Josh Jackson, a three-star wide receiver in the Class of 2024, started to pick up Power 5 traction shortly after his sophomore season of high school football ended.

When Ole Miss came first, he wasn’t sure at the time if the offer was committable, given he couldn’t yet communicate with coaches. But when Michigan offered the New Orleans native last May and Mississippi State followed in March of this year, Jackson knew exactly where he stood.

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“Mississippi State, that was committable because I went to camp and I’ve been in contact with those coaches for a little while,” he said. “And I’ve been in contact with Michigan. I went on a visit up there.”

Indeed, Jackson visited the Wolverines in March and the Bulldogs in April for their spring game, and he picked up offers from Georgia Tech and Indiana a few weeks later. He plans to take some Power 5 official visits in the fall, meaning his recruitment might not be over. But on June 21, Jackson quietly turned down Michigan and Mississippi State to stay home and commit to college football’s latest Group of 5 darling: Tulane.

And even if Tulane doesn’t hold on to him by the time it can become official during the early signing period in December, how about the Green Wave competing on the recruiting trail with some of college football’s top programs?

Beating USC — in epic fashion — in the Cotton Bowl will do that.

“I watched that one,” said Jackson, ranked No. 603 nationally and the No. 83 wide receiver in the 247Sports Composite. “I thought (Tulane was) going to lose because they were down, like, 14 in the fourth quarter, and then they scored those two touchdowns. So yeah, them beating Power 5 schools and showing me they can keep up with Power 5 schools is always good.

“I see that Tulane has something good going. So maybe we can keep getting a whole bunch of other people like us.”

Who’s Next?!!👀👀🌊🌊🌊@GreenWaveFB @CoachWEFritz

— Rodney Hill Jr (@RodneyHill2024) June 28, 2023

Tulane’s Class of 2024 ranks No. 71 in the 247Sports Composite, but it’s the average player rating of 87.15 that makes this particular class the most impressive to date for coach Willie Fritz. It’s the highest in the modern recruiting era and a full 5 1/2 points higher than the 81.64 mark of just five years ago in Tulane’s 2019 class. Three times in the past decade, the Green Wave had an average rating lower than 80. In this cycle alone, Fritz has commitments from three of the top four highest-rated recruits in program history: linebacker Rodney Hill (No. 1), cornerback Armani Cargo (No. 3) and Jackson (No. 4).

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“We know that (Hill) is probably one of the top five best linebackers in the entire state of Florida,” said Travis Roland, Hill’s coach at Mainland High in Daytona Beach, Fla. “I think any time a school can get a top-five player at his position out of the state of Florida, they’re getting an amazing, amazing, amazing talent. And I think that’s what (Tulane) is getting right now.”

Like Jackson, Hill committed to Tulane in June, and he did so just days after an official visit that included several tastes of the New Orleans food scene as well as the chance to see the current team up close for team bonding activities. Hill had an early offer from Tennessee in November 2021 and an offer from Iowa State in January 2022. He has won linebacker MVP honors multiple times at Under Armour camp events. But his Power 5 interest cooled, according to Roland, as he progressed through high school.

“The Power 5 stuff kind of went away simply because of (his) height,” Roland said of the 5-foot-10 1/2 Hill. “That’s literally the whole shebang — just how tall he was or was not. He’d be anywhere he wanted to be, and I mean that from the top of the top … if he was 6-foot-1.”

Still, Tulane had to beat out several of Florida’s Group of 5 schools for Hill’s services, although Fritz and his assistants were the only staff in the country to host him this summer for an official visit. In Hill, the Green Wave are getting a speedy linebacker, Roland said, who ran an 11.3-second 100-meter dash at 215 pounds.

Hill, who is still ranked in the top 500 nationally, clicked with the staff while on campus and appreciated the way Tulane consistently recruited him after offering in May. That USC win also had his attention.

“It’s just that thing of ‘What have you done for me lately?’” Roland said. “It’s like, ‘Whoa. They just beat USC, who’s got Caleb Williams, who might be the No. 1 draft pick. They’ve got the Biletnikoff Award winner with the receiver (Jordan Addison). Man, all those guys, and here’s Tulane, and they beat them.’”

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Patrick Allen, Tulane’s assistant director of recruiting operations, said in a message that the staff has driven home the fact that recruits can win at the Group of 5 level with a head coach who values continuity and is heading into his eighth year at the helm.

“The USC win seems to have opened the door for us with these kids while everything else our school, team and city have to offer has helped seal it,” Allen wrote. “And of course, with there being so many fewer high school spots available at P5 programs that attack the portal, these high school recruits are realizing spots are filling up quicker and quicker, even at G5 schools. So they’re open to more schools than they’d have been even three or four years ago.

“That allows a team like Tulane … to capitalize.”

The Green Wave have 12 commits in the 2024 class, from five states, including two each from Florida and Texas. Quarterback Kellen Tasby, from Plano, Texas, committed in June after competing at TCU’s DFW Showcase earlier in the month and taking official visits to Arizona and Louisiana-Monroe.

Between now and December, Tulane’s goal will be to hang on to top talent that Power 5 schools might try to flip.

Traville Frederick Jr., a three-star tight end from Jeanerette, La., committed to Tulane in March but has since picked up offers from Alabama, Florida, Texas A&M, Mississippi State and others. A late bloomer, he has visited Alabama, Florida and Oregon unofficially and is in the process of planning where he wants to officially visit in the fall. Tulane will get one of his visits, though, hoping to keep him and Jackson home.

And even though Frederick found himself speechless when he met Alabama coach Nick Saban, there’s something to be said for the way Tulane has prioritized him — and the recent success on the field surely helps.

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“As long as Tulane’s things keep going the way it is, nothing can really change because it’s (a) real strong bond between us,” Frederick said. “We can play Power 5. It’s known. We made it known last year. We’re gonna keep that rolling.”

(Photo of Willie Fritz: Maria Lysaker / USA Today)