Hankton, Tucker and the Buffs win out in high-stakes blue chip battle

As National Signing Day has progressed this morning, Mel Tucker and the Buffaloes have officially emerged victorious in the high stakes quest to land coveted four-star blue chip New Orleans RB Ashaad Clayton.

Clayton this morning, live from Warren Easton High School, announced he'd signed a National Letter of Intent to play football at Colorado.

Clayton was originally offered by the Buffaloes last October and quickly scheduled an official visit to Boulder, which he conducted over the weekend of Nov. 9 when the Buffaloes hosted Stanford.

A few days later, on Nov. 11, he announced a verbal commitment to CU. His commitment to the Buffs was a big deal, but as Dec. 18 and the Early Signing Period approached and passed without an NLI from Clayton, the question emerged as to whether or not Colorado would ultimately be able to hang onto him.

Kansas was a school in November and December that made a push to flip Clayton, as he OV'd to Lawrence in early December. But leading into January and early February, it was the Florida Gators who emerged as the Buffs' biggest threat in stealing away Clayton on the eve of NSD.

A few weekends ago, Clayton took an official visit to Gainesville and left town with a scholarship offer.

Florida head coach Dan Mullen reportedly conducted an in-house visit with Clayton on Jan. 27 in an additional effort to get him to consider the Gators.

However, with the four-star's NLI in question at a critical stretch of time before National Signing Day, Clayton and his mother flew out to Boulder for one final meeting and unofficial visit before decision day.

Reports indicate that that meeting did much to solidify Clayton's standing with Colorado and was the last final push necessary to bring him into the fold via a signed NLI.

With Clayton's addition, the Buffaloes now formally have three four-star signees with the 2020 class, all of whom were fought after fiercely.

Christian Gonzalez was flipped from a Purdue verbal commitment, while Brenden Rice was brought in amid 20-plus other D1 schools vying for him. Clayton's recruitment proved to be the most drama-filled, as where he'd ultimately be heading for college was not made public until the National Signing Day proper.

There should be no mistake made: that final meeting between Tucker and Clayton late in January was the former's chance to seal the deal on a blue chip recruit who may have needed one final push in the right direction.

There are first times for everything when it comes to a new coaching staff forging its initial recruiting class. And while the battles to land the likes of Gonzalez and Rice by no means should be underplayed, the pursuit and eventual landing of Clayton was a first in the sense that it came down to the wire.

Tucker certainly deserves a great amount of credit for bringing Clayton into the fold, but it simply would be an injustice to not cite the very solid efforts by G.A. and New Orleans native Cordae Hankton.

Hankton has been the Buffaloes' main foot soldier on the ground recruiting the state of Louisiana, and it goes without saying that he's laid the framework for Colorado's increased efforts to bring Pelican State talent out to Boulder.