Signing day went much like this past season: Alabama dominated and Jim Harbaugh had everybody talking about Michigan.<\/p>\n
For a sixth consecutive year, Alabama landed the nation\u2019s top signing class according to composite rankings of recruiting websites compiled by 247Sports. The reigning national champions soared to the top of the standings thanks to Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban\u2019s customary strong finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaban isn\u2019t even recruiting anymore \u2014 he\u2019s selecting,\u201d said Barton Simmons, the national scouting director for 247Sports.<\/p>\n
Alabama entered Wednesday ranked behind LSU and Ole Miss within its own conference in the 247Sports Composite standings, but the Crimson Tide closed with a flurry that featured the addition of five-star linebackers Ben Davis and Lyndell Wilson as well as top-100 defensive end Terrell Hall.<\/p>\n
\u201cNick Saban is working on a whole different plane than everybody else in the country,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cIt\u2019s not even about recruiting anymore. It\u2019s about figuring out a way to make the numbers work to get the guys you want. That\u2019s become the challenge for Saban.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest announcement of the day came when Rashan Gary, a defensive tackle from Paramus, New Jersey, selected Michigan over Clemson. Gary is the consensus pick as the nation\u2019s top No. 1 overall recruit.<\/p>\n
Gary\u2019s decision delighted a festive Signing Day celebration on Michigan\u2019s campus that included New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter among others. Brady played for the Wolverines before going to the NFL and Jeter grew up in Michigan.<\/p>\n
Mike Farrell, the national recruiting director for Rivals, said he wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see other schools stage similar signing day events.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt puts a little pressure on everybody,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cThat\u2019s a high bar to set. Good luck to everybody else who wants to do a star-studded signing day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here were some other major stories to develop Wednesday as prospects across the country made their college choices official.<\/p>\n
\nSigning day decisions:<\/strong><\/p>\n Seven of the top 15 players in the 247Sports Composite were uncommitted heading into signing day. That list was headlined by Gary. Other top-15 prospects to make their announcements Wednesday included the Alabama duo of Davis and Wilson plus defensive tackle Derrick Brown (Auburn), linebacker Mique Juarez (UCLA) and athlete Mecole Hardman Jr. (Georgia). Wide receiver Demetris Robertson of Savannah, Georgia, still hasn\u2019t announced his college choice and has said he planned to wait a couple extra days. He\u2019s the guy whose home received a visit from Notre Dame\u2019s equipment truck last week as the Fighting Irish pursued him.<\/p>\n Like father, like son:<\/strong><\/p>\n Family connections played a role in a couple of Wednesday\u2019s big commitments. Davis\u2019 father is Wayne Davis, Alabama\u2019s all-time leading tackler. Davis announced his commitment to Alabama by wearing a houndstooth hat like the one made famous by former Tide coach Paul \u201cBear\u201d Bryant. Safety Nigel Warrior, a consensus top-100 recruit, announced he was following his father to Tennessee. Warrior is the son of Dale Carter, a former Tennessee and NFL defensive back.<\/p>\n Ole Miss reloads:<\/strong><\/p>\n Mississippi made New Year\u2019s Six bowl appearances the last two years thanks largely to a heralded 2013 recruiting class that featured Laremy Tunsil, Robert Nkemdiche and Laquon Treadwell among others. With all those players leaving school early to enter the NFL draft, Ole Miss put together the type of class that could help the Rebels maintain their momentum. The class features offensive tackle Gregory Little and quarterback Shea Patterson, two of the nation\u2019s top four overall prospects according to the 247Sports Composite. \u201cThey got three guys going in the first round of the NFL draft most likely, and now they\u2019re just replacing them with big-time playmakers,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cThey\u2019ve done well at wide receiver and they have their franchise left tackle in Greg Little.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas\u2019 big surge:<\/strong><\/p>\n No school made as much of a late run as Texas. The Longhorns were stuck in the middle of the Big 12 recruiting rankings for much of the last few months before its furious finish. The Longhorns moved from the 30s into the top 10 in the team standings of multiple services. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about nine commits in 24 hours \u2014 and seven on national signing day,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cThis is the way I think Charlie Strong had to close, and he really knocked it out of the park with the effort they put together on signing day.\u201d The list of top-100 recruits to pick Texas on Wednesday included safety Brandon Jones and outside linebackers Erick Fowler and Jeffrey McCulloch. Texas got Fowler to switch from LSU and defensive tackle Jordan Elliott to flip from Michigan.<\/p>\n Elaborate announcements:<\/strong><\/p>\n Safety Brandon Burton announced his college selection Tuesday night by putting out a video in which he and some friends played a game of paintball that ended with him capturing a flag of UCLA, the school he had chosen. Hardman\u2019s press conference setup included a table that featured six cakes topped with banners of different schools. Hardman didn\u2019t pick any of those programs and instead announced his choice by running through a banner wearing a Georgia hat and jersey. Safety Deontay Anderson may have topped them al by skydiving in a video that revealed his choice of Ole Miss. Once he hit ground, he opened his jacket to reveal a T-shirt with \u201cHotty Toddy,\u201d a frequent Ole Miss cheer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Signing day went much like this past season: Alabama dominated and Jim Harbaugh had everybody talking about Michigan. For a sixth consecutive year, Alabama landed the nation\u2019s top signing class according to composite rankings of recruiting websites compiled by 247Sports<\/a>. The reigning national champions soared to the top of the standings thanks to Crimson Tide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":33289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-33288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33288"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}