Tuesdays with Gorney: Latest intel on five-stars
With the July visit window closed and the season coming into focus, in today’s Tuesdays With Gorney, Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney breaks down what he’s hearing on numerous five-stars – committed and uncommitted – in the 2025 class.
RUMOR MILL: Summer visits are over but buzz ramping up
There is confidence on both the Oklahoma and Texas sides here which makes Fasusi’s recruitment even more interesting.
The word coming out of Lewisville, Texas, media day is that the five-star said he’s made up his mind but he’s not going to divulge yet in what’s shaping up to be a classic Bill Bedenbaugh vs. Kyle Flood recruitment.
One thing seems to be perfectly clear here: It’s a two-team race and both the Longhorns and the Sooners are privately showing a certain level of confidence here.
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Miami and USC are finalists but how confident could either program be as Georgia has been the front-runner for so long in Griffin’s recruitment.
Maybe a sliver of hope remains since the Savannah (Ga.) Savannah Christian School standout still hasn’t committed to the Bulldogs although he’s had every opportunity to do that but this seems like he’s just waiting for the right moment – possibly at the early signing period – to get it done.
There’s been no other significant intel that he’s headed elsewhere yet.
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A final determination should be made soon. It’s unlikely that the five-star USC commit goes into his senior season with his recruitment still hanging over his head so the options are to basically stick with the Trojans or flip to Auburn, Colorado or Indiana but that would be very hard to believe.
It’s also not a major shock that the Tigers have started to heavily pursue Notre Dame commit Deuce Knight as the QB sweepstakes continue.
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The Birmingham (Ala.) Parker five-star cornerback has been committed to Ohio State since February and he’s grown close with fellow five-star CB commit Devin Sanchez so the prospects of him staying in this Buckeyes’ class is very good.
Except, Auburn and Alabama have been pushing hard and as signing day gets closer – and the prospect of leaving the South comes more into focus – this could be one to watch. Both the Tigers and the Crimson Tide have not given up here.
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Over the last weekend of the July visit period, Sanders visited Nebraska and Tennessee as Ohio State and Georgia round out his top four.
The Huskers rolled out the red carpet and definitely showed him a lot of love and the Buckeyes have been courting the five-star offensive tackle from Charlotte (N.C.) Providence Day for a long time but there has been a ton of Tennessee smoke around this one in the final weeks. It looks headed in that direction with his commitment coming up on Aug. 17 although Ohio State is still right there.
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Alabama, Florida State and Georgia are the final three for the five-star defensive lineman from Manchester, Ga., and he could drag this out until the early signing period. But is he just prolonging the inevitable re-commitment to the Bulldogs?
Location is negligible as all three finalists are within a four-hour window of Manchester but after committing to Georgia early, Terry flipped to USC only to back off that pledge earlier this offseason.
The Bulldogs have massaged this one really well and haven’t pushed for a commitment but Alabama and FSU have stayed in the picture, too, and the Crimson Tide have apparently been coming real hard.
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Florida State might have dodged a major bullet here as there was chatter for months that the five-star OL from Jacksonville (Fla.) Raines was either going to stay closer to home and flip to Florida or he had fallen in love with LSU and could end up there. But a committed FSU prospect who visited Tallahassee with Thomas in recent weeks now feels very confident that Thomas is going to stick in the class. That might be some wishful thinking but it also feels like a lot of imminent flip chatter around Thomas has died down.
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There is always a wild-card factor when discussing Watkins’ recruitment as he’s backed off early commitments to Texas A&M and Colorado and then took officials to Ole Miss, South Carolina and Indiana over the summer.
Making a firm prediction seems foolhardy at this stage especially as new programs could get involved down the stretch. But he did wear Ole Miss gloves at the Rivals Five-Star and talked really highly of the Rebels throughout that weekend.
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This looks like it’s down to a two-team race between Texas A&M and LSU. There has also been a lot of Oregon chatter which should be monitored very closely but the feeling I’ve had from early on is that the five-star from Galveston (Texas) Ball is going to end up closer to home with College Station about 2.5 hours away and Baton Rouge under five. It would allow family and friends to come see him play and give Williams an opportunity to play for an elite defense.
The Ducks also have the highest-end coaches but would family see him every weekend especially across the Big Ten? It would be harder.
