Five Midwest prospects under the rankings microscope
The fluid process of ranking and re-ranking prospects is heading into an exciting period, the spring camp season. Players will be participating in countless camps, combines and 7-on-7 tournaments over the next few months. Here are five prospects from the Midwest that will be under the microscope this spring.
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE PROSPECTS: Southeast | Florida | Mid-Atlantic | West | Texas
The Midlands region of the country is loaded with top-tier defensive end prospects in this 2018 class, and while players such as Ronnie Perkins out of St. Louis and Ron Tatum out of Oklahoma City have blown up with offers recently, Emery still remains lightly recruited in comparison. Certainly it takes teams longer to find prospects in Flyover Country, so Tatum and Perkins have only recently seen their offer lists take off. Emery is rated on the same tier as those two, though, and has excellent junior season film. A big start to his offseason could certainly kick-start his offer wave and potentially nudge him into four-star territory.
Daniel had an outstanding offseason camp performance last year, then showed out with six interceptions to go along with 65 tackles as a junior. And yet, the No. 35 cornerback prospect in the class of 2018 still awaits his first Power Five offer. The rumor is speed is a concern, but Daniel put those worries to rest for us last year at a pair of Rivals Camp Series events where he had no issue staying with the top wide receivers in the country. Teams are always looking for cornerbacks with length and Daniel’s time is coming, but another strong offseason will help make that happen quicker.
Like Daniel, Haney ranks high among cornerbacks in this 2018 class but still awaits his first Power Five offer. He could make an even more compelling case than Daniel on several fronts, considering he is 6-foot-2 and won the Defensive Back MVP award at the ridiculously talented Rivals Underclassmen Challenge in Atlanta last June. Teams are concerned about speed here as well, but take it from someone who does not get easily enamored with tall cornerbacks: Haney has both the fluidity and top-end speed to stay with the top wide receiver prospects at the highest levels of the game. Here’s betting he proves it once again this spring.
McCall was once on the cusp of five-star status. His rare blend of size, power and athleticism was immediately noticed when he was just a freshman, and he started off as a 6.0 four-star in the initial Rivals100. We have not seen much growth in McCall’s game since the very early stages of our evaluations, though, and his rating has slid in recent updates. The raw physical tools are still there, and he does have versatility to project to either defensive tackle or offensive guard at the college level. But we need to see McCall start developing his game and find a healthy competitive streak before we start talking potential five-star with him again.
A new Kentucky commit, Reigelsperger is a prospect who saw his offer list take off early in his recruiting process, but he has not displayed the on-field product that we would expect from a prospect with his number of offers. That was the case with recent Michigan commit Aidan Hutchinson too, though, and Hutchinson came out early in the offseason camp season and showed a much higher level of production and ability than we had seen from him previously. That is what we will be looking for out of Reigelsperger in order for him to see a ratings bump.
