National signing day was yesterday as the top rated high school players all over the country signed with their favorite school. It is one of the most important days of the year for each college team as usually the teams with the best recruiting classes year in and year out usually find themsevles in the Top 25.

Covering college football as I do takes 52 weeks a year as it is and while I personally do not scout the high school games and rate each player I do compile my rankings based on the many different recruiting services across the country that follow and scout HS football year round. I not only like to use all of the biggest and best services, but I also use regional reports as well. The colleges themselves use many of these services to get the latest information on recruits.

While my final recruiting rankings will not be completed for another month, several recruiting sources that I use have released their Top 10 ratings for 2010.

Top 10 Classes By Recruiting Sources

Nearly five weeks after Urban Meyer resigned/unresigned the Gators signed what many sources feel is the #1 class in the country. Led by DE Ronald Powell and DT Sharriff Floyd, Florida signed more top defensive prospects than anybody with Dominique Easley, Darrin Kitchens and Matt Elam just to name a few. On offense the Gators signed 4 WRs in Chris Dunkley, Adrian Coxson, Quinton Dunbar, and Solomon Patton to reload a position hit hard by graduation/NFL Draft losses.

Year in and year HC Mack Brown signs some of the top players in the country and most of the time he doesn’t even have to recruit outside the home state of Texas. This year the Longhorns shored up their front 7 which suffers several losses to graduation and the NFL draft with LB Jordan Hicks and DE Jackson Jeffcoat.

Lane Kiffin has been known as a great recruiter from his time as an assistant at USC and last year signed my #10 class in his 1st year at Tennessee. This year he has been the HC at USC for just 3 weeks and signed one of the best classes with a strong finish on Signing Day. Kiffin and his assistants did a great job keeping together the class that was already assembled by Pete Carrol which included WR Kyle Prater and RB Dillon Baxter. The Trojans also added Seantrel Henderson, Markeith Ambles, Nickell Robey, and Hayes Pullard in recent days to elevate themselves in the Top 10.

Auburn was one of the surprises this year in recruiting and despite having to go up against in-state rival Alabama who is coming of a national title season, HC Gene Chizik was able to sign one of the top RBs in the country in Michael Dyer and possibly the #1 JUCO player in QB Cameron Newton. When my recruiting rankings come out in the magazine, Auburn will probably have their highest ranking ever!

Alabama had my #1 class last year and #3 class in 2008. This year Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide fresh off their national title, signed one of the top classes with one of the nations top QBs in Phillip Sims. Alabama returns only 2 starters back on defense this year so getting some top prospects on D was a top priority. The Tide fulfilled their needs especially in the secondary with CBs Demarcus Milliner, Dequan Menzie, and John Fulton plus S Jarrick Williams.

Top Impact Freshman

1. DE Ronald Powell, Florida (6-4 230) The Gators lose DEs Carlos Dunlap and Jermaine Cunningham to the NFL however, Powell who many recruiting services have as the #1 overall player in the country has the size and the speed (4.52) to get significant playing time right away on the opposite side of Justin Trattou. Powell was also named the MVP of the Army All-American game which is one of the top HS all-star games.

2. DT Sharriff Floyd, Florida (6-3 310) While the Gators have plenty of experience coming back at DT in Omar Hunter (11 sts), Terron Sanders (8 sts) and Jaye Howard (4 sts), Floyd will probably see early playing time. Sharriff already benches 400+ lbs and squats 500+. Many recruiting services ranked Floyd as the top DT in the country.

3. WR Kyle Prater, USC (6-5 205) Prater will get a chance make an early impact for the Trojans at the WR position similar to what Julio Jones (Alabama), AJ Green (Georgia) and Michael Floyd (Notre Dame) did for their teams in their freshman seasons. Prater has decent speed (4.5) to go along with his size and also has great leaping ability with a 41′ vertical. With Damian Williams leaving early for the NFL, don’t be surprised to see Prater starting right away.

4. DB Keenan Allen, California (6-3 195) California went all the way to North Carolina to get Allen who will get a chance to start right away for the Bears with limited experience back at the Safety position. With his size Allen could develop into a Safety/OLB hybrid that the Bears call their Rover.

5. WR Da’Rick Rogers, Tennessee (6-3 206) New HC Dooley got Rogers to rethink his commitment to Georgia and was able to sign him with the Volunteers yesterday. Rogers has all the tools to be a big time WR at the college level with his size and speed (4.4). Rogers finished his senior season with 1641 rec yds (19.1) and 22 TDs. Even with Moore, Jones and Teague back with starting experience Rogers will have an opportunity to play right away.

6. RB Marcus Lattimore, South Carolina (6-0 210) Lattimore earned Mr. Football in South Carolina and will compete right away with returning RB Kenny Miles for the starting job. Lattimore has good speed (4.46) and many recruiting experts feel he will gain at least 10 lbs and be similar to a Knowshon Moreno/Carnell Williams type RB.

7. RB Michael Dyer, Auburn (5-8 201) Dyer was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Arkansas after rushing for 2,484 yds avg 207 rush ypg. Dyer is strong for his size with a 320 lb bench and a 450 lb squat. Even with 3 players with starting experience back at RB for the Tigers, Dyer will probably get some early carries.

8. OT Robert Crisp, NC State (6-7 299) Most OL do not see playing time as Freshman, however Crisp has a chance to start right away for the Wolfpack at OT opposite of Vermiglio. Most recruiting analysts love Crisp’s athletic ability for his size.

9. DE Owamagbe Odighizuwa, UCLA (6-3 234) Despite weighing only 234 lbs most recruiting analysts love his strength. The Bruins have only 2 full time starters back on their front 7 and Owamagbe could play right away at DE or OLB.

10. DE Chris Martin, California (6-4 240) Martin will get the chance to play right away with DE Cameron Jordan the only player back for the Bears with starting experience at DE. Many experts feel that Martin could probably add 30 lbs to his frame which would make him a great fit in a 3-4 scheme which Cal currently runs.

I have been working on magazine deadlines since December 1st and have just finished reading 75-150pg reports on each of the 120 FBS teams. The reports are created by my staff throughout the season as they read dozens of articles daily on each of their assigned teams. My staff then underlines all the important information for me and this gives me a lot of flavor of what was going on into and out of games throughout the season. I find it interesting every year to see how the writers’ perception of the team changes from August to January.

I have also just completed my projection of what the AP Preseason Top 10 will look like in August. In each of the last two years I have nailed 9 of the 10 teams that appeared in the Preseason Top 10 successfully with last years exception being LSU/Penn St and I may have had something to do with that.

Keep in my mind these are not my rankings just a prediction of what the AP will be. I will not have my rankings finalized until May and as you know I tend to go out on a limb in a lot of cases and have a lot of surprise picks in my magazine. We have been doing a M-W-F blog format the past few weeks but since my AP projection is highly anticipated, I will be posting it tomorrow as soon as it is ready and I will also keep the blog up there for a few extra days.

The Top 10 will also be posted on the interactive side and I encourage you to make comments and post any questions you may have and I will try to answer them every day. Again these are not my rankings, just my projection of what the AP Preseason Top 10 will be so please no comments on why I have xx team ranked #5 or why xx team isn’t ranked.

Also if you haven’t already, please check out the 2010 Spring Central where we have all latest information on 2010 schedules, coaching changes, who’s back/who’s not, NFL draft early entries and much more.  Make sure to check it daily as we continue to update it.

Signing day is on Wednesday and Miami, Oh is conducting what is believed to be the first world wide webcast of its kind from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at its official athletic site www.MURedHawks.com. Sponsored by Miami Savings Bank, RedHawk Recruiting Live will feature six full hours of free live recruiting announcements and appearances by nearly 50 current student-athletes and other special guests. It will give fans a never-before-seen inside look at the excitement of Signing Day. Fans also will be able to use Twitter to “tweet” their recruiting questions to HC Michael Haywood and his staff as Haywood will answer fans questions for a segment at least once every hour. Just go to www.MURedHawks.com anytime on Wednesday, Feb. 3, between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. EST!

I will be back tomorrow with my AP Preseason Top 10 Projection!