Duke loses its top-ranked football recruit from the class of 2018

Duke’s football recruiting class suffered a big loss Thursday night when Taiyon Palmer rescinded his commitment to the Blue Devils.

A four-star cornerback from Lawrenceville, Georgia, Palmer was the highest-rated player in Duke’s 2018 recruiting class. He made his pledge to Duke on Sept. 4, 2016 and had remained solid for more than a year before posting his decision to look elsewhere on his Twitter feed.

Recruiting service 247sports.com has Palmer as the No. 20 cornerback in the country. Before committing to Duke he held offers from Virginia and Virginia Tech from the ACC, Kentucky, Purdue, Minnesota and Indiana from the Big Ten and Vanderbilt from the SEC.

The loss of Palmer caused 247sports.com to drop Duke’s class to No. 49 nationally and No. 11 in the ACC.

The Blue Devils have one other four-star player committed in the class in defensive end Tahj Rice of Louisville, Kentucky.

Another Duke commit, three-star linebacker Rocky Shelton of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, tweeted his disappointment in Palmer’s decision.

This story was originally published November 30, 2017 at 9:37 PM with the headline "Duke loses its top-ranked football recruit from the class of 2018."