National Signing Day: Biggest Surprises on Wednesday

The alluring mixture of surprise commitments, players flipping schools and teams cementing their recruiting classes combine to make national signing day a popular event for college football fans. This year was no exception.

Wednesday brought about a handful of obvious commitments. As expected, No. 1 overall player Rashan Gary committed to Michigan, while 5-star cornerback Kristian Fulton committed to home-state LSU.

But, as usual, there were several surprises that made national signing day notable. Here are the four biggest surprises.

4. Brown, Price spurn Georgia

All things considered, this has been a good recruiting class for the Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia currently has the No. 7 recruiting class in the nation, according to 247Sports, and its three 5-star commits are tied with Alabama and Ole Miss for most in the nation. In addition, 5-star wide receiver Demetris Robertson has yet to pick his school, although his open desire to play in Athens has led many people to believe that his commitment to Georgia is imminent. 

But Bulldogs fans were nonetheless disappointed when in-state talents Derrick Brown and E.J. Price each committed elsewhere, despite new Georgia head coach Kirby Smart fervently recruiting them.

Brown, a 5-star defensive tackle from Buford, committed to Auburn after the Tigers ramped up their recruiting efforts down the stretch.

Price, a 4-star offensive tackle from Lawrenceville, committed to USC over Georgia in a heated recruiting chase that also included Auburn.

Georgia still has several defensive linemen in their 2016 class, including 4-star prospects Julian Rochester and Michail Carter. On the offensive line, they have added a trio of 4-star tackles: Ben Cleveland, Chris Barnes and Solomon Kindley.

Even so, Georgia surprisingly missed out on the chance to add two more in-state recruits to its stellar recruiting class.

3. Vols land coveted 5-star JUCO target Kongbo, among other big signings

With a total of 21 commitments in hand, Tennessee's 2016 recruiting class looks to be one of its best in recent years.

The most surprising commitment of the day came when 4-star cornerback Tyler Bird flipped to the Vols from Miami, whose fans weren't too happy about the decision. In response, Bird pledged that he would use the insults as motivation:

The cream of the crop for Tennessee's class came in the form of 5-star JUCO defensive end Jonathan Kongbo, who was strongly considering Ole Miss as well.

"

Blessed to sign with the University of Tennessee! #GBO pic.twitter.com/dwMswHHjzC

— Jonathan Kongbo III (@King_Kongbo) February 3, 2016"

The Volunteers also received a commitment from 4-star safety and legacy target Nigel Warrior, becoming the No. 14 overall recruiting class in the process.

Tennessee head coach Butch Jones had a recruiting challenge in mind, which he believes the Vols successfully completed with the additions of Bird, Kongbo and Warrior.

"Our challenge was to finish strong," Jones said, via Dustin Dopirak of the Knoxville News Sentinel. "We thought we had a great nucleus in this recruiting class already in tact. If we could add to that, we wanted to do that. ... Those individuals to us are difference-makers."

2. 5-star Simmons chooses Mississippi State over favored Ole Miss 

After his final official visit to Oxford back on Jan. 29, the Rebels were considered a strong favorite to land 5-star defensive end Jeffery Simmons, the No. 19 overall player in the country.

Apparently, Simmons felt otherwise.

The top recruit in the state of Mississippi, Simmons gave a much-needed boost to Mississippi State's dismal recruiting class. Landing the Macon native was also a nice consolation prize for the Bulldogs after losing 4-star wide receiver A.J. Brown—a Starkville resident—to the Rebels, especially after Brown took a few jabs at his hometown university afterward, according to the Clarion-Ledger's Michael Bonner (h/t SB Nation's Alex Kirshner).  

According to ESPN.com's Chris Low, the Rebels' coaching staff was simply "stunned" at Simmons' decision:

Much like Georgia's class without Brown and Price, Ole Miss still has an elite recruiting class—No. 6 in the nation—without Simmons and Kongbo. Still, you can bet the Rebels won't be too friendly toward Simmons during next year's Egg Bowl. 

1. Longhorns land several key targets, become top-10 recruiting class

Coming off a dismal 5-7 season, Texas head coach Charlie Strong desperately needed a strong recruiting class to revive the ailing Longhorns football program.

After Wednesday's successful recruiting venture, he's one step closer to achieving that ultimate goal.

The Longhorns now have 24 recruits for their 2016 class, including commitments on national signing day from 4-star prospects Jordan Elliott, Erick Fowler and Chris Daniels. 

As a result, Texas is now the No. 11 overall class, the highest ranking among Big 12 schools. Brian Davis of the Austin American-Statesman noted how big an achievement this is, given the grim state of Texas' recruiting in previous weeks:

The transition from a losing season to becoming a national championship contender again is neither quick nor easy. But having shocked the college football world with a stellar 2016 recruiting class, the Longhorns are certainly on the right path.

All recruiting rankings and information courtesy of 247Sports.