Early decisions steal the thunder

But National Signing Day is still important

Some of the top football recruits in the nation to sign to college football programs on Wednesday will be coming out of Broward County, but with the advent of college football’s new Early Signing Period, a lot of the luster has been lost.

Once the pinnacle of the high school recruiting calendar, National Signing Day has turned mostly into an afterthought in Year One of the NCAA’s revamped signing process.

In prior years, the first Wednesday in February was an unofficial holiday for rabid college football fans as they waited with anticipation to see recruits officially sign with their respective colleges.

But after new legislation was passed this summer, the process was moved up six weeks with the creation of the Early Signing Period. Prospects were able to sign with their schools during a three-day window from Dec. 20-22.

The majority of top prospects in South Florida took advantage of this new signing period. Fifteen of the Sun Sentinel’s top 22 prospects in Broward and Palm Beach have already inked with

schools. Of the entire top 75, only 20 did not sign early.

Absent a few pending decisions, that means most of the traditional drama from Wednesday is gone, and if the inaugural year of the new setup is any indication, this will likely be the new norm for the once-chaotic National Signing Day.

For colleges, this period is now mainly set up for schools to add the final pieces to top off their recruiting classes — or even get going on future classes. One Broward football coach said multiple college coaches from smaller schools passing by have indicated they’ve moved on to focusing on the 2019 class when he has tried to pitch last-second offers for his seniors.

But that is not to say Signing Day will be completely void of the traditional down-to-the-wire decisions. In fact, some of the biggest names still available in South Florida — and even the entire country — are announcing where they’ll be playing their college football on Wednesday.

American Heritage fivestar cornerbacks Patrick Surtain II and Tyson Campbell, who are two of the nation’s top three remaining uncommitted prospects (Tampa Berkeley Prep offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere being the other), according to the 247 Sports composite rankings, will make Signing Day decisions. They are two of the four Patriot recruitments that will be finalized on Wednesday.

Nesta Silvera, the Patriots’ four-star defensive tackle, is the only Hurricanes commit who didn’t sign during the Early Signing Period. He is expected to stick with UM, but took visits to Florida and Tennessee in January. The Gators appear to be the only player in potentially flipping him.

For the next uncommitted player in Broward County, Heritage four-star defensive end Andrew Chatfield, it also appears to be a Miami-Florida battle, but Florida State and Oklahoma have remained in the mix late.

Surtain, Campbell and Silvera all took their official visits to UM this weekend. Going in, Surtain was favoring LSU and Alabama while Campbell appears to be a Georgia lean.

Heritage players that have committed since the early period, including Anthony Schwartz (Auburn) and Miles Jones (Nebraska), will make it official on Wednesday.

Also signing with the Cornhuskers will be Miramar receiver Dominick Watt, another Nebraska commitment since Scott Frost took over from his post at UCF.

While many prospects got their signings out of the way early to secure their spot in a school’s class, local high schools will still hold ceremonies combining new signees and the ones who went early. St. Thomas Aquinas, which regularly churns out about 20 college football signees, and Chaminade-Madonna, which has Alabama-signed receiver Xavier Williams and Auburn-bound running back Shaun Shivers in the same class, are among them.

In Palm Beach County, Oxbridge safety C.J. Smith should sign to Nebraska, where he’s committed. Atlantic receiver Corey Gammage is expected to sign, but where is unknown after he decommitted from Florida following the coaching change and Dan Mullen hiring.