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College football‘s 2024 recruiting cycle is beginning to take shape.

Over the past month, 10 recruits in the 2024 ESPN Junior 300 have committed, bringing the total number of ranked committed prospects to 90. Those 10 players pledged to nine different schools.

We break down what has happened in March, which prospects are ready to commit soon and which recruits are taking visits.

Last 2023 ESPN 300 prospect finally commits

Duce Robinson, the final uncommitted prospect in the 2023 ESPN 300, committed to Lincoln Riley and USC on Thursday.

Robinson, the No. 40 overall recruit and No. 1 tight end in the 2023 class, is a 6-foot-6, 235-pound football standout who doubles as a baseball star, ranked No. 84 among ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel’s top 100 MLB draft prospects.

He picked the Trojans over Georgia, Alabama, Texas and Oregon. Robinson had 84 receptions for 1,614 yards and 14 touchdowns last season for Pinnacle High School (Arizona).

With Robinson’s commitment, USC jumped from 13th to 10th in the 2023 recruiting class rankings.


Ole Miss lands pair of 2024 ESPN 300 commits

Lane Kiffin’s Rebels were the only program to secure two 2024 ESPN 300 commitments this month.

Athlete Chris Davis Jr. (No. 241 overall) and defensive end Jeffery Rush (No. 126) from Pascagoula High School (Mississippi) committed in the span of three days.

Davis, who attends Picayune Memorial High School (Mississippi), told ESPN in February he was being recruited as a running back. Rush would be the program’s first ESPN 300 defensive end since Demon Clowney in 2020.


Five teams that landed notable commits

Virginia Tech: Quarterback Davi Belfort (No. 259), a product of Gulliver Prep High School (Florida), gives Brent Pry a tremendous building block in the 2024 class. The 5-11, 190-pound Belfort is the Hokies’ first ESPN 300 signal-caller since Joshua Jackson in 2016.

Auburn: Running back J’Marion Burnette (No. 123), from Andalusia High School (Alabama), decided to stay in state by committing to Hugh Freeze’s Tigers over Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Florida State and Arkansas. Burnette, who is 6-1, 210 pounds, ran for 1,473 yards and 17 touchdowns last season.

Mississippi State: The Bulldogs landed their fifth ESPN 300 quarterback since 2019 when Josh Flowers (No. 226) announced on March 8. The 6-3, 210-pound Flowers threw for 1,453 yards and 10 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,367 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2022 for Baker High School (Alabama).

Tennessee: The Volunteers landed four-star quarterback Jake Merklinger (No. 90) on Thursday. Merklinger, who threw for 1,987 yards and 32 touchdowns for Calvary Baptist Day School (Georgia) in 2022, picked the Vols over Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan State, giving coach Josh Heupel his second ESPN 300 quarterback in as many years (Nicholaus Iamaleava, No. 23 in 2023).

Michigan: Jordan Marshall, a member of Ohio powerhouse Moeller High School in Cincinnati, chose the Wolverines over the in-state Buckeyes. Marshall would be the fourth ESPN 300 running back to sign with Michigan since 2020, joining Blake Corum, Donovan Edwards and Cole Cabana.


Three recruits with upcoming commitment dates

Aaron Flowers, CB
2024 ESPN Jr. 300 ranking: 227

Flowers, a four-star cornerback for Forney High School (Texas), is expected to announce his commitment on April 7.

He is considering Alabama, Oregon, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Washington, USC, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Louisville and Baylor. He has taken visits to the Ducks, Trojans and Crimson Tide over the last few weeks.

Michael Hawkins, QB
2024 ESPN Jr. 300 ranking: 238

Hawkins will decide between Oklahoma, TCU and Penn State on April 8.

Hawkins is the son of former NFL cornerback Mike Hawkins, who was the Green Bay Packers‘ fifth-round draft pick in 2005 out of Oklahoma. The 6-1, 190-pound Hawkins threw for 2,007 yards and 20 touchdowns as a junior for Allen High School (Texas).

Asked about what advice his father imparted on him, Hawkins said he told him, “Don’t worry about what other people have to say about your play or how hard you work. Just stay focused on the main course and you won’t have to worry about anything, and everything else will fall in place.”

Josiah Thompson, OT
2024 ESPN Jr. 300 ranking: 72

The 6-7, 290-pound Thompson is a four-star tackle for Dillon High School (South Carolina). He will decide between Georgia, South Carolina, Clemson, Tennessee, Miami and Alabama on April 14.

If Thompson commits to the in-state Gamecocks, he’d be the second ESPN 300 offensive lineman to join Shane Beamer’s group, along with Kam Pringle (No. 32), who pledged in January.


Two schools making moves in 2025

Oklahoma: After coach Brent Venables brought in five-star quarterback Jackson Arnold (No. 3) in the 2023 class, he added another future signal-caller in Kevin Sperry on March 13. The 6-2, 200-pound Sperry threw for 1,527 yards and nine touchdowns last season as a sophomore for Rock Hill High School (Texas).

Penn State: Omari Gaines, a 6-2, 180-pound cornerback from Malcolm X Shabazz High School (New Jersey), became the second member of the Nittany Lions’ 2025 class when he committed on Tuesday. “Their guys are aggressive, like up front on the line of scrimmage, and I feel like that’s really me,” said Gaines, who recorded 14 tackles with an interception as a sophomore for St. Peter’s Prep (New Jersey).

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L.A.’s Betts day-to-day after stubbing toe in mishap

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L.A.'s Betts day-to-day after stubbing toe in mishap

LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts stubbed a toe on his left foot during an off-the-field incident and was out of the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ lineup Friday night for the opener of a highly anticipated weekend series against the New York Yankees.

Betts was scheduled to undergo X-rays at Dodger Stadium before first pitch. Until then, the team will hope for the best.

“It’s day-to-day right now,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So, that’s where we’re at.”

The incident — affecting Betts’ second toe — was believed to occur late Wednesday night, after the Dodgers returned from a six-game road trip through New York and Cleveland. Roberts didn’t find out until Betts called him Friday morning. He was vague on the details.

“I really don’t know,” Roberts said when asked how the injury occurred. “I think it was at home. It’s probably a dresser, nightstand, something like that. It’s just kind of an accident. I think that Mookie will be able to give more context, but that’s kind of from the training staff what I heard. So hopefully, it’s benign, it’s negative. Not sure, but I feel confident saying it’s day-to-day … but putting on a shoe today was difficult for him.”

Betts’ injury isn’t the Dodgers’ most serious at the moment. Late-inning reliever Evan Phillips, who was rehabbing a forearm injury, didn’t feel right playing catch earlier this week and will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, knocking him out for all of 2025 and most of 2026.

Phillips, 30, was released by the Baltimore Orioles in August 2021 and designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays less than two weeks later. The Dodgers picked him up and turned him into a valuable late-game option. From 2022 to 2024, Phillips posted a 2.21 ERA and 0.92 WHIP, saved 44 games and struck out 206 batters in 179 regular-season innings.

But Phillips dealt with arm issues during last year’s postseason run and was left off the team’s World Series roster. He then went on the IL because of a rotator cuff strain in the middle of March, returned a month later, notched seven scoreless appearances, then went back on the IL on May 7 because of what the team called forearm discomfort. Platelet-rich-plasma injections did not take. Phillips never got better.

“As we started getting into it, it wasn’t really responding,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. “We felt like this could be a possibility, so as he got deeper into the process and it wasn’t really getting better, the decision to do it was pretty much evident with our information.”

The loss of Phillips is coupled with the Dodgers having four other high-leverage relievers on the IL — Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech, all of whom are right-handed.

The Dodgers tried to backfill some of that depth by trading for former All-Star closer Alexis Diaz on Thursday. But Diaz, who struggled so badly this season that the Cincinnati Reds optioned him to Triple-A, will initially work out of the Dodgers’ spring training complex in Glendale, Ariz.

The Dodgers also have three starting pitchers — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki — recovering from shoulder injuries, with Shohei Ohtani not expected to join the rotation until sometime after the All-Star break.

The lineup, at least, had been healthy. Until now.

Betts, 32, got off to a slow start but was still slashing .254/.338/.405 with 8 home runs and 5 stolen bases while slotting between the hot-hitting Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the No. 2 spot. More notably, Betts had proven to be a capable major league shortstop after working during the offseason at the position.

But the toe injury could set him back, in much the same way a broken left hand robbed him of nearly two months in 2024.

At this point, Roberts said, “I don’t see it being long term.” But the Dodgers can’t say that definitively yet.

“We need to see the doctors and kind of get a better sense of it,” Gomes said. “It happened pretty recently, so it’ll take some time before we have a better understanding.”

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Jays put Santander on IL with shoulder injury

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Jays put Santander on IL with shoulder injury

TORONTO — The Blue Jays put slugger Anthony Santander on the 10-day injured list Friday because of left shoulder inflammation and recalled outfielder Alan Roden from Triple-A Buffalo.

Santander is batting .179 with six home runs and 18 RBI in 50 games. The veteran switch hitter has missed a handful of games because of left hip and left shoulder soreness over the past three weeks.

Santander signed a $92.5 million, five-year contract with Toronto in January after eight seasons with Baltimore. He hit a career-best 44 home runs for the Orioles last season.

The outfielder had an MRI after Thursday’s 12-0 win over the Athletics, when he was 0 for 2 with two strikeouts and two walks, Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. The team was still determining whether the next steps would include a cortisone injection or rehabilitation, the manager said.

“I think it just got to the point to where it was bothering him,” Schneider said before Friday’s game against the Athletics. “You can’t really put the work that you want to put in volume-wise, and we just think it’s best for him right now.”

Roden rejoins the Blue Jays after batting .178 with one home run and five RBI in 28 games for Toronto earlier this season, his first in the majors. Roden hit .361 with three homers and 12 RBI in 18 games at Buffalo after being sent down May 7.

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Twins reinstate Buxton after 11-game absence

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Twins reinstate Buxton after 11-game absence

SEATTLE — The Minnesota Twins reinstated center fielder Byron Buxton from the seven-day concussion injured list Friday before beginning a three-game series in Seattle, two weeks after he collided with shortstop Carlos Correa in pursuit of a shallow fly ball.

Buxton missed 11 games after the collision, which also sent Correa into the concussion protocol. Correa needed only the minimum seven-day stay on the injured list and missed five games.

To make room for Buxton, outfielder Carson McCusker was sent back to Triple-A St. Paul. Buxton was batting .261 with an .834 OPS and 18 extra-base hits, including 10 homers, before he was hurt. He also had 33 runs, 27 RBIs and 8 steals in his first 41 games.

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