National Signing Day 2022: College football recruiting rankings, prospect flips, key commitments, news and analysis (2024)

College football's February signing period began Wednesday and a number of blue-chip prospects had yet to make their college decisions public. Texas A&M is closing in on signing its first No. 1-ranked recruiting class this century with Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State hoping to make a late push. Check in throughout the week for the latest news, reaction and analysis from The Athletic's team of writers and insiders.

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Required reading from The Athletic

• What does Jim Harbaugh’s unsettled future mean for Michigan's class?
• The life of a 14-year-old quarterback recruit: Early offers and the fine line of growing up quickly
• A horse, a Rolls-Royce, 10 pairs of cleats? The growing importance of photo shoots in college football recruiting
• Full collection of recruiting coverage from The Athletic

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Current Top 10 classes via the 247Sports Composite

1. Texas A&M (7 five-stars & 19 four-stars)
2. Alabama (4 & 18)
3. Georgia (5 & 15)
4. Ohio State (2 & 17)
5. Texas (2 & 18)
6. Penn State (3 & 13)
7. Notre Dame (1 & 16)
8. Oklahoma (0 & 15)
9. Michigan (1 & 9)
10. North Carolina (2 & 8)

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(Top photo by Mark Brown / Getty Images)

As Texas A&M put the finishing touches on its No. 1-ranked recruiting class, landing two top-50 recruits Wednesday to solidify the highest-ranked haul in the modern era, the predictable comments about how much name, image and likeness money Aggies boosters allegedly spent flooded in.

To make sense of how A&M did it, much of the public rhetoric centered on NIL money. The Aggies had to have bought this class, critics said. A random, viral message board post baselessly alleging a $25-30 million slush fund for recruits only fanned the flames.

On Wednesday, Fisher apparently had enough.

It’s no secret that Texas needs significant help on the line of scrimmage.

The Longhorns’ 2021 season went awry for many reasons, but poor play in the trenches topped the list. So Steve Sarkisian and his staff went looking for “big humans” to address those deficiencies in their 2022 recruiting class and succeeded in that task on the way to finalizing a top-five class.

Chris Brooks Jr. insists he felt fortunate and content to have his college recruitment completed by the summer before his senior football season began. He was one of the top students at St. Louis University High School in Missouri and an athletic three-year varsity wide receiver. So when he received an opportunity to play for Yale in the Ivy League and enjoyed his campus tour there, it made sense for him to commit to the Bulldogs in July.

How close did Mario Cristobal come to a perfect finish with his first recruiting class at the University of Miami?

Shemar Stewart, the 6-6, 272-pound five-star defensive lineman from Miami Monsignor Pace, probably put it best when he was asked how close he came to picking the hometown Hurricanes instead of Texas A&M.

Kalen DeBoer’s first recruiting class at Washington, assuming it is complete, is a testament to college football’s changing times — and to the creativity required of a new coaching staff searching for impact players after most have already signed.

On a day when Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher worked himself into a frenzy bloviating about Oklahoma message board rumors that the Aggies’ historic 2022 recruiting class was bought and paid for by NIL money, while also accusing others of potential misdeeds, Nick Saban spoke about the name, image and likeness area of recruiting in a broader and less volatile manner.

As first-year athletic director Trev Alberts noted not long ago in a moment of clarity for Nebraska, it has grown accustomed to piling up football victories in months when the gates at Memorial Stadium remain locked.

It’s not ideal, with wins growing scarce from August through November.

Mathews, a former LSU commit, adds to an already loaded Aggies class.

Read more here.

As Harold Perkins dropped the Texas A&M baseball hat on the table and said the words, “I’m goin’ back home, baby,” one could feel a slight shift around Louisiana.

A shift in how the day was going? Sure. A shift in LSU’s 2022 recruiting class? Yeah, that too. But it felt like a shift in how we’re going to perceive Brian Kelly as LSU’s head coach. Because after Perkins dropped that hat, he put on a purple and gold LSU cap to signify a massive recruiting win for the Tigers.

Lincoln Riley took the podium inside Heritage Hall on Wednesday morning to speak about the 14 players USC has added since December’s early signing period.

That group includes one high school signee, four-star wideout C.J. Williams, and 13 transfers who have been brought in to help fix the Trojans’ immediate needs.

On a day when Penn State’s highly touted 2022 recruiting class was finalized, James Franklin kept repeating one phrase.

“We have to be bold and we have to be aggressive,” Franklin said.

Georgia has polished off another top three-ranked recruiting class, in fact, the second-best in the Kirby Smart era (per the 247Sports Composite), and the Bulldogs did it while engaging in plenty of talk about what the program can do for recruits when it comes to NIL deals.

With much of his staff’s focus already turned to 2023 and beyond, Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry presided over a light signing day Wednesday, securing the final three players of his 2022 group by 8 a.m. and addressing the media at 10 before putting the class to bed.

The Hokies’ three new signees — tight end Daequan Wright, offensive lineman Xavier Chaplin and defensive back Devin Alves — brought the total number of players in the group, including mid-year transfers, to 27. (It’s really 28 when including defensive tackle Malachi Madison, who won’t count against the Hokies’ numbers when he enrolls due to a military aspect of his college matriculation.)

Depaepe is a top-150 prospect in the class of 2023.

Read more here.