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WASHINGTON — Last week, on an unseasonably warm November afternoon, Gallaudet offensive line coach Todd Collins jogged onto the field, pushing the team’s big bass drum on wheels to midfield, where he banged on it repeatedly, signaling to the nation’s only deaf and hard of hearing team it was time to stretch. While many couldn’t hear the thunderous, rhythmic beat that echoed through the otherwise quiet campus, they could all feel its vibration.

BOOM!

Lateral stretch to the right.

BOOM!

Lateral stretch to the left.

BOOM!

On one knee for hip flexors.

Coach Chuck Goldstein, who is hearing, hasn’t used a whistle at practice in 13 years.

“At the end of the day, when I come into these gates, and I come into work, I’m not deaf, I’m part of this community,” he said. “I’ve learned about the culture. I respect the culture.”

As the sun set on the nation’s only entirely deaf campus, the lights in the nearby dorm rooms glowed softly. When one blinks, it signals a visitor has arrived. The doorbells at Gallaudet change the lighting instead of making a sound because most students wouldn’t hear a doorbell or a knock. On game nights, it’s not uncommon to see multiple windows winking on different floors. In the morning, alarm clocks vibrate under pillows.

The football team is undersized, composed of many players who have never been on a full roster, are still learning their position and can’t hear when the official blows a whistle to stop the play. They were picked this preseason to finish fifth in the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference, but the Bison have won their conference title and are returning to the Division III NCAA tournament for only the second time in school history, and the first time since 2013. They will travel to Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on Saturday to face No. 8 Delaware Valley University in a first-round game at noon ET.

“With all the close games, and you’re not supposed to be winning, it’s almost like the cherry on the cake every time you win again,” said defensive coordinator Stephon Healey. “I think the world has a lower expectation of us. We have a belief in ourselves, and to be able to get it done has just been … it’s been pretty magical, to be honest.”

Practice last Thursday began with only about 50 of the 70 players on the Bison’s roster. Illness was working its way through the locker room, where other players are injured, and none are on scholarship. That’s life in Division III football — the team buses from the nation’s capital to games as far as Maine, and the press box consists of an open-air space under a metal canopy. Healey is also the strength and conditioning coach — for every sport.

There are only three full-time coaches on staff: Goldstein, Healey and assistant coach/recruiting coordinator Shelby Bean. All of the coaches are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL), and nine of them are former players, including Collins, who is hard of hearing and was on the 2013 conference title team.

The Bison have a hard-of-hearing receiver playing quarterback. They have a deaf offensive tackle who is less than 200 pounds. And the hard-of-hearing freshman long-snapper?

“He’s gotta be 5-foot-4,” Healey said. “He looks like he’s 10 years old. I would argue he’s the smallest college football player in the country.”

But the Bison aren’t interested in your sympathy.

“We’re not just a deaf school,” Collins said. “We’re here, we’re going to compete for a championship.”

Every season, 12 to 15 players join the team who don’t know ASL, creating a natural divide between players who are deaf, and the others who are hard of hearing. Some have cochlear implants, some have hearing aids, some are deaf in one ear. Bean was born with Goldenhar syndrome, a rare congenital condition that required his external ears to be surgically removed. The numerous surgeries he had as a child left his face paralyzed, so he can’t smile, frown or even blink.

“You talk to other coaches, and it’s tough to get that appreciation across,” Healey said. “Like, yeah, we all have problems. No, no you don’t. It’s not the same as here.”

GOLDSTEIN MADE THE shape of a C with his right hand and tapped his thumb on his cheek just underneath the rim of his glasses, signing “Coach Chuck,” a nickname he had to earn.

When Goldstein first joined the coaching staff in the summer of 2009 as an offensive coordinator, he was “fingerspelling” his name, but in the deaf community, he eventually earned a “sign name,” which a deaf person gives as a symbol of friendship and respect.

Like many of his players who enter the program, Goldstein had to learn ASL when he was hired from North Point High School in nearby Waldorf, Maryland. The former linebacker at Salisbury University took a “Jump Start” ASL class Gallaudet offers to incoming students and staff, but ultimately became fluent from being immersed in the campus culture — and from his mistakes.

In one of his first games as head coach, Goldstein became frustrated the team wasn’t playing well against Merchant Marine. It was halftime, and they had already fumbled three times.

“I wanted to let them know I was angry,” he said. “I was pissed. I was like, ‘All right, they’re gonna know this is not OK.’ So I come in, I take a chair and I throw it against the wall. And three kids turn around. They weren’t facing me, and none of them heard me except for like three kids.”

Now Goldstein stands on the chair when he’s addressing the team in the small locker room so they can all see him. His film sessions are organized because there is no time to waste. Lights off, show the play, lights on, sign it, explain it. Repeat. Goldstein led Gallaudet to .500 seasons or better in three of his first four years, including a 9-2 mark in 2013, the last time the Bison earned the ECFC title.

Since then, though, the program has endured six straight losing seasons, a canceled 2020 season during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a 4-3 NCAA mark last year. This year’s team finished 5-1 in league play to earn its automatic qualifier bid to the field of 32 teams.

“Since we’re a small Division III football team, we are well-known to beat the odds,” said senior linebacker Stefan Anderson, who is deaf and communicated through an interpreter who also happens to be an assistant cross-country coach at the school. “Because the refs can hear and we’re deaf, it’s a disadvantage for us, however, we find a way to win. Even though there are some barriers for us, we still find a way to take down those barriers. We had the attitude of bring it on, we are going to prove you wrong. So you can see where we are now as champs.”

Senior defensive end Rodney Burford, a charismatic player who is one of the outspoken leaders on the team, was born in Brooklyn, but played football at the Maryland School for the Deaf with Anderson. Burford was used to the winning culture at his high school, which is why joining the 3-7 Bison in 2017 was an adjustment.

“The team was split like the red sea,” he said. “We had a group of deaf people, they didn’t want to talk to hearing people. Then you had a group of hearing people who didn’t want to talk to the deaf people. As the years went on, every year it was a sense of unity more and more. Last year was the best. We had Jump Start students mingling with the deaf people and they were making up signs. They were happy they were giving effort. It was a blend of both communities coming together. It was growth.”

ABOUT 90 MINUTES before kickoff, Goldstein and his staff meet with officials to make sure they understand deaf culture and emphasize most of their players cannot hear the whistle. Those within the program say almost every game, somebody is penalized for a late hit. Referees sometimes warn players before calling a foul that they will throw the flag if they see it a second time, but they can’t communicate that to the Bison — or don’t try. There are no interpreters on the field, aside from some players like offensive lineman Mitch Dolinar, who is hard of hearing and often tries to help.

“People just don’t understand — deaf means I cannot physically hear,” said Dolinar, who wears his hearing aid during games. “You still see refs still trying to talk to Rodney, still trying to talk to him, and I have to come in, ‘He cannot hear you. Talk to me or talk to the coaches.’ I’m lucky I have a hearing aid, I can hear what you’re saying and interpret for them sometimes, but I’m not on the defensive side of the ball where we have a lot more guys on defense who are deaf.”

While nobody is tracking what penalties occur because a player didn’t hear the whistle, Gallaudet has been flagged 82 times this season for a total of 809 yards, compared with their opponents’ 63 penalties for 584 yards.

“I look at officials like the weather,” Healey said, “they’re like a natural disaster. They’re a necessary requirement, but at the same time, you have no control over it.”

Eventually, they’re able to laugh. Goldstein says Healey is the most comical character on the sideline when a play is imploding. Healey is a native of London, England, and the staff and players say he’s like Dwayne Johnson with an English accent. He’s the most animated, yelling on the sideline even though no one can hear him, waving his arms, before ultimately ending in the “Surrender Cobra” pose, with both hands on his head.

All of it, he said, is worth it.

“We’re recruiting players, we’re keeping kids in school, and every day is a step toward a victory,” Healey said. “That’s why this has been so sweet. It’s nine years of waiting. And it pays off. It’s just nice to have something pay off.”

Last month, on Homecoming weekend against their rivals, Maritime, Goldstein had an opportunity to use a play he was saving for the right moment. Gallaudet had scored 22 points in the fourth quarter and needed a two-point conversion to tie the game and send it into overtime.

Quarterback Brandon Washington, who runs the Bison’s triple-option offense and ranks 15th in the nation with 145.78 all-purpose yards per game, only caught the quarterback sneak part of the play before he turned around and ran back onto the field.

He missed the second part, about the pass.

Goldstein was screaming Washington’s name on the sideline, desperately trying to get his attention. They had no timeouts left. Gallaudet lost 26-24.

“That game didn’t come down to one play,” Goldstein said. “It never comes down to one play, but that was just one we couldn’t get.”

“I’ve seen everything you could see,” Goldstein said. “The unnecessary roughness, the late hits. Sometimes we’re stuck in a play call. The defense is based on checks and changing, but if somebody is lined up maybe 3 feet off — you want a corner to get inside leverage — our corners are deaf. You’re not getting their attention. You’re running, and you’re putting your hands up, and you’re trying to run down the sideline to get their attention, but sometimes you can’t, so you’re stuck in a play call that you don’t want. You might just have to run and live with it and hope that you can make up for it, but it is what it is. It’s who we are. It’s never going to change.”

GALLAUDET’S FOOTBALL IDENTITY hasn’t changed in 128 years.

A sign that reads “HOME OF THE HUDDLE EST. 1894” is attached to the painted white brick in the hallway leading to the modest athletic offices and locker rooms. During that season, Gallaudet played two deaf schools, and quarterback Paul Hubbard was worried the other teams were stealing the Bison’s plays because they were signing in the open. Hubbard decided to pull his teammates into a circle, and the huddle was born.

The history lessons are scattered everywhere on the small, historic campus hidden in Northeast D.C., where enrollment hovers just under 1,600, and roughly 200 are student-athletes. The plaque at the baseball field honors former center fielder William Hoy, who is credited with inventing the signs for “strike” and “ball.”

“Hearing status doesn’t mean anything,” said offensive lineman John Scarboro, whose communication through ASL was relayed through an interpreter. “It’s nothing for us, because honestly they can hear and I’m profoundly deaf, but some of my teammates can hear as well. This game is just football with equipment, and I’m playing against an opponent, and my goal is to get the ball to the other side. We don’t worry about hearing status at all. It’s an unnecessary distraction.”

Burford was born profoundly deaf in both ears and wears a cochlear implant — except during games.

“That’s my advantage,” he said with a smile, “I can talk trash to you and can’t hear you say nothing back to me.”

These are athletes who hail from college football hotbeds like Texas and Alabama, and Burford’s father played football at Yale. While some attended schools for the deaf, others graduated from mainstream high schools, where Dolinar said it was more difficult for some of his teammates, including his best friend, to find an opportunity to play.

“They were good, but the coaches feared they couldn’t communicate with him, so they benched him,” Dolinar said. “There are deaf people who can play, but just need an opportunity.”

Last year, Goldstein sent an email blast through a recruiting service to 27,000 head high school football coaches searching for the players who wanted that chance. Goldstein said there are often players at mainstream high schools who aren’t diagnosed as deaf or hard of hearing, or don’t share that they are.

“Sometimes kids don’t want people to know that they have hearing loss,” he said. “We’ve found kids, their coach was like, ‘I had no idea. I always wondered why he was always standing to the left of me, or why he’s missing things at times.’ Because the kids don’t want to be treated any different because they can’t hear.”

There are about six players on the roster who learned of the program through the email blast, and another 60 potential recruits. The current roster of 70 represents 28 states, D.C. and Canada. The school’s recruiting pipeline, though, is the Texas School for the Deaf (10 players), followed by the Maryland School for the Deaf (six) and the California School for the Deaf in Riverside (two).

Collins, who graduated from East Islip High School in New York and was on the 2013 title team, said he doesn’t know where he’d be without football.

“When I went to high school, everyone called me the big deaf kid,” he said. “Now I’m here, I’m the big human kid.”

The education extends well beyond the Gallaudet gates.

In October 2011, Gallaudet’s team was eating dinner at a Ponderosa that no longer exists in Rutland, Vermont, and they were all using ASL to communicate as they loaded up at the all-you-can-eat buffet.

Goldstein remembers the moment a little girl walked by and was staring at the players. He sat down at the table with the girl and her mom and introduced himself as coach Chuck. He learned the girl had never seen a deaf person before, so he explained how they were talking to each other.

“At that point, a light bulb went off,” he said. “Oh my goodness, her first impression of a deaf person is us, the Gallaudet football team. I set the bar really high about expectations when we travel. We represent every deaf person. I’m hearing, and I still represent the deaf community. If we act like fools, that little girl’s first impression is all deaf people are fools. And so we take pride in who we are and who we represent. That GU logo, we’re America’s deaf team. You see Alabama’s uniform, Penn State’s uniform, you know how they are. That’s what we are.”

For Gallaudet, the drum is equally as symbolic and part of their tradition, but it’s also used to celebrate a defensive stop or a big play — and it’s practical. Half a dozen or so beats during the game indicates it’s time for the special teams unit to take the field.

“We’re signing punt, but you have 70 guys on the sideline and no one’s looking at a person signing,” Goldstein said. “So we bang the drum, they feel the vibration, and they know where to look — the middle of the field, coaches sign the punt, everybody runs on the field.”

After a win, the big bass drum rolls back out.

“We can feel it,” Anderson said. “We can feel the beat of the drum.”

That’s when they start dancing.

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Stanford hires former Nike CEO Donahoe as AD

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August 2, 2025

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Stanford hires former Nike CEO Donahoe as AD

  • Seth Wickersham

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    Seth Wickersham

    ESPN Senior Writer

    • Senior Writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine
    • Joined ESPN The Magazine after graduating from the University of Missouri.
    • Although he primarily covers the NFL, his assignments also have taken him to the Athens Olympics, the World Series, the NCAA tournament and the NHL and NBA playoffs.

Jul 31, 2025, 11:10 PM ET

Stanford has hired former Nike CEO John Donahoe as the school’s new athletic director, the university announced Thursday.

Donahoe, 65, will arrive in the collegiate athletic director space with a vast swath of business experience, as Stanford officials viewed him as a “unicorn candidate” because of both his business ties and history at the school. Stanford coveted a nontraditional candidate for the role, and Donahoe’s hire delivers a seasoned CEO with stints at Nike, Bain & Company and eBay. He also served as the board chair of PayPal.

He also brings strong Stanford ties as a 1986 MBA graduate. He has had two stints on the Stanford business school’s advisory board, including currently serving in that role.

“My north star for 40 years has been servant leadership, and it is a tremendous honor to be able to come back to serve a university I love and to lead Stanford Athletics through a pivotal and tumultuous time in collegiate sports,” Donahoe said in a statement. “Stanford has enormous strengths and enormous potential in a changing environment, including being the model for achieving both academic and athletic excellence at the highest levels. I can’t wait to work in partnership with the Stanford team to build momentum for Stanford Athletics and ensure the best possible experiences for our student-athletes.”

Donahoe replaces Bernard Muir, who announced in February that he was stepping down after serving in that role since 2012. Alden Mitchell has been the school’s interim athletic director.

The hire is a head-turning one for Stanford, bringing in someone with Donahoe’s high-level business experience. And it comes at a time when the athletic department has struggled in its highest-profile sports, as football is amid four consecutive 3-9 seasons and the men’s basketball team hasn’t reached the NCAA tournament since 2014.

In hiring Donahoe, Stanford is aiming for someone who can find an innovative way to support general manager Andrew Luck and the football program while also figuring out a sustainable model for the future of Stanford’s Olympic sports.

“Stanford occupies a unique place in the national athletics landscape,” university president Jonathan Levin said in a statement. “We needed a distinctive leader — someone with the vision, judgment, and strategic acumen for a new era of college athletics, and with a deep appreciation for Stanford’s model of scholar-athlete excellence. John embodies these characteristics. We’re grateful he has agreed to lead Stanford Athletics through this critical period in college sports.”

Stanford’s Olympic sports remain the best in the country, as Stanford athletes or former athletes accounted for 39 medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. If Stanford were a country, it would have tied with Canada for the 11th-most medals. Stanford has also won 26 of the possible 31 director’s cups for overall athletic success in college, including a 25-year streak from 1995 to 2019.

School officials approached Donahoe in recent weeks about the position, with both Levin and former women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer among the chief recruiters. Donahoe has a long-standing relationship with both, as he maintained strong ties to the school throughout his career.

Sources said Luck will report to Donahoe. Luck spent time with him in the interview process and is excited to work with him, sources said. It’s also a change from the prior structure, as upon Luck’s hiring he had been slated to report to Levin.

“I am absolutely thrilled John Donahoe is joining as our next athletic director,” Luck said in a statement. “He brings unparalleled experience and elite leadership to our athletic department in a time of opportunity and change. I could not be more excited to partner with and learn from him.”

Stanford is set to begin a football season in which it is picked to finish last in the 17-team ACC. Former NFL coach Frank Reich is the interim coach, and both sides have made clear this is a definitive interim situation and that he won’t return after the 2025 season.

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Iowa State extends Campbell, bumps pay to $5M

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August 2, 2025

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Iowa State extends Campbell, bumps pay to M

  • Max OlsonAug 1, 2025, 04:59 PM ET

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    • Covers the Big 12
    • Joined ESPN in 2012
    • Graduate of the University of Nebraska

Iowa State and coach Matt Campbell have finalized a contract extension through 2032 after the winningest coach in program history led the Cyclones to their first-ever 11-win season in 2024.

Campbell will earn $5 million per year in total compensation, according to a copy of the contract obtained by ESPN on Friday. The three-time Big 12 Coach of the Year honoree took a discount on the deal, sources told ESPN, to ensure that his staff salary pool increased and to allow Iowa State to allocate an additional $1 million to revenue-sharing funds for its football roster.

Campbell earned $4 million in 2024 while leading the Cyclones to a Big 12 championship game appearance, an 11-3 record and a No. 15 finish in the AP poll. He’s entering his 10th season in Ames and has won a school record of 64 games during his tenure.

Colorado coach Deion Sanders will be the Big 12’s highest-paid head coach this year at $10 million after landing a five-year, $54 million contract extension in March. Campbell’s new salary will not rank among the top five in the conference, but he prioritized maximizing Iowa State’s ability to invest in its football roster following a historic season.

Campbell, 45, told ESPN in July at Big 12 media days that “probably our top 20 guys took a pay cut to come back to Iowa State” for 2025, relative to what they could’ve earned in NIL compensation by entering the transfer portal.

The head coach’s deal includes performance incentives based on the Cyclones’ regular-season record, starting at $250,000 for seven wins and climbing to $1.5 million for a 12-0 season. He’ll earn at least $100,000 for a Big 12 title game appearance and up to $500,000 for a Big 12 championship. The deal also permits him to distribute up to $100,000 of his performance incentive earnings each year to his football staff.

If Campbell accepts another Power 4 head coaching job before the end of his contract, his buyout would be $2 million. He would not owe liquidated damages if he departs for an NFL coaching opportunity. Campbell interviewed with the Chicago Bears in January during the organization’s head coaching search.

Campbell surpassed Dan McCarney as the program’s winningest head coach last season and has led the Cyclones to bowl games in seven of the past eight seasons, including a Fiesta Bowl victory and a top-10 finish in 2020.

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What you missed from college football recruiting this summer

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August 2, 2025

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What you missed from college football recruiting this summer

  • Eli LedermanAug 2, 2025, 07:33 AM ET

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      Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.

The busiest 60 days of the annual recruiting calendar are officially behind us. And while another four months still remain before the December early signing period, college football’s top programs have already wrapped up the majority of their business in the 2026 cycle.

Per ESPN Research, a total of 155 prospects in the 2026 ESPN 300 made commitments in an avalanche of summer recruiting business from June 1 to July 31. In the wake of that, only 16 uncommitteds remain in the ESPN 300 as of Saturday morning. Within that group are just nine top-100 recruits, with five-star defensive end Jake Kreul, No. 2 running back Savion Hiter and No. 2 defensive tackle Deuce Geralds among those expected to come off the board in August.

More settled by this point of the cycle than any other in recent memory, college football’s 2026 class is unfolding against the backdrop of yet another moment of change in the sport. The House settlement and earliest ebbs of college athletics’ revenue sharing era have already shaped the 2026 cycle, and their effects will continue to ripple across the class until February’s national signing day.

As the recruiting trail prepares to take a (relative) back seat to fall camp practices, here’s a look at how the cycle played out this summer and what could come next for the class of 2026:

Revenue sharing and a new era in recruiting

The House settlement, which now permits schools to pay their athletes directly, among other sweeping changes, officially took effect July 1.

But according to personnel staffers, agents, recruits and parents surveyed by ESPN this month on the condition of anonymity, byproducts of college football’s new reality and the initial revenue sharing cap of $20.5 million across all sports have been steering the 2026 cycle for months. “In the past, collectives would always say we’re only going to offer what we know we can pay you,” a player agent told ESPN. “Now programs know what the budget will be, and harder numbers were discussed earlier than usual. The ability for programs to get those numbers out there early was huge.” As schools prepared roster budgets and braced for post-settlement oversight this spring, a number of Power 4 programs began front-loading their 2025 rosters in the lead-up to July 1.

In some cases, that meant negotiating updated, pre-settlement contracts with transfers and current players, deals that will not count against the post-July 1 revenue share cap. In others, sources told ESPN that programs and collectives found workarounds on the recruiting trail, doling out upfront payments as high as $25,000 per month to committed recruits in the 2026 class, primarily through advantageous high school NIL laws that exist in states such as California, Oregon and Washington.

Those front-loading efforts helped several programs jump out to fast starts in the 2026 cycle. Per sources, the impending arrival of revenue sharing also played a significant role in speeding up the 2026 class this spring. With programs in position to present firmer financial figures, a flurry of elite prospects committed to schools on verbal agreements before July 1.

“People rushed to get deals done pre-House,” a Power 4 personnel staffer told ESPN. “You know there’s only so much money available, and schools let kids know that. The first one to say yes gets it.”

Friday loomed especially large in the short-lived history of the House settlement.

Per the settlement, Aug. 1 was the first official date rising seniors could formally receive written revenue share contracts from programs and NIL collectives, the latter of which will now operate under looser regulation from the newly founded College Sports Commission, per a memo sent to athletic directors on Thursday. Put another way, Aug. 1 was the first day committed prospects and their families could officially learn whether terms they had agreed to earlier this year were legit.

“We’re going to see how serious these schools are,” said the parent of an ESPN 300 quarterback. “I think we might see some kids decommit and find new schools this fall.”

Across the industry, sources believe programs will, for the most part, deliver on the verbal agreements. Multiple agents and personnel staffers told ESPN that a number of programs have also generally ignored the Aug. 1 stipulation across the spring and summer, presenting frameworks of agreements to prospective recruits or flouting the rule entirely. Another question hovering over the months ahead: How much will these agreements do to contain the annual shuffle of flips, decommitments and late-cycle drama in the 2026 class?

“These deals should keep things more in check,” another Power 4 personnel staffer said. “But I’m not naive to think some won’t flip. There’s some snakes out there.”

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No. 1 overall prospect Lamar Brown commits to LSU

No. 1 overall prospect Lamar Brown stays home and commits to play for the LSU Tigers.

Where do things stand with the 2026 five-star class?

Oregon offensive tackle commit Immanuel Iheanacho, No. 13 in the 2026 ESPN 300, initially planned to announce his commitment Aug. 5. But, like many of the 2026 five-stars who entered late spring still uncommitted, Iheanacho felt the heat of an accelerated market in June.

“There were a couple of schools I was looking at that asked me to commit early, really wanting to get me in their class,” Iheanacho told ESPN. “Oregon didn’t rush me at all.”

Even so, Iheanacho eventually shifted his commitment timeline forward more than a month. ESPN’s second-ranked offensive line prospect picked the Ducks over Auburn, LSU and Penn State on July 3, landing as one of 11 five-star recruits to commit between June 14 and July 20.

As of Saturday morning, only one of the record 23 five-star prospects in ESPN’s class rankings for 2026 remains uncommitted. LSU secured a class cornerstone and the highest-ranked pledge of the Brian Kelly era in No. 1 overall recruit Lamar Brown on July 10. Meanwhile, Florida (McCoy) and Texas A&M (Arrington) each landed a top-15 defender, Ojo landed a historic deal with Texas Tech, and Texas closed July with the most five-star pledges — four — in the country.

With Kreul, the skilled pass rusher from Florida’s IMG Academy nearing a decision from among Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Texas, ESPN’s 2026 five-star class could be closed out before Week 0.

No matter how it plays out from here, the cycle’s five-stars are already historically settled. As of Saturday morning, 95.6% of the five-star class is committed among 14 schools across the Power 4 conferences. Per ESPN Research, it’s by far the highest Aug. 1 five-star pledge rate in any cycle since at least 2020. Just over a decade ago, only six of the 20 five-stars (30%) in the 2015 cycle were committed on Aug. 1, 2014; nearly half the class committed after New Year’s Day.

Highest rate of five-star pledges by Aug. 1 since the start of the 2020 cycle

  • 2026: 95.6%

  • 2024: 76.1%

  • 2025: 72.7%

  • 2021: 66.6%

  • 2020: 58.8%

A number of factors — the early signing period, NIL, transfer portal, new rules around recruiting windows and on-campus visits — explain why elite recruiting continues to inch further and further from the traditional February signing day. Amid the fallout of the House settlement, the latest five-star class seemingly received another nudge this summer.

What’s left for the 2026 QB market after summer moves?

The last major quarterback domino in the 2026 class fell July 18 when four-star Landon Duckworth (No. 178 overall) committed to South Carolina. More than four months from the early signing period, the quarterback market in 2026 is effectively closed.

After Ryder Lyons (BYU), Bowe Bentley (Oklahoma) and Jaden O’Neal (Florida State) found homes in June, Duckworth was the last uncommitted ESPN 300 quarterback. Further down the class, several major programs across the Big Ten and SEC dipped into the flip market or outside the top 300 to secure their 2026 quarterback pledge(s) this summer.

Notable quarterback moves since June 1:

Oregon ended its monthslong chase for a quarterback pledge June 25 with former Boise State commit Beaver. One of the cycle’s top summer risers after a standout Elite 11 finals showing, Beaver landed with Ducks coach Dan Lanning and offensive coordinator Will Stein over interest Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Ole Miss in whirlwind, 13-day rerecruitment.

Alabama has five-star freshman Keelon Russell. But still repairing the program’s quarterback pipeline under coach Kalen DeBoer, the Crimson Tide added two pledges this summer between Thomalla — an Iowa State flip — and Kaawa. Across the state, Auburn and coach Hugh Freeze made their move June 26 flipping Falzone from Penn State before Ohio State (Fahey) and Kentucky (Ponatoski), another pair of quarterback-needy programs, landed pledges in July.

For now, the quarterback class is settled and only so many major programs are still searching in 2026.

Among the 68 Power 4 programs and Notre Dame, only 10 reached August without at least one pledge among the 106 quarterback prospects rated by ESPN: Colorado, Georgia Tech, LSU, Iowa, Iowa State, Maryland, Stanford, UCLA, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.

Who might still be looking within that group?

Colorado (Julian Lewis), Maryland (Malik Washington) and UCLA (Madden Iamaleava) each signed a top-300 quarterback in the 2025 class. With all three programs in the midst of roster rebuilds, none is likely to make a serious push at the position this fall.

With Garrett Nussmeier out of eligibility in 2025, and after the LSU lost No. 1 overall recruit Bryce Underwood to Michigan last fall, the Tigers remain a program to watch in the coming months.

What did ESPN’s top five classes do this summer?

The Trojans got the bulk of their work done on the trail this spring and began June with the most ESPN 300 pledges of any program nationally. That remains the case as USC has bolstered its top-ranked incoming class with five more ESPN 300 pledges over the past eight weeks, adding defenders Talanoa Ili (No. 54 overall), Luke Wafle (No. 104) and Peyton Dyer (No. 269), a July 4 pledge from No. 3 wide receiver Ethan “Boobie” Feaster (No. 25) and the commitment of highly regarded four-star offensive guard Breck Kolojay (No. 198) on Friday.

Can USC hold on to secure its first No. 1 class since 2013? Time will tell. Sources told ESPN that the Trojans’ biggest moves in the cycle are likely finished while the program continues to target the tight end and safety positions, but there’s still time for plenty more to unfold this fall.

The Bulldogs went for volume and quality this summer, collecting 19 commitments including 12 from inside the ESPN 300. Georgia continued to build around five-star quarterback Jared Curtis with five-star tight end Kaiden Prothro, top-50 offensive tackle Ekene Ogboko, running back Jae Lamar and pass catchers Brayden Fogle and Craig Dandridge. On the other side of the ball, defensive backs Justice Fitzpatrick, Chase Calicut and Caden Harris, and defensive tackle Pierre Dean Jr. rank among the newest arrivals in an increasingly deep Bulldogs defensive class.

Georgia’s summer wasn’t without a few major misses. Losing out to Texas on No. 1 outside linebacker Tyler Atkinson — a priority in-state target — stung. Top running back Derrek Cooper’s subsequent pledge to the Longhorns marked another blow, as did wide receiver Vance Spafford‘s decision to flip to Miami in late June. But the Bulldogs are loaded up once again on top during this cycle and will hit the fall in line to secure the program’s 10th straight top-three signing class for 2026.

The Aggies landed a key local recruiting win over Texas on June 17 with a commitment from No. 5 running back K.J. Edwards, the state’s No. 6 prospect in 2026. But Texas A&M’s summer of recruiting was defined on defense, where coach Mike Elko is building another monster class.

Five-star athlete Brandon Arrington, who will play defensive back in college, became the program’s top-ranked 2026 pledge on June 19. Behind him, the Aggies have added top-150 defenders Bryce Perry-Wright, Camren Hamiel and Tristian Givens, and top 300 linebacker Daquives Beck since June 1 to a defensive class that features nine ESPN 300 pledges.

Even after narrowly missing on top defenders Lamar Brown (LSU) and Anthony Jones (Oregon) in July, Texas A&M holds one of the nation’s deepest classes and appears poised to contend later this year for its first top-five class since the Aggies went No. 1 in 2022.

It was a five-star bonanza for coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns this summer.

It began with a late-June pledge from Oregon decommit Richard Wesley, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive end. From there, Texas went on to secure its latest pair of recruiting wins over Georgia last month, swooping in to land Atkinson on July 15 before earning Derrek Cooper’s commitment five days later. With No. 1 quarterback Dia Bell already in the fold, the Longhorns have as many five-star pledges in 2026 as the program signed across 11 classes from 2011 to 2021.

Top-50 offensive lineman John Turntine III marked a key addition July 4, and the Longhorns got deeper on defense with commitments from cornerback Samari Matthews and former Georgia defensive tackle pledge James Johnson. But the five-star moves have been the story for Texas this summer, and Sarkisian & Co. might not be done yet with the Longhorns heavily in the mix for Jake Kreul, the last remaining five-star in the 2026 class.

After a productive spring, the Irish landed five ESPN 300 pledges after June 1, plugging the few remaining holes in the program’s 2026 class with a series of elite high school prospects.

Notre Dame landed its top two defensive back commitments within hours of each other on June 20 with pledges from cornerback Khary Adams and Joey O’Brien. On June 26, the Irish secured their highest-ranked tight end commit since the 2021 class in four-star Ian Premer. And in early July, Notre Dame bolstered its wide receiver class with an infusion of talent and NFL pedigree, adding Kaydon Finley (son of Jermichael Finley), Brayden Robinson and Devin Fitzgerald (son of Larry Fitzgerald).

Notre Dame’s trip to last season’s national title game arrived amid the program’s steady rise on the recruiting trail under coach Marcus Freeman. That has continued in 2026, where the Irish are poised to sign more ESPN 300 pledges — 17 — than in any cycle since at least 2006.

Five programs poised to push for a top-five finish this fall

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 6

Only one program can match USC’s count of nine top-100 pledges in 2026: Alabama.

The Crimson Tide’s second class under coach Kalen DeBoer boomed in June and July as the Crimson Tide secured a slew of commitments on defense with five-star safety Jireh Edwards (No. 23 overall), No. 3 outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 30) and defensive ends Nolan Wilson (No. 53) and Jamarion Matthews (No. 92). Priority in-state offensive targets Ezavier Crowell (No. 31) and Cederian Morgan (No. 47) marked two more key additions this summer.

Alabama whiffed on another major in-state recruit Thursday when four-star outside linebacker Anthony Jones, the state’s No. 1 prospect in 2026, committed to Oregon. Jones represented one of the last elite targets on the Crimson Tide’s board. But Alabama has already flipped four Power 4 commits this summer and could continue to climb this fall as long as DeBoer and his staff remain active within the class from now to the early signing period.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 11

LSU enters the month with ESPN’s No. 1 overall recruit, a five-star wide receiver in Tristen Keys (No. 10 overall) and 10 total ESPN 300 commits in the program’s incoming recruiting class.

How can the Tigers climb into the upper reaches of the 2026 cycle this fall? First and foremost, they have to hang onto Keys, ESPN’s No. 3 wide receiver. He has been committed to LSU since March 19, but that didn’t keep him from taking multiple official visits in the spring or shield him from serious flips efforts from Miami, Tennessee and Texas A&M this summer.

The Tigers’ battle to keep Keys could stretch all the way to the early signing period.

Sources expect LSU to ramp up its own flip efforts with in-state safety and Ohio State pledge Blaine Bradford (No. 34 overall) in the coming months. The Tigers are also finalists for Deuce Geralds and remain top contenders in the recruitments of offensive linemen Darius Gray (No. 73) and wide receiver Jase Mathews, both of whom are set to commit in August. LSU can’t be counted out from renewing its work in the 2026 quarterback this fall, either.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 7

The defending national champs had a relatively quiet summer atop the 2026 cycle, adding only four ESPN 300 pledges highlighted by the in-state pledges of outside linebacker Cincere Johnson (No. 82 overall) and running back Favour Akih (No. 160). Fahey, ESPN’s No. 28 pocket passer, will pad Ohio State’s future quarterback depth after Air Noland‘s offseason transfer, too.

One priority target who could help push the Buckeyes over the edge is four-star prospect Bralan Womack (No. 32). Ohio State has been consistent a leader in the recruitment of ESPN’s No. 3 safety through the spring and summer, and coach Ryan Day & Co. will have to hold off late pushes from fellow finalists Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M from now until Womack’s Aug. 22 commitment date. The Buckeyes also remain involved in the recruitments of No. 2 running back Savion Hiter and Darius Gray, the nation’s 10th-ranked offensive lineman.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 8

Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore has filled out his class with nine ESPN 300 pledges since June 1, headlined by top-100 defender Carter Meadows (No. 88 overall), who trails only quarterback Brady Smigiel (No. 44) among the top prospects pledged to Michigan in 2026.

Who could be next for the Wolverines? Michigan are finalists for ESPN 300 defenders Davon Benjamin (No. 63) and Anthony Davis Jr. (No. 299) with each set for a decision Saturday. More prominently, the Wolverines remain focused on Hiter (No. 24 overall), a top priority for the Michigan staff this summer whose commitment date is set for Aug. 19. The Wolverines also continue to be linked with Syracuse wide receiver pledge Calvin Russell (No. 28). ESPN’s No. 4 wide receiver closed a narrowing process with a commitment to the Orange on July 5, but sources expect Michigan and Miami to remain involved with Russell this fall.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 10

No. 2 outside linebacker Anthony Jones committed to the Ducks on Thursday, joining five-stars Immanuel Iheanacho and Jett Washington in a string of high-profile pledges for Oregon this summer.

Insiders believe the Ducks have backed off at the very top of the 2026 class after spending in the 2025 cycle, but Jones’ pledge could be the first move in a late-summer surge for coach Dan Lanning. Oregon is viewed as the front-runner for both Deuce Geralds and Davon Benjamin as the pair of top-65 prospects prepare to announce their commitments Saturday afternoon. If the Ducks land both, Lanning & Co. could be in position to sign another top-five class by December.

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