Rivals Vice President of Recruiting and Transfer Portal Steve Wiltfong shares the biggest news, notes and buzz from around the recruiting trail as the calendar prepares to flip to 2026.<\/p>\n
5-star EDGE David DJ Jacobs closing in on a decision<\/p>\n
Roswell (Ga.) Blessed Trinity Catholic five-star edge rusher David DJ Jacobs<\/a> made another wave of visits this fall and with that is closing in on his college decision.<\/p>\n Jacobs\u2019 father said a commitment could come before the New Year.<\/p>\n Programs like Georgia, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Texas A&M have had Jacobs\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n A legacy recruit to the Bulldogs, Georgia has always been considered one of the front-runners. We\u2019ve written a lot about that. But the family also has a close connection with Mark Richt and have spent a lot of time around Mario Cristobal, the Hurricanes and Coral Gables.<\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t sleep on The U down the stretch for Jacobs as we weighs his options with all of these programs. The family was tuned in to the playoff win at Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n \u201cMan, it was crazy,\u201d Jacobs said of Miami\u2019s effort in College Station. Like Matthews, he also has Texas A&M in his lead group. \u201cWhat a great win by Miami. Love what they are doing down there and man good job by the defense today on getting after that quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacobs has spent a lot of time around Cristobal.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is a great person and he has great people in the building with him,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n Jacobs\u2019 father has always given Miami high marks and did so again shortly after the Hurricanes victory.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very interested in Miami,\u201d the elder Jacobs said. He played at Georgia. \u201cWe like Texas A&M. We like Ohio State. So it was very good to see them go out and play and have fun.<\/p>\n \u201c(Miami) they\u2019re winning up front.\u201d<\/p>\n David Sr. pointed to Cristobal\u2019s culture and the identity he wants for his program as the reason.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact he wants to start off with winning up front. He\u2019s not trying to build from the back to the front. He\u2019s trying to build the foundation, starting on the front line. Some of the top guys he\u2019s trying to get in are offensive linemen and defensive linemen and that says a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n 5-star prediction in favor of the Hurricanes<\/p>\n After writing all fall I like Miami\u2019s position for the nation\u2019s No. 1 offensive tackle prospect Mark Matthews<\/a>, I\u2019ve gone ahead and logged the prediction going into the New Year.<\/p>\n The Hurricanes are battling the likes of Notre Dame, Ohio State and Texas A&M for Matthews.<\/p>\n Cristobal and his staff have gotten Matthews over to campus and games several times. He\u2019s exactly what they\u2019re looking for from a tangibles and intangibles standpoint, and having him in the backyard, it\u2019s hard to imagine this Hurricanes staff losing this recruitment.<\/p>\n Cristobal, offensive line coach Alex Mirabal and the Miami staff have the pedigree of development at the position and coming off a playoff win at Texas A&M on Saturday, are starting to get the results on the field to check every box a prospect is looking for.<\/p>\n A year after signing Rivals No. 1 overall recruit Jackson Cantwell<\/a>, Miami is looking to follow up with Matthews and I like the way it\u2019s trending.<\/p>\n New 5-star prediction for Alabama<\/p>\n The Rivals Industry\u2019s No. 2 receiver Monshun Sales<\/a> has a keen eye on Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Miami and Texas A&M to name a few. LSU and Tennessee are a couple others under strong consideration.<\/p>\n \u201cIt always comes back to Bama,\u201d a source close to Sales told Rivals.<\/p>\n With that I\u2019ve logged a prediction in favor of Alabama heading into the new year.<\/p>\n Sales is a native of the Yellowhammer State and continues to have the Crimson Tide atop his process. It will be up to the other programs to change the pulse of his process.<\/p>\n The Rivals Industry tabs the Indianapolis (Ind.) Lawrence North five-star as the No. 2 receiver in the country and No. 8 prospect overall.<\/p>\n Notre Dame in a good spot for elite OT prospect<\/p>\n Middletown (Del.) Appoquinimink blue-chipper and the Rivals Industry\u2019s No. 6 offensive tackle Layton Von Brandt<\/a> dropped his top eight schools over the weekend.<\/p>\n He told Rivals\u2019 Hayes Fawcett that he\u2019s down to\u00a0Florida<\/a>,\u00a0Penn State<\/a>,\u00a0Ohio State<\/a>,\u00a0LSU<\/a>,\u00a0Virginia Tech<\/a>,\u00a0Notre Dame<\/a>,\u00a0Tennessee<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Auburn<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWill be visiting everywhere this spring,\u201d Von Brandt said. \u201cThen want to narrow to a top three and do officials and make a decision by start of next season.\u201d<\/p>\n Heading into the next wave of visits I like where the Irish stand. He attended ND\u2019s win over Navy.<\/p>\n \u201cI really enjoyed experiencing all the tradition pregame like the player walk. Also was great listening to and meeting alumni as well. (Offensive line) Coach (Joe) Rudolph and Coach (Marcus) Freeman and all the staff were great.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m excited to keep building our relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n Notre Dame checks a lot of boxes for von Brandt.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s early in the process for me with Notre Dame as this is my first time really getting out to meet everyone but so far it\u2019s about the people for me,\u201d he said. \u201cEnd of the day when you have top schools the football facilities and atmosphere is pretty much great\u00a0 at all of them. So for me it comes down to people and relationships. Excited to build more on that.\u201d<\/p>\n Aggies add to Rivals No. 4 recruiting class<\/p>\n Over the weekend Texas A&M secured a commitment from four-star defensive lineman Myels Smith<\/a>. The Inglewood (Calif.) High product became commit No. 9 for head coach Mike Elko and the Aggies in the 2027 recruiting cycle.<\/p>\n A season that ended in the College Football Playoff will give head coach Mike Elko and his coaching staff a lot of momentum on the recruiting trail heading into the 2027 cycle.<\/p>\n As we\u2019ve been writing, this is a class that will have a shot to finish No. 1.<\/p>\n Top-ranked edge rusher Zyron Forstall<\/a> has Texas A&M high on his list and is aiming to return the weekend of Jan. 24. Notre Dame is also under consideration for a visit that weekend.<\/p>\n Other targets I continue to feel good about the Aggies for include five-stars in cornerback John Meredith<\/a> and offensive lineman Albert Simien<\/a>, while hanging in there as a front-runner for offensive tackle Mark Matthews<\/a>, edge rusher David DJ Jacobs<\/a> and linebacker Cooper Witten<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rivals Vice President of Recruiting and Transfer Portal Steve Wiltfong shares the biggest news, notes and buzz from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49932,49933,49934,49935,49936,49937,123,125,124,49938,49939,49940],"class_list":["post-93500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-albert-simien-27-sam-houston","tag-cooper-witten-27-liberty-christian","tag-david-jacobs-27-blessed-trinity-catholic","tag-john-meredith-27-trinity","tag-layton-von-brandt-27-appoquinimink","tag-mark-matthews-27-st-thomas-aquinas","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-monshun-sales-27-lawrence-north","tag-myels-smith-27-inglewood","tag-zyron-forstall-27-img-academy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}