Blue White Illustrated

Grayson High School in Loganville, Ga. But the Rebels��� success doesn���t begin and end with Nkemdiche. Two other five-star prospects who chose Ole Miss were the Midwest���s top-rated wide receiver, Laquon Treadwell of Monee High School in Crete, Ill, and offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil of Lake City, Fla. Furthermore, the Rebels signed eight recruits who received four -star ratings from Rivals.com. At the top of their fourstar list are junior college All-America defensive back Nickolas Brassell of East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, Miss.; running back Mark Dobson Jr. of Whitehaven High School in Memphis, Tenn.; and offensive lineman Austin Golston of Prattville, Ala. The success Ole Miss enjoyed this past recruiting season really did come out of nowhere. During the previous 25 years, the Rebels hadn���t come close to signing a top-15 class. The SEC���s other surprise program is Vanderbilt. James Franklin has turned the Commodores into a force to be reckoned with in the nation���s toughest football conference. Franklin recruited a top-25 class last year, and he followed that strong effort by assembling a consensus top20 recruiting class this year. Both Rivals.com and the G&W Recruiting Report have ranked Vanderbilt���s class 19th in the country. The Commodores��� 24-member class includes three four-star prospects: linebacker Nigel Bowden of Macon, Ga.; quarterback Johnathan McCrary of Ellenwood, Ga.; and tight end Mitchell Parsons of Parker, Colo., plus 20 three-star players as rated by Rivals. Of the 46 players Franklin has signed in Vanderbilt���s past two classes, six are four-star prospects and 39 are three-star prospects. It���s a feat no one thought humanly possible when Franklin became the team���s head coach two years ago. As dominant as the SEC has been in recruiting, there are other noteworthy storylines around the nation. In the Big Ten, Ohio State and Michigan have reasserted themselves as the league���s flagship programs. For the two past two years, the Buckeyes and Wolverines have landed consensus top-10 classes. This year the G&W Recruiting Report ranks Ohio State���s class fourth nationally behind Alabama, Notre Dame and Florida. Out west, the Pac-12 has a new king: UCLA. The G&W Recruiting Report has the Bruins ranked 10th nationally, while Rivals has them at No. 11. According to Rivals, UCLA landed 16 four-star recruits among the 23 members of its Class of 2013. At the top of UCLA���s class are fourstar defensive backs Tahaan Goodman of Cucamonga, Calif., and Priest Willis of Tempe, Ariz. The reason why the Bruins have replaced USC with the No. 1 recruiting class in the Pac-12 was the de-commitments the Trojans suffered in the last 10 days leading up to Feb. 6. USC ended up with only 12 signings, but the Trojans still led the country with five five-star recruits. The abundance of five-star players lifted USC���s class into most recruiting services��� top-15 roundups. In the Atlantic Coast Conference, Florida State regained its perch at the top of the league. The Seminoles ended up with 21 signings and finished with the 10th-best class in the country according to Rivals. Florida State���s most important signing in the week leading up to signing day was four-star defensive back Jalen Ramsey of Nashville, Tenn. Ramsey jumped from USC to Florida State on Feb. 4. In the Big 12, Oklahoma checked in at No. 13 in the Rivals rankings after signing 23 players. Bob Stoops was able to land six four-star recruits. The most surprising aspect of the Big 12���s signing day haul was the fact that Texas signed only 15 players and failed to make Rivals��� national top 20 list. Buckeyes, Wolverines set pace ack in the 1970s, ���80s and early ���90s, fans joked that the Big Ten should be called the ���Big Two.��� The Big Two, of course, were Ohio State and Michigan, and their dominance of the rest of the conference extended from the field to the recruiting trail. When Penn State joined in 1993, it gave the league a wake-up call, winning 14 of 16 conference games and posting a combined overall record of 22-2 those first two years. The Nittany Lions��� arrival was a challenge to the natural order. The other 10 teams in the conference were forced to raise their game, and within a few years, most of them had done just that. Soon, even long-suffering Northwestern was competing for conference titles, and in ���96 it even played in the Rose Bowl. Another of the league���s stragglers, Wisconsin, produced a Heisman Trophy winner in Ron Dayne. What used to appear to be a near certainty ��� that Ohio State and Michigan would compete for the conference title on a yearly basis ��� seemed to become less of a sure thing beginning in the early- to mid-���90s. With the addition of Penn State, it instead turned into a battle between five or sometimes six teams that would compete to represent the conference in the Rose Bowl. But now, with Urban Meyer having taken over the coaching reins at Ohio State and Brady Hoke getting comfortable at Michigan, there are signs on the horizon that these two traditional powers are about to reassert themselves B

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