No. 1 Recruit in Mississippi Announces Top Eight Schools

A highly-regarded defensive line recruit is trimming down his list of potential schools.

Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby has his Bulldogs as one of the top eight schools for an elite in-state prospect. | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

The SEC may not be dominating national titles games, but with many of the nation's top athletes in the south, the conference continues to rule the recruiting game. Proof positive comes with another top prospect who has trimmed his list to eight schools, with six of the eight in the SEC.

Mississippi creates as many top recruits and NFL players per capita as almost any state in the nation, and a top Mississippi recruit thus figures to make a fair share of noise in the college football world. The state's top 2027 prospect has now trimmed his list to eight schools, which might give some insight into his potential college destination.

Turner Trims List

Defensive lineman Mitchell Turner-- ranked as the No. 40 recruit in the nation and the No. 3 defensive lineman in the 2027 class in the recent Rivals300-- is looking to start narrowing in on his college choice. 247sports also ranks Turner as the No. 3 defensive lineman in the national class and the top prospect in Mississippi, with Turner No. 48 nationally in their rankings.

Rivals.com analyst Charles Power has recently called Turner "hyper-productive" and credited him with "some of the best film we saw along the defensive line."

Turner's Recruiting Leaders

Turner is a 6'3", 275-pound athlete from Louisville, Mississippi. His top eight schools include both in-state P4 schools: Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The Rebels are an early favorite by Rivals' expert picks and Turner is set to visit the Rebels officially on June 5th. 247 lists Misssissippi State as a slated official visit for Turner on June 19th, but Rivals does not include the Bulldogs on a timeline of upcoming visits.

Other schools both sites agree will get official visits (and which are both on the list of eight schools) are Alabama and Texas. Turner is set to visit the Crimson Tide on May 29th, and is scheduled to see the Longhorns on June 12th. That will leave Turner with one remaining official visit which he can use. Alabama is currently second to Ole Miss in the Rivals picks for a potential college landing spot.

The four finalists not yet slated for a visit are LSU, Ohio State, Florida, and Florida State. LSU and Florida both have new coaches, with Lane Kiffin in Baton Rouge and Jon Sumrall in Gainesville. Ohio State and Florida State are the two non-SEC schools on Turner's list and represent two programs at very different points in development.

Turner has his selection of teams that are either national powers (Ohio State, Alabama), teams in the list of possible national powers (Texas, Ole Miss), or teams looking to rebuild (Florida State, Mississippi State). He can't sign until November and his recruitment, while trimming down a bit, figures to be on-going for a while.

New Ole Miss coach Pete Golding may have the Rebels atop the field in the hunt for defensive line prospect Mitchell Turner. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images