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Early in the morning, the Ducks signed four-star verbal commits Jalen Hall and Isaah Crocker. (source)
I find this sentence very strange and difficult to parse. Is "commit" being used as a noun, with "four-star" and "verbal" as modifiers? "Commit" seemingly doesn't have a noun usage. Is "verbal" an adjective or a noun (which would mean verbal commitment)?
Your guess that commit is being used as a noun is correct. It's a colloquial way to refer to a high school athlete who makes a commitment to attend a particular college.
A verbal commit is an athlete who has made a verbal (and therefore non-binding) commitment.
If you read about, or watch, college football or basketball, you will hear these terms quite often. Otherwise, not at all.
It is a kind of metonym.
We saw many overdoses in the park.
The individual is referred to via the verb for what they have done.
