Category: College Football

There is a talent drain going on in California with the top recruits not staying to play college football in-state.

Given that the state consistently turns out dozens of players each year that are Power Five quality athletes, it is shocking to see that just one of the top 10 recruits in the class of 2024 stayed in-state and played for a California program.

It is crazy to think that five of the state’s top 10 recruits are heading to the SEC and just one athlete is staying in California to play college football. A decade ago, this would have been unthinkable, especially with USC seemingly cherrypicking the state’s top recruits each year.

Why are California’s top players leaving the state? Recent college football expansion and re-alignment might have something to do with it.

For starters, USC and UCLA were underwhelming this past season and it couldn’t come at a worse time. With a jump up to the Big Ten this fall, it isn’t a good look to see the two storied programs limp through their final year of the Pac-12.

With the Big Ten expected to be a significant jump up in competition, recruits might be eyeing both USC and UCLA with some caution. The Pac-12 teams are expected to have some learning curve over the next year or two, both with travel and the deeper talent in the conference. Those concerns might be leaving top recruits a bit wary about the transition to the Big Ten.

And then there are Cal and Stanford, both of whom were very much left behind in conference re-alignment. While both landed in the ACC, it is a tough sell to recruits to play in this hodgepodge of a conference.

But the biggest factor is clearly up north with Oregon. The Ducks, also heading to the Big Ten, have become the ‘it’ school on the West Coast and are hot. Between NIL and their in-style uniforms, Oregon is a big factor for California…

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USATSI

Three-star wide receiver Elijah Burress, the son of former NFL star wide receiver and Super Bowl champion Plaxico Burress, committed to Notre Dame on Saturday. The younger Burress ranks as the No. 36 wide receiver in the 2025 recruiting cycle by 247Sports and is the 15th member of Notre Dame’s top-tanked recruiting class.

Notre Dame offered Burress on Jan. 11, and he committed to the Fighting Irish over Duke, James Madison, Marshall, Cincinnati, Liberty among many others. The Wayne, New Jersey, product caught 25 passes for 434 yards and five touchdowns during his junior season at DePaul Catholic this past fall.

The elder Burress played his college ball at Michigan State before being drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the No. 8 pick in the 2000 NFL Draft. Burress played 12 seasons in the NFL and caught the game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl XLII against the New England Patriots in 2007.

The Irish have commitments from four-star safety Ivan Taylor, four-star tight end James Flanigan, four-star quarterback Deuce Knight, four-star edge rusher Christopher Burgess Jr., four-star offensive lineman Owen Strebig, four-star running back Justin Thurman and more in their No. 1-ranked 2025 recruiting class that currently ranks ahead of LSU, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma.

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USC needs elite players. Class of 2026 prospect Kevin Ford Jr. fits the bill. For, an edge rusher from Duncanville (Texas), has announced via his social media channel that he has received an offer from USC. The 2026 prospect is the No. 1-rated player from the state of Texas in the 2026 class, 36th nationally.

The 6-3, 225-pound Ford has offers from Texas, Arizona State, Nebraska, Penn State, SMU, North Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Florida, UCF and Baylor among others.

The Trojans have lagged behind the top programs in the country in terms of overall recruiting rankings and top-line recruiting prowess. USC is outside the top 15 in the national rankings for the 2024 class. That’s not terrible, but it’s certainly not what USC had in mind. It is below expectations for Lincoln Riley and his program. It’s several notches below Oregon, Ohio State, and Miami, three programs which have not won any conference championships the past three seasons but have done a lot better than USC on the trail and in the transfer portal.

Landing five-star prospects is exactly what USC needs to elevate itself as a program. Ford gives the Trojans an opportunity to boost their roster and change the narrative.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire. Follow our newest sites, UW Huskies Wire and UCLA Wire.

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire

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Former Stanford tight end Benjamin Yurosek is transferring to Georgia following a four-year career with the Cardinal. Yurosek, who is the No. 6 tight end in 247Sports’ transfer rankings, is a huge get for the Bulldogs, who needed an experienced tight end to replace star and expected first-round NFL Draft pick Brock Bowers. 

“Obviously Georgia has the best of both worlds,” Yurosek told ESPN. “They have big-time football and the use of tight ends.”

A graduate transfer, Yurosek was seen as a potential 2024 NFL Draft pick before an injury riddled 2023 season sidelined his professional hopes. He emerged as one of the nation’s best tight ends from 2021-22, starting in 23 games and tallying 92 receptions for 1,103 yards and four touchdowns. 

His 15.3 yards per catch in 2021 ranked third among power-conference tight ends. Yurosek had a career-best performance to open the 2023 season, catching nine passes for 138 yards and a touchdown against Hawaii, but he suffered a shoulder injury in an Oct. 13 win against Colorado that caused him to shut things down for the rest of the year. 

Yurosek should thrive in his role at Georgia with a good chance that his draft stock soars once more. The Bulldogs get more out of the tight end position than almost any school in the nation, as evidenced by Bowers’ prolific career. The two-time Mackey Award winner had 2,538 yards receiving and 26 touchdowns in his three years at Georgia, far more than any other tight end in that span. 

The Bulldogs also used Bowers as a ferocious blocker on running plays and even gave him some work out of the backfield, a role that Yurosek should be familiar with given his 14 career carries — 11 of which came during the 2023 season. 

Georgia loading up on skill talent

Georgia is…

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Feb. 8—THOMASVILLE — On the eve before National Signing Day when ten of his senior teammates would make their football futures official, Thomas County Central junior Dee Reddick made headlines as he announced his surprising flip. Reddick has de-committed from Auburn and is now committed to UCF.w

For many, the flip was a shock. UCF has recently joined the Big 12, but holds no where near the cachet that Auburn has being an SEC program and having recently hired Hugh Freeze, which puts them on an upward trajectory. However, when you look at UCF’s recent coaching moves, it makes sense.

UCF’s head coach is Gus Malzahn, who has significant ties to Auburn. Malzahn served as Auburn’s head football coach for six years and led the Tigers to an SEC championship and national championship appearance in 2013.

Malzahn recently made a splash in the coaching world, hiring away Auburn’s director of player personnel and excellent recruiter Trovon Reed. It is believed that Reed had a lot to do with Reddick’s flip.

“That’s kind of one of the reasons Gus had hired him was they wanted to bring in some really good top recruiters and I think that was one of the pieces that kind of fell into place,” said Matt Murschel of the Orlando Sentinel.

Malzahn and his staff did take a trip to Thomas County Central to meet with Reddick. Reddick felt a connection with the Knights, later attending a recruiting weekend. He made the flip soon after.

“A connection was made by coach Malzahn and his staff when they came here,” said Central head coach Justin Rogers. “And, obviously, a further and deeper connection when he went on his trip.”

Getting Reddick to flip is a big win for the UCF program. According to Murschel, Malzahn and UCF have put a real emphasis on recruiting, posting their best ever recruiting class in 2024, which ranked in the top 35 in the…

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SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has been a busy man of late. In the past week alone he announced a “joint advisory committee” partnership with the Big Ten and the state of Tennessee filed a pivotal lawsuit against the NCAA that could change the way name, image and likeness is governed going forward in college football. In a Wednesday appearance on ESPN, Sankey had a chance to address those topics. 

Speaking on the SEC’s partnership with the Big Ten, Sankey says it grew out of frustration in the lack of progress at College Football Playoff committee meetings. 

“We have all been in rooms with people, big rooms filled with a lot of people,” Sankey said. “We don’t seem to be making a lot of progress on the key issues present in college athletics. Here’s an opportunity to slim down the participants, focus on two conferences with the idea that we can introduce some concepts that others can consider and react to. … We have a set of pressing issues upon us that merit this kind of conversation.”

The Big Ten will expand to 18 schools in the 2024-25 academic year, while the SEC will add Oklahoma and Texas to reach 16 members. Sankey believes both conferences’ decision to expand has aligned some of their interests when it comes to access to the College Football Playoff, among other things. 

“We made an announcement back in the Summer of 2021 about the SEC’s growth of 14 to 16 members, that announcement changed my relationship within meeting rooms,” he said. “It resulted in some of the delays in decision making that I spoke of earlier. Fast forward a year later and the Big Ten made an expansion decision.”

Last week attorneys general from…

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The high school team recruiting title is staying in the SEC for another year. Georgia and head coach Kirby Smart will claim the recruiting crown for the 2024 class after signing four five-stars, 19 four-stars and five three-stars.

Rivals will be awarding two more 2024 recruiting champions this year – the transfer portal team champion and the comprehensive team champion, which will blend the high school and transfer portal team rankings. The latter two team champions will be crowned in the summer, prior to the teams reporting to training camp.

But for the Bulldogs, this recruiting crown is Georgia’s fourth since the 2017 recruiting cycle and the SEC’s ninth-consecutive recruiting championship. In an historical context, Georgia’s 2024 recruiting class ranks No. 16 all-time, according to the team recruiting rankings formula.

MORE: Team rankings for 2024 class | UGA’s 2024 class

HS RECRUITING CHAMPIONS SINCE 2002

1. GEORGIA

Ellis Robinson (Adam Friedman/Rivals.com)

Unsurprisingly, Georgia’s defensive signees are the stars of this recruiting class. There are a total of four five-stars who signed with the Bulldogs and each of them are defensive prospects. Finishing the rankings cycle at No. 3 in the Rivals250 is cornerback Ellis Robinson, who is the highest-ranked prospect to sign with Georgia in the 2024 cycle. That No. 3 ranking is the highest for a cornerback since the 2019 class when Derek Stingley Jr. finished No. 1 overall.

Five-star signees Justin Williams (No. 11 in the Rivals250), KJ Bolden (No. 14) and Joseph Jonah-Ajonye (No. 16) along with Robinson give the Bulldogs at least one five-star at every level of the defense.

Joining Robinson and Bolden in the secondary are top-100 prospects Ondre Evans and Demello Jones, who finished the rankings cycle listed as an athlete. The…

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A federal judge denied a request from the states of Tennessee and Virginia for a temporary restraining order that would have halted the NCAA from enforcing NIL recruiting guidelines. The ruling comes one week after attorney generals from the two states filed a federal antitrust lawsuit. The two states claim that the NCAA violated antitrust laws by denying athletes their ability to earn full NIL compensation. 

Though Judge Clifton L. Corker’s decision provides an early victory for the NCAA, his comments may paint a bleaker picture for the organization’s long term standing in the legal battle. Corker said he believed the states’ case will “likely” succeed based on federal antitrust statutes, going as far as to say current NIL regulations “likely foster economic exploitation of student-athletes.”

NCAA athletes have been permitted to earn NIL compensation since July 2021, but with parameters. For example, schools are not allowed to directly recruit players — high school prospects or transfer portal entrants — using NIL opportunities. 

The judge’s decision leaves current NIL regulations in place for National Signing Day on Wednesday. The next battle is a hearing for a preliminary injunction on Feb. 13 in Greenville, Tennessee. If granted, that injunction would prevent the NCAA from enforcing current NIL regulations until the conclusion of the lawsuit.

The timing of the lawsuit was no coincidence; It was filed one day after CBS Sports reported that the University of Tennessee is dealing with an ongoing NCAA investigation into potential NIL violations involving…

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