May is the month of the year when a good percentage of high school football playoffs reach the end of their junior year and are evaluated individually based on their potential as college football recruits. There were a number of verbal commits that in the month of May but there were also several verbal de-commits that shook things up for a number of teams. Here is a look at the losers on the recruiting trail for the month of May.
Baylor Bears
No team took a harder hit his offseason than Baylor, which was rocked to its core following revelations of a widespread sexual assault scandal that took place on the campus. Art Briles, who built the Bears into a national force and one of the most dangerous offensive teams in the nation, has been fired following the revelations. The president of the university, Ken Starr, has also been fired. Beyond that, Starr has been giving horrendous interviews while trying to clear his image, but he’s only made the school look worse. It could take a long time before Baylor bounces back. Tight end Kendrick James became the third four-star recruit to de-commit since February and it appears as though the Bears will miss out on receiver Hezekiah Jones and quarterback Kellen Mond as well. Not only will this have an immediate impact on the school – beyond the three players we’ve already seen change their minds – it’s going to have long-term ramifications for years. The NCAA should hand down some stiff penalties that may include bowl game bans and losses of scholarships. We saw how long it took Penn State to recover and we’ll see something similar with the Bears.
Oregon Ducks
No program suffered worse than Baylor but the Ducks can’t be happy about how the month of May unfolded for them. Just 16 months removed from an appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship and this program already looks significantly weakened. The Ducks hold just two commitments and they just missed out on a big one in blue-chip quarterback Ryan Kelley. Kelley is a four-star prospect and he is ranked No. 5 nationally among pro-style passers so the fact that he ended a verbal commit that spanned nearly six months is a major blow. Oregon has dropped to No. 71 overall in the composite class rankings and to this point they have failed to land a single in-state prospect. It’s fairly clear that the general perception of Mark Helfrich is not as strong as Chip Kelly’s. Either that or Kelly was simply a better recruiter. At any rate, this Ducks program is in decline and the decline could get steeper and faster unless the results on the field turn around.
Texas A&M Aggies
The Aggies have suffered a major fall over the past couple of years since Johnny Manziel left for the NFL. Kevin Sumlin has come under fire for poor results and it’s tough to envision things getting better for him any time soon after Texas A&M just lost a couple of former five-star recruits after Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray both transferred out. That is a big blow for a program that had groomed those quarterbacks as their future starters over the past couple of years and it also signaled a change in attitude from top recruit Tate Martell. The No. 1 overall 2017 dual-threat quarterback pledged to the Aggies last August but he elected to sever ties in early May and now the Aggies are in big trouble as they continue to search for a capable quarterback to lead their offense.
USC Trojans
The fact that USC ranks so low in terms of their ranking for their 2017 recruiting class at this point might not be perceived as a major issue at this point but they certainly aren’t in the best position with just six commits including only one five-star prospect. The Trojans are loaded with one of the deepest rosters in the country but their schedule is among the toughest in the nation and that could be a concern. USC’s 2017 recruiting class currently ranks 35th in the country behind teams like Central Michigan, Iowa State and Arkansas and while it is certainly too early to panic they didn’t have much going for them at all throughout the month of May.
