The Super Bowl is this weekend and many former top-rated prospects and Rivals campers will be playing on the game’s biggest stage. National football columnist Mike Farrell and national recruiting director Adam Gorney share some memories heading into the Rams-Bengals matchup.
SUPER BOWL FACTS
Game time: Super Bowl LVI kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. The Cincinnati Bengals are the AFC champion. The Los Angeles Rams are the NFC champion.
TV: Coverage begins at noon ET and game coverage begins at 6 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. Al Michaels will be the play-by-play announcers and Cris Collinsworth will be the analyst.
Odds: Most sites have the Rams as a 4.5-point favorite. The over/under is 48.5.
*****
CLASS OF 2022 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State | JUCO
CLASS OF 2023 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
TRANSFER PORTAL: Stories/coverage | Message board
RIVALS CAMP SERIES: Info for 2022 series
*****
Which player in the Super Bowl was the best that you saw live in high school?
Farrell: I’m going with Joe Mixon on this one but there are so many five stars it’s close. But seeing Mixon at camp and at the Army Bowl it was clear he could have been a five-star at running back or wide receiver. He won our MVP at wide receiver I believe in L.A. our first camp year, and it wasn’t his natural position. He was big, strong, fast and just unbelievably skilled.
Gorney: Jonah Williams comes to mind because he was completely physically dominant when I saw him play in the state championship for his Folsom, Calif., team but I’m picking Mixon, too. He was just so outstanding at every event for years. Whether it was a camp or 7on7 game, Mixon came to play every single time and had such natural ability as a running back or wide receiver. A few years later from the same area Najee Harris came along, and he was longer and maybe even more special, but Mixon set the bar high and was just so unstoppable.
*****
Which player in the Super Bowl did you see live and never could have imagined he'd be in the NFL?
Farrell: I’ll go with Rob Havenstein. Not because he lacked size, he was one of the biggest offensive linemen I’ve ever seen in person out of high school. But his footwork and lack of overall athleticism was telling. He was listed at 345 out of high school but when I saw him he had to be 360-370. We made him a three-star based on size potential alone. And now he’s become an impressive tackle in the NFL.
Gorney: Greg Gaines was someone who was a talented kid in high school but he didn’t reek of athleticism and so I - wrongly - thought that he was probably limited beyond playing at Washington. I was way off base. The former three-star from La Habra, Calif., developed into a beast with the Huskies and then was a fourth-round pick. His third season has been the best in the NFL and Gaines is definitely outplaying his ranking.
*****
Who’s the one player who’s not a five-star you regret not making one?
Farrell: Aaron Donald is the easy answer and he wasn’t even a four-star. Why? He was short and didn’t have long arms. Why would that matter at defensive tackle? Back then it did, and he’s broken the mold a bit. He was very productive out of high school, but many I spoke to back then felt he was too small. Believe it or not, so did I. Not too small to succeed, but too small to be a five-star.
Gorney: Cooper Kupp would be the sellout answer here but nobody really knew much about him or that he would end up as one of the best receivers in the NFL. I’m picking a guy who was discussed for five-star status and we decided against it and that’s Ja’Marr Chase. He finished as the No. 12 receiver in the 2018 class and while I have no problem with Amon-Ra St. Brown and Justyn Ross at the top because both were just freak shows. There are some names down the line that make me scratch my head as to what we were thinking.
*****
Which five-star playing in the Super Bowl has backed up his ranking the best?
Farrell: You have to go with Jalen Ramsey here. He was in an elite cornerback class coming out of high school and a top 10 player nationally. He was drafted in the top 10 and has been a top 10 corner since he arrived. That’s consistency.
Gorney: Matthew Stafford was the No. 1 pro-style quarterback in the 2006 class and then the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. Over the years, he’s broken numerous NFL records, and then the Los Angeles Rams traded away the farm for Stafford and in his first season with the franchise, he took them to the Super Bowl. That is one we don’t regret at all.
*****
What made Matthew Stafford a five-star and Joe Burrow not one while in high school?
Farrell: The simple answer is arm strength. Matthew Stafford had a cannon from the first time we scoured him and could make any throw on the planet. He still has one of the best arms you’ll ever see at this advanced stage of his career and had unreal arm talent at a young age. Joe Burrow developed his skills over time and was less physically gifted out of high school despite some great numbers. When you watch both from high school and camp film, it's easy to see the difference at the same stage of development.
Gorney: The Joe Burrow we’ve seen all season in leading the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl was not the same player we evaluated in high school. He probably wasn’t the same during his time at Ohio State, either. It’s like something sparked in him when he got to LSU that it was the perfect fit from a confidence standpoint and a talent standpoint and he’s still riding that wave. Stafford throws a football so well and that was evident during his high school years, too. The same cannot be said about Burrow, but he has proven everybody wrong.
