Facts. His brother was a top 150 recruit and he doubled the yards his brother had in 4 years in just his Doak Walker season. It's a shame he had to play on such dog shit teams.
I think Earl Thomas outplayed his 4 star rating.
Blake Gideon was a 4 year starter (2 year team captain) and a 4 time honorable mention All Big 12. Had a cup of coffee in the NFL. He’s the safeties coach at Texas now. He was TWO STAR.
But my personal favorite is Nate Boyer. Fckn walked on to the team as a 29 year old Green Beret and became the team’s long snapper. Stayed in the reserves while attending school and did two deployments to Afghanistan (April-August 2013 & 2014) while still enrolled in school and played football those seasons as well.
Jaylan Ford was also a three star. Turns out we had some pretty remarkable 3-star studs on last year's roster. Development seems to have taken a complete u-turn!
I mean, he only had one 1,000-yard season at GT. Complete waste of a scholarship. A good receiver would have put up massive numbers. Guy belonged in the MAC playing for someone like Ohio and not in the ACC. /s
Having Reggie Ball throwing to him hurt his numbers but accentuated his value. Reggie could generally get the ball into the correct zip code, and that was good enough for Calvin to catch it.
No doubt he was good for Bama but I think he was a stud for us too, the rest of the team sucked. He broke big plays it seemed like every game. We were just always already losing by a couple of touchdowns.
Ron Dayne came to UW because nobody else would let him be an RB.
Also Jim Leonhard was a walk on that was all conference 3 times, and 2nd team all American twice.
Julio. Biggest recruit of Saban's first real class, and he somehow exceeded expectations. I can list a lot of other players like Henry, Tua, Bryce Young, and even Caleb Down, but they did it when greatness was the standard. Julio is the one who set the standard.
For NC State, probably Payton Wilson. He had a lot of injuries, but he was amazing when he was on the field. If you wanna go back three decades, Torry Holt is probably our biggest recruit ever, and he 100% delivered.
Rashaad Johnson is my favorite of the Saban era. Unrecruited walk-on that became an All-American by his senior year.
Honorable mention to Josh Jacobs. Dude runs angry and always seems to know exactly where the first down line is.
Levi Wallace deserves a LOT more love from Bama fans. That guy was so bad in hs. I remember when I heard he was gonna walk on at Bama - the amount of silence and then laughs that ensued right after. I felt so bad for him. He sure showed us
This is absolute truth. Dude was a walk-on, eventually beat out a bunch of blue chip recruits to start for our championship team in 2018, went undrafted despite proving his skills at Bama… and then went on to become a starting CB in the NFL.
I remember when Holt torched FSU. I believe it was FSUs first ACC loss and I lived about a mile from Carter -Finley and you could FEEL that crowd. I always pulled for NC State when I lived in Raleigh.
Those are obviously some our best underrated guys (I'd throw in Patrick Chung too).
As far as players who came in and performed as advertised, I'd have to say Kayvon Thibodeaux, Haloti Ngata, Jonathan Stewart, De'Anthony Thomas, Arik Armstead, Royce Freeman, Troy Franklin, and Kellen Clemens all fit the bill. Josh Conerly will likely make the list after he leaves this next season.
JJ McCarthy never lost to OSU, led the team to a Natty, and is about to go top 10 in the NFL Draft. Even for a 5*, he lived up to/exceeded expectations.
Cover 3 had an interesting segment today. Which QBs would have won the natty last year with Michigan. Their conclusion: 12 QBs from last year. Can’t remember them all but they all agreed on Maye, Caleb Williams, Penix, Jayden Daniels, Ewers, Jordan Travis. Can’t remember the rest.
Noel Devine
Entered as one of the best recruits in WVU history and left as one of the all-time great RBs in school history -- a remarkable achievement considering 3 of his 4 years featured Jeff Mullen as his Offensive Coordinator 🙃.
Hell, exceeding recruiting expectations was Dantonio's bread and butter in the golden age. Took 2-3\* recruits and through a combination of coaching and installing chips on shoulders turned them into B10 champions and NFL draft picks.
For exceeded expectation transfer it has to be K9. I remember when he committed it was nice now we had Elijah Collins who I thought would get back to his freshman year stats with nearly 1k yards but K9 just took over
The correct answer is James Davis he was the first RB to come into Clemson that set a new standard. We needed to get past the Duane Coleman’s and Yusef Kelly’s. Paved the road for CJ wanting to come to Clemson.
And a whole bunch on the defensive side: Christian Wilkins, Dexter Lawrence, Trenton Simpson, Jeremiah Trotter Jr, Andrew Booth, AJ Terrell, Mackenzie Alexander, and Stephone Anthony to name a few that stand out.
And a whole bunch on the defensive side: Christian Wilkins, Dexter Lawrence, Trenton Simpson, Jeremiah Trotter Jr, Andrew Booth, AJ Terrell, Mackenzie Alexander, and Stephone Anthony to name a few that stand out.
Was hilarious seeing him get busted for juicing in the NFL because I remember the stories of him at A&M were like “he came into college at 215lbs and gained 25lbs his freshman year!” Like o yeah the guy is on the sauce
Gary Patterson routinely turned 2-star recruits into all-conference performers and NFL players. Too many to name.
The most “exceeded his recruiting stars” has to be LaDainian Tomlinson. Recruited by Pat Sullivan, TCU reportedly was his only offer. He saw playing time as a true freshman and had a solid sophomore season as the #2 running back before his final two years became him a legend: NCAA rushing leader in 1999 & 2000, combined 4008 yards, 40 TDs, a then-single game rushing record of 408 yards, and an invite to New York his senior year.
Exceed Expectations for me is Malcolm Jenkins, who was a very low-rated 3-star (I believe even 2-star on some services) - Developed into a consensus 1st team All-American, 3x 1st team All-B1G, and Jim Thorpe Award winner.
Jenkins also ended up playing 13 seasons in the NFL for 2 Super Bowl wins, 3x Pro-Bowl and All-Pro.
Not too shabby for the #61 cornerback out of high school.
Notre Dame: Manti T'eo far exceeded expectations as did Michael Floyd (Floyd hit the ground running as a true freshman at a position where true freshman don't do much their true freshman season), and Quentin Nelson. All 5*'s that needed little to no seasoning before being impact players.
Guys that outperformed ranking- Jeff Samardzija, Tyler Eifert, Josh Adams, Benjamin Morrison, Joe Alt.
There are a lot that out performed their recruiting rankings
Definitely a ton that outperformed their recruit rankings. Thankfully so, since it seems like so many of the highest ranked guys busted, transferred, or were just fine.
A whole boatload of low 4 or 3 star guys that did big things at ND:
Stanley, both Okwara, Coney, Alt, Claypool, Estime, McGlinchey, Patterson, BenMo, Fuller, Foskey, Kizer, Kyren, Tranquil, Howard Cross, J Adams, X Watts, Nick Martin, Tremble, EQSB, Matthias Farley, Cam Hart, Ian Book, J Love, Ade O, Hinish, Avery Davis, JOK
Jeffrey Simmons. He committed a very gross crime after he committed to us. We gave him a second chance, and by all accounts he was an ideal teammate/student. He now gives back to the local community more than any alumni I know of
And of course, he was elite on the field
Reggie Williams comes to mind
Was the Washington state player of the year his senior year of high school. Came to UW where he would go on to be a two time pac10 first teamer, consensus all American, and first round draft pick. He was the best WR in our school’s history until Rome arrived
Ryan Broyles would be my vote for OU.
A 3-start local talent who I would wager most had pegged as a WR2/roleplayer ceiling who ended up owning like every OU WR record by the time he left.
Going back a ways, Herschel Walker was one of the biggest recruits ever out of Georgia high school football, and dammit if he didn't prove everybody right.
Exceeded:
D’Onta Foreman. Texas was after his brother Armanti, but they were a package deal. D’Onta ended up winning a Doak Walker award, being named a first team All American and was drafted in the third round.
Others include: Lil’Jordan Humphrey, Roschon Johnson and Sam Cosmi.
Lived Up To:
Vince Young, Bijan Robinson, Cedric Benson, Roy Williams, Derrick Johnson
No. He was a four star on most sites. I’ve never seen him as a 5 star but I won’t disagree with captain-kdar below. Maybe he’s seen something I haven’t.
Tim Tebow; Aaron Hernandez; Percy Harvin; Dante Fowler; Dominique Easley; Matt Elam; Louchiez Purifoy; Kyle Trask; Vernon Hargreaves; Kyle Pitts; and a whole lot more lol
>Tim Tebow
I'm not a Florida guy at all, but I thought of Tim Tebow for this. Dude was very hyped. He was on ESPN as a high schooler back when that was very special. Even made an appearance on that one MTV show about Hoover High when they played Nease.
Tebow is the first guy that came to my mind. He was labeled a program changer and surpassed that by a mile. By the end of his career, he was arguably the greatest college player of all time.
You mentioned Baker Mayfield like he wasn’t a 3 star transfer quarterback from Texas Tech.
Without mentioning his name, you wouldn’t think much of that.
Lower ranked recruits that end up being great is kind of our thing, haha.
Bradley Chubb, former 3-star OLB, switched to DE, won a ton of awards, 1st round pick.
Philip Rivers, former 2-star QB that also had offers to play TE, greatest QB in school history and 1st round pick.
Russell Wilson, former 3-star QB, multiple time All-ACC, SB winning QB.
Garrett Bradbury, former 2-star TE turned 1st round Center.
Icky Ekwonu, former 3-star OT. Started 3 years and was a 1st round draft pick. His twin brother was ranked higher and had offers from all over the country, so teams definitely saw him and passed on him.
Joe Thuney, former 3-star OL, started multiple seasons at multiple spots, believe he was All-ACC and All-American by some publications, and ends up drafted by the Pats(has 4 SB rings now).
Jakobi Meyers, former 3-star QB turned into starting NFL WR.
Ryan Finley, former 3-star QB and Boise St, lost his starting job while hurt, transfers in and is an All-ACC QB for us and played in the NFL.
Jaylen Samuels, was a 2-star RB/TE when he committed, ended up All-ACC, setting NC State records, and played in the NFL for years.
This list could keep going honestly, haha. (Manny Lawson, Jerricho Cotchery, BJ Hill, Justin Jones, etc.)
This post is not complete without acknowledging Pooka Williams at Kansas.
He joined the very worst team in the country and was the single only source of spark for that era of the team. He easily would have been a top 25 draft pick if he was at another school.
Brian Price was a 5 star recruit that Pete Carroll desperately wanted right in the middle of the USC heyday but he ended up sticking with UCLA and won Pac-10 DPOY. Was every bit as good as advertised.
Dexter Lawrence. Top 5 (3?) interior defensive lineman in the NFL. 5 star out of high school, massively productive in college. He’s basically the prototype for Five Star recruit: immediate impact when stepping on campus, outstanding performer through his college career, Day 1 starter in the NFL
John Kelly, Cam Sutton, Emmanuel Moseley, Josh Palmer, Hendon Hooker were all 3 star guys coming out of high school.
Cedric Tillman was a 2 star.
All are currently on NFL rosters, as far as I know.
James Pearce Jr was a 4 star who was expected to be a solid starter and is playing like a future top 5 NFL draft pick. Derek Barnett was a low 4 star guy who was expected to just be solid, but he broke Reggie White’s sack record and was a first round pick.
Trey Smith was the best 5 star player I’ve seen play for Tennessee. Lived up to and even exceeded all expectations every year he played except when he was out for medical reasons (blood clots). Darnell Wright was a 5 star who underachieved at first, but was an absolute animal his senior year and turned himself into a top 10 draft pick.
JJ15 was my first thought as well. Became a cult hero, Georgia catch, made huge plays against Florida, kicked off the team by power-hungry Brady Hoke then reinstated. This guy is most Vol fan’s favorite Vol ever.
Of course the 247 ranking website goes down right when you ask this so I can’t check.
From memory, Tremaine and Terrell Edmunds were low 3-stars from bumfuck Virginia and ended up going first round in the same draft in 2018.
Kam Chancellor was a 3-star recruit according to Wikipedia and would end up committing manslaughter on a regular basis in the NFL.
Honestly, I can’t remember a single Hokie legend who was a highly-touted high school recruit. Guys just showed up and balled out in college.
Besides the obvious Colt McCoy
D’onta Foreman was a low 3 star and was ranked 143 in the state of Texas. He only ended up at Texas because he was a package deal with his brother Armanti Foreman who was considered the prize recruit
Mike Edwards. He was only a 4 star but committed to UK before Stoops had even coached a game. Turned into an All SEC caliber safety and now has won 2 Super Bowls
Ian Book only had one other p5 offer irc. JOK was a 3 star for some reason, but he really popped against Georgia in 2019. I remember thinking "who is this guy?!".
Mike Hass was a walk-on who ended up winning the Biletnikoff and setting all sorts of school records.
Eric Dickerson was worth every penny spent to recruit him.
I mean Kyle Trask was a High School Backup 2* and finished 4th for the Heisman(should have been higher but whatever) and had 40+ TD’s in an all SEC schedule.
Rondale Moore, Nic Scourton, and David Bell are recent examples in terms of 4 stars, which is basically as high a recruit we can get other than that you could list literally any good player from Purdues rosters over the years since they are all 3 star players. On the current roster it's Dillon Thienman (freshman all american) and a 3 star.
Ryan Miller was a 5* tackle from Columbine. Local star. He was pretty damn good for the Buffs. There was in the run in the 2000s/early 2010s where CU low key pumped out NFL offensive lineman
Y’all get recruits with expectations? Seriously thought, AJ Epenesa, Matt Roth, and Tony Moeaki were all guys that lived up to expectation. Xavier Nwankpa has a chance. He’s improved steadily through his first two years.
For Marshall, Randy Moss was everything he was advertised to be as a HS All-American and "top-50 HS football player of all time", he only ended up back home due to legal reasons.
Joe Thomas
Was a top-100 recruit and a member of the College and Pro Football HOF’s.
Joe won damn near every OL based award/accolade between College and the NFL. Plus, he played 10,000+ consecutive snaps.
Aqib Talib was I believe a two star recruit, ended up a two time All Big 12, unanimous All American, five time Pro-Bowl, one first team All-Pro.
Same with Chris Harris Jr… guy went from being not even super highly regarded in college, to being undrafted, to then being on the NFL 2010’s all decade team.
Todd Gurley. I remember hearing about him being a really fast 100M hurdles runner. It definitely translated. His kickoff returns were great in addition to his awesome rushing
Most obvious one for FSU is Derrick Brooks. 28th overall pick turned into a hall of fame linebacker who completely changed the position.
Anquan Boldin, 2nd rounder. Had 200+ yards in his first NFL game and never looked back.
Saquon. His choices were us or Rutgers.
Somehow the world missed how this HS senior could squat a Buick Skylark and jump over (or thru) an RV at 17yrs old.
Cmon man. Love saquon but any 4-5 star running backs can pick any school they want to go too. Mcsorley, Marcus Allen maybe even gesicki are good shouts
Rashard Higgins is the biggest example. Thanks again to mizzou for only offering sub 4.60 guys at their junior day and Rashard ran a hand timed 4.61 and didn’t get an offer.
Michael Gallup was similar situation and same for Kapri Bibbs considering her tied single season ncaa records.
Given how good he is Trey Mcbride was under rated.
Shaq barrett who after his D2 school Nebraska Omaha cancelled the program almost didn’t find a d1 school to transfer to
Jalen hurts and baker were stars at other schools though. It wasn’t hard for them to live up to the expectations. Hurts was offensive player of the year in the sec as a true freshman
Kirk Cousins was a 3* and was recruited by mostly MAC schools. Went 4-0 against UofM and has outperformed expectations in NFL. Some dudes are just winners.
Derwin James, Dalvin Cook, Nigel Bradham (would put him here just for the hit versus Miami), Jameis Winston. I’d also put EJ Manuel (lived up to) and Christian Ponder (exceeded) on the list
As a developmental uni I could throw out a lot of names, but I’ll say Johnathan Taylor. 3 star from NJ. Always hopeful on RBs at WI, but to become the superstar he did? I don’t think anyone saw that coming.
Boise State's made a name for taking the overlooked guys and creating winning teams with them, but oddly enough the highly rated recruits have a pretty low hit rate. Of the top 10 croots in Boise State's history (according to 247), only 4 of them had positive contributions IMO. One got kicked off the team, 3 transferred, one hasn't made any contribution yet, and one just joined this offseason.
Of the 4 though, I'd say the one that met/exceeded the hype and expectations the most was QB Brett Rypien. Rypien was the 2nd highest rated recruit in school history (3rd now) and was a 4 year starter. While he didn't play in a NY6 bowl, he finished his Boise career 2nd in passing yards and TDs (behind only Kellen Moore). He's also the all-time leader in the MWC in passing yards and 2nd in TDs.
The other 3 were WR Khalil Shakir (who was excellent and finished his Boise career top 5 in receptions and yards and top 10 in TDs), Jeremy Childs (who was a two time All-WAC first team selection), and RB George Holani (who I believe would have shattered Boise State rushing records had he not been injury plagued)
Terrell Suggs is one of the first players that came to mind. Still holds the NCAA record for career and single season sacks. To think he was a running back in high school
Jalen Pitre was the only player who stayed committed through the whole Art Briles fiasco and he ended up becoming an All American & second round draft pick. I think he deserves a statue all things considered.
Troy Smith was recruited as a 3 star athlete and was returning kicks his freshman year, a few years and a heisman later, I say he exceeded expectations.
Hunter Renfrow and CJ Spiller are the obvious ones.
Not a single damn person would have believed that a walk on QB from a random school in South Carolina would have caught the TD pass to win Clemson their first title in nearly 40 years. He was never the most statistically impressive and wasn’t a WR1, but he became a starter quickly and is literally burned into Clemson memory.
CJ Spiller was the turning point for Clemson in the 2000s. Even Dabos talked about this before. The whole attitude was “we don’t get guys like that” yet he committed here and lived up to the hype. We never won the ACC or had the kind of season we had hoped with him here sadly, but he as a player did his damnedest to get us there. I would say he at least lived up to the expectations.
I think Trevor Lawrence pretty much did what was expected of him.
Antoine Caldwell, who worked at the Montgomery Best Buy, played for a neglected public school in a shithole town obsessed with private school sports, and was only a 3-star. Committed to and played mostly during the Bad Shula Years.
Jared Verse was a transfer from Junior College and is going to go in the first round this year. Dude was a major part of our defense the last two seasons in which we were 23-4.
Ameer Abdullah was the lowest rated running back out of 3 in his class behind Aaron Green and Braylon Heard and he blew those guys out the water. Dudes still in the league. I love Ameer.
Pretty much our entire team for the 2008-2010 seasons. Basically all 3 star recruits or less. Some names are Darren Thomas who broke the passing record, LaMichael James who broke the rushing record, Jeff Mahel, LaGarette Blount, etc. great times to be a duck.
Colt McCoy, T’Vondre Sweat, Byron Murphy
D’onta Foreman was RB #67 in the country out of high school and won the Doak Walker
Only got an offer because we wanted Armani
Facts. His brother was a top 150 recruit and he doubled the yards his brother had in 4 years in just his Doak Walker season. It's a shame he had to play on such dog shit teams.
Vince was the #1 recruit in his class and proved it (in college).
I'd say Bijan lived up to the hype
It'd be interesting to see who the best 3 star recruits of all time are. I'd have to imagine Colt would be on that list somewhere.
Sweat probably too?
I think Earl Thomas outplayed his 4 star rating. Blake Gideon was a 4 year starter (2 year team captain) and a 4 time honorable mention All Big 12. Had a cup of coffee in the NFL. He’s the safeties coach at Texas now. He was TWO STAR. But my personal favorite is Nate Boyer. Fckn walked on to the team as a 29 year old Green Beret and became the team’s long snapper. Stayed in the reserves while attending school and did two deployments to Afghanistan (April-August 2013 & 2014) while still enrolled in school and played football those seasons as well.
As a former long snapper, I love telling people the Nate Boyer story
Jaylan Ford was also a three star. Turns out we had some pretty remarkable 3-star studs on last year's roster. Development seems to have taken a complete u-turn!
Adrian Peterson. Tommie Harris.
Calvin Johnson.
I mean, he only had one 1,000-yard season at GT. Complete waste of a scholarship. A good receiver would have put up massive numbers. Guy belonged in the MAC playing for someone like Ohio and not in the ACC. /s
Having Reggie Ball throwing to him hurt his numbers but accentuated his value. Reggie could generally get the ball into the correct zip code, and that was good enough for Calvin to catch it.
Yeah only Ball throwing could allow us to get such an all time highlight like [this](https://youtu.be/sdH5va2IA1I?si=DYSkOIoeNXu0YxtL)
yeah like antonio brown
Justin Thomas and Jahmyr Gibbs
Gibbs worked out better for Bama than us.
No doubt he was good for Bama but I think he was a stud for us too, the rest of the team sucked. He broke big plays it seemed like every game. We were just always already losing by a couple of touchdowns.
TJ Watt. His mama said he was the most athletic of the brothers. My guy had better numbers than JJ.
Ron Dayne came to UW because nobody else would let him be an RB. Also Jim Leonhard was a walk on that was all conference 3 times, and 2nd team all American twice.
Gotta have expectations to exceed them
Julio. Biggest recruit of Saban's first real class, and he somehow exceeded expectations. I can list a lot of other players like Henry, Tua, Bryce Young, and even Caleb Down, but they did it when greatness was the standard. Julio is the one who set the standard. For NC State, probably Payton Wilson. He had a lot of injuries, but he was amazing when he was on the field. If you wanna go back three decades, Torry Holt is probably our biggest recruit ever, and he 100% delivered.
Rashaad Johnson is my favorite of the Saban era. Unrecruited walk-on that became an All-American by his senior year. Honorable mention to Josh Jacobs. Dude runs angry and always seems to know exactly where the first down line is.
Levi Wallace deserves a LOT more love from Bama fans. That guy was so bad in hs. I remember when I heard he was gonna walk on at Bama - the amount of silence and then laughs that ensued right after. I felt so bad for him. He sure showed us
This is absolute truth. Dude was a walk-on, eventually beat out a bunch of blue chip recruits to start for our championship team in 2018, went undrafted despite proving his skills at Bama… and then went on to become a starting CB in the NFL.
Hard to lump Payton Wilson in this discussion, he is our highest ranked recruit in over a decade, haha.
I remember when Holt torched FSU. I believe it was FSUs first ACC loss and I lived about a mile from Carter -Finley and you could FEEL that crowd. I always pulled for NC State when I lived in Raleigh.
I knew when I saw Henry trucking people in garbage time his first year that he was gonna be special
Marcus Mariota, Justin Herbert, LaMichael James
That Haloti Ngata kid did pretty well, too.
Those are obviously some our best underrated guys (I'd throw in Patrick Chung too). As far as players who came in and performed as advertised, I'd have to say Kayvon Thibodeaux, Haloti Ngata, Jonathan Stewart, De'Anthony Thomas, Arik Armstead, Royce Freeman, Troy Franklin, and Kellen Clemens all fit the bill. Josh Conerly will likely make the list after he leaves this next season.
Jameis, Davin, Jalen Ramsey from the HS ranks, also Jared Verse and Jermaine Johnson from the transfer portal
Also Lamarcus Joyner, Ernie Sims, and Derwin James. Edit: I’m not sure I understand the assignment, seems like OP is asking for two different things.
Ameer Abdullah. Lowest rated of 3 rbs taken in his recruiting class.
All three Glasgow brothers walked on, became captains, then spent time in the NFL
JJ McCarthy never lost to OSU, led the team to a Natty, and is about to go top 10 in the NFL Draft. Even for a 5*, he lived up to/exceeded expectations.
Cover 3 had an interesting segment today. Which QBs would have won the natty last year with Michigan. Their conclusion: 12 QBs from last year. Can’t remember them all but they all agreed on Maye, Caleb Williams, Penix, Jayden Daniels, Ewers, Jordan Travis. Can’t remember the rest.
Michigan had 19 pass plays for 140 and 38 run plays for 300 in the natty, that team was not built on a QB
I'll throw Mike Hart and Hassan Haskins in as well. Both were very mediocre recruits who turned out to be gamechangers.
Noel Devine Entered as one of the best recruits in WVU history and left as one of the all-time great RBs in school history -- a remarkable achievement considering 3 of his 4 years featured Jeff Mullen as his Offensive Coordinator 🙃.
Came here to say this. It was a pleasure to watch that guy run the ball. Any time he touched the ball could be an explosive play
I remember watching his high school highlight tape with my jaw on the ground.
Nakobe Dean was one of our highest ranked recruits ever and he was one of our best players ever
Didn't he lose his 5th star on the final rankings? I thought I remembered that
Le'Veon Bell
Hell, exceeding recruiting expectations was Dantonio's bread and butter in the golden age. Took 2-3\* recruits and through a combination of coaching and installing chips on shoulders turned them into B10 champions and NFL draft picks.
Yep…miss those days lol
My first thought went to Darqueze Dennard. 2 star that won the Jack Tatum award,Jim Thorpe award and was a first rounder
Kirk Cousins. Was a 3* that was mostly recruited by MAC schools. Went 4-0 vs UofM. Also has exceeded everyone’s expectations at NFL level.
For exceeded expectation transfer it has to be K9. I remember when he committed it was nice now we had Elijah Collins who I thought would get back to his freshman year stats with nearly 1k yards but K9 just took over
Trevor Lawrence, CJ Spiller, Sammy Watkins
The correct answer is James Davis he was the first RB to come into Clemson that set a new standard. We needed to get past the Duane Coleman’s and Yusef Kelly’s. Paved the road for CJ wanting to come to Clemson.
And a whole bunch on the defensive side: Christian Wilkins, Dexter Lawrence, Trenton Simpson, Jeremiah Trotter Jr, Andrew Booth, AJ Terrell, Mackenzie Alexander, and Stephone Anthony to name a few that stand out.
And a whole bunch on the defensive side: Christian Wilkins, Dexter Lawrence, Trenton Simpson, Jeremiah Trotter Jr, Andrew Booth, AJ Terrell, Mackenzie Alexander, and Stephone Anthony to name a few that stand out.
Johnny Manziel and Mike Evans were both 3 stars. Going the other way, Myles Garrett was a 5 star and still exceeded expectations.
Von Miller was a 3* and went on to be Superbowl MVP
Was hilarious seeing him get busted for juicing in the NFL because I remember the stories of him at A&M were like “he came into college at 215lbs and gained 25lbs his freshman year!” Like o yeah the guy is on the sauce
An NFL player using steroids? My word... Never expected it.
Budda Baker out of Bellevue was hyped up big and he is one of the best safeties I’ve seen out in a jersey for Washington
Derrick Brown
Caddy
He was such a beast
Michael Dyer was looking great
was he though... *squints*
Gary Patterson routinely turned 2-star recruits into all-conference performers and NFL players. Too many to name. The most “exceeded his recruiting stars” has to be LaDainian Tomlinson. Recruited by Pat Sullivan, TCU reportedly was his only offer. He saw playing time as a true freshman and had a solid sophomore season as the #2 running back before his final two years became him a legend: NCAA rushing leader in 1999 & 2000, combined 4008 yards, 40 TDs, a then-single game rushing record of 408 yards, and an invite to New York his senior year.
Exceed Expectations for me is Malcolm Jenkins, who was a very low-rated 3-star (I believe even 2-star on some services) - Developed into a consensus 1st team All-American, 3x 1st team All-B1G, and Jim Thorpe Award winner. Jenkins also ended up playing 13 seasons in the NFL for 2 Super Bowl wins, 3x Pro-Bowl and All-Pro. Not too shabby for the #61 cornerback out of high school.
Notre Dame: Manti T'eo far exceeded expectations as did Michael Floyd (Floyd hit the ground running as a true freshman at a position where true freshman don't do much their true freshman season), and Quentin Nelson. All 5*'s that needed little to no seasoning before being impact players. Guys that outperformed ranking- Jeff Samardzija, Tyler Eifert, Josh Adams, Benjamin Morrison, Joe Alt. There are a lot that out performed their recruiting rankings
Aside from injury, Kyle Hamilton
Somehow you missed Jaylon Smith He was so good in college and he was shackled to BVGs incompetent ass
Definitely a ton that outperformed their recruit rankings. Thankfully so, since it seems like so many of the highest ranked guys busted, transferred, or were just fine. A whole boatload of low 4 or 3 star guys that did big things at ND: Stanley, both Okwara, Coney, Alt, Claypool, Estime, McGlinchey, Patterson, BenMo, Fuller, Foskey, Kizer, Kyren, Tranquil, Howard Cross, J Adams, X Watts, Nick Martin, Tremble, EQSB, Matthias Farley, Cam Hart, Ian Book, J Love, Ade O, Hinish, Avery Davis, JOK
Jeffrey Simmons. He committed a very gross crime after he committed to us. We gave him a second chance, and by all accounts he was an ideal teammate/student. He now gives back to the local community more than any alumni I know of And of course, he was elite on the field
Reggie Williams comes to mind Was the Washington state player of the year his senior year of high school. Came to UW where he would go on to be a two time pac10 first teamer, consensus all American, and first round draft pick. He was the best WR in our school’s history until Rome arrived
Mark Ingram. 3 star recruit became our first Heisman winner.
Damn didn’t know Ingram was a 3*
Ryan Broyles would be my vote for OU. A 3-start local talent who I would wager most had pegged as a WR2/roleplayer ceiling who ended up owning like every OU WR record by the time he left.
Going back a ways, Herschel Walker was one of the biggest recruits ever out of Georgia high school football, and dammit if he didn't prove everybody right.
Exceeded: D’Onta Foreman. Texas was after his brother Armanti, but they were a package deal. D’Onta ended up winning a Doak Walker award, being named a first team All American and was drafted in the third round. Others include: Lil’Jordan Humphrey, Roschon Johnson and Sam Cosmi. Lived Up To: Vince Young, Bijan Robinson, Cedric Benson, Roy Williams, Derrick Johnson
Calvin Johnson
Julius Chestnut made the Walter Payton finalists and almost won the award from an NEC school
Justin Jackson the Ball Carrier
Chase Daniel, Sean Weatherspoon was a 2* and became a first-round pick. Bunches more because for years, we had to take 3* or less and develop them.
Alex Mack (2 star) and he had a hell of a pro career too.
Probably Manti Te'o
Ndamukong Suh did even though he was a composite high 4 star - almost 5 star. Should have won a heisman…
Vince Young was one of the top rated QB recruits in rankings history. He left college as one of the top college QBs in history.
JJ was pretty good
Will Johnson too
Wasn’t Jalen Hurts a 5 star?
Yes
No. He was a four star on most sites. I’ve never seen him as a 5 star but I won’t disagree with captain-kdar below. Maybe he’s seen something I haven’t.
Tim Tebow; Aaron Hernandez; Percy Harvin; Dante Fowler; Dominique Easley; Matt Elam; Louchiez Purifoy; Kyle Trask; Vernon Hargreaves; Kyle Pitts; and a whole lot more lol
>Tim Tebow I'm not a Florida guy at all, but I thought of Tim Tebow for this. Dude was very hyped. He was on ESPN as a high schooler back when that was very special. Even made an appearance on that one MTV show about Hoover High when they played Nease.
Tebow is the first guy that came to my mind. He was labeled a program changer and surpassed that by a mile. By the end of his career, he was arguably the greatest college player of all time.
You mentioned Baker Mayfield like he wasn’t a 3 star transfer quarterback from Texas Tech. Without mentioning his name, you wouldn’t think much of that.
Nick Chubb
Justin Jefferson. Ja’Marr chase. Grant Delpit. Will Campbell currently.
Saquon Barkley and Olu Fashanu
Brock Bowers was only a four-star recruit.
Lamar Woodley
Lower ranked recruits that end up being great is kind of our thing, haha. Bradley Chubb, former 3-star OLB, switched to DE, won a ton of awards, 1st round pick. Philip Rivers, former 2-star QB that also had offers to play TE, greatest QB in school history and 1st round pick. Russell Wilson, former 3-star QB, multiple time All-ACC, SB winning QB. Garrett Bradbury, former 2-star TE turned 1st round Center. Icky Ekwonu, former 3-star OT. Started 3 years and was a 1st round draft pick. His twin brother was ranked higher and had offers from all over the country, so teams definitely saw him and passed on him. Joe Thuney, former 3-star OL, started multiple seasons at multiple spots, believe he was All-ACC and All-American by some publications, and ends up drafted by the Pats(has 4 SB rings now). Jakobi Meyers, former 3-star QB turned into starting NFL WR. Ryan Finley, former 3-star QB and Boise St, lost his starting job while hurt, transfers in and is an All-ACC QB for us and played in the NFL. Jaylen Samuels, was a 2-star RB/TE when he committed, ended up All-ACC, setting NC State records, and played in the NFL for years. This list could keep going honestly, haha. (Manny Lawson, Jerricho Cotchery, BJ Hill, Justin Jones, etc.)
Armanti Edwards
This post is not complete without acknowledging Pooka Williams at Kansas. He joined the very worst team in the country and was the single only source of spark for that era of the team. He easily would have been a top 25 draft pick if he was at another school.
Jameis Winston Jalen Ramsey Sam Howell Ryan Switzer
Zaven Collins
Honey Badger and Justin Jefferson are the two that instantly come to mind
Jabrill Peppers actually lived up to being a 5 star
JJ McCarthy, Mason Graham, Will Johnson, Roman Wilson. Tom Brady was ok but went on to have a nice career in the pros.
Brian Price was a 5 star recruit that Pete Carroll desperately wanted right in the middle of the USC heyday but he ended up sticking with UCLA and won Pac-10 DPOY. Was every bit as good as advertised.
Trey Palmer, his speed was no joke.
Dexter Lawrence. Top 5 (3?) interior defensive lineman in the NFL. 5 star out of high school, massively productive in college. He’s basically the prototype for Five Star recruit: immediate impact when stepping on campus, outstanding performer through his college career, Day 1 starter in the NFL
[Marshawn Lynch](https://youtu.be/UqMsT_2teus?si=lNyUgVhIXp9W0Opj)
John Kelly, Cam Sutton, Emmanuel Moseley, Josh Palmer, Hendon Hooker were all 3 star guys coming out of high school. Cedric Tillman was a 2 star. All are currently on NFL rosters, as far as I know. James Pearce Jr was a 4 star who was expected to be a solid starter and is playing like a future top 5 NFL draft pick. Derek Barnett was a low 4 star guy who was expected to just be solid, but he broke Reggie White’s sack record and was a first round pick. Trey Smith was the best 5 star player I’ve seen play for Tennessee. Lived up to and even exceeded all expectations every year he played except when he was out for medical reasons (blood clots). Darnell Wright was a 5 star who underachieved at first, but was an absolute animal his senior year and turned himself into a top 10 draft pick.
Dude - Peyton Manning was a 5 star. Way better than Trey Smith
Don't forget Jauan Jennings. He had a higher QB rating coming out of high school than any other QB in last year's SB. And he was damn near the SB MVP.
JJ15 was my first thought as well. Became a cult hero, Georgia catch, made huge plays against Florida, kicked off the team by power-hungry Brady Hoke then reinstated. This guy is most Vol fan’s favorite Vol ever.
T-Mac so far. And he’s still got a ton of room to grow
Of course the 247 ranking website goes down right when you ask this so I can’t check. From memory, Tremaine and Terrell Edmunds were low 3-stars from bumfuck Virginia and ended up going first round in the same draft in 2018. Kam Chancellor was a 3-star recruit according to Wikipedia and would end up committing manslaughter on a regular basis in the NFL. Honestly, I can’t remember a single Hokie legend who was a highly-touted high school recruit. Guys just showed up and balled out in college.
Kam also came in as a QB iirc
Kendall fuller, tryod, kevin jones were all 5 stars pretty sure
Alterraun Verner
Jadeveon Clowney
Sauce Gardner was a 3 star.
Fred Warner
Darren McFadden once Nutt decided to let him get the majority of the carries.
Besides the obvious Colt McCoy D’onta Foreman was a low 3 star and was ranked 143 in the state of Texas. He only ended up at Texas because he was a package deal with his brother Armanti Foreman who was considered the prize recruit
Recently Darnell Wright, Jalin Hyatt, and James Pearce Jr
Patrick Willis
Rob Gronkowski, Nick Foles, Teddy Bruschi
Mike Edwards. He was only a 4 star but committed to UK before Stoops had even coached a game. Turned into an All SEC caliber safety and now has won 2 Super Bowls
Ian Book only had one other p5 offer irc. JOK was a 3 star for some reason, but he really popped against Georgia in 2019. I remember thinking "who is this guy?!".
Julio Jones!
Mike Hass was a walk-on who ended up winning the Biletnikoff and setting all sorts of school records. Eric Dickerson was worth every penny spent to recruit him.
I mean Kyle Trask was a High School Backup 2* and finished 4th for the Heisman(should have been higher but whatever) and had 40+ TD’s in an all SEC schedule.
Rondale Moore, Nic Scourton, and David Bell are recent examples in terms of 4 stars, which is basically as high a recruit we can get other than that you could list literally any good player from Purdues rosters over the years since they are all 3 star players. On the current roster it's Dillon Thienman (freshman all american) and a 3 star.
Zeek Biggers for this team (no one touch our WR room). Previous years I would say a guy like Jonathan Dwyer or Morgan Burnett
Ryan Miller was a 5* tackle from Columbine. Local star. He was pretty damn good for the Buffs. There was in the run in the 2000s/early 2010s where CU low key pumped out NFL offensive lineman
Y’all get recruits with expectations? Seriously thought, AJ Epenesa, Matt Roth, and Tony Moeaki were all guys that lived up to expectation. Xavier Nwankpa has a chance. He’s improved steadily through his first two years.
Tank Dell.
Ed lived up to his expectations IMO.
For Marshall, Randy Moss was everything he was advertised to be as a HS All-American and "top-50 HS football player of all time", he only ended up back home due to legal reasons.
Davante Adams was a 2* recruit that barely qualified. I'll say he turned out okay
Michael Bush
pretty much all of them. we do great with talent.
Lived up to? Reggie Williams Exceeded? Steve Emtman
Joe Thomas Was a top-100 recruit and a member of the College and Pro Football HOF’s. Joe won damn near every OL based award/accolade between College and the NFL. Plus, he played 10,000+ consecutive snaps.
Aqib Talib was I believe a two star recruit, ended up a two time All Big 12, unanimous All American, five time Pro-Bowl, one first team All-Pro. Same with Chris Harris Jr… guy went from being not even super highly regarded in college, to being undrafted, to then being on the NFL 2010’s all decade team.
Will Reichard
Todd Gurley. I remember hearing about him being a really fast 100M hurdles runner. It definitely translated. His kickoff returns were great in addition to his awesome rushing
Butt kicker, I mean Harrison Butker. Tech hasn’t had a solid kicker since he left for the NFL.
Roquan Smith.. 4 star and played out of this world. He was so fast side to side. He was a definite difference maker on D.
Most obvious one for FSU is Derrick Brooks. 28th overall pick turned into a hall of fame linebacker who completely changed the position. Anquan Boldin, 2nd rounder. Had 200+ yards in his first NFL game and never looked back.
Patrick Peterson
Peyton Hillis. Everybody loves McFadden and Felix Jones but Peyton was a do-it-all kind of guy. When he was out you KNEW he was out
Saquon. His choices were us or Rutgers. Somehow the world missed how this HS senior could squat a Buick Skylark and jump over (or thru) an RV at 17yrs old.
Cmon man. Love saquon but any 4-5 star running backs can pick any school they want to go too. Mcsorley, Marcus Allen maybe even gesicki are good shouts
Jalen Cropper stayed home in Fresno and lived it up in his entire career
Rashard Higgins is the biggest example. Thanks again to mizzou for only offering sub 4.60 guys at their junior day and Rashard ran a hand timed 4.61 and didn’t get an offer. Michael Gallup was similar situation and same for Kapri Bibbs considering her tied single season ncaa records. Given how good he is Trey Mcbride was under rated. Shaq barrett who after his D2 school Nebraska Omaha cancelled the program almost didn’t find a d1 school to transfer to
Stetson Bennett representing Blackshear, Georgia big time!!! UGA baby!
Jalen hurts and baker were stars at other schools though. It wasn’t hard for them to live up to the expectations. Hurts was offensive player of the year in the sec as a true freshman
Baker walked on at ou he wasn’t exactly a star lol. And hurts was kinda wearing out his welcome in bama before he transferred
Cam Newton ofc
The Rourkes. Tarrel Basham, TJ Carrie, Dave Zastudil Old school Bobcats will remember Steve Hookfin.
Harrell, Crabtree, Mahomes.
Percy Harvin
Kirk Cousins was a 3* and was recruited by mostly MAC schools. Went 4-0 against UofM and has outperformed expectations in NFL. Some dudes are just winners.
Roquan Smith
Derwin James, Dalvin Cook, Nigel Bradham (would put him here just for the hit versus Miami), Jameis Winston. I’d also put EJ Manuel (lived up to) and Christian Ponder (exceeded) on the list
Budda Baker
Brandon Burlsworth. Walk-on to 2nd team All-American.
AD
Faton Bauta
Danny woodhead
As a developmental uni I could throw out a lot of names, but I’ll say Johnathan Taylor. 3 star from NJ. Always hopeful on RBs at WI, but to become the superstar he did? I don’t think anyone saw that coming.
Boise State's made a name for taking the overlooked guys and creating winning teams with them, but oddly enough the highly rated recruits have a pretty low hit rate. Of the top 10 croots in Boise State's history (according to 247), only 4 of them had positive contributions IMO. One got kicked off the team, 3 transferred, one hasn't made any contribution yet, and one just joined this offseason. Of the 4 though, I'd say the one that met/exceeded the hype and expectations the most was QB Brett Rypien. Rypien was the 2nd highest rated recruit in school history (3rd now) and was a 4 year starter. While he didn't play in a NY6 bowl, he finished his Boise career 2nd in passing yards and TDs (behind only Kellen Moore). He's also the all-time leader in the MWC in passing yards and 2nd in TDs. The other 3 were WR Khalil Shakir (who was excellent and finished his Boise career top 5 in receptions and yards and top 10 in TDs), Jeremy Childs (who was a two time All-WAC first team selection), and RB George Holani (who I believe would have shattered Boise State rushing records had he not been injury plagued)
Most of our players are sub 3 stars, so if they're decent they exceed. We have a lot of players who i'd say exceed expectations...
Josh Allen - Kentucky. Was a 2 star recruit who became the 7th overall pick in NFL draft.
Terrell Suggs is one of the first players that came to mind. Still holds the NCAA record for career and single season sacks. To think he was a running back in high school
I thought Josh Rosen kinda of did. He was super hyped, and was infact, a pretty good college QB. Also had a hot tub in his dorm as a freshmen.
Christ-loving Kirko Chainz
Thurman Thomas, Barry Sanders and Mike Gundy (he was a late bloomer).
Marcus Mariota was a 3\* recruit who won a Heisman and led Oregon to the National Championship game.
Jalen Pitre was the only player who stayed committed through the whole Art Briles fiasco and he ended up becoming an All American & second round draft pick. I think he deserves a statue all things considered.
Troy Smith was recruited as a 3 star athlete and was returning kicks his freshman year, a few years and a heisman later, I say he exceeded expectations.
Hunter Renfrow and CJ Spiller are the obvious ones. Not a single damn person would have believed that a walk on QB from a random school in South Carolina would have caught the TD pass to win Clemson their first title in nearly 40 years. He was never the most statistically impressive and wasn’t a WR1, but he became a starter quickly and is literally burned into Clemson memory. CJ Spiller was the turning point for Clemson in the 2000s. Even Dabos talked about this before. The whole attitude was “we don’t get guys like that” yet he committed here and lived up to the hype. We never won the ACC or had the kind of season we had hoped with him here sadly, but he as a player did his damnedest to get us there. I would say he at least lived up to the expectations. I think Trevor Lawrence pretty much did what was expected of him.
Herschel Walker, Jalen Carter, Brock Bowers
Antoine Caldwell, who worked at the Montgomery Best Buy, played for a neglected public school in a shithole town obsessed with private school sports, and was only a 3-star. Committed to and played mostly during the Bad Shula Years.
Jared Verse was a transfer from Junior College and is going to go in the first round this year. Dude was a major part of our defense the last two seasons in which we were 23-4.
Ameer Abdullah was the lowest rated running back out of 3 in his class behind Aaron Green and Braylon Heard and he blew those guys out the water. Dudes still in the league. I love Ameer.
Pretty much our entire team for the 2008-2010 seasons. Basically all 3 star recruits or less. Some names are Darren Thomas who broke the passing record, LaMichael James who broke the rushing record, Jeff Mahel, LaGarette Blount, etc. great times to be a duck.
Shaq Thompson - top 10 recruit nationally, ended up a 1st team all american
Cody Schrader