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Rivals Rankings Week: Breaking down the 2020 athletes

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position

Jadarius Green-McKnight
Jadarius Green-McKnight (Nick Lucero/Rivals.com)
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Early in a rankings cycle, the athlete position tends to be bloated with prospects whose high school talents have yet to settle into a specific college position. After this update, there are 50 total prospects ranked at athlete. Only the offensive tackle and wide receiver positions have more.

RIVALS RANKINGS WEEK:

Monday: Updated Top 10 revealed

Tuesday: Updated 2020 Rivals100

Wednesday: Updated 2020 Rivals250

Thursday: Updated position rankings


TEAM WITH THE TOP COMMITS: Florida State

Oklahoma has the highest-ranked commit at the position with Drew Sanders, a Rivals100 prospect who checks in at No. 5 in the post-junior season update of the athlete position rankings. We are giving points for quantity too, though, and Florida State is the only school with two commits, both of whom rate as four-stars and rank among the top 25 at the position. Jadarius Green-McKnight is the highest ranked of the two, checking in at No. 19 in the position rankings. He is also Florida State’s longest-tenured 2020 commitment, pledging to the Seminoles last February. Demorie Tate is a new four-star, getting a bump from the 5.7 three-star range following his junior season. He committed in June to Florida State, which is looking to use him in its defensive backfield.

TEAM TO WATCH: USC

USC has had success with top five prospects in the final ranking of the athlete position during the last two classes. And although the Trojans do not have a top five-ranked prospect committed in their 2019 class yet, they are a good bet to land the No. 1-ranked player at the position in five-star Bru McCoy. This is a position group that head coach Clay Helton has attacked hard since taking over from Steve Sarkisian. What will be interesting to watch, though, is whether that remains the case with almost a full turnover of his coaching staff, including a new offensive coordinator in Kliff Kingsbury. Texas Tech did not sign a prospect listed in the athlete category in any of Kingsbury’s last four classes while he was leading the Red Raiders. USC already has one four-star athlete commitment in the 2020 class in Koy Moore, the No. 11-ranked prospect at the position, but has just one more athlete offer out in the class.

PLAYER TO WATCH: Itayvion Brown

The recruitment of St. Louis’ Itayvion Brown is just starting to take off. Expect his rise to continue well into the off-season. A 6-foot-5, 225-pound two-way prospect, Brown had to play on the junior varsity as a sophomore due to transfer rules. As a junior he was unleashed upon Lutheran North’s opposition, and he found success as both a receiver and linebacker. Missouri jumped in with the first offer for Brown, and it is open to evaluating him on both sides of the football. Minnesota has since offered for linebacker and Iowa State’s offer last weekend was for tight end. Physically, Brown is still growing and has room to add weight to his frame, depending on what position he will gravitate toward in college. The jumbo athlete’s development this off-season will be interesting to watch, and his recruitment probably gets the national treatment soon.

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