Looking back at the month of July, here are the five biggest college football recruiting winners from the past month.
It was another busy month of college football recruiting as a number of programs landed five-star commitments in the 2024 and 2025 classes.
In terms of the biggest winners for the month of July, there were some of the usual suspects (Georgia football) but also some teams we haven’t talked about that much recently in terms of college football recruiting.
Now that we are in another dead period for college football recruiting and the start of the 2023 season is right around the corner, it should be a busy time for commitments.
However, this post will look at the biggest winners from the month of July in college football recruiting and we start with the Tennessee Volunteers.
5. Tennessee
Tennessee football had a great month on the recruiting trail, one that was capped with a commitment from four-star offensive tackle Bennett Warren on Monday.
Warren is 6-foot-8, 330 pounds, and ranked as the No. 8 offensive tackle according to the 247 Sports composite rankings. The Vols also beat out Michigan, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma for his pledge.
Tennessee had four commitments total in the 2024 college football recruiting class this month, but the pledge of five-star Mike Matthews is the reason Tennessee made this list. He’s a big-time player and a perfect fit for the big-play offense Josh Heupel has established in Knoxville.
The Vols also moved up to No. 8 overall following the commitment of Warren on Monday.
4. Ohio State football
Ohio State only landed three commitments in the month of July in the 2024 college football recruiting class, but they were significant.
The first was five-star defensive tackle Justin Scott. The dominant player out of the Chicago area ranked 14th overall in the 247 Sports composite rankings for the 2024 class, surprised everyone in the world of college football recruiting by picking the Buckeyes.
Notre Dame was the long-time favorite. Then, Georgia, Michigan, Alabama, and others were viewed as contenders before Ohio State swooped in.
Not only that, but Ohio State football landed another important commitment on Sunday as four-star cornerback Aaron Scott picked the Buckeyes over Michigan.
Scott is ranked 52nd overall in the 2024 class. But he’s an elite player and one of the best recruits in Ohio. Charles Woodson was even recruiting him to Michigan on social media.
In the end, the Ohio pull was too much and the Buckeyes won out. Making it even better for OSU fans, Scott even trolled the Wolverines, pulling an Ohio State jersey out of a Michigan backpack.
3. Georgia
You would be right if you complained about Georgia football being on the list of college football recruiting winners every single month, but facts are facts and the Bulldogs had another incredible month in July.
Frankly, you could probably make a case for the Bulldogs to be ranked higher on this list. Georgia football landed four recruits in the 2024 college football recruiting class that are ranked in the top 133 overall according to the 247 Sports composite rankings.
That’s insane. It’s the sort of haul that some programs would be thankful for over the course of an entire recruiting class. The Bulldogs did lose a five-star commitment this month, which is another reason to keep them lower.
However, Demarckus Riddick — the five-star LB that flipped to Auburn — happened after five-star linebacker Justin Williams committed. Kris Jones, another four-star ranked 133rd overall — the lowest-ranked pledge of the month — committed days after.
So Georgia football is fine at linebacker in the 2024 class. The Bulldogs have a solid hold on the No. 1 recruiting ranking and as we said recently, it’s almost unfair how well they are recruiting.
2. Florida State football
The last 12 months or so have been pretty great if you’re a Florida State football fan. The Noles finally got things going on the field in 2022, and after a tremendous offseason, Florida State has the feel of a national title contender.
At the very least, Florida State has to be considered a legit contender in the ACC. However, if Florida State football can recruit the way it did in the month of July, the Noles are going to have a bright, bright future.
The Noles landed a total of 10 commitments in the month of July. Yet, only three of them were ranked as four-star prospects according to the 247 Sports rankings. That doesn’t mean they aren’t quality players but that’s why the ranking is No. 2.
Florida State football did land elite cornerback Charles Lester III making them one of just seven teams with multiple five-star commitments now in the 2024 college football recruiting class.
That was a big win, plus, flipping four-star offensive tackle Manasse Itete from USC has Florida State ranked sixth overall in the 2024 team rankings.
1. Auburn football
Straight up, Auburn football is on fire right now on the college football recruiting trail and no team had a more impactful month than the Tigers.
Not only did Auburn football land two five-star recruits in July — the only college football program to do that — they flipped the commitments from Alabama and Georgia.
We talked about the Tigers flipping Demarckus Riddick from Georgia. That was huge since it was the first five-star pledge for Auburn football since 2019. Yet, just days after that, Auburn flipped five-star wideout Perry Thompson from the Crimson Tide.
Beyond that, Auburn is right in the thick of things with five-star safety KJ Bolden out of Georgia, so the Tigers could be getting another elite prospect.
Auburn football got six total commitments in the month of July though and five of them are ranked as blue chips according to the 247 Sports composite rankings, so it was more than Riddick and Thompson.
Either way, Auburn football fans have to love the hire of Hugh Freeze, at least so far.