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Published Feb 13, 2022
Super Bowl: Rivals memories, breaking down the rosters
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Mike Farrell and Adam Gorney
Rivals.com

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.

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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

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Which player in the Super Bowl was the best that you saw live in high school?  

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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What made Matthew Stafford a five-star and Joe Burrow not one while in high school?

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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.

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Bengals roster and Rivals rankings 
PlayerPosition Rivals rankingCollege

OL

Unranked

Kansas

QB

Four-star

Arkansas

DB

Three-star

Purdue

DB

Four-star

Ohio State

DB

Three-star

Colorado

LB

Three-star

Purdue

LB

Two-star

Wake Forest

DB

Five-star

Ohio State

WR

Four-star

Pittsburgh

QB

Three-star

Ohio State/LSU

OL

Five-star

Clemson

WR

Four-star

LSU

DB

Two-star

Utah State

RB

Three-star

Michigan

DB

Three-star

Oklahoma State

DB

Five-star

Florida

LS

Two-star

Rutgers

TE

Two-star

FAU

WR

Five-star

Clemson

DT

Three-star

NC State

OL

Four-star

Georgia

DB

Three-star

Ole Miss

OL

Four-star

Texas

DE

Three-star

Ohio State

Kevin Huber

P

Unranked

Cincinnati

WR

Five-star

Stanford

OL

Three-star

Florida

LB

Three-star

Baylor

LB

Five-star

Ohio State/Maryland

DE

Four-star

Notre Dame

DT

Three-star

Maryland/Delaware

K

Three-star

Florida

RB

Five-star

Oklahoma

WR

Four-star

Nebraska

RB

Four-star

Oklahoma

LB

Four-star

NC State

OL

Four-star

Ohio State

DE

Three-star

Boston College

DL

Three-star

Clemson

DL

Three-star

Tulane

TE

Two-star

Washington

DT

Five-star

LSU

OL

Two-star

East Carolina

OL

Four-star

West Virginia

WR

Four-star

Florida State

DB

Three-star

Stanford

WR

Two-star

Southern Miss

DT

Three-star

Colorado

TE

Three-star

Auburn

DB

Two-star

Michigan State

TE

Three-star

USF

OL

Five-star

Alabama

RB

Four-star

Texas A&M

LB

Unranked

Wyoming

Rams roster and Rivals rankings 
PlayerPositionRivals rankingCollege

RB

Five-star

Florida State

WR

Two-star

Iowa State

OL

Four-star

Michigan State

OL

Three-star

Clemson

WR

Four-star

LSU

TE

Two-star

Missouri

DT

Four-star

Texas A&M

DB

Three-star

Utah

DL

Three-star

Cincinnati

OL

Unranked

Nevada

DB

Three-star

Boise State

DT

Three-star

PIttsburgh

OL

Three-star

Wisconsin

OL

Four-star

Oklahoma

DE

Four-star

Georgia

RB

Two-star

Maryland

DL

Three-star

Washington

Chris Garrett

LB

Unranked

Concordia

Matt Gay

K

Unranked

Utah

DB

Unranked

Iowa

DB

Three-star

Penn State

OL

Three-star

Wisconsin

P

Two-star

Oregon State

TE

Two-star

Western Kentucky

Michael Hoecht

DL

Unranked

Brown

LB

Three-star

Oregon

TE

Two-star

Purdue

LB

Two-star

TCU

RB

Three-star

FAU

OL

Three-star

Iowa

WR

Four-star

Ole Miss/Florida

LB

Three-star

South Carolina

WR

Unranked

Eastern Washington

DE

Five-star

Alabama

DB

Four-star

Michigan

RB

Five-star

Georgia

DE

Four-star

Texas A&M

OL

Three-star

TCU

LB

Three-star

Oklahoma

Matthew Orzech

LS

Unranked

Azusa Pacific

QB

Three-star

Arizona St./Virginia

WR

Four-star

Florida

DB

Five-star

Florida State

DB

Three-star

Washington

LB

Three-star

Penn St./Delaware

DL

Five-star

Alabama

DB

Three-star

Penn State

OL

Three-star

Washington

WR

Three-star

Northwestern/Notre Dame

QB

Five-star

Georgia

Andrew Whitworth

OT

NR/prior to Rivals era

LSU

DB

Unranked

UAB

QB

Three-star

Wake Forest

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