College football’s 2022 National Signing Day turned out to be a wild day and not just because of recruiting. Here’s a look at the five biggest winners.
National Signing Day isn’t quite what it used to be, especially now that there is an early signing day and a late signing day.
But even though some of the luster has been knocked off National Signing Day, there still proved to be plenty of fireworks on Wednesday around the college football world.
A number of five-star recruits made their final decisions on Wednesday, while a bunch of other future college football players picked their destinations.
There were some surprises and some flips along the way, as well as a historic recruiting haul for college football which is where we begin with our five big winners from National Signing Day.
Winner: Texas A&M football
The Aggies had the No. 1 recruiting class in college football going into National Signing Day and then went ahead and added a pair of five-star recruits to the mix on Wednesday.
Despite a really strong push from Miami and a number of other programs, Texas A&M football was able to hold the commitment of five-star defensive lineman Shemar Stewart.
The Aggies were also able to win the recruitment of five-star defensive back Jacoby Mathews, a guy who seemed to be trending towards LSU.
LSU was able to steal away Harold Perkins from Texas A&M football but that was the only real miss of the day. When it was all said and done, there were four five-stars that signed on National Signing Day and the Aggies got two of them.
Those additions also gave Texas A&M football the highest-ranked recruiting class in the history of the 247 sports composite rankings. Of the 29 total signees for A&M, 28 are blue-chip prospects (4 or 5-star recruits) which is just staggering.
2. Michigan
Having your head coach interview for an NFL job on National Signing Day is less than ideal but that’s what Jim Harbaugh did as he interviewed with the Minnesota Vikings.
It was reported that Harbaugh was expected to take the job but the Vikings didn’t wind up offering it to him and now, he’s said he will be back and won’t mess with the NFL again.
We’ll see if that part is true or not because this is Jim Harbaugh after all, but getting a commitment from the head coach that just led the Wolverines to the Big Ten championship and their highest final ranking in 24 years is a big freaking deal.
Michigan did have a rough day on the trail as edge rusher Kevonte Henry flipped to Oklahoma and the Wolverines missed on Andrew Paul, a running back they were targeting, but nothing was expected in terms of recruits.
Harbaugh’s pledge was important though and there’s no debate that Michigan football was among the big winners on National Signing Day.
3. Oklahoma
It has been a tumultuous offseason for Oklahoma football as the Sooners lost their elite head coach and their five-star quarterback to USC.
However, former DC Brent Venables came over from Clemson and while recruiting took some hits after Riley left, especially on the offensive side of the ball, Venables and the Sooners have stabilized things and had a huge National Signing Day.
Not only did the Sooners sign guys like Gentry Williams and Jaren Kanak (a former Clemson commit) but the Sooners essentially flipped three other guys on National Signing Day including Henry from Michigan.
R Mason Thomas is a four-star edge rusher that was flipped from Iowa State and Gracen Halton, another four-star defensive lineman, was a long-time Oregon commit but ended up signing with Oklahoma.
That leaves Oklahoma with the No. 8 class in the On3.com recruiting rankings for 2022 and with 17 blue chips out of 21 signees.
4. Miami
One college football team that just missed the top 10 of the 2022 recruiting rankings according to On3.com is Miami.
Head coach Mario Cristobal and the Hurricanes were actually hoping to make an even bigger splash on National Signing Day as they were hoping to land five-star DL Shemar Stewart as well as Dave Luli, an offensive lineman out of Washington.
The Canes missed there but pulled off one of the most surprising flips of the day as running back TreVonte Citizen, who is ranked 107th overall according to the 247 sports composite rankings, signed with Miami despite trending with crystal ball picks to Florida.
LSU was also trying to land Citizen but the Louisiana prospect ended up siding with Cristobal. The Canes also beat out Florida for offensive lineman Matthew McCoy and added OL Anez Cooper, as well as Ahmad Moten on the defensive line for a really solid haul.
5. Oregon
Another college football team that killed it on National Signing Day is the school that Cristobal just left and that’s Oregon.
Led by Dan Lanning, who came to Oregon from Georgia, the Ducks finished off their 2022 recruiting class in style with four signees coming in the last few days.
Jahlil Florence pledged to the Ducks again on Jan. 31 which started their momentum, but then it continued on Wednesday as Oregon finished the flip of Jordan James, a four-star running back once committed to Georgia.
That was a big win and so was the addition of four-star offensive lineman David Luli, who was strongly considering Miami before the Ducks won him over late.
On top of that, Oregon also added the commitment of four-star defensive end Emar’rion Winston. Those four additions pushed Oregon’s total signees to 15 and that was good enough for a top-20 class (17th via On3) which is really solid given the time constraints on Lanning and the loss of Cristobal as head coach.
All in all, National Signing Day was highly productive for Oregon, as well as Texas A&M football, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Miami — the five big winners.