Singer: How James Perrone’s commitment shows USF's rise on a national stage
At 11:59 a.m. on Monday, I fired out my tweet regarding Miami Southridge class of 2027 quarterback James Perrone committing to the South Florida Bulls.
It was a solid post with good interaction — 14 retweets, 113 favorites and 7.3k views. I’ll take it.
One minute before my tweet, Rivals’ Hayes Fawcett broke the news of the commitment, as he often does with many recruits. And let’s just say my post didn’t quite compare to Fawcett’s. It had 78 retweets, 957 (and counting) favorites and 263.6k views.
That’s cool and all, Mike, but why should I care?
Guys like me and Kelly Quinlan write about new commitments at the local level that get exposure within the Bulls’ Twitter community. But Hayes Fawcett picking it up? That’s a different level of exposure to all the other recruits in the country — kids in the 2027, 2028, 2029 classes and beyond — that USF is a school to be aware of.
Fawcett has been the gold standard in breaking major recruiting news for years, and for someone like myself who lives and breathes high school recruiting, this is a big deal.
He’s been posting graphics since 2016, and Fawcett had only broken news of a USF commitment just once before — when Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy tight end Jonathan Echols flipped from Tennessee to South Florida.
And that news makes sense for Fawcett to cover — it was a notable flip of a four-star prospect who reuniting with Alex Golesh in Tampa. But Perrone was an unranked prospect by Rivals at the time of his commitment. I doubt Fawcett normally does a breaking news graphic for an unranked, Group of Five commitment.
But that’s the power of the USF Bulls right now. After smacking Boise State to start the season and upsetting Florida on Saturday afternoon, USF is the darling of college football.
To most, Fawcett doing a USF graphic may not seem like a big deal, but in my view, it’s huge for the Bulls’ recruiting efforts. That exposure is huge.
Fawcett is closing in on 300k Twitter followers and has a national reach. The combination of USF winning marquee games and now winning a marquee recruitment signals to more big-time prospects that Tampa could be the move.
Perrone silently committed to USF on Sunday, a day after he was on a visit to the school in Orlando, and that program wanted Perrone to commit. But the Bulls shoved the Orlando school in a locker and landed Perrone.
“I was at the UCF game watching that USF game on my phone,” Perrone told Rivals’ Marcus Benjamin.
After committing to USF, Perrone received a Rivals ranking, and he checks in as a three-star prospect and No. 35 signal-caller nationally in the 2027 class.
The Rivals Industry Ranking — an equally weighted average that utilizes all three major recruiting services — has Perrone as the No. 477 prospect and No. 38 signal-caller in America.
Perrone has been highly productive at the prep level, completing 363 of 602 passes for 5,688 yards with 56 touchdowns and 25 interceptions prior to his senior season. He’s added 475 yards and 8 touchdowns on the ground.
“He’s a dynamic athlete,” Perrone’s private quarterback trainer Baylin Trujillo said. “He’s elusive, has a strong arm and is accurate. James is a gamer and has become an absolute ‘dude.’ He’s the most trending quarterback in Florida. He’s been great in training with me. He’s a great competitor, has a fast twitch and is a natural leader. James is also very humble; he encourages others and looks out for their best interests.”
