A new home for Jaden Rashada? Who will sign Nyckoles Harbor? National signing day primer

National signing day has lost its pop.

Ever since the early signing period was instituted, the craziness of the first Wednesday of February has been tempered dramatically. The vast majority of the 2023 class already signed with their future schools in December.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t stories to track. Here are a few to watch as we head into next week.

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Nyckoles Harbor watch

Five-star edge rusher Nyckoles Harbor of Washington (D.C.) Archbishop Carroll may be the most athletic player in the 2023 cycle. Check out the 6-foot-5, 225-pound prospect’s track times.

With prospects as talented as Harbor, there’s usually some drama along the way. With Harbor, it’s coming in the form of anticipation of where he’s going to end up. You won’t see Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State or Clemson in his final group. He’s considering Michigan, South Carolina, Oregon, Maryland and a few others.

2️⃣0️⃣.7️⃣6️⃣ pic.twitter.com/M2yqhABZ5m

— Nyckoles Harbor (@Nyck1k) January 23, 2023

It seemed, for a brief moment, that Deion Sanders was going to get Colorado in the mix. Harbor posted an Instagram story that had his location in Boulder, Colo., but it has since come out that he wasn’t there and has no plans to visit.

All four of his finalists could give you a reason why landing this commitment would change the perception of their entire class. Michigan would love to land its first five-star prospect in the 2023 class after making the College Football Playoff for a second consecutive year. Maryland would love to add a game-changing, five-star talent at the 11th hour of the cycle, as it’s done several times in Mike Locksley’s tenure. Oregon would love to build on the buzz it created during the early signing period. And, of course, South Carolina’s momentum on and off the field would shift into overdrive mode if it could dip into D.C. and take one of the best players in the country.

The tricky thing about this recruitment is that every school on the list has seemingly had its time as the perceived leader. Yet here we are, less than a week away from national signing day, and there isn’t a real indication of where Harbor is going to sign. Maybe that’s because he still has an official visit to Oregon scheduled this weekend. The Ducks are going to have the last crack at Harbor after he officially visited Michigan, South Carolina and Maryland in the fall.

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Coaches have travelled in droves to Washington D.C., to make in-home pitches. It’s crunch time now.

Will Oregon make another splash?

Even though five-star safety Peyton Bowen of Denton (Texas) Ryan ultimately signed with Oklahoma despite committing to Oregon on the first day of the early signing period, the Ducks made a huge splash in December. So much so that head coach Dan Lanning posted a video of himself smoking a victory cigar after doing all that damage.

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Oregon flipped four-star quarterback Austin Novosad of Dripping Springs (Texas) High from Baylor. The Ducks landed a commitment from five-star defensive end Matayo Uiagalelei of Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco over USC and Ohio State and also flipped four-star cornerback Daylen Austin of Long Beach (Calif.) Poly from LSU. So even though the bizarre ending to Bowen’s recruitment stung, Oregon still made moves.

Can the Ducks win February’s national signing day as well?

As stated above, Oregon is going to take a big swing to land Harbor. But it is also firmly in the mix with five-star tight end Duce Robinson of Phoenix (Ariz.) Pinnacle — who may push his recruitment past next week — and is in a battle with USC and others for four-star cornerback Rodrick Pleasant of Gardena (Calif.) Junipero Serra, who is announcing Wednesday. Pleasant is rated the No. 88 overall player and the No. 10 cornerback in the 247Sports Composite.

Is Jaden Rashada going to find a new home next week?

The story in the college football world for the past two weeks has been the situation with four-star quarterback Jaden Rashada of Pittsburg (Calif.) High. He signed a national letter of intent with Florida, but after an NIL agreement fell through, he asked for his release from the program. Now he’s back on the market as an uncommitted 2023 prospect looking for a new home.

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Rashada’s name will always be associated with how NIL can go wrong, whether that’s his fault or the fault of the people around him. But the schools that are now in the mix for the quarterback’s services — Washington, TCU, Arizona State, Cal and Colorado — aren’t perceived to be big-hitters in the NIL space. Now it feels more like a normal recruitment, where NIL money won’t lead the charge of how this pans out. Now it feels like a Pac-12-dominated recruitment for a Bay Area prospect.

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Rated the No. 80 overall player and the No. 7 quarterback, Rashada has a ton of potential. He’s a valuable asset at the quarterback position, especially if he develops his natural skill set.

Is this going to be a long recruitment or play out quickly for a prospect who is likely just eager to get to school and play football? Rashada visited Arizona State — where his father, Harlen, played — last weekend. He’s going to TCU this weekend. This could wind down soon, or maybe there are more fireworks in store for Rashada’s recruitment.

Tracking the Harris twins

Package deals between high school friends don’t typically come together in recruiting. There are too many factors that come into play when choosing a school.

But you know when package deals do happen? When the players are twins.

Four-star linebackers Andrew and Michael Harris of Altamonte Springs (Fla.) Lake Brantley decommitted from UCF on Dec. 18 after Knights defensive coordinator Travis Williams left to take the same job at Arkansas. But UCF is still in the picture. So is Maryland, which theoretically could land Harbor and these two linebackers, both of whom are ranked in the top 400 nationally.

The Harris twins will announce their decision on national signing day.

(Photo of Nyckoles Harbor: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades / for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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