5-star Jeffery Simmons commits to Mississippi State over Ole Miss and Alabama

Ole Miss missed out on five-star defensive end Jeffery Simmons, who announced during National Signing Day that he's heading to Mississippi State -- a rather shocking development considering most had him pegged for either Ole Miss or Alabama. Simmons is rated the 19th overall prospect in the country and the top target in Mississippi.

Simmons has been a hard prospect to read, with no clear leader emerging at any point during his recruitment. The 6'4, 280-pounder out of Macon, Miss. took successive official visits to Starkville, Tuscaloosa and Oxford over the three weeks leading up to Signing Day, including the big Crootapalooza weekend at Ole Miss. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to land him.

Simmons saw his stock skyrocket after a stellar week at US Army All-American Bowl practices, where he had scouts swooning over his blend of size, strength and athleticism. Within a week of the game he'd been promoted to a five-star at every major crooting service save ESPN (which is really down on him for some reason).