2020 National Signing Day Recap

The premise in the OTE clubhouse was simple enough, as were the instructions:

Why don’t we start a thread and you can tell me about your favorite player your school signed so we can create some fresh hot content.

And, as always, with some delicate prodding and gentle reminders the OTE staff delivered some thoughts on the 2020 recruiting class for their school (Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana, and Rutgers didn’t get responses. Probably because the “writers” were so ashamed of what their schools did). So let’s take a look at what we’ve got:

Minnesota

Obviously this is the best and most correct answer, with one Maryland exception.

WSR: Minnesota has a 27-year old straight edge Australian punter. I don’t care if he can actually punt or not, it’s just awesome to have all those words together.

Illinois

So Illinois currently has the 87th-ranked class according to 247 sports. It’s so bad that they’re behind Rutgers, Indiana, and USC. And how does Thump feel about this?

Thump: Adam Miller is the highest rated, but personally, I’m more excited about Andre Curbelo. We haven’t had a point guard with court vision and passing skills like this since Demetri McCamey. He’ll score less than Ayo, but might fit Underwood’s ideal offense better. Pretty happy with all three of them though.

Goddamnit Thump.

Iowa

Creighton took this far too seriously, although he does get bonus points for being Iowa as hell and focusing on TE.

Creighton: Luke Lachey out of Columbus will be joining Baby Ferentz’s tight end army. He had offers from LSU, wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa State, and Michigan State. 247 has him listed at 6’6”, 220 pounds. A couple years in the weight room and he’s going to look like Spike from The Little Giants compared to any corner or safety that tries to cover him. Honorable mention goes to the top in state prospect, Logan Jones (DL). His highlight tapes are a riot because I’m not sure there’s a single team playing class 3A football that can figure out how to block him. He could potentially move to defensive end if there are questions about depth, but for now I think he’s staying at tackle.

Maryland

BrianB2 gets it.

BrianB2: Almosse Titi...for obvious reasons.

DJ also too this far too seriously, believing that recruiting (AKA “The one thing Mike Locksley does well that could positively impact a football program) will offset everything else he does.

DJ: Rakeem Jarrett for obvious reasons. Maryland flipped a five star WR from LSU and it’s had repercussions for 2021 as well with two teammates verbally committing too. He’s an elite WR that should be the next great MD WR to go to the league. Locksley hit the transfer market hard for 2020 to get some beef on the lines, too soon to say whether that pays any dividends but I’m confident it’s harder to push 300+ than it is the 270lb DL Maryland would play

Michigan State

I was really happy that Andrew was able to pull himself away from FlightAware long enough to give us this little blurb. Hopefully he didn’t miss any flights from either Pittsburgh or Cincinnati that he can get overly excited about while writing this out.

Andrew: MSU did manage to land Darius Snow, a S/LB type dude out of Texas. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because his dad is Eric and his uncle is Percy, so if MSU had managed to screw this up it would have been very embarrassing. Of course, the entire class is up in the air now that there’s going to be a new coach, but Snow at least is a guy I’m kind of hoping sticks around regardless of who MSU hires.

Nebraska

Jesse is really excited about Nebraska’s 10th consecutive top-5 B1G recruiting class for Nebraska. Unfortunately, they were unable to find someone to improve the head coach position.

Jesse: Turner Corcoran is one of our all-time recruits and he will be important on the OL fast, but for fun and exciting give me some Keyshawn Greene, 4* OLB who was everywhere at the All-American Bowl. 6’3” 195, 4.49 forty. We need speed at LB and he has it.

Northwestern

You have to appreciate the fact that the best player in Northwestern’s class is a kid from Illinois, because it means there was no way he was going to go to Illinois. And the fact that he’s not a skill position player makes him perfect for the Wildcats.

MNW: Peter Skoronski, a 4* OL from Maine South HS, right in the ‘Cats backyard. Good lineman, with a better OL coach now (Kurt Anderson is cool by me), yay.

Penn State

If Kirk Ciarrocca is your new offensive coordinator, I can tell you from experience that the one position you don’t need to get excited about is TE. And...well...

87Townie: Theo Johnson, a four-star tight end from Windsor, Ontario (that’s Canada, kids) looks like the next big star at TE for the Nittany Lions. He’s 6’6”, 240 pounds and runs a 4.6 40 yard dash. He’s the #4 Tight End in the 2020 class and held 29 offers. Those included Michigan, Iowa, Ohio State, ‘Bammer, and Ugga. He did one of those fake picks during his announcement that I find so cheesy...except that he picked up and put down a Michigan hat. So that’s funny. Here’s a stick in yer eye, Harby.

Purdue

You know what the one position Purdue didn’t need to address was?

Boilerman31: Man, it’s hard not to love Maliq Carr. Adding to Purdue’s embarrassment of riches at Wide Receiver, Carr is a 6’5” 215 lb beast who will be able to fight through contact and give opposing DBs matchup nightmares.

wisconsin

MC took the very wisconsin approach of highlighting fat kids. I approve of this.

MCClapYoHandz I think Jack Nelson is the pick for me. Homegrown 5* OL? Yes please. Also excited for Cam Large; Wisconsin needs quality depth at TE and he has instant impact potential.

Meanwhile, Beez decided to write a book. And he gets bonus points for dedicating the entire middle section of it to a kid from Minnesota who threw himself at Tennessee, Nebraska, Oregon State, and Minnesota in a failed attempt to get a committable offer before settling on the badgers. Because when you can take advantage of Tim Brewster’s patented “GRAB A KID WITH STARS FOR OPTICS!” approach, you have to do it every single time.

Beez: Wisconsin signed a guy named Tanor Bortolini which is both a great UW o-lineman name and a delicious sounding pre-packaged pasta.They also signed the top recruit from Minnesota, Kaden Johnson, which is great both because he’s a highly rated player and for the obvious reason.Finally, they signed Jalen Berger, the latest in a line of top NJ running backs to come to Wisconsin. His commitment was interesting because it (a) included offers from basically every school you can think of as “better” than Wisconsin, (b) involved him either decommitting from Wisconsin once Rutger hired Schiano or wavering on his potential Wisconsin commit for the same hire, and (c) eventually committing to Wisconsin anyway which frankly was a relief because Wisconsin still struggles to get top flight HS RBs to commit.