Looking back at the past week from July 17th to July 23rd, here are the top five commitments in college football recruiting.
This weekend, there’s going to be an end to the dead period in college football recruiting, which should lead to plenty of headlines in the 2024 class and beyond.
Many programs will be using the weekend to court players from the 2025 college football recruiting class, while others will invest their time trying to close out commitments in 2024.
It’s a good balance to strike. Despite the fact that college fooball recruiting is in a dead period, there were a bunch of blue-chip commitments over the past week, and here’s a look at the five most important.
5. 4-star cornerback Corian Gipson to Clemson
The 6-foot, 170-pound corner was an important addition for the Clemson Tigers in the 2024 class over the weekend. Clemson is putting together a really impressive class that ranks eighth overall according to the 247 Sports team rankings.
Gipson is out of Lancaster, Texas, and is ranked as the No. 7 cornerback in the country. The Tigers did already land Sammy Brown in the 2024 class, so Gipson isn’t the top-ranked defensive commitment or anything but Clemson football is starting to recruit at a really high level once again, which is funny because people like Paul Finebaum wanted to put a fork in the Tigers a couple of years ago.
Clemson needs to make progress on the field after missing the playoff two years in a row, but Clemson beat out Texas for a really talented cornerback from the Lone Star State, which makes it significant.
4. 4-star LB Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa to Notre Dame football
Notre Dame football is also putting together a really strong 2024 college football recruiting class and the latest addition is four-star linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, who is the jewel on the defensive side of the ball for the Fighting Irish.
Viliamu-Asa is ranked just outside the top 100 in the 247 Sports composite rankings, and not only that, but Notre Dame football went head-to-head with USC and Ohio State to win his commitment.
You could say that Viliamu-Asa is going to be the CJ Carr of the defense in terms of the Irish’s 2024 class. He’s a cornerstone piece and a guy that’s likely going to be in the NFL someday.
3. 2025 5-star WR Jamie Ffrench to Alabama
There is only one 2025 commitment on the list of top college football recruiting pledges from the past week and that’s because it’s a big one.
Alabama landed five-star wideout Jamie Ffrench over the weekend. The Jacksonville, Florida prospect is elite as it gets and should be the next in a long line of tremendous Alabama receivers.
Ffrench (6-1, 180) is scary good and he’s the kind of player that Alabama seemingly always finds a way to get in the Nick Saban era.
2. 5-star wide receiver Mike Matthews to Tennessee
Alabama landed the 13th-ranked wideout in the 2025 class over the weekend. Tennessee did one better, landing the 13th-ranked wideout in the 2024 college football recruiting class this past weekend thanks to the commitment of Mike Matthews.
Matthews is out of Georgia and is 6-foot-1, 180 pounds. Tennessee football is building one of the best offensive programs in college football, which likely appealed to Matthews. How could it not?
Anyone watching the Vols in 2022 that plays a skill position could be sold on playing in that offense. Matthews is a perfect fit for the big-play offense Tennessee wants to be. He averaged 21 yards per reception and had more than 1,000 yards receiving as a high school junior.
1. 5-star running back Taylor Tatum to Oklahoma
Running backs might be losing their value when it comes to NFL free agency, but they are still super important in college football.
That’s why the most important college football recruiting commitment from the past week was the Oklahoma Sooners getting a pledge from five-star running back Taylor Tatum.
Tatum is the No. 1 overall running back in the 2024 class. He’s ranked 31st overall via the 247 Sports composite rankings and getting a player like that out of Texas is huge for the Sooners.
USC was heavily involved. Michigan was too and even got a crystal ball at one time. However, Oklahoma pulled away in the end and got one of the biggest commitments of Brent Venables’ early head-coaching career.