Alabama beats Mississippi St 82-80 in overtime

Mike Farrell, the national recruiting director for Rivals, said he wouldn’t be surprised to see other schools stage similar signing day events.

Mississippi State guard Craig Sword missed a free throw with eight seconds left, and a putback attempt by guard I.J. Ready did not fall, sending the game into overtime.

Alabama’s able to cherry-pick recruits because it doesn’t have pressing needs, and it often doesn’t have pressing needs largely because it cherry-picks recruits. He joins an Alabama recruiting class that ranks No. 1 in the country.

It’s the sixth straight year Alabama has landed the nation’s top signing class according to composite rankings of recruiting websites compiled by 247Sports, thanks to a resounding finish.

“You have a lot of battles that last night and there were some nerves, but I’m glad it worked out”, Helton said Wednesday.

The Arkansas Razorbacks, again depending on the recruiting service, were somewhere between 24th and 31st nationally and between 9th and 11th in the SEC. And they especially want to obtain signatures that somehow upset the fans of rival teams – Auburn, of course, and LSU and Tennessee and, particularly true in this cycle, Ole Miss. The Buckeyes signed 25 commitments, headlined by five-star defensive end Nick Bosa, but unlike recruiting classes in the past, this one lacked the typical signing day theatrics.

Say this about Texas coach Charlie Strong: He is a closer. Texas got Fowler to switch from LSU and defensive tackle Jordan Elliott to flip from MI. He was also a receiver with seven touchdown catches, plus returned kicks.

“We have a great group of linebackers and good cover people in the secondary”. He’s just 68 points shy of becoming the 49th player in Crimson Tide program history to reach 1,000 points…. The Bulldogs are among the top 10 in the rankings, and of their first 20 signees, 14 were from Georgia. Safety Nigel Warrior and junior-college defensive end Jonathan Kongbo – two of Tennessee’s highest-rated recruits – didn’t finalize their college decisions until Wednesday.

College football’s annual restocking of the shelves is here.

The Tigers entered the day with the No. 1 class and finished it with a fantastic haul of defensive backs, including five-star CB Kristian Fulton.

“The majority of their top targets just wanted to wait until signing day”, TideSports.com recruiting analyst Andrew Bone said. And of course, Alabama is expected to clean up.