College Football Recruiting 2012: The Biggest Winners and Losers in December

So December is here and 2011 is just about over. It was a great year for recruiting and this month saw several interesting occurrences.

For this read, I'm going to give you a couple winners and losers recruiting-style. Whether it's a player, coach, program or anything in between, you have to check this out.

Let's get started.

Loser: Clemson

Oh the Tigers had a huge commitment in the bag, but he got away. 5-star RB Keith Marshall told Scout.com that the night before he pledged to Georgia, he was actually going to commit to Clemson.

The Tigers gave a strong performance in the Marshall race, captivated by a fantastic official visit.

They are not a "loser" on this list for anything they did or didn't do, but just the sting of being so close to nabbing Marshall and seeing him elsewhere hurts.

Winner: Georgia

Of course, the school that got Marshall has to be a winner then, right? Correct. I have UGA down as a winner for the month as years of hard recruiting paid off.

Georgia's been on Marshall for a long, long time and when he finally announced for the Dawgs, the man-hours spent selling Athens to Marshall paid off.

Nice job Mark Richt and co.

Winner: LSU

Not just because the Tigers won the SEC and are going to the title game but because they landed a huge commitment.

5-star QB Gunner Kiel recently and shockingly announced he is coming to Baton Rouge next month to join the LSU Tigers' program. Kiel was once an Indiana commit, then backed off and was thought to be headed to Notre Dame.

However, LSU made a strong late surge and convinced him that he should be a Tiger.

Loser: Notre Dame

The Irish lost out on Keith Marshall, which was a bit expected, and Noah Spence, but more hurtful is the loss of Gunner Kiel.

Kiel is an Indiana native and has Irish bloodlines since his uncle Blair was the ND QB in the '80s. It was a perfect potential fit and the Notre Dame could not seal the deal.

With the uncertainty around the future of the QB position in South Bend going forward, Kiel's commitment to LSU could very well leave a lasting effect on the Irish.

Winner: Ohio State

Urban Meyer can recruit. Period. 

In this month alone, Meyer has grabbed three of the better overall prospects in all of America. He convinced DT Tommy Schutt to switch from Penn State. That's huge.

Then he got DE Se'Von Pittman to tell Michigan State "thanks, but no thanks" and join the Buckeyes. Huge again. 

But surging up late for 5-star DE Noah Spence, a top 10 player overall, was mega-news. Easily, Ohio State was December's biggest recruiting winner. Thanks to Urban Meyer and his staff.