Let’s Debate: Which Coach Won the 2026 Recruiting Cycle?

New coaches. New strategies. New blueprints. The 2026 recruiting cycle gave us our first real glance at how college football’s newest coaching regimes plan to build their programs. Who impressed us the most with their first class? Who left us uneasy? Which program surprised us most? And who mastered the art of juggling high school recruiting with the transfer portal? Following a season with new hires at elite-level programs like Penn State, Florida and Michigan, there is plenty of room for debate, and this season should be filled with several insights gleaned. Here are our takeaways in this week’s debate: Which first-year head coach impressed you the most or concerned you the most with their initial recruiting class? Michael Cohen: Lane Kiffin, LSU Despite all the resources and historical appeal of a place like LSU, which some consider the single-best job in college football, what Kiffin did by first salvaging, then assembling, an elite recruiting class after an avalanche of negative headlines was impressive. There’s never been a reason to doubt Kiffin’s eye for talent or charisma as a recruiter. The work he did in assembling one highly rated class after another at Ole Miss — his last four transfer portal hauls all ranked in the top five nationally; his last four high school classes all ranked among the top 30, even after he leaned more heavily into the former — speaks to his success in player acquisition. But logically, or perhaps morally, it seemed like Kiffin’s decision to bail on a College Football Playoff team might finally be the thing that stained his reputation. And yet here stands Kiffin, happily presiding over an LSU recruiting class that features four of the top 60 players in the country and ranks 11th nationally. Laken Litman: James Franklin, Virginia Tech Franklin impressed with his debut class at Virginia Tech. Penn State caught us all off guard by firing Franklin in October after his team started the season 3-3. The Nittany Lions were in the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2024 and a hot pick to win the national championship this past season. Things didn’t go as planned, obviously, and Frankllin was let go after 12 successful seasons. Virginia Tech quickly scooped Franklin up and he got to work. He took quite a few former Penn State commits with him, flipping 10 Nittany Lions recruits to join him in Blacksburg. Franklin cites the relationships he built with those players previously, and clearly it’s been working. In fact, Virginia Tech’s 2026 recruiting class, ranked No. 28 in the country by 247Sports, is the highest-ranked class the Hokies have had since 2019. RJ Young: Jon Sumrall, Florida Not only did Sumrall put together a top 20 recruiting class this year, but he did so while still serving as head coach at Tulane through the Green Wave’s College Football Playoff run. That recruiting haul doesn’t even account for one of Florida’s most important offseason wins: retaining running back Jadan Baugh, who returned after rushing for more than 1,100 yards and eight touchdowns. Between talent acquisition and key roster retention, the Gators are off to a fast start under a head coach who clearly understands both the value and difficulty of winning in the SEC. Which program’s recruiting class surprised you the most this cycle? RJ Young: Oregon Oregon’s No. 2-ranked recruiting class surprised me only because Ducks coach Dan Lanning continues to build through high school when he could just as easily fill his team with older veterans, something many programs are apt to do at this precarious time in the sport. There’s so much quality talent in his 2026 class with four five stars — tied with Alabama for the most in any class this cycle. This marks three years in a row that the Ducks have put together a top-five recruiting class. Michael Cohen: Washington For Washington to land the No. 13 class in the country reflects exemplary work by head coach Jedd Fisch at a time when his name was heavily linked with other vacancies across the sport during the coaching carousel. The Huskies’ current class includes an incredible 10 players rated among the top 250 nationally, headlined by five-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene (No. 27 overall, No. 4 OT), whom Fisch and his staff flipped from rival Oregon. Washington hasn’t put together a high school class that finished among the top 15 in the country since 2019, according to 247Sports, the final season under former head coach Chris Petersen. In fact, the Huskies’ average national ranking across its six previous classes prior to the stellar 2026 haul — a stretch that spanned coaches Jimmy Lake, Kalen DeBoer and Fisch — was just 47.6 overall. Laken Litman: USC USC is the first non-SEC program since Clemson back in 2020 to finish a recruiting cycle with the No. 1-ranked class in the country. It’s also interesting that Lincoln Riley was able to lock down such a coveted class considering USC has yet to make a CFP appearance. But Riley landed three five-stars in offensive tackle Keenyi Pepe out of Florida, edge Luke Wafle from New Jersey and Jaimeon Winfield from Texas, plus a handful of top in-state commits. USC hasn’t had the No. 1-ranked recruiting class since Pete Carroll’s 2006 class. And since Carroll left, no coach has been able to achieve what he did. Perhaps things are finally going in the right direction for the Trojans. Time will tell. Which program did the best job balancing high school recruiting and the transfer portal? Laken Litman: Texas It’s not unreasonable to say that Texas underachieved this past season. The Longhorns started the season as the No. 1 team in the country, but never looked the part and didn’t make the CFP. This wasn’t what Steve Sarkisian envisioned – especially with Arch Manning at QB – and so he made a lot of changes this offseason. First, Sarkisian secured a top 10 recruiting class, which includes his quarterback for the future in five-star prospect Dia Bell (son of former NBA player Raja Bell). Couple that with what the Longhorns gained from the portal, like beefing up both sides of the line of scrimmage, especially the offensive line, which was their weakest position group of the 2025 season. Texas also improved its skill players, which included a commitment from former Auburn receiver Cam Coleman. So it seems like things just might be looking up for the Longhorns in 2026. RJ Young: Ohio State Ohio State is the only program in the 2026 cycle to put together a top five high school recruiting and transfer portal class, which is perhaps the biggest flex for off-the-field success that we’ve seen this season. The Buckeyes had aspirations of becoming the first back-to-back national champions in school history last year, but their hopes were dashed by the national title runner-up (Miami). Ohio State is investing in winning now and in the future by adding veterans and talented freshmen to a program that expects to win at a high level. Michael Cohen: Notre Dame When it comes to Notre Dame, there have been so many stories and so much air time dedicated to the nature in which the Fighting Irish’s season ended. From narrowly missing the College Football Playoff as Miami leapfrogged head coach Marcus Freeman’s team in the final rankings, to the school’s surprising decision to opt out of bowl games all together, to the future of Freeman himself — a coach still very much in the minds of NFL owners and general managers because of how well he’s performed the last four years. But in spite of all that, Notre Dame continues to reach new heights in its player acquisition efforts under Freeman. The Fighting Irish assembled a high school class that ranks fifth nationally and includes as many five-star prospects (four) as any team in the country, tied with Oregon and Alabama. In the transfer portal, Freeman added a relatively small seven-player class, which ranks ninth in the country, but with that has an average prospect score of 92.29, highest in the country by nearly three full points over Miami. In Let’s Debate, our experts tackle and explain the hot-button issues fans care about.