June Recruiting Winners: Clemson, USC, Florida and Texas land major victories
Anymore, the summer has replaced December and January as prime college football recruiting season. Hundreds of 2024 recruits announced their commitments to Power Five and Group of Five programs in the past 30 days, with some schools landing upwards of a dozen commits.
The month of June is a make-or-break one for many programs, with nearly all recruits taking at least some of their official visits during the month. And more and more, that leads to early commitments. It has led to a major shakeup in the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings, including some schools jumping up 8-10 spots. And a handful of programs made major moves, with one pulling a pair of five-star commitments during the month.
Presenting the recruiting winners in the month of June:
1. Clemson
Commitments: 5
Avg. Rating Per Commit: 94.28
Dabo Swinney and Co. opened the month with their massive visit weekend and got two huge commitments coming out of it from five-star linebacker Sammy Brown and five-star wide receiver Bryant Wesco. Going into each of those visits, the Tigers were considered to be running second or maybe third, but the atmosphere in Clemson was just too much to pass up. And they weren’t done there.
Clemson also beat out Florida for talented four-star wideout TJ Moore, Florida State for four-star safety Ricardo Jones, and Michigan, Maryland and more for four-star EDGE Darien Mayo. The Tigers now sit just outside a top-five class in the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings.
2. USC
Commitments: 13
Avg. Rating Per Commit: 90.80
The Trojans proved they could recruit at an elite level in 2023 by signing three five-stars, but Lincoln Riley is building something special out in Los Angeles. The spring months were slow ones for USC, but June turned things up to a completely different level. In total, they landed 13 commitments in the month, included nine four-stars.
But even more important than that, they beat out West Coast rival Oregon for in-state stars Ryan Pellum and Dakoda Fields, while also snatching four-star offensive linemen Jason Zandemela and Manasse Itete away from Florida State. Riley and his staff have made a very good living in the Transfer Portal in the past two years, but they’re also beginning to build out a very strong recruiting base in their own state and across the country.
3. Florida
Commitments: 10
Avg. Rating Per Commit: 89.61
Florida had maybe the most impressive recruiting week in recent memory from June 12-19, getting a whopping nine commitments in the span of seven days. Along the way, they pulled off surprise wins in getting four-star linebackers Jamonta Waller and Aaron Chiles, as well as snagging four-star defensive linemen Nasir Johnson and Amaris Williams.
Billy Napier also added a couple of playmakers around elite quarterback commit DJ Lagway with four-star tight end Amir Jackson and wideout Jerrae Hawkins.
4. Texas
Commitments: 6
Avg. Rating Per Commit: 91.27
The Longhorns were another program who couldn’t seem to get it going this spring and then suddenly the tide turned. They’re primed for a big July as well, but grabbed commitments from coveted running backs Jerrick Gibson and Christian Clark, along with in-state four-star offensive lineman Daniel Cruz.
Add in dynamic playmaker Freddie Dubose Jr., Arizona four-star cornerback Santana Wilson and in-state interior mauler Nate Kibble, and Steve Sarkisian is again building some major juice in this class.
5. Georgia
Commitments: 6
Avg. Rating Per Commit: 90.61
The Bulldogs looked poised to take the No. 1 class from wire-to-wire, as they added six more commitments in the month of June and still have arguably their biggest targets still on the board. This month was about building out in the interior on both sides of the ball, though. Chidera Uzo-Diribe and Glen Schumann started the month off by landing four-star defensive linemen Justin Greene and Jordan Thomas and closed it by landing massive nose tackle Nnamdi Ogboko and the versatile Quintavius Johnson.
The haul on the offensive line was a little smaller — only figuratively. Stacy Searels went into Texas and pulled four-star offensive tackle Michael Uini away from the Longhorns, as well as Alabama and Michigan. But arguably the biggest win of the month belongs to Dell McGee, as he poached four-star running back and On3 top-100 prospect Chauncey Bowens away from the rival Gators.