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National Signing Day: Winners and losers – USC, Ole Miss knock early signing period out of park

By Cody Williams

Nov 14, 2020; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin looks on during the first half against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 14, 2020; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin looks on during the first half against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports /
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Here are the winners and losers from the college football early National Signing Day period on Wednesday, with USC and Ole Miss knocking it out of the park in recruiting. 

Wednesday, Dec. 16, marked National Signing Day for the early signing period in college football, and despite the unprecedented year for the sport at both the college and high school levels, business as usual persisted on the recruiting trail. But that didn’t mean that some of the biggest recruits in the country made their decisions just yet.

Two of the biggest 5-star prospects in the class with Korey Foreman (No. 1) and Tristan Leigh (No. 11), among others, won’t make their decisions for where to sign until Jan. 2. But it’s not always about the biggest names, but rather, about how programs set themselves up with their work in the early signing period — either for the next two months of recruiting or for the future of the team in general.

So looking at National Signing Day for the early period on Wednesday and what we saw, these are the big winners and losers from the proceedings. Note: All player rankings and team rankings refer to the 247 Sports Composite.

Early National Signing Day Winner No. 3: Ole Miss Rebels

Lane Kiffin has shown a ton of promise with the Ole Miss Rebels since arriving in Oxford. Though the team sits at just 4-4 on the season, a defense that had a long way to go when Kiffin arrived has been marginally better, and the offense has taken leaps and bounds forward. If the early signing period is any indication, the whole program is heading in the same direction as the offense.

While it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that the top commits for Ole Miss to this point have been on the offensive side of the ball, he’s also making strong improvements to the defense. Specifically with the secondary, Kiffin and his staff landed four defensive backs in the early signing period that rank inside the top 400 of the 247 Sports Composite.

The two big ones of that group came on Wednesday. Not only did they sign 4-star cornerback Markevious Brown from the famed IMG Academy, but they also flipped 3-star athlete/cornerback MJ Daniels from his commitment to Mississippi State. Call that two birds with one stone, as they got a great player and kept him from their Egg Bowl rivals.

With the work that Kiffin has done in the early National Signing Day period with the Rebels, Ole Miss now has the No. 18-ranked class in the country. That’s massively important for the new head coach taking a jump as he moves forward, which is a win for the folks in Oxford.

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