2018 National Signing Day: Three Big Ten Teams Still Chasing Big Commitments

Heading into National Signing Day most Big Ten teams have mostly wrapped up their recruiting classes with the addition of the early signing period. Currently, the Big Ten rankings are the following, courtesy of 247sports:

Who stands to add commitments on National Signing Day?

• Not that they need it being the #1 recruiting class in the country but the Ohio State Buckeyes could still add some to this class. They’re still after a RB, OT, and LB in the class and could reasonably take at least two. Javontae Jean-Baptiste, OLB from NJ, is down to Ohio State and Nebraska and set to decide today. Will Ohio State have enough room to take 4 star OT Rasheed Walker or will he fall into Virginia Tech’s hands?
• The Nebraska Cornhuskers has at least 5 prospects, including Javontae Jean-Baptiste above, deciding tomorrow. Nebraska is going heavy on defense and battling it out not only with Ohio State but also with the Maryland Terrapins for CB Ken Montgomery. They lead in that recruitment if you go by how he publicly evaluated each official visit but both staffs remain confident they have a good shot at his commitment. Maryland lost CB Noah Boykin to Florida after the early signing period so he is a priority for DJ Durkin and his staff.
• In perhaps the best name chase of the recruiting period, the Wisconsin Badgers are in a Wildgoose chase. Yes, they’re after CB Rachad Wildgoose, Jr. Wisconsin will battle it out with Pitt for his commitment but given the competition I like their chances.
• Michigan State Spartans would take both of WR Tommy Bush and DE Habbakuk Baldonado but neither seem likely to commit to MSU at this point.
• Illinois Fighting Illini are after OLB Merlin Robertson, who would give them a pivotal piece to their class and show clear improvement from last year to build on, even with all of the transfers. Lovie Smith had a rebuild when he took the Illinois job and it appears that the last two classes are the foundation.

How is the Big Ten looking?

Overall? The top 6 teams in the Big Ten recruiting rankings are sitting in the Top 30 nationally, so pretty good. Even better? The Big Ten owns two of the top 3 spots nationally, for now. Penn State could fall back depending on how tomorrow shakes out for other teams but not due to any of their own doing. Both Nebraska and Maryland are sitting at 26 and 27 respectively and both could make it into the Top 25 if they receive commitments from who they expect. It’s a bit harder for Maryland considering only one commitment announcement is occurring, so they’d need to land that and hope everyone around them loses out.

Biggest story line?

Many will talk about Michigan essentially creaning Kevin Doyle, a 3 star QB out of Maryland. Michigan has another QB commitment in 2018 that enrolled early and all signs point to Doyle being pushed out. It’s late in the game and a bad look for Michigan and a hard situation for Doyle to find another college with almost zero time.