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6 biggest storylines to follow on National Signing Day

Corey Long

By Corey Long

Published:


It’s Signing Day. And while many decisions have been made, much drama remains.

Here are the six biggest storylines I’ll be following today:

1. Alabama Gets Another ‘A’: Alabama will likely be No. 1 across the board as the Crimson Tide have held down the top spot for a number of weeks now. With the commitment of Monroe (La.) prospect Phidarian Mathis, the Tide sit at 25 commitments with room for a couple more. Now the fun part begins as Nick Saban looks to close with commitments from 5-star defensive tackle Aubrey Solomon, 5-star defensive end LaBryan Ray (more on him below) and 4-star wide receivers Henry Suggs III and Devonta Smith. Don’t be surprised if the Tide roll to a clean sweep on Signing day.

2. Which way will Ray go? For much of the final month it appeared that the Madison (Ala.) prospect will stay in state and roll with the Crimson Tide. But the nation’s top-rated strong-side defensive end had a great time on his official at Florida and the visit supposedly won over his family enough to where he has the green light to go to Gainesville.

Tennessee has also been in the picture, but Florida has been trending strong enough to the point of where a source said that Ray was considering the Gators when he returned from his official visit but as time has elapsed the decision becomes tougher.

3. Marvin makes his move? Marvin Wilson is officially down to LSU, Florida State and Ohio State. Most people think the Buckeyes are on the outside looking in, making it and FSU-LSU battle with LSU holding the overall advantage but FSU making a late surge.

Wilson’s commitment would cap a tremendous class for first-year head coach Ed Orgeron. Wilson is active on Twitter and is adding a little fun speculation to his announcement.

https://twitter.com/RDMW6/status/826652470004719616

4. How will the rankings shake out? As it’s already been stated, Alabama will finish No. 1 while Georgia will be in the top 5 and LSU in the top 10 with a chance to move into the top 5. Can Auburn (No. 9) and Texas A&M (10) stay in the Top 10?

Can Tennessee (14) move into the Top 10 and where will Florida (19) finish? South Carolina (23) will try to stay in the top 25 and hold on to the commitment from Jamyest Williams while Mississippi State (27), Kentucky (28) and Arkansas (29) will all be on the outside looking in.

5. The domino effects? One of the most interesting part of signing day is when a prospect doesn’t come through with the expected commitment and the programs have to go to the Plan B (and Plan C) and how that directly affects other prospects.

This year’s wild card might be defensive end Jarez Parks.

The Sebastian River (Fla.) prospect has been courted heavily by Alabama and Florida State but neither program can guarantee him a spot until they get word from other prospects.

If Alabama loses out on Ray they will likely jump on Parks. If Florida State loses out on Wilson they might jump on Parks. Florida is also in the picture, but the Gators don’t appear to be Parks’ first option.

If Alabama signs Ray and LSU signs Wilson, we could see an in-state battle between Florida and FSU to grab Parks at the 11th hour. And if Wilson ends up at LSU it would be likely that LSU 3-star commit Neil Farrell would flip to FSU, the place he took an official to last weekend.

6. Looking to the future? Class of 2018 early verbals have started trickling in. By the time the smoke clears Wednesday night, there will be a lot of top 2018 prospects coming off the board this week as programs look to ride the momentum of signing day into a great start for signing day 2018.

The top-ranked player, 5-star pro-style quarterback Trevor Lawrence, is from Georgia but has committed to Clemson.

Corey Long

Corey Long is a freelance writer for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow Corey on Twitter @CoreyLong.

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