National Signing Day: Alabama has best class

Associated Press

Every coach claims to have a great national signing day. Nick Saban actually does — every year.

By lunchtime on Wednesday, the Alabama coach had most of his latest highly rated recruiting class locked up.

"He's the best at (recruiting) in the country," said Tom Lemming of CBS Sports Network. "Over the last five years, nobody has been better at it than Nick Saban."

The national signing period for high school football players opened with the usual plethora of pick-a-cap news conferences and a few high-profile flip-flops.

New Ohio State coach Urban Meyer showed that a year away from coaching didn't hurt his ability to recruit. Meanwhile, Meyer's old school, Florida, followed a mediocre season with a promising signing day — despite having Southern California pluck a couple of blue-chippers from Gator country.

In Tuscaloosa, Ala., there were no surprises for the national champion Crimson Tide. And that was a good thing because Saban and his staff had already lined up a class that most of the analysts had ranked as either the best in the nation or very close to it.

"There was little intrigue or drama to this class," said Allen Wallace of SuperPrep Magazine.

No, just talent.

The Tide swept through the South to reload with 26 signees. Alabama went to Baltimore to get wide receiver Cyrus Jones, down to Lynchburg, Va., for defensive tackle Korren Kirven — one of the few late additions — scooped up eight players from Georgia, three from Florida, picked up a quarterback, Alec Morris, from Texas, and even dipped into LSU territory to grab highly touted safety Landon Collins from Geismar, La.

•

Ohio State’s recruiting coaches — as opposed to their coaching coaches — did a bang-up job with Urban Meyer's first class.

You might remember Michigan wasn't pleased with the fact that Meyer and the staff he was assembling was allowed to recruit while the old staff was preparing the Buckeyes for their bowl game. The NCAA signed off on the arrangement. This just after Ohio State was handed a one-year bowl ban for transgressions under former coach Jim Tressel.

•

With NCAA sanctions kicking in at USC, Lane Kiffin had 10 fewer scholarships to hand out this year.

While the quantity is down, the quality of the Trojans' class was not, and Kiffin's crew made a couple of big scores in Florida on signing day.

Defensive end Leonard Williams from Daytona Beach, Fla., and receiver Nelson Algholor from Tampa both chose the Trojans.

•

Did Case Keenum get a seventh year of eligibility?

Maybe the most surprising signing day flip-flop came from receiver Deontay Greenberry from Fresno, Calif., who backed off of a long-standing verbal commitment to Notre Dame and signed with Houston.

•

Quarterback Jameis Winston from Hueytown, Ala., said in an interview on ESPNU: "I'm a Nole."

But he also said he won't sign a letter of intent with Florida State until at least Friday. Winston seems intent on sticking with the Seminoles, but until it's official Jimbo Fisher will no doubt have to sweat it out.

As for Florida State, Fisher signed a second consecutive class rated in the top 10 by the analysts.