The decade is coming to an end and the years from 2010-19 were loaded with talent, recruiting drama and many rankings meetings. Today we look at the most polarizing prospect from each year and why when it comes to rankings.
MORE ALL-DECADE: Top QB | Top RB | Top WR/TE | Top OL | Top DT | Top DE | Top LB | Top DB | Biggest flips | Programs trending up, down | Biggest busts | Ranking the No. 1s | Crazy recruiting storylines in 2010
2010
Seastrunk was a speedster and his track times were off the charts, but could he run between the tackles and handle the punishment at the college level? Those were questions we had and it was a heated debate as to whether he’d be a five-star or not. We kept him as a five-star, but he never lived up to that billing, so I guess we didn’t make the right decision. He did have two 1,000-yard seasons at Baylor, which people tend to forget, and was drafted in the sixth round by the Redskins, but his pro career never got going.
2011
Lylerla was one of the most athletic big men we’ve seen in years and his talent level was unquestioned. He could have played tight end, wide receiver, defensive end or linebacker. It was the off-field stuff that made Lyerla a question mark and, trust me, there was a lot of it. I have never seen a story like Lyerla’s before or since when it comes to off-field issues and eventually it led to the end of his career. He never lived up to five-star status and quit the Oregon Ducks.
2012
Cooper was ranked high but clearly not high enough based on his career at Alabama and his first-round status in the NFL Draft. Why was there so much discussion about Cooper? He emerged late in the process and began to dominate between his junior and senior year of high school after an injury-riddled junior season. He had a very good senior year and he was amazing at the Under Armour All-American Game.
We had to wonder if he was just starting to hit his peak or if he was a flash in the pan who wowed people, including Nick Saban, in 7-on-7 play. We hedged our bets and kept him ranked high, but he should have been a five-star.
2013
Henry finished just outside the five-star range and I’ll take the blame for that. When I first saw Henry it was as a freshman, and he was in the running back line at a NIKE Camp. I went over to him and pointed to the defensive line group where he should be and he simply responded “I’m a running back, sir.”
Despite great success in high school and at the U.S. Army All-America Bowl, I just didn’t pull the trigger on him as a five-star because he was so tall and upright and such a big target. It was a pretty long discussion overall and he went on to win a Heisman Trophy and is now a star in the NFL.
2014
We just couldn’t figure it out. Alabama loved this kid and recruited him as hard as anyone in the class and Kentucky desperately wanted to keep him in-state. But all we saw was a heavy, slow and somewhat unathletic defensive tackle who wasn’t even a high three-star in our minds.
We stuck to our guns (and our eyes) and ranked him as a middling three-star while others had him as a high four or even a five-star. After seeing him one final time at the Army Bowl, we all agreed. He finished his college career with 50 tackles and 1.5 tackles for a loss with no sacks in four seasons.
2015
Hyatt was a five-star throughout the process but fell to a four-star after a final evaluation at the Army Bowl. But in every rankings meeting, his size was discussed and in the end it held us back from a five-star ranking. Hyatt went on to have a very good college career but wasn’t drafted mainly for the same reasons we debated. However, he is currently on the Dallas Cowboys' roster.
2016
Guarantano turned heads in a head-to-head battle with Shea Patterson and IMG Academy and he inched up the rankings as the process continued. Then he was awesome in Under Armour Game practice all week and much better than the rest of the quarterbacks. However, in the game itself, he wasn’t good and the speed of the defense looked to be too much for him.
After a debate we kept him as a high four-star and held back on the five-star ranking. That has turned out to be the right decision so far as he hasn’t played up to his ranking yet.
2017
Smith was No. 1 overall on another site and was a five-star on yet another, but we had him just inside the top-50 as a high four-star. One scout from another network told us that our ranking of Smith was “the most egregious error in rankings history” which we found funny. It’s not like we had Smith as a two-star, after all.
Smith got off to a great and impressive start at Tennessee before blood clots threatened his career. He’s back now and his NFL Draft projections range from the second to fifth round. In the end, it is doubtful that he will live up to the five-star hype, but he’s still an excellent prospect.
2018
Radley-Hiles was a smallish cornerback who was a four-star through much of the cycle, but his aggressive nature and natural instincts led to a five-star bump. However, he was debated in almost every meeting we had except for the final one after he starred in the Army Bowl. He reminded me of Jamal Adams, a guy we kept from five-star status due to size issues and who proved us wrong. Time will tell if Radley-Hiles pans out.
2019
This one is about size as well. Dean earned his fifth star after a very strong senior season but after evaluations at the Alabama-Mississippi Game and at Under Armour we dropped him back to a four-star because he just wasn’t tall or long enough. However, guys like Roquan Smith and Devin Bush are showing you don’t have to be tall or long to be a first-rounder so we debated quite a bit on Dean. He’s off to a good start in college, so this will be an interesting one to follow.
