December Signing Day Recap/Breakdown

The December signing period opened up Wednesday, December 16. Going into the day the Blue Raiders had five commitments. Those guys were:

- QB: Nick Vattiato

- QB: Matthew Geeting

- DB: Isaiah Norris

- OL: Jaquan Toney

- WR:: Elijah Metcalf

Middle Tennessee State inked two of those guys, adding receiver Elijah Metcalf of Charlotte, North Carolina and signal caller Nick Vattiato of the Sunshine State. Both of these guys are pegged as three-star talents.

MT also added Tullahoma, Tennessee native Jakobe Thomas.

Let's break down the new additions.

Middle Tennessee State put in the groundwork for Vattiato's recruitment back in the spring, when the staff extended an offer to him on April 22.

Vattiato pledged the Blue Raiders on September 6, following suit with Matthew Geeting, the California gunslinger who pledged to MT a couple months prior.

Vattiato was the first guy to ink with MT, having all the paperwork official before 930 AM Central time.

GoMiddle publisher Matt Dossett spoke with Vattiato off the heels of his commitment to MTSU. Here is that article.

Middle Tennessee State had to fend off the likes of the Ohio Bobcats, the Miami of Ohio Red Hawks, the FIU Golden Panthers and the Marshall Thundering Herd.

Elijah Metcalf was offered by the Blue Raiders back in April and committed just months later, in August.

Metcalf has proven to be a viable option at wide receiver.

Many colleges that recruited Metcalf viewed him as a wide receiver who can play inside at the slot or on the outside.

He had a superb junior year where he snagged 64 balls for 1,125 yards to go with 16 touchdown receptions.

Matt Dossett spoke with Metcalf, too, back in October. Here is that article. Prior to committing and wrapping up his recruitment, Metcalf was fielding heavy interest from schools who offered him, such as: Coastal Carolina, Akron, UNC-Charlotte, Air Force and Liberty.

In-state prospect Jakobe Thomas was the last of the three guys to put ink to paper with the Blue Raiders. Recruiting analyst Tyler Pellom spoke a week before the December 16th signing day. Here is that article.

Thomas is a guy you could dub an "athlete," He has good size, currently checking in at 6'2, and 190 pounds.

As Tyler touched on, Thomas had a lot of action as a wildcat quarterback at Tullahoma, but he is a guy that projects to be a free safety.

At around 7 PM central time, Thomas took to Twitter to announce he is 'staying home.'

Things for Thomas went into motion very quickly, considering he was offered just 10 days before he signed, on December 6.

The first offer distributed to Thomas was from Austin Peay, back in March of 2019. He also received offers from: Miami of Ohio, UT-Martin, Tennessee State, Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee Tech, Campbell, and Gardner Webb.