Houston Area Athletes Participate in National Signing Day.

HOUSTON, TX -- Dozens of local high school athletes in the Greater Houston area signed letters of intent Tuesday, ending months of speculation for some, as they begin the next phase of their athletic careers.

North Shore defensive end K'Lavon Chaisson ended weeks of speculation today when he signed his letter of intent to play for Louisiana State University.

Other notable signees included Langham Creek running back Toneil Carter who will wear the burnt orange for the Texas Longhorns; Pearland quarterback Connor Blumrick will be the future signal caller at Texas A&M, while Aldine Eisenhower’s George Nyakwol signed with Rice University.

Many of the recruits stayed pretty local signing to play at the University of Texas in Austin, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas A&M University in College Station, and the University of Houston.

However, other players such as Stratford defensive tackle Sam Miller and Clements offensive lineman Rashawn Slater both signed with Northwestern University, while Ridge Point defensive back Terry Petry will play at Missouri, and Elkins linebacker Kenneth Murray will be an Oklahoma Sooner.

The number of signees can often spell success for most collegiate football recruiting programs, and it’s not much of a surprise that the Alabama Crimson Tide, which No.1 in the AP polls throughout most of the college football season in 2016 is the top rated on national signing day with 28 commitments, with a majority of those recruits rated at either a four or five star.

Ohio State came in at No. 2 with 21 commitments, with 19 of those raged as four or five star recruits.

Their top rated signees was South Grand Prairie cornerback Jeffrey Okudah, who was the 7th-ranked recruit in the country.

Rounding out the top five colleges were Georgia with 26 commitments; Michigan with 29 commitments, and LSU with 24 commitments.

The highest rated Big 12 College was Oklahoma, rated at No. 8 with 27 commitments to play, while UT which was rated at No. 26 in recruiting was the second highest rated Big 12 school with 18 commitments for 2017-2018.

Don't forget to like us on the Houston Patch Facebook Page.

Image/Shutterstock