Recruiting Rumor Mill: Top 2026 prospects begin to narrow their focus
What’s better than a Christmas Day Recruiting Rumor Mill? Here’s the latest from Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney.
The Naperville (Ind.) Naperville North quarterback has been committed to Ball State since June but Bell recently took an official visit to Indiana and now has an offer from the Hoosiers. Hours later, Bell backed off his Ball State pledge.
Nothing has been decided yet but the word is that Bell could find it “extremely hard to pass up” the Indiana offer.
Georgia remains the front-runner in Bowman’s recruitment as he loves what the Bulldogs did with Brock Bowers and many other tight ends and Texas is also very high on his list as well. Oregon, USC and Miami are three others to watch for the Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei standout who is considering reclassification to the 2026 class.
Over the holidays while on vacation, Bowman is hoping to take a quick visit to Miami’s campus to show his parents.
A lot of top programs are making a serious rush at the 2026 four-star tight end from Visalia (Calif.) Mount Whitney and Briggs is still all over the place with his recruitment but a weekend visit to UCLA definitely helped the Bruins.
Briggs met with a bunch of coaches and loves new offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri. Miami, the Arizona programs, Oregon and others remain in the hunt.
LSU remains the front-runner for the four-star defensive back from Houston (Texas) North Shore who could play cornerback or safety in college but two new offers have spurned interest in official visits and that could change things.
Oregon especially has piqued Calicut’s interest and Michigan’s success and defensive back development will be big, too, as he looks to visit both places.
The 2026 four-star quarterback from Mission Viejo, Calif., is not rushing a decision and is still patiently working on his visit schedule for this offseason.
Cal and Ole Miss have been the two mainstays in his recruitment and look like the teams to beat but SMU, Washington, Cincinnati and Oklahoma State have all emerged as contenders as well.
No visits are finalized yet for the four-star cornerback from Miami (Fla.) Northwestern but the Hurricanes could be really tough to beat in his recruitment.
Syracuse is making a serious run at Flowers and that young coaching staff could intrigue him and Penn State is also high on the list but Miami remains the one to watch.
The five-star receiver is originally from Ohio, he has been committed to Ohio State for more than a year, he loves the receiver development in Columbus and his relationship with position coach Brian Hartline is outstanding.
With all that being said, Oregon is also making a serious run at the Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei standout who also wants to visit a bunch of SEC programs – including Tennessee, Alabama, LSU, Texas and Texas A&M – before ending things.
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The high four-star cornerback from Los Angeles (Calif.) Loyola has been committed to USC for more than a year and he’s developed a strong relationship especially with the newer defensive coaches but other top teams are not giving up.
Oregon is making a big run at Lockhart, Georgia is up there because of his relationship with position coach Donte Williams, UCLA is stepping up with coach Demetrice Martin back in Westwood and Notre Dame is surging as well. USC has his pledge but there’s lots of competition.
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Auburn, LSU and others have captured the attention of McGaskin but Florida State might have taken a big leap forward after a recent visit to Tallahassee.
The 2027 four-star linebacker from Mobile (Ala.) Williamson loved how the coaches communicated with him and how all the recruits interacted with him during the trip as the Seminoles might have taken the lead early on.
The productive four-star receiver from Mission Viejo, Calif., committed to Georgia in November and loves everything about the Bulldogs but the runner-up in his recruitment and others are not giving up. Ole Miss is still making a serious run at Spafford, who had more than 1,000 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns this season, along with others.
There might be the slightest opening for other programs as well since the word is Spafford is looking to possibly take up to seven official visits before shutting everything down.
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The four-star cornerback from College Park (Ga.) Woodward Academy is scheduling a bunch of junior day visits in January with a whole load of schools standing out early on.
Texas, Miami, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Michigan State, Vanderbilt, Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech and Georgia are all in that lead group.
Two programs have jumped to the front for the four-star offensive guard from Savannah (Ga.) Jenkins as he heard toward the offseason.
Georgia and Vanderbilt are the two to watch as the rumor was Thompson could also show up at a recent Florida State visit but the Seminoles haven’t been in much touch to this point.
Alabama has been one of the top programs for Washington throughout his recruitment and the Crimson Tide are staying high heading into the offseason although Washington’s list seems to be expanding.
Oregon is definitely one to watch since a couple of his teammates from Las Vegas (Nev.) Bishop Gorman just signed there with Texas A&M, Texas, Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame rounding out the top group.
In just a few weeks at the Navy All-American Bowl, the four-star receiver from Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco will be making his commitment with Texas A&M, Oregon, Arizona State, Penn State, Ohio State and Texas in his lead group.
The Aggies have been considered the front-runner for a while but Ohio State is always tough to beat for top receivers as well.
Womack is closely watching the College Football Playoff and all the movement in the transfer portal before he names his top programs but the four-star safety from Brandon (Miss.) Hartfield Academy does know his top five as it stands now.
Ohio State has been considered a front-runner for some time with Alabama, Texas, Texas A&M and others as things shake out in the coming months.
