I hope you appreciated Wednesday because it might’ve been the last of its kind.

The Early Signing Period in mid-December might be a thing of the past. We could look back on this Early Signing Period, the first of which with Name, Image and Likeness “rules” in place, as unique as any Signing Day in recent memory. We’ve got coaches like Lane Kiffin saying there’s “free agency” in the sport while coaches are leaving respectable Power 5 programs to go chase a 9-figure payday.

It’s a wild time in the sport, and there’s no guarantee that a tweak of the Early Signing Period will truly change that. The coaching carousel is still going to spin at warp speed with all the money at stake, and recruiting with NIL in place is likely going to continue to create madness.

So what was I saying about Wednesday being the last of its kind? Well, it might just be the last of its kind in terms of where it falls on the calendar.

Here were some early takeaways from Day 1 of the Early Signing Period:

Deion Sanders did WHAT?!?!?

Just another ho-hum Early Signing Period. Nothing too relevant.

Oh. One teeeeeeeny, tiny thing.

The No. 1 overall recruit in the country, Travis Hunter, flipped from Florida State to FCS Jackson State, where FSU legend Deion Sanders is the head coach.

Just standard stuff.

There are no words to describe that kind of 180. It’s one thing to flip from FSU to a place like Georgia or Alabama. To flip to an HBCU is unheard of for a top-100 recruit, much less for the No. 1 overall recruit in the country.

Welcome to the NIL era, folks. We’re living in a time when these types of things can totally flip a recruiting battle at the last minute. How much did that play a role in flipping Hunter? We’ll find out soon enough.

Or, you know, the idea of playing for arguably the best cover corner ever appealed to Hunter. It didn’t necessarily matter that Jackson State hasn’t had a player drafted since 2008. An HBCU just changed the game for its own personal relevance, but I’d push back on the belief that FCS schools are soon going to start flipping 5-star recruits.

Hunter could ultimately go to Jackson State for 1-2 years, get full reps and then move on to a place like FSU, Georgia or Alabama. But it’s still shocking to see the way that it played out Wednesday.

Sanders promised everyone that he’d shock the world. Boy, did he ever.

5-star OL Kiyaunta Goodwin’s decision to announce his non-decision …

I’m not here to criticize a high school kid making the biggest decision of their life. I’m also not here to act like everyone needs to make that decision in December.

But Goodwin, who has been committed to Kentucky since April, flew from Louisville to Dallas to announce … that he hasn’t decided anything yet. Well, he’s down to Kentucky and Michigan State, where he took an official visit last week.

Shoutout Takis.

Who knows how long Goodwin’s in-decision will last. Perhaps we’ll get an announcement in January and he’ll enroll in time to play spring ball. Clearly, Mel Tucker made a lasting impression on the Kentucky commit. His signing was and is going to be the difference in whether Kentucky signs a top-10 class for the first time in the recruiting rankings era.

Here’s hoping Goodwin was doing an NIL deal with an airline and we’ll find out that he just flew to Dallas for the frequent flyer miles.

… Just kidding! Goodwin committed to Kentucky after all!

Ah, Goodwin had us all fooled with his head-scratching start to the day, which included an initial postponement to 3:30 p.m. ET and then finally, an announcement at 5 p.m. ET. It ended with a commitment to Kentucky, which gave Mark Stoops his first 5-star pledge.

Wild.

Kentucky recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow earned himself a nice big meal on Wednesday night as he all but locked in the program’s first top-15 class.

Jake Johnson picks Texas A&M, so does brother Max follow?

It’s a fair question considering that Jake dropped his LSU commitment the same day that Max announced that he was entering the transfer portal. Are they a packaged deal? It certainly wouldn’t be surprising.

We know that Zach Calzada entered the transfer portal, and there’s no guarantee that Haynes King is going to be the unquestioned starter. The Aggies signed 5-star QB Conner Weigman. But they still lack depth, so adding someone with a proven track record in the division like Max Johnson would make a ton of sense for Fisher. A&M could have a legitimate quarterback battle with King, Weigman and Johnson.

By the way, Jake Johnson going to A&M is massive. With Jalen Wydermyer likely off to the NFL Draft after a historic 3-year career in College Station, the pipeline of Aggies tight ends should continue with Johnson, who is the No. 1 tight end recruit in the country. As much as Fisher seems to have a reluctancy to play true freshmen, I had to imagine that Wydermyer’s emergence as a true freshman tight end had to be a selling point for Johnson.

Even if Max Johnson doesn’t follow his brother to College Station, Fisher’s loaded class added a key piece.

This Luther Burden thing is super unique

OK, so let me paint you a little scenario here. The No. 1 receiver and No. 3 player overall in the 2022 class takes a mid-October visit to Georgia. As in Georgia, where Kirby Smart collects 5-stars like baseball cards. Four days later, he announces his commitment.

To Mizzou.

Like, the program that had only signed 3 5-star recruits in the 247sports era. Like, the program that hadn’t signed a 5-star recruit since Terry Beckner Jr. in the 2015 class.

Yep. Mizzou.

That’s a major credit to Eli Drinkwitz, who clearly made a lasting impression on the East Saint Louis (Ill.) standout. Burden will have an opportunity to play right away in Columbia. Sure, proximity helped, but that had to be a major selling point for someone who could’ve gone anywhere.

Dorial Green-Beckham is the only other comparable scenario here. He was the No. 1 overall recruit in 2012 class out of Springfield, Missouri. His recruitment went down to the old February National Signing Day until he ultimately went with the in-state program. It was massive at the time for the obvious reasons, but also because it came just as Mizzou was about to join the SEC.

Burden will absolutely have Green-Beckham level expectations. Surely his new coach will put him in plenty of spots to succeed early on.

Remember that time when Drinkwitz went viral for his reaction to the Ennis Rakestraw commitment? I can only imagine what it was like on the other end of the phone when he got this during an “SEC This Morning” interview on Sirius XM.

#NewZou indeed.

Burden is a massive reason why the Tigers are set to sign their highest-ranked class of the 247sports rankings era. Welcome to the new age, where Mizzou and Kentucky can both sign top-15 classes.

Billy Napier’s big early splash

If you were waiting for Billy Napier to make a major splash Wednesday, well, you got your wish with Kamari Wilson’s announcement. Wilson is the No. 2 safety and the 28 overall recruit in the 2022 class. He was considered a strong Georgia lean, but a late visit with Napier made all the difference.

The words “5-star IMG Academy recruit signs with Florida” have never been said. In fact, Napier just matched the entire amount of IMG Academy recruits signed by Dan Mullen.

It’s no secret that one of the biggest areas where Napier needed to improve was recruiting the powerhouse programs in Florida like IMG Academy and St. Thomas Aquinas. Going down and getting a 5-star recruit from IMG Academy was a nice way to show “hey, we’re doing things differently.”

Regardless of how low Florida finishes in this recruiting cycle — Napier preached patience and quality over quantity — that was such a monumental way for him to put an exclamation point on his first class.

The 3-way battle for No. 1

Despite all the talk about Jackson State swooping in and stealing the No. 1 overall recruit, you still looked up at day’s end and saw Alabama, Texas A&M and Georgia at the top of the rankings. It’s shaping up to be a rare 1-3 SEC sweep.

We had some significant developments with that Wednesday. Five-star edge rusher Marvin Jones Jr. signed with Georgia over Alabama, No. 4 receiver Shazz Preston left Louisiana for Alabama and the aforementioned Johnson picked A&M after he dropped his LSU commitment. We also had 4-star cornerback Earl Little Jr. picked Alabama over Miami, the aforementioned Wilson picked Florida instead of Georgia and 4-star lineman Kam Dewberry announced his commitment to A&M.

The battle for No. 1 appears to be too close to call. Georgia has a trio of commits who said they won’t sign until February. Perhaps that could impact the final rankings. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, here’s where those stood (total points in the 247sports composite):

  1. Alabama, 317.23
  2. Texas A&M, 315.66
  3. Georgia, 314.62
  4. Ohio State, 289.58

(I put Ohio State in there just to show why this is a 1-3 battle and not a 1-4 battle.)

If this were an election, they’d say this one is too close to call. Let’s do the old-fashioned thing and wait to February to declare a winner.