Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and an expert from the Rivals.com network.
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THE STORYLINE
The 2019 recruiting class is just getting started when it comes to rankings cycles, and there is no five-star quarterback in this group.
That is rare for the Rivals.com rankings as only two classes - in 2010 and 2011 - haven’t had any five-star quarterbacks.
In 2010, Jake Heaps and Phillip Sims were the top two pro-style QBs and Devin Gardner and Robert Bolden were the best dual-threat quarterbacks. The following year, Jeff Driskel and Cody Kessler led the way among pro-style and Braxton Miller and Brett Hundley were tops in the dual-threat rankings.
Every other year, though, there have been five-star quarterbacks.
It could certainly happen this recruiting cycle as well since Auburn commit and Pinson (Ala.) Pinson Valley’s Bo Nix sits at No. 34, so he has the best chance from a rankings perspective to move into that five-star status. One spot behind Nix is Oklahoma pledge and Phoenix (Ariz.) Pinnacle’s Spencer Rattler, the top-ranked dual-threat QB.
Nix and Rattler are two to watch, but others could definitely emerge through this offseason and into their senior years. Will there be a five-star QB in this class?
FIRST TAKE: CHAD SIMMONS, RIVALS.COM RECRUITING ANALYST
“Nix is already elite. He has really separated himself from the group in my states. He has that ‘it’ factor. He’s a winner, he’s a leader, he has those intangibles you love to see in a quarterback and he is a pure passer. There aren’t many questions or concerns about his game. His height may be the biggest. He is in that 6-foot-1 range, so he doesn’t have that prototypical size many look for, but he basically checks every other box, so I expect him to stay in the five-star conversation. He’s definitely one of the best in the country at his position.”
SECOND TAKE: MIKE FARRELL, RIVALS.COM NATIONAL RECRUITING DIRECTOR
"Nix has the best chance. There will be some guys who emerge, but I don’t know if there is a five-star quarterback in this class. We’ve had a couple years where we didn’t have any and those years were justifiable. We didn’t give five stars at the position and none of the players who were close ended up playing like five-stars.
“We’re certainly not going to force the issue. Right now, there isn’t anyone who’s that close, so someone is going to have to really emerge this spring and summer and then have a great senior year to earn that distinction.”
