Auburn lands No. 1 recruit Cowart

(SportsNetwork.com) - For much of the day, no one seemed certain Byron Cowart had actually made up his mind.

After the consensus No. 1 football recruit committed to Auburn during a televised ceremony Wednesday morning, questions arose over his letter of intent.

Had he sent it to Auburn? Was he still considering Florida?

The bit of drama on national signing day was cleared up later when Auburn coach Gus Malzahn confirmed that the school had, indeed, finally received Cowart's paperwork.

"He just didn't get it faxed in until recently," Malzahn said at an afternoon news conference. "But we felt very good about it all along."

The signing of the 6-foot-4, 250-pound defensive lineman from Armwood High School in Seffner, Florida, helped the Tigers build one of the top recruiting classes in the country, according to Rivals.com.

The website's rankings had a new No. 1 for the first time since 2010.

Steve Sarkisian's USC Trojans took over the No. 1 spot with their haul of top recruits, including five-star defenders Rasheem Green, John Houston and Iman Marshall, who each committed Wednesday.

Marshall, a 6-foot-1 defensive back from nearby Long Beach Poly, was the No. 3 recruit in the website's overall rankings.

It ended a four-year run atop the rankings for Alabama, which had the site's No. 1 recruiting class each year since USC last topped the list in 2010.

Nick Saban's Crimson Tide were No. 2 in the Rivals.com rankings by late afternoon, followed by Florida State, Clemson, Tennessee and Auburn.

Elsewhere, the son of rap star Snoop Dogg committed to play at UCLA despite his father's well-known fandom of Los Angeles rival USC.

Cordell Broadus, a 6-foot-3 wide receiver for Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, will be a teammate of California quarterback Josh Rosen, who committed to UCLA and is the No. 1 passer in the 2015 class, according to Rivals.com.