Just two days after Miami Central defensive end Dwayne Boyles made his verbal commitment to USF, the Bulls added even more defensive line depth to their 2018 class. Tuesday afternoon, Port St. Lucie Treasure Coast defensive end Rashawn Yates announced his intentions to bring his talents to Tampa.

DE Rashawn Yates

6'3", 250 pounds

Treasure Coast High School, Port St. Lucie, FL

Recruiting Ratings: 3-Star by 247, Rivals, and Scout. 0.8333 Composite rating by 247.

Other Notable Offers: Georgia Tech, Pitt, Louisville, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee

Switching between defensive end and inside linebacker for the Titans, Yates racked up big numbers during his junior season, picking up 66 tackles (16 TFLs) and 13 sacks.

The Port St. Lucie product's dominance on the defensive side of the ball earned him second-team All-State honors by FloridaHSFootball.com. He was also named the No. 3 player in the TCPalm's Super 11 this past April.

Interestingly, Yates cited the recently approved NCAA early signing period as part of why he decided to commit early. Just after he made his announcement Tuesday afternoon, he told Jon Santucci of the TCPalm: “If I didn’t make my decision soon… I didn’t want to lose my spot. It’s where I wanted to go, and I can’t just hold it off. I have to be smart about everything.”

The new mid-December early signing period can greatly benefit schools like USF. They can get kids locked in and signed before Power Five schools start making a final push in the winter, meaning they don’t have to spend time and energy trying to keep their recruits from flipping. This especially holds true with recruits like Yates, who was being sought after by Louisville, Tennessee, and some guys named Willie Taggart and Jim Leavitt at Oregon.

P.S. Don’t tweet at recr... yeah, yeah, you know.