Blue White Illustrated

T H E C L A S S O F 2 0 1 9 >> T he Southeastern Conference's two >agship football programs didn't end the 2018 season on a high note. Ala- bama was embarrassed by Clemson in the championship game of the College Football Playo?, while Georgia was upset by Texas in the Sugar Bowl. But it didn't take long for those two perennial powers to get back on the winning track, as the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide =nished =rst and second, respec- tively, in the Rivals.com recruiting rankings for the Class of 2019. The Crimson Tide appeared poised to claim the No. 1 ranking a@er =nish- ing a disappointing seventh last year. But on signing day, Georgia >ipped =ve-star wideout George Pickens from Auburn and leapfrogged Alabama in the rankings. Pickens had been com- mitted to the Tigers for more than a year, and his change of heart was con- sidered one of the day's biggest sur- prises. While Georgia and Alabama were the headliners, the SEC had plenty of other winners on signing day. As of Feb. 7, nine schools from that conference were ranked in the Rivals top 20. The SEC owned the top three spots in the rank- ings, with LSU coming in just behind Alabama. In addition, Texas A&M was sixth, Florida eighth, Tennessee 12th, Auburn 13th, South Carolina 17th and Arkansas 20th. When the Class of 2017 signed its letters of intent two years ago, it was clearly evident that Georgia's new head football coach, Kirby Smart, had been one of Alabama's major recruit- ing assets during his seven years on Nick Saban's staff. Smart had only been on the job for one year at his alma mater, going 8-5 with the Bull- dogs in 2016, but he signed the No. 3 class in the country according to Ri- vals, a class that included the nation's top-ranked group of offensive line prospects. Then, last February, Smart and his assistants landed Rivals' No. 1 class in the country with a record eight =ve- star prospects. This year, Georgia's class numbers 24 prospects, including three =ve-star players. In addition to Pickens, who hails from Hoover, Ala., the Bulldogs signed =ve-star o?ensive lineman Clay Webb of Oxford, Ala., and =ve-star linebacker Nolan Smith of IMG Acad- emy in Bradenton, Fla. Webb chose the Bulldogs over Ala- bama, but no one should feel too badly for the Crimson Tide. Their 27-mem- ber class contains three =ve-star play- ers, including the No. 1 running back prospect in the country, Trey Sanders. Sanders attended IMG Academy and played in the same back=eld as Penn State signee Noah Cain. The Tide signed another =ve-star IMG Academy graduate in o?ensive lineman Evan Neal, and also landed =ve-star defen- sive tackle Antonio Alfano of Colonia, N.J. In addition to its =ve-star signees, Alabama landed 21 four-star players. Only three prospects in Saban's latest class have less than a four-star rating from Rivals. With nine SEC schools most likely ending up in the =nal Rivals top 20, no one should be surprised that the con- ference signed 18 =ve-star players. No cruit who committed the earliest and stuck by it the entire time. Ellis, a State College resident and a Penn State legacy, made his decision in September of his junior year, a month and a half earlier than anyone else in the class. At the time, he was a three-star prospect with only a couple of regional o?ers. As he progressed into one of Pennsylvania's best high school football players as a senior, Ellis was upgraded to four stars and probably could have collected some big-time o?ers from schools across the country, if he had opened up his re- cruitment. But he never gave it a thought. FARTHEST FROM HOME In a class that features recruits from Florida, Texas and even Oregon, no one will be traveling farther from home than defensive line- man Joseph Appiah Darkwa. His school in Essen, Germany, is nearly 4,000 miles from University Park, equivalent to a 16- hour >ight. His parents' native country of Ghana is even farther, at a distance of more than 5,100 miles. CEILING PROJECT There's no doubting that quarterback Michael Johnson Jr. is one of the most athletic all-around prospects in this class. The upside is phenomenal and the ceiling is high, but a lot of work lies ahead if he's going to reach that potential. Once considered a four-star prospect who was rated among the top 200 players nationally, Johnson =nished the rankings as a three-star. A run-=rst QB, he possesses a unique throwing motion and delivery. It cer- tainly could work for him, but the scouts raised some concerns during his post- season all-star game. ROAD GRADERS In Caedan Wallace and Saleem Wormley, Penn State signed two of the five best offensive guards in the nation. While both offer some posi- tional flexibility, they also play with a similar nastiness and appear best fit to play on the interior of the offensive | SEC schools continue to reign on signing day

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