Nationwide Signing Day Winners and Losers: Texas Tech Rises, Penn State Stumbles

For as a lot focus as is positioned on the switch portal within the present-day school soccer panorama, constructing rosters primarily round internally developed expertise stays essential for achievement.

The December early signing interval nearly instantly from its inception supplanted the normal, first week of February signing day because the marquee date on the recruiting calendar. Heading into the postseason and offseason with the incoming class finalized permits teaching staffs to get a leap on each fall, and filling wants within the spring portal window.

Maybe unsurprisingly, a number of the huge winners from Wednesday’s signing day are additionally applications positioned to compete for convention and the School Soccer Playoff title this 12 months. Nationwide signing day’s losers simply as unsurprisingly embrace applications steeped in tumult.

All rankings and scores are courtesy of 247Sports composite rankings.

Winners

Texas Tech

The primary week of December 2025 might nicely be the very best in Texas Tech soccer historical past. The Purple Raiders locked up coach Joey McGuire with a seven-year contract extension, days earlier than enjoying for this system’s first Large 12 Convention championship and a berth within the School Soccer Playoff.

McGuire and his workers are additionally making severe inroads to establishing Texas Tech as a yearly title contender, evident within the traditionally sturdy recruiting class coming to Lubbock.

A pair of 5-star prospects headline a category, with offensive sort out Felix Ojo and edge rusher LaDamion Guyton ranked the No. 3 and No. 4 highest-graded signees in Tech historical past. The duo lead a category with a mean rating of 89.42, in league with fellow Playoff hopefuls like Oklahoma and Miami.

Vanderbilt

For indication that Clark Lea’s Vanderbilt is an entire new program from the longtime SEC doormat, look no additional than its signing day eve flip of 5-star quarterback prospect Jared Curtis.

Initially a verbal decide to Vanderbilt’s convention counterpart Georgia, the native prospect Curtis modified his pledge to the Commodores. Curtis is now probably the most extremely graded signee in Vanderbilt historical past.

Virginia Tech

Floundering because the retirement of Corridor of Fame coach Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech could lastly have its successor a decade later with James Franklin. Fired from Penn State in October after a disappointing begin to the 2025 season, Virginia Tech swooped in just a little greater than a month later to rent Franklin.

The fast motion is paying instant dividends, as Virginia Tech collected 22 letters of intent on Wednesday that included three excessive 4-star recruits — two from the Keystone State. Linebacker Terry Wiggins and working again Messiah Mickens, as soon as in-state commits to Franklin at Penn State, modified course and are headed for Blacksburg.

Franklin additionally landed big-time native signings from offensive sort out Thomas Wilder (Virginia Seaside), vast receiver Davion Brown (Richmond) and cornerback Zaevion Cleveland (Virginia Seaside).

Losers

Penn State

The flipside of Virginia Tech’s nationwide signing day success is Penn State’s astoundingly small class. Whereas Franklin’s early-season firing was meant to present Nittany Lions brace a leap on the teaching market, the alternative has been true as Penn State approaches two months with out a head coach in place for 2026.

As hypothesis flies, and reported targets like BYU’s Kalani Sitake signal extensions, Penn State obtained simply two letters of intent.

The excellent news for the following Lions teaching workers is that the 2 signees — edge rusher Jackson Ford and quarterback Peyton Falzone — include spectacular prep credentials. The dangerous information is there’s a ton of labor to do discovering expertise to construct round them within the coming weeks.

Nebraska

Whereas Penn State’s paltry early signing day class could be attributed to the shortage of a training workers in place for 2026, the Nittany Lions’ Large Ten Convention counterpart Nebraska ending with a light-weight crop of newcomers is extra perplexing.

Matt Rhule and his workers signed a 4-star sort out in Claude Mpouma and 5-star cornerback Danny Odem, however the Huskers add simply 10 prospects in whole.

Maybe probably the most regarding half for Nebraska is that it went with out signing a quarterback following the stunning decommitment of Dayton Raiola — youthful brother of present Huskers quarterback Dylan Raiola.

Colorado

It’s troublesome gauging what precisely Deion Sanders’ plan for Colorado soccer was after Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders moved onto the NFL.

The Sanders model has been touted as extra significant than in-game technique, and it did certainly internet outcomes at Jackson State and in Colorado’s preliminary switch portal hauls. Nevertheless, having a meager 11-player signing class coming right into a program suffering from depth points does little to encourage confidence on the heels of a 3-9 marketing campaign.

The Buffs had been dangerous in 2025, and never in a method that gives hope of a turnaround akin to the 2024 marketing campaign’s leap from 4 wins the 12 months previous to 9. Colorado misplaced video games in November by 25, 35 and 46 factors as a part of a five-game skid, coinciding with extremely regarded defensive lineman Emanuel Ruffin’s decommitment.