiting coordinator? What changed? Or do you think it is pudentially a product of teams they usually recruit against having turmoiled situations? Right you have lsu down and fire as a coach and they're the you know,
the closest you know in that geographic area. LSU is down. Obviously, Alabama is going to do what it does, but the Mississippi schools are not recruiting on a super duper high level. They're fine, Arkansas is recruiting alright, Texas recruited well. But there is something right now about especially Maybe it's the down LSU thing, Maybe it's whatever it is, what changed from Jimbo and A and M going from becoming very good recruiters to top flight elite.
I would say there was a couple of factors. I think there might be some credence to LSU being somewhat down. Obviously, Ole Miss and Mississippi State with those two coaches that they're not new, but when they first got hired Ole Miss Mississippi State didn't have a lot of time to get coaches onto CARRA and get recruits on a campus because they were hired so late in that twenty twenty cycle. There was a February dead trade for the first time, and there was about ten to eleven day in Mark
before the pandemic shut everything down. Whereas I think the other thing is when we see this a lot in recruiting, you may not see the byproduct of that current season having an effect on recruiting, especially now with the early signing period, you usually see the bump in the following year. And I think Texas A and M. So if you look at some of the better classes Utah has had out in the Pac twelve, it's been on the heels
of their previous season. Well, now you take a Texas A and M that finished what number three in the polls last year? Number four won the Orange Bowl. So they had this entire offseason where they were going to be a preseason top five team. They were coming off their best season under Jimbo Fisher, and again they were able to kind of spread that wall. Plus the fear of defensive linement. You look and you see one of the most dominant defensive linemen in the NFL is Miles Garrett.
Even though he never played a snap for Jimbo Fisher. There's still that word association defensive lineman and A and M. You know, a guy like Von Miller, So there's Texas A and M has a lot to sell. But I do think the Marshall Malschow hiring away from Georgia. He was a big part of the success Kirby had with his recruiting classes. And now you see there's a clear plan in place, there's assistant coaches in place that execute that plan, and now you have Texas A and M at the top of the ranks as a.
Result of that, it was weirdly a quiet maybe it was a quiet signing day or a quiet cycle for some of the powers of recruiting, it seems, even though they had excellent classes. Obviously, with changes at places like LSU and Notre Dame that changes some of the mechanics of early signing day. But like Alabama's class was in terms of average recruit ranking the best in the country. We didn't hear a lot because of the Travis Hunter thing, because of Jimbo and A and m ascending in the
Texas and whatever, and the new hires out west. But Alabama's class, Ohio State's class, Clemson's class, which I think is kind of tiny, what jumps out to you. Obviously they're stacked, But is there a narrative? Is there a story to either of those classes or any of those other top flight classes that are sort of lost in the shuffle.
Yeah, you said it was a quiet day for Alabama and they ended up with the number two two class in the country and they might not still be done. It was a quiet day for Ohio State. They lost to commit to Texas and they finished with the number four class in the country, and they might not still be done. So I think we've gotten so used to Bama and Ohio State having big signing days, even Georgia. You know, Georgia has led for a good chunk of
the fall in the recruiting rankings. Over the last ten days. We've had Texas, A and Georgia and Alabama at various points leading. But Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State or schools that you know, we were used to winning signing Day, well they've won all the way leading up to Sunny Day. So it was a little bit quiet yesterday. I think the one that probably you know, you look at and see, okay, well how did they get in here is a North Carolina you know, and we see the mac brown effect.
But if you look at the top ten rankings, it's kind of status quo, kind of the same schools that even though it might not have been as loud and boisterous on signing day for in Alabama, or for Georgia, or for an Ohio State or for a Notre Dame. They all ended up with top ten classes. That is the one where it's like we're used to seeing Clemson when North Carolina is Dabble had to deal with things
he's never had to deal with this year. And that was not just losing his two coordinators as athletic director, but he lost three d commitments in the span of about forty eight hours that were all committed largely because of brand Bennables. So for the first time on the field in about seven years and now for the first time in recruiting in about seven years, Dabo's had to deal with a little bit of an uncertainty. It's a
little bit of drama. I don't know if drama is the right word, but he's had to deal with with some things that he hasn't had to deal with for a while. So we'll see how he responds and if Clemson can bounce back to where they were from twenty fifteen to twenty twenty. But with the coordinator departures and then losing the three players and they were all from IMG Academy, which is a school that clems in has had some success at so it's been kind of a unique offseason and fall in Clemson.
Yeah, and don't cry for Clemson because even though it was a smaller class, I think they had like the fifth or sixth average recruit rank. I believe, I'm we're in there. So it's still secut to the ACC right third of the ACC, right, yeah, behind North Carolina and Florida State. Oh, in Florida State, that's right, Florida State. Even with the de commitment of Travis Hunter. As I look at the rankings, by the way, a number of teams who are by no means powers on the field,
and maybe there's excitement around the program. Maybe it is that you know, the year after bump. But even in the SEC missoo Kentucky Stanford I won't fully understand from a football standpoint, but you can never really criticize anybody for going to Stanford. Who jumps out to you in terms of the unusual players in that top fifteen.
Range, Well, you just said Kentucky and Missouri the two. I mean, we're used to seeing Kentucky up there, but it's for basketball practice. You know, Indiana with a top twenty class and again that's where the previous season bump comes into play. Indiana had a great twenty twenty season, a completely miserable twenty twenty one season, and yet recruiting definitely was a bump in the twenty twenty two cycle
as a result of that. But I think, you know, Missouri and Kentucky are two that were not used to see you. First of all, he was one of the most stable jobs that I think Mark Soops has done a phenomenal job there. I think was at the Athletic that said it was the number one job in college football to have because of the stability and because it's a basketball score, you know, but Seops has done a
great job recruiting there. Kiante Goodwin, I mean, what a win for him, not only to get his commitment the first time. If you haven't seen Kanta Goodwin, folks, go look at his Twitter. It's one of the most fascinating themes because he was committed to Kentucky, but he took five official visits and every time he went on a visit, you'd see this massive six foot eight, three hundred and thirty pound three hundred and forty pound game next to
guys like Jimbo Fisher or guys like Nick stated. But the one that really makes you just go, oh my gosh, this kid's gigantic was there was a picture from his official visit to Michigan where he's standing with Juwan Howard. Now I'm old enough to remember the Fab Five. I was an when they were in college. Now we think Juwan Howard, Michigan basketball coach. I remember Juwan Howard, Michigan basketball player, and he was the biggest dude on that team. So we see not at all so good One's standing
next to him in this picture. Now, good One committed to Kentucky, but five schools were trying to foot them. As late as Wednesday afternoon, there was still uncertainty where he was going to go. He then came on the air and said he was going to stick with Kentucky, but didn't send his nli in. Finally, on Thursday, his nli went in and that was a gigantic win for Mark stew a five star player and pretty much cemented that in the top dozen. Missouri gets a five star
in Luther Burton. They got an All American quarterback in Sam Horn, So Kentucky Missouri definitely benefiting from being in the SEC, Missouri more so than ever because they've been always kind of the foreign school in the SEC. But those are two schools we're not used to see in the top dozen nationally.
There are a number of high profile schools across the country. You know, basically every major conference dealt with high profile coaching changes, right LSU, Notre Dame, Oregon, USC, Washington. I'm going to include Washington in major programs I am because I'm nice feeling nice today. Obviously, floor to Miami, like you know, Oklahoma. It's all over the place, and it's all happening generally within two weeks of the early signing period.
So to you from those schools that had to scramble to either secure and maintain a class or go out and find new fis in not that much time, what storyline stood out with what those schools did or didn't do.
I would say Notre Dame was was probably one of the more remarkable stability, and a lot of that was from hiring from within, Marcus Freeman being a no name, being a player that the commits were openly campaigning for, the players were campaigning for. You know that one I think Notre Dame lost two D commitments since the departure of Brian Kelly and then a third was kind of trending that way even if Brian Kelly had stayed. But
they still ended up at the top seven class. Oklahoma, you know, they lost a few guys and sold I think they had at one point lost six commits. They ended up getting one back in the boat. They got really killed in the twenty twenty three class though some of their commitments. But I still I think Oklahoma's got to be pretty happy with the top ten class. Oregon
in Miami are the two schools that. You know, this was kind of an incomplete because Miami did get Martin Christin Ball, but it was ten days before Sagnay Day. Oregon got Dan Lanning three days before Saturday. So by the time Dan Lanning was actually hired, there was no more official visits that they were allowed to host, no more Anhelm visits that they were allowed to make. And I think eight D commits from Oregon plus a few
guys that stayed committed but didn't sign. But I think Oregon can kind of rectify things down the stretch over the next six weeks leading up to the February signing period. And they might have some major things rectified by the end of the weekend. If to Tory McMillan sens this nl I to Oregon, he didn't announce, I'm sorry he
didn't sign on Wednesday. He's down to Oregon and Arizona, and Arizona's making a push because they signed three of us serve by teammates, including his best friend and quarterback Nofafita.
But I think if Oregon can get him. The big news for Oregon yesterday was they got the nl at Jelil Tucker had said he was going to wait until February to sign his teammager Liil Florence already decommitted, but getting Tucker, who I think is the better of the two, getting his NLI flipping Anthony Jones from Texas, and then having the six weeks to secure some of the uncommitted unsigned guys that are committed. I think Oregon's going to
be fine when February gets here. They're number one class in the PAC twelve in away, but they're still probably in line to be the number two class. And then Miami. They got a couple of key players yesterday, including Nigelie Kelly. But I think you give Mario Chris Ball another six weeks on the job in Miami, will end up with a pretty decent class by the time we get around two February. I think right now they check in at somewhere. I'm scrolling through here.
Sorry, no your got here, Miami, Miami.
There's somewhere on this list. I think they're ahead of Miami, Ohio.
Mimmy is sixty seconds, right behind TCU, who made a new hire major program making new hire, right in front of Memphis and Pitted.
I'm going to put my glasses on because I just scrolled right past them on that one. But with only a commit. So it's a small class so far. I don't anticipate they're going to be sitting pat at eight. They'll probably try to get another six to eight guys.
But because of the coaching carousel, because that this class lost the spring evaluation period, in six weeks out of the spring official visit period, there's a number of guys that are still going to make their decisions either at the All American Ball in January, the under Armor Game in January, or on signing day. A lot more guys are pushing their decision off, and that's why I think we had such a relatively quiet signing day outside of Travis Hunter on Wednesday.
One school you didn't mention, which I think there has been and rightfully so a lot of excitement around is USC tiny class and I imagine another one of those schools that you know, without a lot of time to evaluate and visit and whatever, is going to take its time and figure out who fits come February common Class
of twenty twenty three com transfer portal. Whatever. What is your I guess short term and long term outlook on what Lincoln Riley has done and can do in la an area that you know there are a lot of talented players in US when it's operating, can land all of them? What is your outlook with Lincoln Riley, with the class and beyond.
So when the days started on Wednesday, USC was ranked one hundred and fifth in the country and twelfth in the Pac twelve. They only got two new editions yesterday' Zion Branch out of Las Vegas, a top fifty player nationally, the number one player in the state of Nevada, and then they landed Garrison Madden out of Georgia, linebacker, highly rated linebacker in the three star group out of Georgia, but they only added two commits to jumped up twenty
four spots. As a result of that, they're now tenth in the PAC twelve. But if there's anybody that's going to fit from the February signing period more than the USC, I'd like to find it because Dolmanti Jackson, who's the number two corner in the country after Travis Hunner, will announce his final decision on Friday between Alabama and USC. He was a longtime commit to USC. Alabama had been putting the press on him. He took a visit out to Michigan. A lot of people thought he might end
up in Michigan. He eliminated Michigan from his list, went with Alabama and USC two days after Lincoln Riley was hired. Two days after Lincoln Riley, changing the entire complexion of Pack twelve recruiting re Leake Brown, his teammateem Modern Day, ended up decommittee from Oklahoma to USC. CJ. Williams was a long time commit to Notre Dame, another Modern Day prospect. He is likely going to end up at USC. He'll announce at the All American Ball so Cyrus Moss had
a top three in Arizona State, Alabama, and Oregon. Now USC is right back in the mix for him. So there's three top fifty, top seventy five players just right there that USC is either leading for or has a good chance to get. So those three alone should continue to move this class up. But I think you're now seeing those elite players that had been leaving the area. Demanta Jackson, if Clay Helton's retained, Demanta Jackson probably signs
to Alabama yesterday. But now with Lincoln Riley, there's reason for these West Coast kids to stay in southern California. And I think we're going to see the power shifting back a little bit from Oregon to USC in terms of who's the alpha when it comes to recruiting.
Interesting, I don't think there's a question in the Midwest at this point still who the alpha is because of what Ohio State ceiling is in terms of looking nationally and securing nationally incredible classes. But Michigan and Penn State are kind of right there. This year sixteen blue chippers for Ohio State, sixteen blue chippers for Penn State, eleven from Michigan. Then of course a drop off before Indiana and Michigan State. What did Penn State and Michigan do
this year that seemed different? Now Jim Harbaugh and James Franklin have recruited, well, it seems like they both closed and in the case of Penn State opened pretty strongly this year. Was there something different in the way they went after kids? Are their kids from this class? We were just like, man, those are your cornerstone dudes? How do you look at those two classes?
So remember earlier when I say you really get a bump in your recruiting depending on the season. Four ignore that for Penn State and Michigan, who both had horrible twenty twenties, especially compared to what James Franklin and Jim Harbive experienced at their respective schools. Pen's safe for a good chunk in the year. Habitat class in the now. A lot of it was because they got a lot of early commitments and held on to a lot of those guys, but other schools ended up passing them up.
Michigan the same way they'd had a Jim Harbaugh's problem has never been recruiting. It's been beating Ohio State, beating his rival beating Michigan State, but this year they did at least one of those two. But their recruiting was great and they actually closed well down the stretch. Getting Darius Clements a flip yesterday or not flip, but he was a long time It was long thought he was going to end up at Oregon. Were not having a
permanent receivers coach probably cost him. Darius Clements, but they were able to get him. Derek Moore, who'd been a long time commit to Oklahoma, ended up signing with Michigan yesterday, so and then key On sapp one of those long time comes and commits from Ing, he signed with Michigan. So they closed really well. Penn State did a good job of holding on to guys, and what they have going for them is they had the twenty four to seven Sports number one quarterback, Drew Aller, a guy that
they did a phenomenal job of early identifying. He was a three star I thinkue when he first started to blow up onto the scene we saw at the Elite eleven. He's now our number one quarterback in the country. Nicholas Singleton out of Pennsylvania. He was the Gatorade National Player of the year, a big time running back, top five player. They got Kaden Saggers, who's just outside Columbus from Ohio, but he's been committed to Penn State for quite some time.
Danny Dennis Sutton out of Maryland. I think at Penn State he did a really good job was the early commitments and then holding on to them. While Michigan use again they're going to see their best bump in the twenty three class. But Michigan definitely got some success in December based off of the Ohio State win, the Big Ten championship in the spot in the Cultural World playoff.
Darius Comes alone told me that when you're winning and then going to the college football playoffs like Michigan did, that definitely makes them more appealing to me.
Tell me about the quarterback class of twenty twenty two thus far. Who are you excited about? Who are not deep sleepers, but who are guys where you're like, man, this team got somebody and it is incredible that this team got them. I don't know if you have that guy or not, but what is your evaluation of the class as you see it?
So it's interesting because in twenty twenty two we had Quinn ewers in this class, he was the number one FOT in the country. He reclassifies the twenty twenty one. Now he's in Texas where he might as well be at twenty twenty two, but he was kind of the alpha and the omega of the quarterbacks, and everybody else was kind of behind him. Fast forward to the Elite eleven in June and July. Quinn was there, but so is Kate Klubnick, Connor Wegman, Tys Simpson, Drew Aler, Walker Howard,
who are all the top five. Devin Brown made a big jump, and now we have Kate Clubnick as the number one quarterback in the composite. We have Drew Aler ourselves at twenty four seven as the number one quarterback. Penn State gets taller, Clemson gets club Nick, and if all things go as planning, club Nick will sit behind dajat Leandalilei in twenty twenty two and then have the chance to be the guy in twenty twenty three. Connor Wegman's a big, physical, duel threat type that's going to
Texas A and M A great pig is. So you look at the schools that had the top six seven quarterbacks they're who you expect, Clemson A and m Alabama, lsut Ohio State and Georgia, even Florida State in aj Duffy and holding on to him when it looked like he was going to ASU. Schools were still trying. But then the schools that kind of end up in the top fifteen that were not used to seeing them pulling in quarterbacks. You got Purdue getting Brady Allen. And when
I say not I used to getting quarterbacks. It's been twenty years since Drew Brees was plus. Drew Brees was small and he's still small now. But in nineteen ninety seven when he signed, there weren't quarterbacks like Drew. But hees going to college. But pretty gets Brady Allen out of Indiana. You have Missouri getting Sam Horne, who's a teammate of Travis Hunter at Collins Hill. They'll be playing on ESPN this weekend in the Glico State both series. And he's a baseball player too, But a big pick
up from Missouri to go with Luther Burden. You also see Michigan State with Kiten Howser, who was in a very unique situation, played his first two years in Las Vegas, Vegas didn't have football In twenty twenty two, thousands went to Saint John Bostoll split duties with Pierce Clarkson and they were doing an alternate series basically for two years.
Kateen Hawser was going to Michigan State despite never being the full time starter out of school, so we're not he's seeing really Michigan, seeing Purdue getting that they're usually the ones that get the outlier type quarterbacks right end up going to the NFL in spite of their ranking.
Utah as well, getting Nate Johnson, who phenomenal track athlete, and he's going to Utah where I think you look at him and you can see a little bit of Tyler Huntley and him where he's a guy that's going to kill you with his legs as much as he's going to kill you with his arm, but as he continues to develop as a passer, he will kill you with his arm more than his legs because he's got
a good arm. He's just continuing to develop as a thrower as a passer, but a guy that has really unmatched athleticism from any quarterback in this position.
Were there any schools this class that you heard that were doing a particularly creative job in the way that they recruited kids. I don't necessarily mean nil or whatever, but it's just like, Okay, this guy's a big personality that really resonated with kids, and he's kind of new to this. Like, is there anybody who stood out to you like, oh man, this is interesting the way that Boston College, the way that Minnesota. Is there a school that really did something new this year?
Yeah, you know, I go back to kitten Houser. I really feel like with Milt Tucker's reputation as a defensive guy, they really made kitten Houser their priority from the get go, and they really hammered home. You know, this could be your program. You're not from the West Coast, so you're
not from the Midwest. You're from the West coast. But even on his official visiting, I remember seeing videos of him walking into the stadium and hearing his name on the jumbo tron or seeing his name of the jumbletron, hearing his name over the loudspeaker, and he just said it resonated with him. And we're used to seeing that with receivers or with dbs, with running backs. You don't necessarily see quarterbacks get caught up in all the hype
of recruiting. But I think Michigan State did a phenomenal job of recruiting kitten Houser. He was committed to Boise State, which isn't a bad school, which is turned out some decent quarterbacks in years past, but Michigan State just really hit a home run with him off the official visit. And you know, because quarterbacks commit so early, you don't really hear about a lot of quarterbacks who the official
visit is the swing to get them there. So that was how do the unique take that that was official visit that really swung him away from Boise State, And maybe it was just Miltucker, and maybe Miltucker was selling, hey, I'm going to be here for ten more years, but because they're going to pay me one hundred million dollars.
But even then, they did a really good job of flipping him from Boise State, which it has to success with him, and again, not a whole lot of creativity there other than it was just one of those weird situations where you finally heard a quarterback talk about the official visit being why he hit the school.
You're in the Pacific Northwest, which has now gotten to be a lot better in terms of a recruiting ground top kids from Oregon, Washington, but the West Coast in general has been I don't know if it's come off. It's just being pillaged by Georgia, Clemson, Alabama, whatever, a lot of top flight kids. But you're still around all these kids at camps and you're going to games. You know their coaches, you know their parents. What is it like in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two to be
a top flight kid being recruited? What is their daily life like in terms of what their communications is like with the expectations for how they behave online, offline whatever. What is that life like right now?
So I'll get a good insight, you know, you and I talked a lot about it during the recruiting process of JT. Two Molobile, who was the number one player in the country in twenty twenty one, And you know, I got a really good insight into how the recruiting process works with the number one player in the country, more so than in previous years. Remember when Najie Harris was the number one player, he committed early at Alabama.
The really rules school that ever really seemingly had a chance to get him was Michigan, but it was always kind of you know, on Alabama and Naji. Although he's a great interview now, back in the day, Nagie hated talking, so he didn't get a whole lot from him. Now he was with JT five years later when he took his official visits in June. This was the first time, and that was because there was no official business in
twenty twenty one for the most part. But instead of schools talking about their facilities, instead of them talking about their training table, instead of them talking about their coaches, he started to hear in June how much NIL was being discussed in the recruiting process. So now when I talked to JT, how's presentation? Oh, I was cool, you know, Or how's the visit? I was cool? You know their NIL presentation? Not Hey, there's strength and conditioning programs. This
it's It's not because he didn't care about it. It's that the schools were trying to hammer that home. When people saw Travis Hunter leave yesterday Florest State for Jackson State, the first thing that came out was NIL. And that is now what is being hammered home with his recruits. But it's also something that recruits are hammering home with
these schools. So when you look at the elite recruits in the twenty twenty two class, in the twenty twenty three class, there's no longer as much of a concern about NFL development being at the top of the list. It's nil. How is my brand going to grow? How can you grow my brand for me? Then it's what does the depth chart look like? Again, it used to be NFL development. Well, believe it or not, Dan, there was a time where it was where your degree from. Oh yeah, yeah, I know we're old, but it was
that time. Then it was about winning. Then it was about development. Then there was the NFL and the depth chart and all that. Now it's change. It's nil, it's depth chart. It's what is the traffic looking like at the position I'm at? And oh, by the way, coach in your back pocket, keep these five schools warm just in case I don't get a shot at the school that they're telling me I'm going to get because I'm
going to go in the portal. So you're almost recruiting a number of schools when you're a recruit not being recruited by them, but you're keeping other relationships warm just in case you ultimately need to end up there in a year from now.
I was gonna ask what is it like from the other side, Like if I don't know if Lincoln Riley, I'm just making up names here, but if you know, Billy Napier is recruiting a kid and they've got a great relationship with the kids, says you know what, I'm I'm gonna go to George, I'm gonna go to Alabama or whatever. What is it like from the coaches knowing that because the portal has gotten so huge, how are they maintaining relationships? Obviously they're not talking to the kids
while they're at another school and tampering. How do these coaches maintain how do they stay in good graces of like remember me, guys, I'm you know, if it doesn't work out, it's so and so. Are they keeping up relationships with seven on seven coaches? Are they keeping up
relationships with high school coaches? How is that? How are these coaches massaging the recruiting universe if you're watching on video and edge, Yeah, they're not tampering at all, But they're talking to somebody who's talking there to them.
There is a middle man involved, you know, the high school coach, the seven on seven coach, the trainer, whoever it may be. What's interesting is, you know, you talk to schools about you got twelve guys committed, you have root for twenty five. You know, why are you only bringing in twelve because we're going to go hit the portal hard. Why because we don't have time to recruit
the high school kids. We have to recruit our own kids that are talking about going into the portal, plus the portal kids that can actually come in and help us, So we don't have time to go chasing around kids that are still unknown quantities. Even the league kids are still an unknown because they haven't played it down on college football. But then there's guys that are in the portal that haven't played it down that they want to leave.
But those relationships existed. You at least knew he had a year of training table, he had a year of you know, development in the locker room, in the weight room, of you know, whatever it is that that school does for a year for their football program. You're at least willing to take a risk on a transfer that's a freshman or a sophomore more than a high schoo team, because you know, he at least had some experience at a college program. So now colleges are having to spend
as much time recruiting their own kids. I mean it used to be back in the day, when a kid transferred, it was usually a kid he was buried on the depth chart. He might have been completely homesick, and it was usually you know, sion was on the wall, right, was on the wall that he wasn't going to play. Then there was the whole process of going through the transfer portal, or to be a transfer. There wasn't a portal.
Then the portal came. Now you're seeing guys that are multi year starters, multi game starters, twenty five games, meeting because they want to go play somewhere else. They want to go play with their friends, they want to go play in front of their family, they want to go play at a place where the system is better dedicated to what they want to do. You're seeing grad transfers that have been starters, stars at those schools. They're going
into the portal and maybe want one more year. Maybe with this quarterback you or with this receiving core, and you know, you never had to worry about recruiting your own players back in the day. You had to recruit the players that were considering going to the NFL a year early, and at least you were going to lose them to the NFL, not to another college team, not to a team that could be in your own conference.
We're seeing so much interconference transferring now too, that schools are genuinely worried that are my guys being tampered with because I have to deprogram them from their dis scene for this program that they're playing in and talk about of why they want to go play at that program, which they haven't even been on the campus of in
a number of months. So college coaches and I think that that's why you're hearing so much above about the early signing period now, is that college coaches are having to use their to set because you know, the first Monday after the NFL season end, it's called black money. That's when all those coaches get fired. Now, we saw the largest number in one day of transfers. Have excuse me, the Monday after the regular season ended. Guys now know where they stand, So you're having to spend as much
time recruiting your own guys as you are. You can't go do in homes with recruits until you know a certain period, but you can call that kid into your office that's on your campus, say get in here, what are you talking about? Why are you leading? Why don't you come to us before this. Schools are just as son when a kid puts themself into the transfer portal as I think fans are when that kid goes into the portal. So they're having to do more work keeping
their own guys happy. And these are guys that are starters that have you know, taken the majority of snaps at those positions.
Am I correct and assuming? And you know this is I have no idea who would actually be an expert in this, but it seems that with all the portal activity, and when we hear about coaches wanting resources when they want guys in their recruiting department, should schools have portal specialists that just watch as much college football as humanly possible so they know when somebody enters the portal like,
oh this guy's legit. Oh yeah, this because you don't have any time, so basically you're recruiting your own players. You're recruiting high school players and now, and I don't know if twenty four seven has I think Chris Hummer does this stuff. I believe right, is that his name? Who does? Who focuses on the portal? But should all schools not have somebody who's like, I know seven thousand players? Is that? Is that a reality in which we live now?
Absolutely? You know, Chris Summer and Clint Brewster both do a phenomenal job of the daily on going on of the portal, and it's like they're always putting on names, and then they have to deal with angry fans that have been because they're reporting. And then there's like the kids want to put themself in the portal. Don't get mad at me for disreporting it. But I remember when Nickolovich got hired at Washington State in twenty twenty, in January,
shortly after Michaelischia left from Missippi State. And I want to say Washington State was the first school that hired a full time director of transfer recruiting, whether that was Juco's, whether that was the poor But now you're starting to see schools that we talked to the director player of
personnels director of recruiting. They're spending as much time hitting refreshed on the portal to see who they can reach out to right now, because no longer are the days, you know, with the transfer, you no longer have to wait for the kid to get the release. You see, you had to get the release, and it was maybe the school said you can't play at any school that's on our schedule for the next four years, or you
can't go to any school that's in our conference. Now these kids can go from USC to UCLA, they can go to Florida to Florida State, they can go wherever they want. So these guys are constantly hitting a refreshed, a seed who's available. We don't have to wait for a release, We can hit that kid up immediately. Now, there's some kids that don't allow themselves to be contact.
Usually that means they already know where they're doing, which right again, it's crazy how they know without ever talking community.
Weird and how that works. Yeah, so weird.
But you're having situations now where schools are having to recruit the portal far heavier than they ever recruited high schools. Now they're having to watch film that they have cut up of from those Saturday games instead of having huddle for high school kids or camp clips. There's no camp clips of these kids that are recent, so you're going to try to watch any game that you can find
to see is this kid gonnefit our system. But you're seeing a new trend to schools having such a focus on transfer recruiting, and you're seeing it more with schools that are with a first time head coach or a new head coach program where he sees there's a need for a quick fix. Oregon State's a good example. When Jonathan Smith first got to Oregon State, they hit the
portal hard. They hit JUCO transfers hard. Yesterday they signed sixteen players and only one was a transfer, and it was a JUCO transfer from the area where they've recruited some good dbs out of the last few years from the JUCO ranks. But now in year four he could start focusing on high school development. He's got those quick fixes in place. So you're going to see schools that rely heavily on the transfer portal because that's the best way to build their depth chart and the roster. So
that means the admins and the personnel. Guys are spending more and more time watching current college film than granny junior high school huddle film.
How does how does this trickle down to high school recruiting? That is, does it mean that there are more Power five level kids going G five? More G five level going Power five? With the amount of movement at the Power five level? I just I feel like there's not enough scholarships to go around for everybody. So where how is this affecting the borderline high school kids?
I talked to a PAC twelve DPP this week, and if you don't know what a VPP is, record player personnel, and he made a you would know what it means. If your listeners don't know what it means, that's what it is. And basically, these guys don't help with the day to day coaching. They don't help with the day to day development of those players. They're worried about your two years from now, three years from now, four years
from now. And talking to him he said some of that it was kind of key and stuck with me. He said, I am worried that scholarship numbers are going to be so heavily predicated on the transfers that more and more high school kids aren't going to be recruited. And if we're not recruiting high school kids, then who's going to be able to go into the portal. Schools are going to have a hard time keeping eighty five guys on the roster because they're doing such a poor
job of recruiting high school kids. And I never thought of it that way. Now, you were saying that in the time where you still have players that have their COVID season, the extra year of eligibility, so you have super seniors, you have probably two or three more years of that happening, where the twenty twenty season was essentially
a watch. But schools are going to eventually have to get back to the eighty five scholarships so they can have those players can have the eligibility, but it's going to come at the expense of the scholarship that school has to give. Now, let's say you've got eight ten guys that you want to keep in because they have that extra year. Then you want to go get some guys from the portal. You might only be able to sign a classes ten to twelve guys. Well, that ten
to twelve guys makes a trickle down. So there's FCS schools. There's a group of five schools that are sitting there going, oh, hell yeah, we get guys that we had no shot at getting in previous years. Now we're going to come in And it's not necessarily a bad evaluation thing. No,
it's a number. So you're going to see probably in the twenty four, twenty five, twenty six NFL drafts, you're going to see a larger number of FCS G five guys drafted because they fell down to schools that normally wouldn't have GOTTENAM and those schools took a chance on those kids without maybe some junior film, without senior film. But because the portal people are saying it's going to kill hashs to recruiting, well, yes and no, it still means that guys are going to have a spot to
go if they're good enough. It just might not be at the biggest level that those guys want to go right away. But then the flip side of that is, what if you go dominate a division two? What if you go dominate at the FCS level. You do that for a year or two, all of a sudden, you know you're starting to see those Power of five schools come creeping around on a kid from Weaver Saved or from Albany or from Buffalo or Buffalo's a G five school. You're seeing some of these FCS schools that are now
losing guys that were stars. You know a Zoo specific where I went to school Division two school. It was in any High School and I was there. They've been in two school. Two years ago. They lost their All American receiver who transferred as a grad transfer to Penn State. I think he had like six receptions the year he was there. He had ninety receptions the year before. But the problem is those kids graduate, they now I think this is my only pathway to the NFL. The shot
is going to a Power five school. So they do that, and now you're going to see the back end those scs and G five schools and D two schools paid price.
I'm going to give you an opportunity here because it's very easy for you to sit back and look back to the last two or three classes and say, I thought this guy would be awesome. He was awesome. Turns out I was right. It's not that nice to go back and say, didn't think this kid was any good. I thought he was overrated, and it turns out I was right. That's not especially nice to do when a
lot of people are listening to this show. So I want to give you an opportunity here to say, and because nobody's ever right about everything, who are some of the kids that surprised you have these last two or three classes that you were like, look, I thought he was going to be fine, or look, I didn't see it for whatever reason, and this kid just totally shocked me with how good he was a college football player.
Well, first of all, I appreciate you letting me go with who's been good as a player, because it's a lot better than Hey, which guy is your Darryl Scott moment of twenty and eighteen nineteen twenty classes? Yeah, I don't There's there's a couple guys that I thought we're going to be, you know, average players, maybe guys that I didn't think we're going to be, you know, superstars that I thought we're going to be, you know, just fine.
I would say probably one of them was. I was a big Drake Jackson fan, but like I didn't know. Let me preface that by saying his junior year was up and down, and that was as much dedicated to the just the instability at USC, but he even he outplayed what I thought, you know, we had him as as a top sixty, top guy. I thought he'd be, you know, potential second day pick. He's played himself into being a potential first rounder. But he's a guy that I fully expected to, you know, be a solid player
in the PAC twelve. But I didn't think he'd be like an elite player.
Trem mcdonnal.
I will say he was another guy we were higher on than his teammate Christile, but even Tree McDuffie has outplayed what my expectations were for him, where he may end up being a first round drafting. As a result of that, now full disclosure, I will say that there were some guys that I was completely wrong on, you know, just period, that I thought were going to be really good.
One of those was Bru McCoy, and I'll chalk that up to all the off the field issues that he's dealt with, part of them self inflicted, most of them self inflicted, all of them self inflicted. But he's not been the number ten player in the country or the number one player in California, like we thought he was going back. One more guy that I thought would be good. I didn't think he would be uber. Uber elite is Drake London. And you know he was a guy that you know, you and I are both from the same
part of southern California. I kind of have a little bit of a special place in my heart for those kids from the Valley in Ventury County. But what Drake London did it at see, I never did a million years saw coming.
What happened, What happened?
What? Like?
What didn't he show and how did he get there?
Well? I don't think what he didn't show was he didn't show up to a lot of events because he was a hooper. And this was a guy that when he came to the Nike camp he was good. But he was a big time basketball player. His first college offer was a basketball offer from Tony Bennett at Virginia, So that's the kind of caliber basketball player he was. And then he tried to play basketball for a year at SC. But I never thought he would be the
player he is now. He had the athleticism, he had the tools, but you always thought he was a basketball player first who played football. Now, he's arguably one of the top three receivers in the NFL in the NFL Draft and a player that probably had a very good, strong case to be the Black mc coffe winner before the injury. But he's a player that definitely outplayed it.
Going back a year before that too, Chris Alata. We snuck him into the back end of the top two four, seven, but we never expected him to be the player he became at Ohio State. At that time, there was a guy on the other side of it, Jack Tuttle, out of San Diego as well. Seven on seventeen. We thought it was going to be a dude to Utah. It's to Utah. He's out within the first probably two months of school, ends up in Indiana, barely plays, and a
lot of the ends up being the star. Jack Tittle ends up making me know, be my Darrel Scott for that class.
Wow, all right, Brandon Hoffman, I guess the only thing I have left is what are we expecting this next like month and a half ish is what percentage of top kids are still yet to sign? Where do you expect fireworks? Where do you expect quiet? When we have I think about six weeks until the true signing day.
I think we're going to see fireworks in College station because I think A and M is going to do a little bit more to lock up the number one class. Wow, they're still in the mix heavily for Harold Perkins. They're still in the mix heavily for Shamar Stewart. Two top ten players to go along with Walter Nolan. Evan Stewart's been committed. He hasn't signed yet, but he's the number one research, number two receiver in the country. You also have you know USC. Can they get Dewane Jackson this week?
We'll see j Williams announce for them in January? Can they make a lay run to get Cyrus Moss back in the fold? Can they surprisingly surprise everybody and maybe get Hero Canoo? Can they get Josh Connelly out of Seattle with whoever their offensive line higher is. So it's some schools that are doing really well that could just fully solidify this class, texas A and M being the
most notable. And then what do the schools with a new coach like an Oregon, like a USC like in Miami do to empties when they can really unleash their coaches on the road.
In the month of January, everybody follow Brandon Hoffman sign up twenty four to seven Sports. They do a fantastic job. They are all over the place. The talent there. I mean you brought in Bud Elliott, like, come on, we got a murder's row of recruiting talent and college football talent, college sports talent at twenty four to seven. Brandon, thank you very very much for your time. And I hope you're eating something good tonight. You've earned it.
Oh, I would be eating from Mali's tonight.
Is the time of year. Yes, do you have a preferred filling?
I am going to go. You know, I'm always been more of a poork Tomali guy. I don't mind. Must also some chicken Tamali. Sometimes I'll get the Hall of Pango cheddar one just to be really fun. But I'm more of a you know, a pork chieri ver they type of guy.
I'm right there with you. I've grew up my soft spot for like a Rajas Tamali just with some leblanos and cheese in there. It hits it for me. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's my old age there you can't really go that wrong with a good Tamali.
No, you're from southern California. We basically it's the Tamali capital of the United States, where all the good Tamali's come from. So yeah, you to a high standard. So you have to try different Tomali's from different places to see if they hold in the standard. And that's what I did during December, is try Tomali's from everywhere.
I didn't realize the more places I've lived and now, obviously Chicago and New York do really well with Mexican food, but a lot of people I've come across don't realize it gets a little bit cold. Oh it's Tamali season. It's Tamali's season. Absolutely, Brandon Hoffman, thank you very much for your time.
Thanks Sam