Feb 5, 2010

Speaking of star ratings... remember former greats?

Star ratings are a funny thing. I decided to look back at some former players from Georgia and elsewhere to see what their star ratings were when they were just high school seniors being recruited. Some of them may be surprising.

First, the not surprising ones:
-Matthew Stafford was a 5 star, and the #2 QB in his class.
-AJ Green was a 5 star, and the #2 WR in his class.
-Tim Tebow was a 5 star, and the #3 QB in his class.
-Percy Harvin was a 5 star, and the #2 WR in his class.
-Eric Berry was a 5 star, and the #1 CB in his class.

So clearly, sometimes the star ratings and Scout/Rivals/ESPN player rankings get it right. But they also often miss the mark on some players, and sometimes players grow into stars with coaching and maturity.

-Knowshon Moreno was a 4 star, and the #9 RB in his class.
-Rennie Curran was a 4 star.
-Mohamed Massaquoi was a 4 star.
-Jeff Owens and Geno Atkins were both 4 stars.

From other schools:

-Mark Ingram from Alabama (Heisman winner) was only a 3 star, and the #58 RB in his class.
-Dexter McCluster from Ole Miss was only a 3 star, and get this: the #100 RB in his class.
-Ndamukong Suh from Nebraska was a 4 star.
-Sam Bradford from Oklahoma was a 4 star, and the #17 QB in his class.
-Colt McCoy from Texas was also a 4 star, and the #14 QB in his class.
-Jordan Shipley from Texas was a 4 star and the #18 WR in his class. Nice picture by the way.

Just think, some of these guys when being recruited weren't exciting to their team's fans.

(Of course, it can go the other way too, and there are plenty of former 5 star recruits that never show up strong on the field. I'm not going to list them. But still, it's much more likely that a 3 or 4 star out there is going to make a huge impact than a 5 star that makes none.)


6 comments:

  1. I think you are way off with D.J. Shockley's star rating out of HS. He was a very heavily recruited player and was at least a 4 Star. He may have even been rated a 5 Star recruit.

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  2. Yeah DJ was a 5 star QB. He was the # 1 Dual threat QB coming out that year followed by Adrian McPherson who went to Florida State. Vince Young and Marcus Vick were the two 5 star dual threat QB's the following year.

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  3. Sam Bradford was actually a 3 star if you can believe that

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  4. You're right about Shockley. Scout.com doesn't have his high school star rating listed (I looked at the wrong year). Thanks for pointing that out.

    Click the link for Bradford, and it says he was a 4-star recruit as a senior in high school, according to scout.com. Either way, it's still a surprising fact.

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  5. Just checked, and you were correct. Bradford, while a 4 star on Scout, was a 3 star on Rivals. So was Colt McCoy. Crazy stuff.

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  6. Yeah that is crazy stuff. It just lets you know rating recruits is like taking a shot in the dark. You just never know what will happen.

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