National Signing Day 2016: Biggest Winners, Losers

National Signing Day’s biggest winners and losers from the 2016 class.

The antics or shenanigans — whatever you want to call it — the hoopla of National Signing Day has finally died down. Now, it’s time to come back down to Earth, right?

Eh, don’t close the book on the 2016 recruiting cycle just yet, people.

What fun would it be if we just crossed our arms and pointed in a “they went that-a-way” fashion while calling out where each prospect has committed to play college football. Nope, we have to hit the lights, roll the film and analyze how everything shook out.

With the class rankings settled down, let’s take a look at who did better than the pack and who didn’t do … eh- quite as well as everyone else.

National Signing Day Winners

1. Texas Longhorns

If you had thrown your hands to the sky and shouted out how Charlie Strong would take his recruiting class from outside the top-30 spots and finish with a top-10 class, you would have been wrapped in a straight jacket faster than Longhorns fans can throw up the “Hook ’em Horns.” Strong flipped Jordan Elliot from Michigan. He flipped Erick Fowler from LSU. Both will make big contributions to the defensive line. Texas landed No. 1 safety Brandon Jones and tacked on 4-star outside linebacker Jeffrey McCulloch. It was a big day for the Longhorns, and there was no team more surprising than them.

2. Florida State Seminoles

First, it’s always a mini win within itself to flip a recruit from a rival school. Florida and Florida State have been going at it for years. Dante Fowler Jr., Dalvin Cook, Treon Harris, etc. The list goes on and on, and FSU added Shavar Manuel to it on National Signing Day. Tacking on the 4-star defensive tackle was big, but it was also huge to beat out the Gators for 5-star defensive end Brian Burns. Jimbo Fisher pulled a rabbit out of his hat by landing 4-star linebacker Dontavious Jackson, and he beefed up the offensive line with Landon Dickerson and Jauan Williams. Oh, and Carlos Becker was a pretty nice addition to the secondary, too.

3. Michigan Wolverines

We all figured it was going to happen, but Jim Harbaugh carried his top-10 class across the finish line. It’s hard not to have the Wolverines on this list because they landed the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit, Rashan Gary. They added 4-star cornerback Lavert Hill to the secondary with fellow 4-star corner David Long. Michigan reached into the West Coast to snag Devin Asiasi, a 4-star tight end. Plus, kickers are people, too. Harbaugh landed 4-star recruit Quinn Nordin, who decommitted from Penn State in the aftermath of the Harbaugh sleepover.

National Signing Day Losers

1. Maryland Terrapins

To be fair, it’s really, really difficult to recruit against Urban Meyer and Ohio State. New head coach D.J. Durkin had 4-star quarterback Dwayne Haskins Jr. and 4-star linebacker Keandre Jones until Meyer flipped them a couple of weeks before National Signing Day. The Terrapins landed eight in-state recruits, but only two of them were 4-star prospects: offensive tackle Terrance Davis and wide receiver Tino Ellis. Durkin needed to snag a few more names, and he just didn’t get ’em.

2. Arkansas Razorbacks

For a minute there, it sounded like Bret Bielema was helping himself to a slice off of that bitter pie. He later apologized for how his comment calling Florida the “new Ole Miss” was taken, but his attention should have been on his 2016 class. Arkansas was in on 4-star cornerback Kristian Fulton, and he went to LSU. Four-star wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland chose the Gators in spite of his family’s high interest in the Razorbacks. Oh, and Jim McElwain managed to flip JUCO cornerback Joseph Putu from Arkansas, too. With 15 of their 20 commits being 3-star prospects — only five had 4-star ratings — the Razorbacks just didn’t get it done.

3. Miami Hurricanes

Sure, Mark Richt didn’t have a whole lot of time to build an impressive class, but that argument kind of flies out the window when you look at what Kirby Smart — his replacement at Georgia — did in about the same amount of time. Miami seemed to be recruiting not to lose commits instead of recruiting to add to its class. Think about it. The majority of the conversation regarding the Hurricanes was whether or not they would keep Sam Bruce, whether or not they would keep Tyler Byrd. Bruce stayed, but Byrd bolted for Tennessee. Miami did finish with some talented skill players in its class, but it has to be noted the Canes landed only four linemen on both sides of the ball combined. And in that group, only Patrick Bethel was graded with more than a 3-star rating. The Canes took away just 18 commits in the class, and fell behind Florida State and Florida in the National Signing Day news.

Note: Scout rankings and ratings used in this article.