College football recruiting winners, losers from National Signing Day

After the passage of both the Early Signing Period back in December and with the completion of the official National Signing Day, the college football recruiting calendar finally brings a close to the long and active 2024 cycle. Now it’s time to pick up the pieces and get a closer look at how teams performed up to now.

There wasn’t too much drama across the National Signing Day landscape, with most of the top-flight players making their commitments in the early period, but one notable pickup was that of five-star wide receiver Terry Bussey, who made his pledge to Texas A&M official, an important pickup for debut head coach Mike Elko.

Which teams made the most out of the 2024 recruiting cycle? And which schools could have done a better job?

Winner: Ohio State

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Ryan Day was able to hold onto No. 1 consensus prospect and top wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and made important gains on the defensive line, adding 5-star Eddrick Houston in the early period, adding Washington flip Dominic Kirks and Eric Mensah to the front seven rotation. Air Noland appears to be in line to compete with 5-star Alabama transfer Julian Sayin at quarterback in 2025.

Loser: Michigan

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Much of the talent that Jim Harbaugh recruited and developed into a national title team is gone, and now amid the coaching change the Wolverines fell out of the top 10 recruiting rankings. Sherrone Moore was able to hold the 2024 prospects Michigan already had on board, but the school is falling behind its Big Ten rivals right now.

Winner: LSU

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Brian Kelly helped beef up LSU’s lines of scrimmage, adding six on offense and seven on defense in the 2024 cycle, and 18 prospects from Louisiana pledged to the Tigers. One major late addition was that of 5-star defensive lineman Dominick McKinley, who was very high on several Power Five big boards.

Loser: Washington

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Even before the Huskies’ dramatic coaching change, the school wasn’t making a ton of waves during the early period and finished at No. 49 in our consensus team rankings. But the program has a chance to gain some ground in 2025 with Jedd Fisch on board; the coach helped revive Arizona’s recruiting success and will have the resources of a Big Ten school going forward.

Winner: Texas A&M

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Some notable losses at receiver hurt the Aggies somewhat, including that of five-star Cam Coleman, who flipped to Auburn, but first-year coach Mike Elko scored an important gain by earning the commitment of five-star wideout Terry Bussey, in addition to Ashton Bethel-Roman, one of the best remaining unsigned receivers in the 2024 cycle heading into NSD.

Loser: Arizona

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Right after head coach Jedd Fisch left for Washington, the Wildcats lost five commitments, including that of four-star athlete Rahshawn Clark, who followed Fisch to the Huskies. In all, Arizona secured just 14 commitments in 2024, and only one consensus four-star prospect, linebacker Turran Williams. The other one, quarterback Demond Williams, went to Washington with Fisch.

Winner: Alabama

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Replacing the greatest coach of all time could have derailed the Crimson Tide’s recruiting efforts, but Kalen DeBoer helped keep things together, finishing with over two-dozen commits, and four 5-stars, the second-most nationally, finishing No. 2 in the team rankings. That includes three of the top-four cornerbacks, and DeBoer got wide receiver Ryan Williams to come back after briefly de-committing.

Loser: UCLA

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Placing 17th out of 18 in the Big Ten on the recruiting team rankings is never good and Chip Kelly’s relative inaction on the recruiting trail sticks out, especially amid rumors that he’s interested in, and interviewing for, potential offensive coordinator jobs in the NFL.

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