National Signing Day came and went Wednesday, which means the Class of 2025 is essentially wrapped up. Prospects are signed. Many are enrolled. Now it’s time to look ahead.

College football coaches across the country have been recruiting players in the Class of 2026 for months — maybe even years — but with the February signing day over, this group has everyone’s full attention.

Consider this your Class of 2026 primer.

(Note: All rankings are from the 247Sports Composite.)

• Defensive linemen are used to having their moment in the spotlight, but this may be the year of the offensive linemen. For the first time in 20 years — when guard Andre Smith headlined the 2006 class — the top player in the nation is an offensive lineman. Five-star tackle Jackson Cantwell of Nixa (Mo.) High is ranked No. 1  nationally and hosted coaches from Georgia, Alabama, Texas A&M, Miami, Georgia again, Oregon, Ohio State and Michigan in his hometown last month. That’s not all, though. The nation’s No. 3 prospect is also an offensive tackle — five-star Maryland native Immanuel Iheanacho. Four of the top 15 prospects in the class are offensive linemen. These rankings will change, but it’s clear the big men are getting a lot of respect in this class.

• Cantwell announced earlier this week that his recruiting process is “almost over” as he continues to whittle down his list. He announced a top six on Sunday that included Georgia, Miami, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio State and Oregon. Texas A&M, which he visited in early January, was notably left off the list. Fresh off their national championship win on Jan. 20, Ryan Day and Ohio State offensive line coach Justin Frye visited Cantwell in late January and rival Michigan came in the following day. Frye has since departed for a job with the Arizona Cardinals and is expected to be replaced by Tyler Bowen, most recently the offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech.

Cantwell was asked in late December at the Under Armour All-America Game about staying in-state, and he praised Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz and the Tigers staff.

“It’s really tough to get away from Missouri because they put such a huge emphasis on in-state guys,” Cantwell said. “That’s their biggest recruiting priority right now. Eli Drinkwitz wants to get in-state guys. They’re trying to make it as tough as possible for guys to leave the state.”

• As for Iheanacho, he, too, has been busy taking visits and hosting coaches. He posted a picture with Dan Lanning and the Oregon staff on Jan. 28, took a visit to Florida the weekend of Jan. 18 and posted a picture with Texas A&M coach Mike Elko on Jan. 11. Just last week, Maryland coach Mike Locksley chatted him up at a Maryland basketball game. The 6-foot-7, 345-pounder already has NFL size and is down to 16 schools.

Maryland football coach Michael Locksley is chatting with 2026 5-star OT Immanuel Iheanacho pic.twitter.com/t4epwVaLAG

— Harrison Rich (@harrisonrich_) January 30, 2025

• Five-star Nashville, Tenn., native Jared Curtis is ranked No. 2 overall and the No. 1 quarterback in the class. He committed to Georgia in March but backed off that pledge in October.

“He doesn’t do anything without thinking ahead … but he got to a point where he felt like, ‘Yes, this is something I want to do,’” said Jeff Brothers, Curtis’ coach at Nashville Christian School. “It was, ‘I don’t want to be committed to one school and have a genuine desire to visit another school. That just feels greasy to me. And I don’t want to be that guy.’”

Brothers said Curtis’ decision to decommit “released the burden” for him and allowed him to explore other options guilt-free. In January, he hosted coaches from Auburn, Georgia, Alabama, Appalachian State, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oregon, Florida State and South Carolina. Auburn and Georgia visited multiple times. The Tigers (Hugh Freeze) and Bulldogs (Kirby Smart) were also two of the schools that sent their head coaches, joining Oregon’s Lanning, North Carolina’s Bill Belichick, South Carolina’s Shane Beamer, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer and FSU’s Mike Norvell.

Curtis recently announced he plans to take official visits to Auburn, Oregon, Georgia and South Carolina this summer. He is coming off a junior season in which he went 179-for-255 passing for 2,830 yards with 40 touchdowns and only three interceptions.

“He’s a tremendous competitor,” Brothers said. “We can’t get him to stop competing. Even in practice he wants to be our scout team quarterback just so he can go play and make our defense better. He’s just that kind of kid. Kind of the throwback, Americana, Norman Rockwell sort of existence.”

• Don’t underestimate the power blue-chip recruits have in this new era of recruiting. Five-star North Carolina native Faizon Brandon is the No. 2 quarterback in this class and ranked No. 6 overall. In the fall, Brandon’s family sued the North Carolina State Board of Education so that public school athletes, as members of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, could profit off their name, image and likeness in the same way private school players, who were not part of the NCHSAA, could. A judge issued an order in October to get that rule changed, and the NCHSAA now has guidelines that allow public school athletes to take advantage of NIL.

Brandon, who plays at Grimsley High in Greensboro, committed to Tennessee in August over fellow finalists Alabama, NC State and LSU, and told 247Sports in December that he plans to stick with the Vols despite Belichick taking over at North Carolina.

• It’s early, but Oregon and Texas A&M have the two top classes, each with 10 commits overall and eight blue-chippers. Perhaps most importantly, both already have quarterbacks after suffering high-profile decommitments in the Class of 2025. The Ducks lost four-star signee Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele — who got out of his letter of intent — to Cal in January while the Aggies lost five-star California native Husan Longstreet to USC about two weeks before the December signing period. Of course, now the challenge for both programs will be to hang onto their 2026 quarterbacks. Oregon has four-star Illinois native Jonas Williams committed. He is ranked No. 88 overall and the No. 6 quarterback. The Aggies landed four-star Utah native Helaman Casuga, No. 157 overall and the No. 10 quarterback.

• Here’s an interesting player to keep an eye on: four-star cornerback Victor Singleton, out of Toledo, Ohio. Singleton is the nation’s No. 63 prospect, No. 6 cornerback and No. 2 player in Ohio. And yet he committed to Illinois on Saturday fresh off a January visit to Champaign. Singleton picked the Illini over Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan and Texas A&M. With a .9682 rating, Singleton would be Illinois’ highest-rated signee since the Class of 2007.

• Maryland had a big day on Wednesday when four-star edge Zahir Mathis signed with the Terps, putting the finishing touches on a top-25 class in the 2025 cycle.

Locksley’s primary goal in the 2026 class? Holding onto five-star edge Zion Elee, out of St. Frances Academy in Baltimore. Elee is the nation’s No. 4 prospect. He’ll have every program in the country knocking on his door. He committed to Maryland in December and has maintained a strong connection to the staff. But as recently as January, he was spending time with coaches from Auburn and Penn State. There is plenty of time to flip him between now and December.

• Arizona State, one of the surprise teams in 2024, may already have its quarterback of the future in place. Four-star Texas native Jake Fette committed to the Sun Devils in September and got a visit from Kenny Dillingham and his staff last week. That said, since late December, Fette has picked up offers from Ole Miss, Mississippi State, LSU and Auburn. Hanging onto him will be a top priority for the Sun Devils.

Family🔱🔱🔱@KennyDillingham @coacharroyo @IWSunDevils @aguanos pic.twitter.com/64TqK6miwM

— Jake Fette (@jake_fette1) January 30, 2025

• It should be fascinating to see how Alabama’s 2026 class shapes up now that DeBoer has reunited with his old offensive coordinator and close friend Ryan Grubb. Grubb, DeBoer’s OC and play caller at Fresno State and Washington, briefly followed DeBoer to Alabama last year but quickly left to take a job as the offensive coordinator with the Seattle Seahawks. He’s now back with DeBoer and will likely pitch recruits on his ability to develop them, considering what he did with quarterback Michael Penix Jr. at Washington.

DeBoer went 9-4 in his inaugural season with the Crimson Tide and will need to get Alabama back to competing for national championships if he wants to maintain the standard Nick Saban set. So far, Alabama has just one commit in the 2026 class: four-star athlete Zyan Gibson, who ranks No. 54 nationally and hails from Gadsden City, Ala. It will be critical for DeBoer and his staff to sign in-state talent after Alabama landed zero of the top 10 in-state prospects in the Class of 2025. Auburn, meanwhile, signed six.

• Speaking of big-name coordinators on the move, who’s ready for the recruiting battles between Penn State and Ohio State now that Jim Knowles left Day’s program to join James Franklin? Penn State has nine commits already in the 2026 class but just one top-250 defensive player — four-star safety Matt Sieg. That should change soon.

• Only 15 of the top 50 prospects nationally have committed, but 22 of the top 50 quarterbacks have already made a decision. Look for more dominoes to fall starting with official visits in the spring.

(Photo of Jackson Cantwell: Nathan Papes / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)