Today marks the start of Rivals Rankings Week for the Class of 2020, with the Top 10 debuting today following the by Rivals100, Rivals250, position rankings, team rankings and state rankings as the week rolls along.
While the team of Rivals.com analysts came to a consensus for the No. 1 overall spot in the country, it didn’t come without some debate. Today, three of the analysts state their case for a particular player and why he should be sitting in the No. 1 spot when it is revealed later today.
ADAM GORNEY, WEST/NATIONAL ANALYST
D.J. Uiagalelei is a special quarterback for numerous reasons and he has as good an argument as any player in the country to be No. 1 in the 2020 rankings.
He plays for one of the best programs nationally at Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco. He’s legitimately 6-foot-5 and 238 pounds, so he already has the size to play at the elite level of college football and beyond. And he can make all the throws, fire the ball with tremendous pace (he’s also a standout pitcher in baseball) or put touch on passes when it’s called for.
What really convinced me Uiagalelei was a super special prospect was in his sophomore season when he took over the starting job midway through the year and looked like the best player on the field nearly every week.
Something that might be overlooked when it comes to Uiagalelei is his coolness under pressure. The kid never gets rattled, he’s a quiet leader on his team and everybody follows him on the offense. He’s delivering dimes almost all the time, so receivers love him. The way Uiagalelei carries himself - never too high, never low at all - is a tremendous key to his success.
NICK KRUEGER, TEXAS ANALYST
There is a case to be made for a couple of guys atop the 2020 Rivals100 rankings to be the No. 1 overall player. Maybe I am a bit biased, but I’ll take Houston running back Zachary Evans over the other guys in the conversation at this point.
The top player coming into this update, D.J. Uiagalelei, is a great prospect, but looking at the history of highly-ranked quarterback prospects from California over the past few years and there are far more misses than hits. Outside of Josh Rosen, there hasn’t been a quarterback from California since 2012 ranked in the top 65 prospects of the Rivals100 that has found significant success as a starter for an FBS program. The jury is still out on K.J. Costello and J.T. Daniels, but passers from the Golden State have struggled in recent history making the jump.
Justin Flowe is already a physical specimen and there is no doubting his athleticism for a linebacker is rare, but at the Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge presented by adidas he was a bull in a china shop and played with a recklessness that hurt other players at the cost of not even making a play for himself. He actually cut Evans’ Five-Star Challenge appearance short when he chose to pull him down from behind after getting beat in a one-on-one rep in pass coverage rather than conceding that he lost.
Evans, however, is as physically impressive of a running back as Flowe is a linebacker, and continues to show improvement in every element of his game every time I see him. He bounced back shortly after the Five-Star Challenge when I saw him at Prime 21, where he shared offensive MVP honors with fellow Rivals100 prospect E.J. Smith. In games, he runs decisively, with power, and quickly becoming a very adept pass-catcher. I’ll take Evans as my top player in this class as the most can’t-miss prospect in 2020.
WOODY WOMMACK, SOUTHEAST ANALYST
I didn’t think I was going to have to make much of a case for Justin Flowe when it came time for the meetings, especially after he turned in a very impressive performance at the Five-Star Challenge in Atlanta in June. Flowe’s aggressive nature combined with his instincts and playmaking ability make him an ideal linebacker prospect and his love for the game is evident every time we see him. He never takes a play off and to me is one of the best linebacker prospects I’ve scouted in my time here at Rivals.
Flowe took advantage of the spring and summer to show his abilities in the camp setting, but on Friday nights he also does his share of damage while racking up impressive tackle totals. Some have questioned whether his aggression is actually a bad thing, especially given the new rules related to targeting and other penalties, but he’s a very coachable player who will learn and adapt on the fly at the next level. Because no one prospect is really head and shoulders above the pack at this point, I anticipate having some fiery debates over the top spot as the 2020 cycle moves along.
