SEC Unfiltered: Why this could be conference's best recruiting year ever

Welcome to SEC Unfiltered, the USA TODAY NETWORK’S newsletter on SEC sports. Today, Knoxville News Sentinel columnist John Adams takes over.

College football already has passed the halfway mark for the first signing date of the 2025 recruiting cycle. And, to no one’s surprise, the SEC is excelling.

Five of the top-eight teams in the 247Sports Composite are from the SEC. So are 10 of the top 20.

If the conference can finish what it started, the December signing date could be worthy of a conference-wide celebration.

Alabama is recruiting as though former coach Nick Saban never left. The Tide are ranked second only to Ohio State under new coach Kalen DeBoer. That’s significant because DeBoer’s record of 104-12 doesn’t attract many doubters about his coaching acumen. But you might have questioned how this stranger to the Southeast would recruit.

He still must turn his impressive list of commitments into signees, but right now the best answer to how he might recruit is “like Saban.”

The SEC’s other four current members in the top eight are high-profile recruiting mainstays: Georgia, third; LSU, fourth; Texas A&M, seventh; and Oklahoma, eighth. Eventually, I would expect Texas to join the top 10. The Longhorns rank 15th, but their track record suggests they will finish strong.

Although the conference’s overall recruiting success has been business as usual, the depth of that success is noteworthy. Missouri and Kentucky are adding to the depth.

I anticipated both programs dropping down a notch with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas. Their recruiting for this cycle suggests just the opposite.

Missouri has been full of surprises in its relatively short time in the SEC. In its second and third seasons in the league (2013-14), it lost only two games while going 23-5 overall. The Tigers represented the East in the SEC championship both seasons.

Following that unexpected success, Missouri quickly descended into mediocrity. The Tigers managed only two winning records in the next eight seasons during which they never lost fewer than five games.

That’s why I didn’t see Missouri’s 2023 season coming. In fact, it was more surprising than what the Tigers accomplished in their first two seasons.

They went 11-2, finished eighth in both top 25 polls and beat Ohio State 14-3 in the Cotton Bowl. Missouri’s on-the-field success has carried over into the recruiting. The Tigers are ranked 13th, just one spot behind Tennessee and two ahead of Texas.

Sometimes, you see teams rise in the recruiting rankings at this time of year by piling up three-star recruits. But that hasn’t been the case for Missouri. Ten of its 17 commitments are from four-star recruits.

Kentucky is also recruiting better than usual. The Wildcats rank 20th with 17 commitments, including seven four-stars. Coach Mark Stoops’ highest-ranked recruiting class was No. 13 in 2022, according to the 247Sports Composite.

Three of Kentucky’s top five commitments are from Ohio. That’s indicative of its recruiting under Stoops, who has made inroads in the Buckeye State.

If Kentucky and Missouri can maintain their recruiting pace – and Texas rises in the rankings as expected – the SEC’s recruiting haul could be better than ever.