SEC Football Recruiting: 2016 Classes That’ll Erupt By 2017

Several SEC football teams landed top 25 recruiting classes. Here are three that could produce big early on.

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Letters of intent have been signed. Rankings for both individual players and programs are in the vault. Signing Day is now a footnote in history. But while there’s a general sense of who flourished and who flopped during the 2016 cycle, which school’s class will produce early on-field dividends, say by 2017?

With a chance to exhale and evaluate each SEC football team’s 2016 signing class and possible depth chart, the following newcomers are most likely to be turning heads a year from now.

3. Georgia

If Kirby Smart ignites the fire in Athens, the spark is liable to come from his initial recruiting class.

Smart succeeded in keeping Mark Richt’s targets intact, spearheaded by the five-star triplets of QB Jacob Eason, TE Isaac Nauta and playmaker Mecole Hardman Jr. There could be a slew of openings on defense in 2017, which is particularly promising for linemen Julian Rochester, Chauncey Manac, Tyler Clark and Michail Carter. These are Smart’s players, the building blocks of his tenure in Athens. And he’s hopeful of getting a bunch of them on the field as soon as they’re ready to contribute.

[MORE: Way-Too-Early SEC Football Rankings For 2016]

2. Alabama

Yes, there’s as much depth chart competition and congestion here as anywhere in the country. But the talent signed by Nick Saban just keeps getting better and better.

Bama cleaned up on Signing Day … again. And the Tide will birth a whole new ensemble of SEC stars … again. Among the five-star newcomers, DE Terrell Hall and OT Jonah Williams will be rising by 2017. And Lyndell Wilson is being couched as potentially the next great linebacker in Tuscaloosa. This program never struggles at developing feature backs, and it’s only a matter of time before B.J. Emmons is shouldering the load now that the departures of Derrick Henry and Kenyan Drake have freed up roster space.

1. Ole Miss

QB Shea Patterson is a microcosm of this year’s terrific recruiting class—learn as much as possible as an apprentice in 2016 before becoming a linchpin Rebel in 2017.

Ideally, Patterson takes the baton from Chad Kelly by next spring. Ditto Ole Miss’ other five-star recruit, OT Gregory Little, who’s capable of winning a job as early as this summer. Otherwise, this class is flush in early contributors, from TE Jacob Mathis and long receivers DeKaylin Metcalf and A.J. Brown on offense to aggressive linemen Benito Jones and Charles Wiley on the defensive side of the ball.