Fact or Fiction: West Virginia's class is the surprise of the Big 12
National recruiting director Mike Farrell and national recruiting analyst Adam Gorney tackle three topics daily and determine whether they believe the statements or not.
MORE FACT OR FICTION: Controversies at Clemson, FSU will hurt recruiting
CLASS OF 2021 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
CLASS OF 2022: Top 100
1. Football players should be allowed to enter the draft and return if not drafted like in basketball.
Farrell’s take: FACT. Arizona State punter Michael Turk is being allowed to return for 2020 after declaring early for the NFL Draft and signing with an agent. He wasn’t drafted, but the NCAA is smartly allowing him to return, essentially opening the door for the rule in basketball, where players can return if undrafted. Too many football players decide to leave early, end up undrafted and are stuck trying out for teams as a free agent with limited chances to make the team when a return to college would be best. One bad decision shouldn’t end a player’s career if they still have eligibility. Let’s get this passed for all players.
Gorney’s take: FACT. There is really no valid reason why this should not be allowed. It might encourage more players to enter the NFL Draft since coming back is possible and roster management might be a little more challenging, but it’s good for the players and so they should be able to do it. Bad advice or a misguided decision should not ruin a player’s future. Let those that don’t get drafted come back and give it another shot. There really is no major downside to a decision like this.
2. Nebraska landed the most interesting prospect in the 2021 class so far.
Farrell’s take: FACT. Linebacker Seth Malcom, the latest Nebraska commitment, is not Terrence Lewis or T.J. Bollers, but he is very interesting with a high ceiling. He’s a mid three-star mainly because he plays 8-man football in Iowa and needs to fill out. But he plays running back, linebacker and returns punts and dominates the small classification he’s in. It might take a couple years for him to develop and it will be interesting to see if he ends up better than Lewis or Bollers. You never know.
Gorney’s take: FICTION. There are a lot of interesting aspects to Malcom’s game including that he plays 8-man football. He probably won’t face many FBS-level players in his entire high school career and he dominates at numerous positions, all kinds of things. He’s a really talented, athletic and versatile player and down the road he could be really special at Nebraska.
But four-star quarterback Tyler Buchner is the most-interesting prospect in this class. In his junior season at La Jolla (Calif.) Bishops School, the Notre Dame commit threw for 4,474 yards with 53 touchdowns and six interceptions and rushed for 1,610 yards and 28 touchdowns. He’s transferred to San Diego Helix for his senior year where competition will be better, but Buchner might be the best QB in this class; or he might be a really talented kid who played bad competition. The question of, how much should high school stats matter when it comes to rankings might be answered by Buchner.
3. West Virginia is the surprise of the Big 12 in recruiting so far.
Farrell’s take: FACT. We know Texas and Oklahoma will end up 1-2 in the Big 12 in recruiting, but I love what West Virginia is doing. Baylor is ahead of the Mountaineers in the conference right now, but WVU has a solid 3.2 average star ranking and the addition of WR Kaden Prather is a good one. West Virginia has two four-stars in this class and many talented three-stars like Prather, this could end up being one of the program's best classes in years. The Mountaineers finished ranked 28th in the 2020 Rivals.com Team Rankings and a push into the top 25 for the first time since 2013 is possible.
Gorney’s take: FACT. I went up and down the Big 12 list, looked at commits, average star ranking and everything else to see if any other team deserved to be mentioned and I kept coming back to West Virginia.
The Mountaineers’ coaching staff is doing a phenomenal job putting this class together under difficult circumstances with the coronavirus travel ban in place. West Virginia hit Ohio for four-star RB Jaylen Anderson, it kept four-star OL Wyatt Milum home and the Mountaineers beat out a lot of national programs for Prather in the last few days. As far as average star ranking, West Virginia is third in the conference and it has just as many four-stars right now as Oklahoma. Getting four-star DB Isaiah Johnson, the state’s top prospect, looks unlikely but the Mountaineers are doing a great job with this class.