College Football

National Recruiting Rankings Like Groundhog Day, The Movie?

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:52 p.m. ET

Fansided, Charlie Lockhart/FanSided via Scarlet and Game

Aren’t the final recruiting rankings a lot like Groundhog Day, the Movie?

When the final recruiting rankings come out, it reminds one of the movie Groundhog Day doesn’t it? Leading up to National Signing Day it appears that things will be different this year, but usually many of the scenarios play out the same way with just a few twists and turns thrown in.

For example, is anybody shocked that Nick Saban has the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation for what seems like the 38th straight year? Or that Urban Meyer has another outstanding class? Would anyone have doubted that Jimbo Fisher’s Seminoles and Bob Stoops’ Sooners would be ranked in the top 10 nationally?

Also that Tennessee and at least one Mississippi team is ranked in the top 25. I guess recruits think that 2017 will be the year the Volunteers turn things around, for about the tenth straight season. And what recruit wouldn’t want to be a part of the first team from the state of Mississippi to win a national championship since the first forward pass was completed in college football.

There was a minor twist this year as the SEC only had nine schools ranked in the top 25. Usually they have 10-12.

There are always things that happen in the Groundhog Day movie that are different from the previous day and that makes the movie interesting. Let’s take a look a look at a few of things that were a little different and stood out in the 2017 recruiting cycle,

Georgia: Kirby Smart has the Bulldogs rolling with an excellent recruiting class that finished No. 3.

Michigan: Jim Harbaugh’s Wolverines were ranked No. 5, one spot ahead of last year’s class. Michigan hasn’t had back to back classes like that for quite some time. If coach Harbaugh doesn’t jump back to the NFL anytime soon, expect him to have more great recruiting classes at Michigan.

Florida: Coach Jim McElwain made a big signing day push to elevate Florida to No. 10.

USC: Coach Clay Helton did one better. It seemed like every late day signing was by a 4 or 5 star recruit who chose to play for USC.

The Trojans moved past the Wolverines to the No. 4 spot by the end of the day, but what would lure all of those star recruits to USC. Outside of having a great football tradition, a beach close by and a bunch of pretty girls running around the private school in 80 degree weather, what does the school have to offer?

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Clemson and Stanford: Despite having small classes (only 14 recruits each), David Shaw (Stanford) and Dabo Swinney (Clemson) still had classes ranked at 14 and 16 respectively. Stanford had three players ranked as 5 stars and Clemson had 2.

Nebraska: Mike Riley’s Cornhuskers cracked the top 25 and you can expect that to continue. Riley is a fine coach who is admired by everybody in the country and is now at a school with a rich football tradition.

As always, the recruiting process as a whole and the day players actually sign their name on the dotted line, was a lot of fun for true college football fans. Next year the recruiting “Groundhog Day” will be on February 8’th as National Signing Day will be on the 7th.

There will again be suspense leading up to National Signing Day, and many interesting stories on that day as well, you can be sure of that. But don’t be surprised when you wake up the following morning and the results are in you find out that Nick Saban has the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. Also that Urban Meyer has another outstanding class, Jimbo Fisher and Bob Stoops have…