Texas Is Back: Lone Star State’s Surge Reclaims Recruiting Dominance

Over the past couple of years, the state of Texas’ grip on producing recruits slipped slightly. But if there were any fears that Texas would relinquish its place at the top, the Class of 2025 should put those to rest. Texas once again led the nation in high school signees, surging to a whopping 368 high school players signing FBS letters of intent; that’s 36 more signees compared to 2024. In turn, the Lone Star State led all states in total signees as well, with 391. Florida once again finished second, signing 294 players all from high school; and Georgia held firm in third place with 257 signees, also all from the prep ranks. In total, recruiting volume saw another nice bounce in the Class of 2025 — 2,747 players signed to FBS teams in this class, roughly a 5% bump from last year. That increase was especially prevalent in the high school ranks, with 2,513 high school seniors signing, up from 2,364 the year before. Aside from Texas’ 36-player increase from 2024 to 2025, California (+26), Oklahoma (+17), Virginia (+15) and Utah (+15) saw substantial increases in their high school signing crop. On the other side of the coin, Pennsylvania (-13) saw the steepest decline in high school signees, followed by Arizona (-8), North Carolina (-7) and Mississippi (-7). In sum, the 131 FBS teams (not including the service academies, whose recruits do not sign letters of intent) signed players from 46 states and the District of Columbia, as well as consistent overseas talent producers England, Germany, Canada, Australia and American Samoa. The international surprise is Nigeria, as Vanderbilt signed three-star edge rusher Georgia Okorie out of the A.D.R.A.O International School. Punter Hayden Craig became Maine’s first player since 2019 to sign with an FBS team when he inked with Florida. Alaska, Montana, Rhode Island and Vermont were the only states to not sign a player; Vermont’s FBS signee drought is now two decades long.

Georgia Continues Its Per-Capita Reign as Texas Slips

It’s not all good news for the Lone Star State; Texas slipped to eighth in the nation in high school signees per capita, with 1.18 high school FBS signees per 100,000 population. The pound-for-pound leader in producing talent remains Georgia, at 2.3 signees per 100,000 — though that is a small drop for the Peach State in the metric compared to 2024. Alabama held on to its No. 2 spot in the ranking, followed by Mississippi. Hawaii and Utah round out the top five, signing 1.73 and 1.34 players, respectively.

To Find Talent, Colleges Think Big…or Shop Mid-Size

Class 6A paced the pack as far as signing players to the FBS level — a staggering 207 signees came from the state’s largest classification, comprising 56% of all signees in the state. That’s the most in pure volume as well as per capita (2.79 signees per 10,000 students of enrollment). But it’s Class 3A Division I that ranks second in the rate metric in the Class of 2025, signing 12 players from one of the state’s mid-sized classifications — that’s 2.59 signees per 10,000 students, comfortably beating third place 5A Division II (2.35) and fourth place 4A Division II (2.18). Note: private school enrollments are not universally available, so the per-capita metric is not included for those schools.

State Championship Contenders Lead The Charge in Wide Range of High Schools

A total of 204 different Texas high school football programs signed at least one player to an FBS letter of intent in the Class of 2025, led by North Crowley and Galena Park North Shore, each of whom signed a whopping eight players to the next level. Class 6A powers Duncanville, Alvin Shadow Creek and Coppell were close behind with seven signees, while perennial prospect factory DeSoto signed six FBS players. And at the risk of sounding obvious, teams with a bevy of FBS signees tend to be pretty good at football — the nine schools that signed at least five players to the FBS ranks went a combined 109-12 in the 2024 season. As far as pound-for-pound production, nobody did it like District 12-3A Division I, specifically Columbus and Hitchcock. Fresh off its first state championship, Columbus (enrollment: 537.5) signed four players to the FBS — quarterback Adam Schobel (TCU), edge-rusher John Schobel (TCU), running back Grayson Rigdon (Arizona State) and edge-rusher Anthony Shorter (Sam Houston) — for a remarkable rate of one signee per 134 students of enrollment. District rival Hitchcock (enrollment: 526) was not far behind, with three signees — quarterback Lloyd Jones III (Texas Tech), defensive lineman Malcolm Simpson (Nebraska) and receiver Kelshaun Johnson (Texas A&M) — and a rate of one signee per 175 students.