From Henderson to Lattimore, from Florida to Texas, from Kiffen to Rodriguez, much rides on Wild Wednesday.
We're counting inside 12 hours to National Signing Day and everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Last year was all about resiliency.
Many of the nation's top programs took some major gut punches, but persevered to grab fantastic classes. The most resilient was USC which was shun by four major recruits, but still scored 10 of CBS Sports recruiting expert Tom Lemming's Top 100 players.
Lattimore is expected to commit to South Carolina today.
Photo by Don Wessel
“They didn’t crumble after the early disappointments,” said Lemming, whom ranked the Trojans No. 3 overall last year. “They rebounded and did what they had to do.”
Ohio State lost blue chip defensive back Justin Green to Illinois, but came back in volumes and quality more so than elite talent with 27 signees, including three Top 100s recruits. Florida saw slight but swift WR Nu’Keese Richardson (Pahokee, Fla.) go to Tennessee, but still grabbed five players between No. 22-66.
So what setbacks are in store this season? We don't anticipate as many surprises.
Fourteen of Lemming's top 100 have yet to commit, including the two at the top, monstrous lineman Seantrel Henderson and rugged running back Marcus Lattimore, who plans to announce his choice between South Carolina and Auburn in a couple hours.
Most think South Carolina is a slam dunk.
Even though Henderson has shown a superb poker face, most experts consider his national triangle of finalist - Ohio State, Florida State and USC - a farce. Everyone is picking Ohio State. We'll see what he says in 24 hours on CBS.
The three other big storylines:
1. How will the Lane Kiffin for Pete Carroll coaching trade ultimately affect USC and Tennessee recruiting classes? Right now they rank No. 6 and 13, respectively.
2. Can anyone catch the classes at Texas and Florida or simply do the rich get filthy rich?
3. Can top programs under fire - Michigan, Texas Tech, Notre Dame and Florida State - pick up steam with strong finishes to their recruiting classes. At last check, Michigan ranked No. 8 and Notre Dame No. 10. Texas Tech and Florida State weren't among the top 25.
Of the remaining 12 top 100 recruited commits, five listed Florida State as finalists.
Of those remaining dozen top 100 not yet decided, here are their finalists and where we think they'll wind up.
No. 26 - DE J.R. Ferguson. His finalists are LSU, Notre Dame, Miami, Florida State and Cal. Our prediction: Miami.
No. 41 - DE Owamagbe Odighizuwa. UCLA, Nebraska or Oregon State. Our prediction: UCLA.
No. 45 - DE Gabe King. Everywhere. Our prediction: Cal.
No. 50 - DB/RB Sean Parker. Michigan, Cal, Washington or USC. Our predication: USC.
No. 54 - RB/DB Dietrich Riley. Notre Dame, UCLA, LSU or USC. Our prediction: USC.
No. 57 - OL Matt James. Notre Dame or Ohio State. Our prediction: Ohio State.
No. 67 - OL-DL Bryan Jones. Mississippi, Arkansas, Auburn or Baylor. Our prediction: Arkansas.
No. 68 - WR Markeith Ambles. LSU, North Carolina, Tennessee or USC. Our prediction: North Carolina.
No. 71 - OLB Christian Jones. Florida, Florida State or Notre Dame. Our prediction: Florida State.
No. 83 - OL-DL Damien Robinson. Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Auburn, Florida State or Mississippi. Our prediction: Oklahoma.
No. 87 - OL-DL James Stone. Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee or Vanderbilt. Our prediction: Alabama.
No. 90 - QB-DB Christian Green. Florida or Florida State. Our prediction: Florida State.
See 15 huge questions facing top programs here at THE BLEACHER REPORT.
