Early Signing Day is rapidly approaching, and, unsurprisingly, the college football drama wasn’t confined to the field during Week 12 as recruits around the country hone in on their final decisions. In our college football recruiting roundup, we break down all the latest news and information on the top high school prospects.
College Football Recruiting Rumors and News After Week 12
The dust had barely settled on a weekend where the BYU Cougars and the Georgia Bulldogs put the dog among the SEC pigeons when the college football recruiting cycle weighed in with more heavyweight blows than the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight.
It felt like last weekend might be the start of a wild final stretch before the Early Signing Period, when most of the country’s top recruits will put pen to paper with their schools of choice. Here are three major storylines from a wild weekend of recruiting.
Julian Lewis Among Quarterback Dominoes Starting to Fall
It has been obvious for months that five-star quarterback and long-time USC Trojans commit Julian “Juju” Lewis would not be sticking with his original commitment. He made that official by de-committing from the Trojans on Sunday.
It was also obvious that the Trojans knew this and had a few contingency plans. What may have been surprising, though, was how quickly they were able to gain the commitment of a different five-star quarterback.
Local five-star and former Texas A&M Aggies commit Husan Longstreet was on campus this Saturday to watch the Trojans beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Though USC’s interest has been there for months, Longstreet hadn’t really begun to show signs of wavering from his commitment to the Aggies until extremely recently.
In fact, I had planned to write an article about his potential interest in the Trojans after he took a seemingly last-minute trip to the Colosseum this past weekend. I did not expect the Centennial High School star to announce his flip to the Trojans just hours after Lewis de-committed.
From a PR standpoint, it’s good business for Lincoln Riley’s team to go just hours without a committed five-star quarterback.
There were more fireworks on Sunday night, though, as four-star quarterback Tramell Jones, the former leader of the Florida State Seminoles’ recruiting class, announced his commitment to the Florida Gators.
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While this is not surprising, it’s a stinging blow for the Seminoles. Jones had been committed since April of 2023 and has visited Tallahassee over 25 times since then. This move was fairly obvious when Jones de-committed following the departure of former offensive coordinator Alex Adkins, who was fired by Florida State last week.
When he visited “The Swamp” on Saturday for Florida’s win over the LSU Tigers, it was a matter of when and not if he would join the Gators’ class.
Latest Bryce Underwood Rumors
Bryce Underwood is the top-ranked quarterback in the country and a long-time LSU commit. But the Detroit (MI) native faces immense pressure from the local Michigan Wolverines to flip.
Typically, fans know that Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals are a part of recruiting, but rarely does it play out so publicly.
Michigan boosters have had no issues openly admitting that the Wolverines are trying to entice Underwood with the richest NIL package we’ve ever seen in the sport. Sometimes, the figures can get overblown, but boosters (such as Barstool CEO Dave Portnoy) have confirmed that Michigan’s NIL package is in the $10 million range.
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That’s not to say LSU doesn’t have a generous NIL offering for the consensus five-star, but if Underwood spurns the Wolverines, he’ll also say no to the biggest NIL deal we’ve ever seen for a high school recruit.
Underwood and Belleville fell in the quarterfinals of the Michigan High School Playoffs, so his college choice is on deck.
Arrion Concepcion De-commits From NC State: One-off or Indication of Impending Implosition?
Typically, it’s not a big deal when a three-star recruit backs off from his pledge to a school late in the process. It happens all the time. But there are exceptions.
Chambers (NC) three-star receiver Arrion Concepcion de-committed from the NC State Wolfpack on Sunday, prompting many to wonder what it means for Concecpcion’s brother, superstar wide receiver Kevin Concepcion.
This could simply be the case of a high schooler who wants to explore his options — the younger Concepcion holds offers from schools like Virginia Tech and Kansas State.
But it could also indicate that his family, specifically Kevin, is frustrated with the state of affairs in Raleigh.
From talking to a few sources, there doesn’t seem to be much internal worry about an avalanche of lost recruits in the 2025 recruiting class, but there are some within the building who think the transfer portal could be unkind to the Wolfpack.
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