Three-Point Stance: Overachievers, coaches, NFL Draft

Rivals National Columnist Mike Farrell is here with five programs that do the most with least, ranks more top coaches and identifies five draft prospects that fell well short of expectations.

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MORE THREE-POINT STANCE: Squandering talent, top coaches, biggest needs

CLASS OF 2021 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State

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COVERAGE: Rivals Transfer Tracker | Rivals Camp Series

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Tuesday I listed the five programs that are squandering the most talent but let’s focus on the positive today. These programs do the most with the least.

1. Iowa State — The Cyclones don’t get top-25 recruiting classes but in recent years have regularly been in the hunt for the Big 12 title. In fact, Iowa State's recruiting classes have only finished inside the top-40 once in Rivals.com history and that was in 2002 when the Cyclones' class ranked No. 30.

2. Northwestern — The Wildcats deal with academic restrictions that most of their peers do not, which makes signing top-25 recruiting classes very difficult. The highest a Northwestern recruiting class has ever finished was 46th in 2016, yet the Wildcats have won their division twice in the last four years.

3. Wisconsin — Wisconsin has never had a top-25 recruiting class in Rivals.com history but is always in the hunt for a Big Ten title. Few teams do a better job of coaching kids up than the Badgers.

4. Indiana — Tom Allen does an excellent job with the Hoosiers but even before the Hoosiers have recently seemed to be very solid at developing players and giving Big Ten teams a tough time. There have been some really down years, like 2001 when they were 1-11, but those are rare.

5. UCF —The Group of Five is represented here as UCF is 47-15 since its disastrous 0-12 season in 2015.

Earlier this week I ranked the 10 best coaches in college football. Today I will dive a little deeper and look at Nos. 11-20 on my list.

11. Matt Campbell, Iowa State — The Cyclones continually overachieve their recruiting results. Campbell is 35-28 overall and 26-19 in the Big 12 at Iowa State.

12. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern — Fitzgerald is an amazing fit at his alma mater and his 106-81 record doesn’t come close to speaking to his accomplishments.

13. Kirby Smart, Georgia — Smart is 52-14 overall at Georgia and has been to the national title game so this is probably a bit low. But with the talent he has on the roster, these wins are often expected.

14. James Franklin, Penn State — Franklin has done a very good job at Penn State and his stint at Vanderbilt was simply amazing.

15. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin — Chryst inherited a program that has a system and continually wins but he’s done a good job of keeping the momentum going.

16. Kyle Whittingham, Utah — Whittingham doesn’t get enough credit as Utah is not a national power. His 134-66 record is very impressive and he’s 11-3 in bowl games.

17. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa — The Iowa legend doesn’t get the respect he deserves sometimes but 168-106 is pretty darned good in a tough Big Ten.

18. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State — Gundy is a great coach and don’t let anyone else, or his antics, lead you to believe otherwise. As the No. 2 program in a state without a ton of talent he’s gone 137-67. That’s very impressive.

19. Gary Patterson, TCU — Patterson is a staple at TCU and has had some amazing years. He’s well respected as one of the best coaching minds in college football.

20. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan — Harbaugh gets a lot of grief based on high expectations and took a step back this past season but you can’t argue with 10-win seasons for the most part.

Finally, over the course of my NFL Draft research this year, I have been evaluating some draft-eligible players that didn't live up to expectations in college.

DT Marvin Wilson, Florida State — Wilson was our No. 1 overall prospect in 2017 at one point but now the talk is of him sliding down the draft after a rough 2020 season. I expected him to be a first-rounder and he was on that path but will likely slide to the middle of the draft.

WR Tyler Vaughns, USC — Vaughns is likely to be a value for a franchise in the third or fourth round, but we expected the five-star to be a possible first-rounder with his size and catch radius.

WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, USC — St. Brown's combination of strength and dynamic downfield ability led many to view him as a possible top-10 pick down the line. He will now likely go in the second or third round.

OT Landon Young, Kentucky — Young was a five-star prospect coming out of high school, the first to ever commit to Kentucky, and he was solid in college. We expected a first-round selection but now he will likely be a mid-rounder.

DE Daelin Hayes, Notre Dame — It seems like Hayes has been around forever. He is one of many five-star linebackers in the 2016 class that we expected to push for a first-round selection.

OT Alex Leatherwood, Alabama — I was sure Leatherwood would be a first-rounder but now he could slip as far as the third round, which is surprising. He was a can’t-miss prospect coming out of high school but he's fallen short of expectations.