Auburn, UCLA And USC Win Big On National Signing Day
Bryan Altman, CBS Local Sports
National Signing Day is arguably the most important day of the college football year. High school players are required to submit their NLI, or their National Letter of Intent to the college that they intend to play for. Auburn has been the biggest winner thus far as the highly-coveted defensive end Byron Cowart has decided to commit to the school. Cowart, who hails from Seffner, Florida, committed to Auburn in large part thanks to the school's new defensive coordinator, Will Muschamp, who was the head coach at University of Florida until he was fired by the school at the end of last year. Muschamp has provided a huge recruitment boon to Auburn's 2015 class, especially with prospects that reside in Florida and were considering staying in state.
While Auburn may have landed with the biggest name, there were a few other schools that fared quite well too. According to ESPN Stats and Info, 30 of the top 100 recruits in the nation have already committed to either Auburn, UCLA, USC or Alabama. Of those teams USC was the only other one to lock down a top five prospect in Iman Marshall, the No. 1 ranked cornerback in the country who played high school football in Long Beach, California.
While UCLA didn't have any commits in the top 20, they still fared well with five recruits in the top 100. In a sense, UCLA also managed to grab a high-profile personality away from USC on signing day as well. Snoop Dogg, a well-known fan of USC, will be supporting his son Cordell Broadus, who decided to sign with UCLA as opposed to his father's favorite program.
Broadus is ranked as the 130th best prospect in the nation by ESPN and is one of the top 15 wide receivers in the country as well.
Here's where the top 10 prospects in the nation ended up.
1. Byron Cowart, DE - Auburn
2. Terry Beckner Jr., DT - Missouri
3. Trenton Thompson, DT - Georgia
4. Iman Marshall, CB - USC
5. Martez Ivey, OT - Florida
6. Daylon Mack, DT - Texas A&M
7. George Campbell, ATH - Florida St.
8. Derwin James, S - Florida St.
9. CeCe Jefferson, DE - Florida
10. Kevin Toliver II, CB - LSU
The top 10 players in the nation typically fare well as is to be expected but that didn't stop one notable NFL personality from reminding everyone that rankings don't mean much from here on out.
More from Bryan? You can email him or find him on Twitter @bcaltman.
