And just like that, the early signing period is upon us.
It has been an entertaining recruiting cycle with the Class of 2025, full of flips, down-to-the-wire commitments and plenty of movement at the quarterback position.
Everything can become official Wednesday. We’ve got thoughts.
Let’s dive in.
Note: All rankings are from the 247Sports Composite.
1. It won’t be surprising if Georgia finishes with the nation’s top class for the second consecutive year as Kirby Smart continues to dominate on the recruiting trail. But what was up with Georgia’s quarterback approach this cycle?
The Bulldogs have had four-star Ohio native Ryan Montgomery committed since April, yet they started to aggressively pursue several other 2025 quarterbacks in recent months. (It is worth noting that Montgomery tore the ACL in his right leg in the season opener and missed virtually his entire senior season.) They offered Hawaii native (and Cal commit) Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele in October and Mississippi State commit Kamario Taylor in November. Then, they hosted in-state prospect Julian Lewis for a visit for the Tennessee game in mid-November.
On Sunday, they finally found their (second) man when Hezekiah Millender, a three-star local prospect from Athens, flipped from Boise State.
In an era when most programs sign only one quarterback per cycle, why were the Bulldogs so determined to add a second player at the position? It’s likely just a numbers game. Georgia has only four scholarship quarterbacks on its 2024 roster and will be losing Carson Beck. Adding two QBs in the Class of 2025 gives the staff some protection in case one of the underclassmen opts to leave. Also, Georgia is making a push to add more dual-threats at the position, and Millender falls into that category.
2. In non-quarterback news, Georgia has done a nice job with in-state prospects this cycle — something that isn’t always the case. The Bulldogs have commitments from four of the top five players in the state and will make it five-for-five if defensive tackle Justus Terry picks the Bulldogs, as expected.
Georgia has not signed more than two of the state’s top five players since the 2021 cycle.
3. In a four-day span last month, Bryce Underwood flipped from LSU to Michigan, Lewis flipped from USC to Colorado and Husan Longstreet flipped from Texas A&M to USC. All three are blue-chippers who rank among the top 50 players in the class. And all three had been committed to their former programs for at least seven months. If there’s one thing we’ll remember from the 2025 cycle, it will be the drama at the sport’s marquee position.
There have been plenty of other notable quarterback developments:
• Four-star Carter Smith decommitted from Michigan in the midst of the Wolverines’ pursuit of Underwood and recently committed to Wisconsin.
• Five-star lefty Deuce Knight flipped from Notre Dame to Auburn in October despite having been committed to the Fighting Irish since September 2023. And Knight, a Mississippi native, is still being heavily pursued by Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss.
• Four-star Blake Hebert flipped from Clemson to Notre Dame shortly after the Fighting Irish lost Knight to Auburn. Clemson responded by flipping three-star Chris Denson from Coastal Carolina last week.
• Sagapolutele, who has climbed from the 600s into the top 100 of the national rankings, committed to Cal in July after an impressive showing at the Elite 11 Finals but is also considering an offer from Oregon.
• Four-star Tramell Jones Jr. flipped from Florida State to rival Florida.
• Four-star Kevin Sperry, who had been committed to Oklahoma since March 2023, flipped to FSU shortly after Jones flipped to Florida.
• Four-star Brady Hart recently reclassified from the Class of 2026 to 2025 and on Friday flipped from Michigan to Texas A&M, giving the Aggies a replacement for USC-bound Longstreet.
• North Carolina commit Bryce Baker, a top-100 prospect, took a visit to Penn State over the weekend after the Tar Heels announced last week they were parting ways with Mack Brown.
Whew.
Some of the flips have to do with how early quarterback recruits are committing these days. The transfer portal has created mounting pressure for high school prospects to issue commitments as soon as possible, even if they’re not fully ready. This is also the reality of the name, image and likeness era. As one Big Ten recruiting staffer put it, “Flips you don’t know (are coming) tend to happen literally within the 24 hours of signing day and someone’s offered more (money).”
4. Only three five-star prospects are uncommitted: Terry, the defensive lineman from Georgia, defensive lineman Jahkeem Stewart from New Orleans and wide receiver Jerome Myles from Utah. Terry is expected to end up at Georgia, though he isn’t scheduled to announce his decision until Friday. On3’s Steve Wiltfong has reported that USC is in a good spot with Stewart and that Myles — who decommitted from USC on Sunday — could be headed to Texas A&M.
5. In addition to Terry, Myles and Stewart, six other top-100 prospects are still uncommitted:
• Four-star defensive lineman Isaiah Campbell of Durham (N.C.) Southern ranks No. 37 nationally and decommitted from Clemson in September. He is reportedly down to North Carolina and Tennessee.
• Four-star edge Javion Hilson of Cocoa (Fla.) High is the No. 42 prospect and was previously committed to both Alabama and Florida State. He recently visited Michigan and is also considering Texas, Texas A&M and several other schools.
• Four-star athlete Michael Terry of San Antonio Alamo Heights is the No. 43 prospect and announced in June a top four of Texas, Texas A&M, Oregon and Nebraska.
• Four-star Madden Faraimo of JSerra Catholic in Southern California is the No. 61 prospect and No. 3 linebacker. He is a top target for Notre Dame, but USC is also very much in the mix.
• Four-star safety Lagonza Hayward is the No. 72 prospect and just decommitted from Tennessee on Sunday evening after writing on social media Nov. 13 that he would not be flipping. The Georgia native committed to the Vols in July over Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
• Four-star edge Zahir Mathis of Philadelphia Imhotep Institute, the nation’s No. 75 prospect, decommitted from Ohio State on Nov. 18.
6. USC has had 11 blue-chippers decommit at some point in the cycle, most notably Myles and two five-star defensive linemen from Georgia — Terry and Isaiah Gibson. Eight of the 11 are from the SEC footprint, showing once again that it can be difficult for out-of-region programs to hold onto elite prospects from the South.
7. Coach Kalen DeBoer’s first full class at Alabama will be a very strong haul — that much cannot be argued. The Crimson Tide are currently second behind Georgia in overall class rank and second behind Oregon in average player rating.
But DeBoer and his staff have done most of their damage with out-of-state prospects.
Of the top 10 players in Alabama, seven (!) are committed to Auburn, two are committed to Ohio State and one (running back Anthony Rogers) is undecided. None are committed to the Crimson Tide. Even more perplexing: DeBoer and staff have a commitment from just one of the 17 four-stars in the state of Alabama.
Is that a product of a new staff that is still making inroads with the local high schools? Maybe, but the numbers are still very surprising.
8. Colorado emerged as one of the best stories in college football in 2024, winning nine games and claiming a share of the Big 12 regular-season championship (though the Buffs will not be playing in the league title game). Maybe a more surprising development? The Buffaloes have 15 commitments in the Class of 2025 after signing only 11 high school prospects last cycle.
Lewis, the No. 36 player in the class, committed to Colorado on Nov. 21, and the Buffs added four more pledges on Thanksgiving night. Colorado’s class ranks 32nd nationally and includes seven blue-chip prospects.
9. Georgia Tech has put together a nice class, headlined by cornerback Tae Harris (No. 48 overall), who recently flipped from Clemson, and offensive tackle Josh Petty (No. 52). The Yellow Jackets’ class ranks No. 16 nationally and No. 2 in the ACC, behind only Miami. And notably, all nine blue-chippers in Tech’s class are in-state products.
10. Clemson, meanwhile, has only 14 commits — a low number for a program that doesn’t use the transfer portal much. Dabo Swinney’s team will return the bulk of its talent in 2025 and doesn’t have as many spots as usual, but the Tigers — as we’ve seen in recent weeks — need to upgrade their talent level across the board.
11. How about Georgia State? Former Georgia assistant Dell McGee took over the program in February and has turned the program’s recruiting efforts around in just nine months.
The Panthers have never signed a top-1,000 prospect out of high school. This year? McGee has four (!) committed, and Georgia State has the No. 62 class on the eve of the early signing period — a jump of over 60 spots from last year’s class.
Three-star edge Kelan Butler headlines the group after three-star offensive tackle Dennis Uzochukwu flipped to Georgia last week. To date, Georgia State’s highest-rated signee in program history is Jamil Muhammad, a Class of 2019 quarterback who is now a defensive lineman at USC.
(Photos of Kalen DeBoer, Kirby Smart: Gary Cosby Jr., Brett Davis / Imagn Images)
