High School

Northern California's Top 8 Signing Day high school football headlines

From unlikely Alabama connections, to baby offers, to Seattle invasion to early regional bragging rights, the early NSD headlines were aplenty

Mitch Stephens

Four Monte Vista of Danville football players signed their early letters of intent, from L-R: OL Zach Struempf (San Diego), RB Julian McMahan (Washington), coach Johnny Millard, TE Kellan Ford (Arizona) and QB Brayden Turner (Fresno State).
Four Monte Vista of Danville football players signed their early letters of intent, from L-R: OL Zach Struempf (San Diego), RB Julian McMahan (Washington), coach Johnny Millard, TE Kellan Ford (Arizona) and QB Brayden Turner (Fresno State). / Courtesy photo: Johnny Millard

Talk about a buildup. Both a starting and finish line. A celebration.

National Signing Day — early or regular (take your choice) — is the culmination of year-round work, year-after-year-after-year. To sign on the dotted line, to make it official, after so much buildup of where high school seniors are going to play college football brings tears of joy, gasps of relief, fist pumps of pride.

Northern California's top prospects enjoyed in the riches, either at school in ceremonies, at home with family or perhaps just on the phone — as the world tends to do — expressing feelings, pride, gratidue on every social plateform imagineable.

Here were eight of the biggest headlines from throughout the Northern/Central state (sections Northern, Sac-Joaquin, North Coast, Oakland, San Francisco, Central Coast and Central).

1. Pittsburg vs. Folsom

We're thinking the best game of the Northern California season will be Friday's CIF Northern Regional D1-AA rematch between Folsom at Pittsburg. Last season it was at Folson that pulled out a 28-25 humdinger of a game on its way to a fifth state title. Both teams have their main pieces back, including dynamic quarterbacks, Pittsburg's undersized Marley (The Magnificent) Alcantara vs. 5-star junior phenom Ryder Lyons.

FOLSOM AT PITTSBURCH: At a glance

Though both teams have gobs of talents in classes 2026, 2027 and even 2028, they each have five players among 247Sports Top 247 fro the Class of 2025. Nine of the 10 signed on Wednesday, giving the slight edge to Pittsburg.

The Pirates had five sign on Wednesday: with the No. 34 ranked recruit, safety Jadnyn Hudson (UCLA), No. 47 recruit. defensive end Jewelous (Juju) Walls (UCLA), 75. ATH Dominik Calhoun (Boise State), 96. LB Etene Pritchard (San Diego State) and RB Jamar Searcy (Washington State).

Folsom countered with No. 21. DL Josiah Sharma (Texas), 52. ATH Nela Tupou (USC), and 77. RB Carter Jackson (Nevada), 177, S Jaron Hodson (Sacramento State) and 205 S. Kam Totton (undecided).

2. Born to be a Wildcat: Monte Vista TE Kellan Ford

This one has special meaning all around. Listen to Arizona coach Brent Brennan and his recruitment of Ford, a 4-star TE for the Mustangs in Danville. As a young reporter, I happened to cover Ford's parents Evan Ford, a talented WR in the 1990s at Monte Vista, and his mom Krista, then Koepke, an all-around athlete who played college soccer. Brennan and his wife are best friends with the Fords and when Kellan was born, Brennan, a San Jose State assistant at the time, had a hunch he might be a good athlete and handed Evan a letter of intent form for their just born son. Crazy fun.

3. Carmel to Tuscaloosa, Ala.

It might be hard to track, but it's unlikely any, kids from Carmel have drawn interest from the University of Alabama football juggernaut.

But few kids are as talented as Jackson Loyd, a 6-foot-6, 300-pound offensive tackle, ranked the No. 4 recruit overall in the state by 247Sports. Instead of staying on the West Coast, Loyd will take his massive talents — he is a three-sport standout at Carmel — to Alabama, joining six other Californians signed by coach Kalen DeBoer, a gent with West Coast ties for sure.

Still, the Crimson Tide signing up more top California prospects (7) than USC (five) is eye opening.

Lloyd, who plans to enroll by the end of the month at Alabama, has one more piece of gridironn work in California. His team (13-0) just won the Central Coast Section Division 3 championship and hosts Acalanes in a CIF Northern California Division 5-AA championship Friday at Monterey Peninsula College. A win there, would put the Padres in the state championship.

ACALANES VS. CARMEL | Game at a glance

4. De La Salle honors 4

The Spartans, in the middle of a 3-week break while preparing for national No. 1 Mater Dei-Santa Ana, had time to celebrate on Wednesday with signing ceremony.

DE LA SALLE (12-0) VS. MATER DEI (12-0) | At a glance

De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh gave heart-felt tributes to four of his seniors, who had a combined 15 varsity seasons between them. Oregon-bound defensive lineman Matthew Johnson was the top recruit honored, to go along with three-year starters QB Toa Faavae (Idaho), RB Derrick Blanche Jr. (Portland State) and TE-DL DJ Asiasi (Nevada). COMPLETE STORY

5. Washington Huskies load up on Californians

Jedd Fisch and his staff cleaned up on the Golden State, inking 11 from California, including seven from Northern California. They included late flips from St. Ignatius offensive tackle John Mills (committed to Texas for five months) and Mater Dei wide receiver Marcus Harris (committed to Oklahoma for five months). Other Northern California signees were Riordan WR Chris Lawson and OL Peter Langi, Valley Christian OL Champ Taulealea, Bishop O'Dowd athlete Deji Ajose, Monte Vista RB Julian McMahan, Menlo-Atherton DE Devin Hyde,

6. El Dorado Hills to Tuscaloosa

Jackson Lloyd isn't the only Northern California to pick the unlikely path to Alabama as Oak Ridge 4-star tight end Kaleb Edwards signed with the Crimson Tide after 44 catches for 729 yards and nine touchdowns. The 6-6, 230-pound three-sport athlete finished with 115 career catches and 23 touchdowns, averaging 19.0 yards per catch.

7. Fresno State stays Golden

The Bulldogs signed 10 Wednesday, eight from in-state, four from Northern California and two signees being hyper local with Buchanan-Clovis OT Brayden Walton (6-7, 320) and Clovis West WR Jonavon Darrington staying right in town. Walton had originally committed to Washington State, but flipped to the Bulldogs on Sept. 16 and signed on Wednesday. Another local, Clovis East athlete Harold Duvall, is also expected to sign in the next two days.

8. Triple play to BYU

Three Bay Area standouts signed to BYU and head coach Kalani Sitake, a former running back for the Cougars. Sitake should then love Saint Francis tailback Kingston Keanaaina, who has rushed for more than 2,000 yards this season while leading the Lancers to a CCS D1 championship. Keanaaina was most pleased to have a pair of Oakland offensive tackles also sign in Siosiua Vete (6-6, 280) and Kelepi Vete (6-5, 250). Saint Francis hosts Grant Friday in a CIF Division 2-AA Northern California title game. A Grant-Saint Francis preview.

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Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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