Looking back at the month of March when it comes to college football recruiting, Michigan football, Florida State, USC, and others were the big winners.
Spring is upon us and in college football, that means spring games and practices. In terms of college football recruiting, it’s also a busy time of the year.
The dead period for college football recruiting ended at the start of March and while it’s considered a “quiet” period that means recruits are able to take visits on campus again.
Spring visits have been the theme of college football recruiting over the past few weeks as top targets in 2024, and 2025, and even some in 2026 have been making stops around the country.
Many programs are putting in work that will pay off over the summer and not all recruits are following the same timeline.
However, a bunch of big-time recruits made decisions this past month, and as we look back at the month of March in college football recruiting, here are the five biggest winners on the trail.
5. USC
USC football makes this list simply because the Trojans were finally able to reel in one of the top prospects in the entire 2023 college football recruiting class and that’s five-star tight end Duce Robinson.
Robinson is 6-foot-6, 250 pounds, and as elite as they come. He’s expected to be a first-round pick in the MLB draft this summer and has legit aspirations of being a two-way pro in football and baseball.
Robinson is also highly-polished. He played for one of the top high school programs in America and caught 84 passes for 1,614 yards and 14 touchdowns last season. The dude is a freak and Caleb Williams has to be salivating at the idea of throwing him the ball next season.
The addition also gives USC football the top recruiting class in the Pac-12 for the 2023 cycle and gives the Trojans a weapon that could start and play right away.
4. Tennessee
Like USC football, Tennessee landed just one commitment on the college football recruiting trail in the month of March, but it was a big one.
The Vols landed top-100 quarterback Jake Merklinger and set themselves up really well long-term at the quarterback position. Tennesee already landed an elite signal caller in the 2023 class, so it wasn’t even a huge need.
Merklinger is ranked 55th overall in the 2024 college football recruiting class according to the 247 sports composite rankings and sixth among QBs. He’s out of Georgia and while the Bulldogs offered, they seem more focused on Dylan Raiola.
Still, North Carolina, Michigan State, and plenty of others were in the mix, but Josh Heupel landed an elite quarterback for the second year in a row, which is also a reflection of the current state of the Tennessee football program — which is trending up.
3. Florida State football
In case you didn’t notice, it was a busy month for college football recruiting in terms of quarterbacks and Florida State football actually landed signal callers in the 2024 and 2025 classes within a matter of days.
On March 26th, Florida State football won quite possibly the most underrated commitment of college football recruiting for the month of March with the addition of a four-star quarterback Luke Kromenhoek to the Seminoles 2024 haul, which ranks fifth overall according to 247 sports.
Kromenhoek is ranked 10th in his class at the quarterback position and is ranked 121st overall, which gives Florida State football three players ranked in the top 121 (247 sports composite).
Yet, the Noles weren’t finished as landed one of the top quarterbacks in the 2025 class too on Saturday in Tramell Jones Jr. He’s not ranked yet according to the 247 sports composite rankings but Miami, Florida, Georgia Tech, Pitt, UCF, and a number of others had already offered.
Getting a top QB in the Sunshine State in back-to-back cycles is promising and in the 2024 class at least, Florida State football is starting to recruit like the days of old.
2. Georgia football
Nobody is recruiting as well as Kirby Smart and the Georgia football program right now and that momentum continued in March as the Bulldogs landed a couple of key commitments and also made some headway with No. 1 quarterback Dylan Raiola.
Georgia football has the No. 1 ranked class in 2024 according to the 247 sports composite rankings and with two additions in March, the Bulldogs have 11 commitments. Seven of those recruits are ranked in the top 100 and three are five-star prospects.
Safety Demello Jones was one of the players that committed to Georgia football this month. He’s ranked 115th overall, ninth among safeties, and is 14th in the state of Georgia for the 2024 college football recruiting class. The Dawgs also landed three-star OT Malachi Toliver.
However, the fact that Georgia football is the leader once again for Dylan Raiola, getting a crystal ball from Steve Wiltfong and taking the lead again according to the On3 prediction machine is the biggest reason why Georgia is a college football recruiting winner for the month of March.
1. Michigan football
Don’t look now, but all those recruiting issues Michigan football was having in the 2023 class seem to have disappeared…overnight.
Michigan football was the clear winner for the month of March on the college football recruiting trail thanks to a pair of huge commitments in the 2024 class.
The biggest came on Friday as Michigan football finally got the commitment of five-star quarterback Jadyn Davis, who is 28th overall in the 2024 class and sixth among quarterbacks according to the 247 sports composite rankings.
Michigan football missed on five-star Dante Moore from Detroit last cycle and also C.J. Carr so far in 2024. So Davis was a must-land and the Wolverines now have their successor to J.J. McCarthy.
However, Michigan football also picked up a commitment from Jordan Marshall in March and he’s one of the best running backs in the country (9th overall). He’s also ranked in the top 100 and is the No. 3 player in the state of Ohio.
The Buckeyes wanted Marshall badly. They also wanted Davis and Michigan football won out. That’s not something that wouldn’t have happened a few years ago. The Wolverines also got an offensive lineman out of Ohio in Ben Roebuck and they have as much momentum as anyone right now it comes to college football recruiting.