The early signing period throws a wrench in a lot of things when it comes to recruiting. Rankings are one of them.

Signing Day used to be the end of the rankings for a cycle and the one in February still is. But since a majority of players end up signing during the early signing period in December, new rankings come out just before then as well.

This isn’t the final ISD Fab 50 for the 2020 cycle. It’s the next iteration. There are still all-star games and still a lot of film to watch (some players don’t have any senior film available).

This early signing period version of the Fab 50 features four players who will sign with Notre Dame today. That’s the most that have cracked my top-50 since I started putting in work with this for ISD during the 2018 cycle.

It’s a good sign of where things are headed with recruiting for Notre Dame, even if there is still a long way to go to close the gap with other top programs.

The 2020 ISD Fab 50 

- Chris Tyree‍ (34), Michael Mayer‍ (36), Jordan Botelho‍ (41st), and Jordan Johnson‍ (50th) are the four for the Irish.

Johnson just sneaked in and could have been higher, but he has no senior film available. He still has a chance to rise up with that and the All-American Bowl still ahead for him.

Clemson has eight in the Fab 50 heading into the early signing period. Alabama has four. Georgia has five. LSU has four. Ohio State has five (although Clark Phillips‍ may be in danger of flipping today).

- Some defensive linemen shot up my board and changed how I felt about the quality at the position in this cycle.

Clemson seemed like they locked up almost all of the elite prospects on the defensive line and have four D-linemen on this list, but players like Gervon Dexter‍ (Florida) and Jalen Carter‍ (Georgia) really moved up for me. Those two combined with Chris Braswell‍ (Alabama), Jordan Burch‍ (uncommitted), Sav'ell Smalls‍ (Washington), Desmond Evans‍ (UNC), and Botelho is a really strong group.

- The story when I first started evaluating the class was the abundance of top tier backs and that hasn’t changed. In almost any other year Tyree would be a top-three back and a lock for the top five at the position.

I have him seventh.

They are all studs and there’s several others who were very close to making the Fab 50.

- There’s some freakish athletes at linebacker in this class that really had monster senior seasons. Justin Flowe‍ (uncommitted) and Noah Sewell‍ (Oregon) have been top-50 prospects for a long time, but Trenton Simpson‍ (Clemson), Curtis Jacobs‍ (Penn State), and Demouy Kennedy‍  (Alabama) made huge leaps because of their senior film.

There might be a handful of linebackers in all of college football who are as athletic as that group is.