Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge: Midwest stock report

ATLANTA – The Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge Presented by Under Armour has showcased Midwest prospects like Laquon Treadwell and Jaylon Smith in the past. This year, the next crop of top Midwest talent had a chance to show their talents at the Georgia Dome. Here is our Midwest stock report coming off the weekend.

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Marquis Hayes' rise over the last month has been remarkable, and it certainly continued in Atlanta this weekend. Before taking home the offensive line MVP award at the Kansas City stop of the Rivals Camp Series last month, Hayes held just four Power Five offers, from Illinois, Iowa State, Minnesota and Missouri. The interest off that performance escalated quickly and is sure to take another step forward after the St Louis-area prospect showed he could perform to that level against the best in the country. Hayes stood toe-to-toe with the nation’s No. 1 prospect in defensive tackle Marvin Wilson, and had some of his best reps against him on Saturday.

Coming in as the No. 4 ranked player in the 2017 class, there is not much room for Hunter Johnson to move up in the rankings, but with just nine prospects in attendance from the Midwest, he gets the nod for this list. He performed to the level you expect from a five-star ranked top five in his class and showed arguably the best command at a Five-Star Challenge since Kyle Allen at the 2013 event. Johnson is a natural thrower of the football who was spotting his passes well all weekend. He also showed strong field vision and decision-making, which is probably the only question mark left with him.

We saw at the Rivals Camp stop in Columbus in April that Sean Clifford has continued to progress as a quarterback, improving even from where we saw him during his junior season. The Penn State commit proved he was not one-and-done when he put together one of the top quarterback performances in Atlanta. Clifford started off during warm-ups looking crisp in his delivery and spinning a beautiful ball. He showed some arm fatigue during the one-on-one session, but came back in the nightly showcase and threw some of the prettiest passes of the evening, including a dime to wide receiver Jamire Calvin that few other quarterbacks would have been able to make.

By weekend’s end, Matt Dotson was a consensus pick for the top tight end performer of the four in attendance. The 6-foot-5, 230-pound Cincinnati native was the best at getting separation from linebackers and safeties and made some tough catches in traffic, particularly during one-on-ones. Already a member of the Rivals250, Dotson is going into the final few weeks of his recruitment with Penn State and Michigan State the top contenders. Whichever Big Ten school ends up pulling out his commitment in July is going to get itself a versatile flex tight end prospect.

As is the case with Johnson, there is not a lot of room ahead of top-30 prospect Trevor Trout to move up in the rankings, but the rising junior answered some questions for us this weekend, particularly whether he has the competitive drive and confidence needed to deliver on his exceptional physical gifts. Trout is mature beyond his years, but playing alongside the likes of five-star upperclass defensive tackles like Wilson and Tyler Shelvin could have shattered his confidence. Instead, Trout proved he belonged early, winning the majority of his reps and even getting a little chippy with offensive lineman Obinna Eze following a rep. His offer list of seven schools is too low, even though it is early. He will be looking for one from Ohio State when he camps with the Buckeyes next weekend.

Tre Brown has done almost the full circuit of the Rivals Camp Series this spring, attending the Dallas Rivals Camp, the iLLSPEED finals in Baltimore and getting the invite to the Five-Star Challenge. The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Oklahoma commit is known as a burner, and that has masked some of his deficiencies in the past. He has a tendency to get stuck in his turn, and change of direction is an area of needed improvement. In a setting where every wide receiver has excellent top-end speed, those shortcomings caught up with him.

Da'Ron Davis put on a show at the Kansas City Rivals Camp, winning wide receiver MVP over a group of very talented pass catchers. The Missouri commit proved that his game translates to the wide receiver position at the next level after spending the majority of his high school career playing in the backfield. Saying Davis’s stock is down coming off the Five-Star Challenge is somewhat misleading because he played about to the level where we have him rated - on the edge of the top 250. Compared with the talent that was on hand in Atlanta, though, he was a tier below the other receivers in attendance. He is still a talented prospect and a big in-state pick-up for new Tigers head coach Barry Odom.