Despite every effort to get the rankings as accurate as possible, there are always misses and errors along the way. With the Georgia-Texas game in focus this week, Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney looks at five we wish we could have back.
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We blew it on Banks. But I’d like to offer an explanation.
The four-star offensive tackle from Houston (Texas) Summer Creek, who had been committed to Oregon before flipping to Texas, was a five-star at one point because he was outstanding at the Rivals Camp Series in Dallas before his senior season. At that event, Banks showed everything we look for – great size, movement, a physical nature, great footwork, powerful strike, the whole thing.
So then the Under Armour All-America Game came around the holidays and Banks was one of the worst performers on the week. We were stunned. I asked around about what was going on and the word was Banks was playing on the other side of the line (something he’d never done before) and might have been battling illness or injury.
Hindsight being 20/20, it would have been an easy call to excuse that week at Under Armour as an anomaly and keep his as a five-star. But we overreacted with his ranking and dropped him to No. 65 overall and sixth at offensive tackle. It’s a ranking I really wish we could have back since Banks has been so good in Austin and is projected in every mock draft as a first-rounder.
There were a few anomalies in Beck’s recruitment and time at Georgia that makes him a lot different than other quarterbacks in recent recruiting cycles.
Beck was a four-star outside the Rivals250 in the 2020 class and had been committed to Alabama before flipping to Georgia. But he rarely attended any national events.
The Jacksonville (Fla.) Mandarin standout didn’t do any Rivals Camps Series or other elite national events that we can remember, he didn’t play much 7-on-7 or all-star events so while that doesn’t necessarily hurt his ranking it does limit his exposure against other top players in his class.
Now in his fifth year at Georgia, Beck really didn’t emerge from the Stetson Bennett shadow until last season when he blasted on the scene with 3,941 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and just six picks. He’s back again this season and while his interceptions are up a little his other stats are great. Beck is projected as a first-round draft pick probably behind Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and possibly others.
Considering his lack of exposure, it was tough to get a great evaluation on Beck during his high school days. But considering he was outside the Rivals250 and No. 15 at pro-style quarterback in a group filled with busts other than CJ Stroud, Beck should have been way higher.
A four-star rating for the 2021 prospect who picked Georgia over Tennessee and South Carolina looked like a miss last year considering he had only eight tackles and one sack. But Ingram-Dawkins has exploded on the scene this season and is now one of the more lethal defensive players for the Bulldogs.
After playing a reserve role for three seasons in Athens, Ingram-Dawkins now leads the team with eight tackles for loss, more than double the total of anybody on the team, and he leads the Bulldogs with three sacks, two coming against Auburn.
He was already a four-star inside the Rivals250 so Ingram-Dawkins’ ranking was not a glaring error and he was the top-ranked player in the South Carolina state rankings in 2021. But he was No. 16 at strongside defensive end and has clearly outplayed many prospects ahead of him.
Alabama, Clemson and Georgia were the three finalists for Starks but this recruitment really came down to the Tigers and the Bulldogs. Despite having an uncle who played for Clemson, the Bulldogs won out for Starks, who was heavily considered for five-star status but finished at No. 62 nationally and the third-best athlete in the 2022 class behind the good company of Travis Hunter and Sonny Styles.
Here was our issue with Starks: When we went out to Jefferson, Ga., to see him, there seemed to be too many “business decisions” being made where he wasn’t coming up and hitting or being physical enough on the back end for us to push him up to five-star status. That’s always a challenge with elite safeties who don’t want to take the physical side too far and Starks was one of them.
He has had a phenomenal career so far at Georgia and is a projected first-round pick so we did miss on the ranking but at No. 62 overall, it’s not a drastic miss.
Early in the rankings process, Wisner was a four-star at Waco (Texas) Connally. He rushed for nearly 1,000 yards in his junior season and was a two-way standout who was an excellent defensive back as well. He then transferred to DeSoto, Texas, and ended up losing a star by the end of the evaluation process.
Wisner picked Texas over Oklahoma and Texas A&M, and he made a surprise commitment during the Longhorns’ spring game as he hit it off with new position coach Tashard Choice and others.
Ranked as the No. 15 all-purpose back in the 2023 class was definitely a miss as he’s now leading Texas in rushing with 278 yards and two touchdowns. One wonders, though, if Wisner would be getting this attention if the Longhorns weren’t dealing with numerous injuries in the backfield.
