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(just wanted contribute something meaningful to this post since Ruth wants to just argue for the sake of arguing)
The college football season is well underway, and we are inching closer to the early signing period in December. It's only three months away, which means we will start to see a few more commitments from top prospects.
As official visits take place to see the game atmosphere on different campuses, recruits will start to have enough information to pick a school, and we are going to see three ESPN 300 recruits make their commitments over the next three to four weeks.
In this week's notebook, we will take a look at those announcements and predict where each recruit will go. We will also look at a top-15 recruit taking visits, the recruiting impact from USC firing Clay Helton, which teams helped themselves in recruiting this past weekend and some top performances from transfers and freshmen.
Recruit predictions
This isn't a comprehensive list of who will commit over the next few weeks, but these ESPN 300 recruits have already announced publicly when they will be making their commitment. Here's where we see them going.
RB George Pettaway
5-foot-11, 175 pounds
Suffolk, Virginia
ESPN 300 rank: 106
Top choices: Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, Penn State
Pettaway is announcing his commitment on Sept. 22 at 6:30 p.m. ET. He released his top four of Florida, North Carolina, Penn State and Oregon in August, cutting it down from 10. Pettaway had taken visits to Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Penn State and a few others in June, and is now ready to make his decision.
He's the No. 8 running back in the class and had offers from some of the biggest programs in the country. Looking at some of the classes from the schools in his top list, Penn State already has two ESPN 300 running backs committed in Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton, Florida has ESPN 300 running back Terrance Gibbs, North Carolina has ESPN 300 running back Omarion Hampton committed, while Oregon does not yet have a top-300 commit at the position.
From those four, it seems as though North Carolina has the upper hand given his relationship with the coaches, and the Tar Heels could be in good position to land his commitment next week.
The pick: North Carolina
OT Elijah Pritchett
6-foot-6, 280 pounds
Columbus, Georgia
ESPN 300 rank: 103
Top choices: Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, USC
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Pritchett is massive tackle from Georgia, who initially had a top eight of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Kentucky, USC and Virginia Tech back in April, but recently cut it down to four.
Considering USC is in his top list and the Trojans just fired Helton, it doesn't seem likely he'll pick the Trojans. Even though he is from Georgia, there is a level of comfort and familiarity with Florida State.
Of the visits he took this summer, he took three trips to Florida State. He worked out at their big man camp and has seen quite a bit of campus. He is announcing his decision on Sept. 28, and if he chooses the Seminoles, he would give Florida State two ESPN 300 offensive linemen in the class, four ranked as four-stars.
The pick: Florida State
TE Jaleel Skinner
6-foot-5, 210 pounds
Greer, South Carolina
ESPN 300 rank: 64
Top choices: Alabama, Clemson, Florida State, Miami, Texas
Skinner is the top-rated tight end in this class and a top-100 recruit. He released his top five after taking visits to some of his top schools in June. He went to Miami, Alabama and Texas, among a few others, then took his official visit to Florida State in the beginning of September.
Skinner will still take visits to Florida this weekend, Texas on Sept. 25 and Clemson on Oct. 2. He's going to announce his commitment on Oct. 9, so this one might be a little more difficult to predict. The Longhorns are making a push, but this could change over the next few weeks.
The pick: Texas
Arch Manning's busy October
Arch Manning is the No. 2 prospect and the top quarterback in the 2023 class. The son of Cooper Manning, and the nephew of Peyton and Eli, he has garnered quite a bit of attention from his ability on the field.
According to Cooper, Arch will be getting out on the road and taking visits over the next few weeks.
He will visit Georgia this weekend for the South Carolina game, Alabama on Oct. 2 when the Crimson Tide play Ole Miss, then Texas on Oct. 16 when the Longhorns play Oklahoma State.
Arch will also be on hand at Ole Miss on Oct. 23 to see his uncle, Eli, get his jersey retired and watch the game against LSU. Cooper said his son will also likely visit Clemson on Oct. 30 for the Florida State game.
He has a busy next few months, which will likely help shape his eventual college choice.
Jaheim Singletary's visits
Cornerback Jaheim Singletary is one of the top uncommitted recruits left in the 2022 class after decommitting from Ohio State in the beginning of August. He's the No. 14 ranked recruit overall and a 6-foot-1, 175-pound corner from Jacksonville, Florida.
Cornerback Jaheim Singletary, the No. 14-ranked prospect in the Class of 2022, decommitted from Ohio State during the summer. ThreeStep
Singletary is one of the more highly sought-after defensive backs given his size and ability and has offers from nearly every major program. He is getting back out to campuses to take visits and will start this weekend with a trip to Florida for the Alabama game. The top-20 prospect will then visit Georgia for its game against Arkansas on Oct. 2.
He recently tweeted that he thinks he has narrowed down his list and he will soon release his top schools. Florida and Georgia would seemingly make that list with Miami as a potential add as well.
Who helped themselves in recruiting this week?
Oregon went to Columbus, Ohio, and beat a top-three-ranked Ohio State team on the road. It was an impressive win, considering the Ducks were short a few defensive starters, including defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux and linebacker Justin Flowe. The results of the game were talked about prominently nationally and Oregon has already built up quite the recruiting buzz over the past few years under coach Mario Cristobal.
Just because it was a road game doesn't mean it didn't have an impact on recruits. In fact, Oregon safety Marko Vidackovic reportedly walked by a group of prospects visiting Ohio State and said, "You boys better come to Oregon," according to Jarrid Denney.
The Ducks already have the No. 5 ranked class in 2022 with 11 ESPN 300 commitments. A win like that against a top-ranked team can only help push the success even further ahead. The Ducks have quite a few of their targets already committed, so where this could really help is in the 2023 class, as Oregon doesn't yet have any commitments in that class.
Another team that helped themselves in a national game was Michigan, which convincingly beat Washington under the lights in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines had some huge visitors on campus, and by all accounts, they came away impressed.
The No. 1-ranked recruit, Walter Nolen, was the biggest name who was on campus, joined by offensive lineman Josh Conerly Jr. and USC defensive back commit Domani Jackson, who made the trip from California.
Jackson has formed a friendship with current Michigan corner commit William Johnson, and with USC firing Helton, the visit to Michigan couldn't have happened at a better time.
The Wolverines could use help in the secondary, and if the coaches can sign both Johnson and Jackson in this class, it would immediately boost the defense.
USC recruiting impact
Speaking of USC, firing Helton in September is likely going to have an impact on this recruiting class. There isn't much time left until the early signing period and there isn't a clear direction yet as to who will be the next head coach full-time.
That likely won't happen until after the season. For now, USC assistant Donte Williams is taking over as interim coach. Williams is one of USC's best recruiters, but without having the permanent job, it will be tough to keep things intact.
The Trojans have five ESPN 300 commitments and only one from California. Jackson is the lone in-state top-300 recruit, and as mentioned above, he just took a visit to Michigan. Losing him would be a big blow to the Trojans' recruiting efforts, as he is widely regarded as one of the best corners in the class.
His father, Randy, however said they plan on waiting to see what happens before making any decisions one way or another.
Donte Williams, one of USC's top recruiters, took over as USC's interim head coach following the firing of Clay Helton. John McGillen/University of Southern California Athletics via AP
"We're actually going to see who they bring on. It just happened , so I haven't really had any communication with the USC staff as of today to see where they're at," Randy said. "Donte was our main contact as his recruiter, so that's usually who we talk to 100% of the time. I know he's a little more busy today. It just depends: Is it going to be a coach that comes in and cleans house? That will have one impact for the coach to come in, is he going to retain Donte. I don't know. It's yet to be seen."
Jackson took his visit to Michigan and he's also planning to visit Alabama on Nov. 6 for the game against LSU.
The family plans to wait, but Jackson's father says the timing is going to have to line up. Jackson is planning to sign in December and enroll in January, so they can't wait forever for USC to make a decision.
Quarterback commit Devin Brown, from Utah, said he will stay in the class, and because adding quarterback depth will always be important, keeping him in this class will be a main focus.
The good news for the next head coach, whenever that person is hired, is that the NCAA has a rule that allows recruits to take a second official visit if a coach leaves that school. That could provide helpful this year given many recruits took official visits in June when the restrictions amid the NCAA's dead period were lifted from COVID-19.
The new coach having the ability to bring recruits back to campus that have already taken officials, without having to pay out of pocket, could end up being an important detail.
There haven't been any big decommitments yet, but with ESPN 300 commits from Georgia, New Jersey, Utah and Nevada, plus one from California already looking around, it is going to take a lot of work to keep the class together. -------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...
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