Despite the group of top coaches and recruiters on the beach in late July for final vacations ahead of the 2022 season, verbal commitments continued to come down in the class of 2023.
Dozens of programs continue to capitalize on summer momentum, especially after a busy month of June while hosting recruits, and plenty of decisions are pouring in. Of the latest batch of Power Five prospects to shut down the recruiting process, a handful stood out above the rest from a notoriety standpoint.
Let's look back (in chronological order) at the ones that stuck most.
RB Justice Haynes - Alabama - July 17
From an optical perspective, this could stand as one of the biggest recruiting wins of the entire 2023 cycle. Not only is Haynes a Peach State prospect and legacy to former Georgia Bulldog Verron Haynes, but he is also a running back that most considered all but a lock to the national champs from the moment he became a national recruit. He's also among the best in the nation at the position (as the preseason SI99 rankings will reflect next month).
Now at Buford (Ga.) High School, Haynes had of course been considering UGA along with Ohio State, Florida and others. Georgia got the first official visit of the month of June, and those in the commitment prediction business upped their confidence level on Kirby Smart not missing the in-state legacy at that position, the one the Bulldogs have recruited as well as any program in the last decade or so.
"It's the way Coach [Nick] Saban will hold me accountable, and just the development on and off the field as a man," Haynes said the day he committed. He added the group effort UA recruited him with, including off-field coaches like the strength staff, as part of the reason why he is leaving his home state for college.
The new Crimson Tide commitment's father went public with his first "Roll Tide" on Twitter shortly after his son announced his college choice.
OT Payton Kirkland - Texas - July 23
How about a pledge to a program sight unseen?
The big Florida offensive tackle had become a national recruit earlier than most in the class, amassing more than 50 scholarship offers as a result. In-state programs Florida and Miami had long been linked to the Orlando (Fla.) Dr. Phillips star since early in the process, only for it to ramp up this summer with official visits to each in June.
Oklahoma and Michigan State, which also received trips, were considered dark horses for Kirkland's commitment, which he said would come down to the four well ahead of the July 23 announcement date. Then the industry began hearing about Texas as a potential pick, even though the Longhorns were not listed as a finalist.
Kirkland has never visited UT as a recruit.
Not only that—a rarity in its own right in the day and age of early unofficial visits, junior days and an official visit window bigger than ever before in the sport—but in the days leading up to his selection, Kirkland was pushing against the Texas buzz on Twitter. He sent one post throwing a "fake news" caption out cryptically before flat-out asking his followers why he would go to Texas on another.
Steve Sarkisian's latest commitment came in the next day and the posts were taken down in favor of burnt orange positivity, including Kirkland's apparent communication with now fellow UT pledge Arch Manning.
TE Walker Lyons - Stanford - July 23
The destination relative to geography wasn't shocking here, as Lyons preps at Folsom (Calif.) High School, some 90 minutes drive away from Stanford's campus. He's also a top tight end, one of the positions David Shaw has recruited consistently well at the Farm.
But BYU and others had tried to remain in the hunt anyway. The Cougar pitch resonated with Lyons from early on in his recruitment, not only for positional history and scheme but also off the field, as the senior-to-be is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It made for optimism from the BYU angle, especially after a June official visit to the program most linked to the religion.
Instead, though, Stanford keeps another in-state star home in Lyons, who will take a mission after December graduation. He is expected to be at Stanford in the fall of 2024 upon completion.
"I've always had a feeling if I didn’t pick Stanford, I would have regretted it forever," Lyons told Brandon Huffman.
The Cardinal will be led in 2022 by quarterback Tanner McKee, who also served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brazil after high school.
S Joenel Aguero - Georgia - July 23
After missing on the legacy recruit in Haynes a week earlier, Georgia has been on fire on the trail. The Bulldogs have added six commitments in the month of July, mostly on defense at key positions like defensive tackle, off-ball linebacker and safety.
Aguero could be the prize of the bunch in the end, and it was no easy victory for Smart's program with the Massachusetts native. It stood with Ohio State among those in early on him, even before a junior season at IMG Academy in 2021, and held true even with losses on the defensive staff including secondary coach Jahmile Addae.
The program that added Addae, Miami, picked up momentum after that move and confidence grew in Coral Gables amid the program's big July on the trail—especially in receiving the final official visit in June. Florida was the other finalist, but new positional recruiter Fran Brown helped to push Aguero back in on the Bulldogs just in time for the pledge.
Aguero, A.J. Harris, Daniel Harris and Justyn Rhett, Georgia's secondary group of commitments, could be the best in the 2023 cycle when all is said and done.
OT Chase Bisontis - Texas A&M - July 24
Talk about timing.
This recruitment wasn't nearly as dramatic or as surprising as the others on this list, but it was much-needed on all fronts for Jimbo Fisher this weekend. The New Jersey offensive tackle, who was considered one of the best available at the position before he went public with the pick, furthers the A&M recruiting national narrative and fills a position of need on the trail.
But the timing of the selection—standing as the sole July commitment for the defending recruiting national champions after a disappointingly-slow start including multiple decommitments already in the books—should serve as a reminder of the program's capabilities. There are a lot of top uncommitted recruits left to decide in the state of Texas and the program's prowess across SEC country is sure to replicate to a degree later this year.
Bisontis is just the sixth public commitment for A&M to date, currently sitting as the third-smallest class in the SEC behind Auburn (four commitments) and Ole Miss (five) as of Tuesday morning.
