Diamond in rough starts to shine

Every season there are players who seemingly come out of nowhere as sleepers who later become bona fide prospects. There are many reasons why some players enter the recruiting season under sleeper status, but it is always fun finding a diamond in the rough brought to by someone with track record for telling the truth about his players.

The sleeper to keep your eye on is Anthony Anderson (6-4, 220, 4.65) from La Mesa (Calif.) Helix.

The last sleeper Starr recommended to Rivals.com was wide receiver Jeshua Anderson who ended playing as a true freshman for Washington State. A lot of D-I schools wish they would have taken Starr's advice and would have recruited Anderson two years ago when he coached at Woodland Hills (Calif.) Taft. Now colleges have another chance to recruit another sleeper recommended by Starr, and incidentally this sleeper also has the last name of Anderson.

"Anthony is young," Starr said. "He is only 16 years old. He has a great frame, is very tough and has outstanding character.

"Anthony is a terrific athlete, he just recorded a 9-4 broad jump," Starr said. "The reason that no one knows about him is he played behind Stanford bound Levine Toilolo at tight end. He's going to play defensive end and offensive tackle for us this year.

"When I first came on campus, Anthony jumped out at me," Starr said. "He's 6-foot-4, high cut, has long arms and when you get to the part that he is so young and leaped a 9-4 broad jump you know have something there. He can also play football.

"Anthony has an incredible upside," Starr said. "He's definitely going to be a D-I athlete. There is no doubt about it.

"Anthony has a great work ethic and is passionate about the game of football," Starr said. "He just won the MVP of AIGA Camp two weeks ago.

"Right now Anthony is flying under the radar and we have only had a couple of schools that have come by, but they have all been impressed by him," Starr said. "He's going to be highly recruited once his senior football gets out."