The Rivals Rankings
June 3rd, 2015
Rivals.com was dead-on ranking “America’s Quarterback” in high school. What about other Bucs?
Joe used to get into football recruiting only because it was a reason to escape the four-letter and its unholy crusade to indoctrinate and brainwash innocent Americans with the non-basketball association.
Then, Joe wised up, quit watching BSPN, and found ways to get a football fix other than to creepily drool over high school kids.
And while Joe understands a lot of people fear and loathe Rivals.com and high school player rankings, the site has made a fortune for its founders with wall-to-wall coverage of college football recruiting. Joe isn’t among them.
A few years ago, Joe got bored and spent a lazy winter Sunday afternoon comparing rankings of high school football players to the NFL Draft rankings of college players. There really wasn’t much of a difference in the accuracy/inaccuracy percentage of the rankings and projections. Both were/are inexact sciences.
In an interesting look at Rivals rankings, Joe Kania of Buccaneers.com took a peek at the Rivals rankings of the current Bucs rookies. Rivals had both hits and misses.
Naturally, Rivals was dead-on about “America’s Quarterback,” Bucs signal-caller Jameis Winston. And they were fairly spot-on with offensive lineman Donovan Smith. But here is where it gets a bit interesting. Two undrafted free agents on the Bucs roster were four-star recruits out of high school. Joe will let Kania detail the rest.
WR Josh Reese (Four-star)
Position rank: 22, National rank: 146
Offers: UCF, Florida, Florida State, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Florida, Tennessee, West VirginiaRB Dominique Brown (Four-star)
Position rank: 20; National rank: 193
Offers: Louisville, Cincinnati, Purdue
Now this is interesting. The fact Reese and Brown were highly ranked shows they had top-shelf skills. Whether they had already maxed out physically by the time they got to college or, for whatever reason, struggled on a higher level, it isn’t clear.
It could be that they simply were not coached up. So these two might be hidden gems and guys to keep an eye on in the preseason. With the aid of NFL coaching, maybe the Bucs can squeeze the talent out of these two that their college coaches couldn’t.
June 3rd, 2015 at 5:51 am
Quite interesting indeed Joe…
June 3rd, 2015 at 7:38 am
You never know what’s under a horse’s tail until you lift it up!!!
June 3rd, 2015 at 7:45 am
As someone who has watch Reese in UCF games, I can tell you he’s never been very impressive. He doesn’t have great hands, not very good at fighting for a jump ball, inconsistent route runner, rarely gets separation and doesn’t have the burst you’d like to see in a WR. I think he’s an example of someone who matured quicker in high school and looked better than he actually was. I keep saying another UCF receiver is my dark horse, Rannell Hall. Don’t sleep on him. He has the makeup of a perfect slot receiver.
June 3rd, 2015 at 7:57 am
Dear Joe(s),
Some research you did on your lazy Sunday afternoon.
From the 2014 NFL Draft:
A five-star recruit had a three-in-five chance of getting drafted (16 of 27).
A four-star had a one-in-five chance (77 of 395).
A three-star had a one-in-18 chance (92 of 1,644).
A two-star/unrated recruit had a one-in-34 chance (71 of 2,434)
Ummmmm…yeah….maybe you might want to edit your stance about HS ratings and the NFL Draft because you’re dead wrong.
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football-recruiting/2014/5/12/5696710/nfl-draft-recruits-five-stars-two-stars
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:00 am
3 star 4 star doesn’t really make a difference in regards to talent. it’s just to generate hype about nothing with kids coming out of high school. you can get a high rank just by showing up to these camps and jumping through the hoops for them, if your a really good player and you don’t get involved then you wont be ranked as high as you should
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:01 am
America’s Quarterback is a stupid nickname. Are you really going to shove that down our throats for the next decade?
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:18 am
Joe don’t know quips or broadcasting.
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:19 am
Joe, Curry and LeBron really are great players on and off the court. Team players with unbelievable skills. Curry is better than any shooter I’ve seen ever.
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:20 am
Meh, Jamesis can become the greatest and he wants to be the greatest, might as well call him America’s Quarterback now.
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:29 am
meh Says:
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:01 am
America’s Quarterback is a stupid nickname. Are you really going to shove that down our throats for the next decade?
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If using history as a guideline we probably only have to hear it for 4 more years. Perhaps Jameis will break the trend, but I believe the Bucs have yet to offer a QB a second contract?
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:34 am
Seriously, the “America’s QB” thing is so annoying to me. I don’t know why because the rock star and paragraph you put in front of Peter King don’t bother me. Wasn’t Reese cut after rookie mini camp? He was coached up at UCF, see our 2 star WR recruit that was drafted by the Ravens in the 1st round. Hall was solid but unspectacular. He was good at UCF but not great.
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:35 am
Sorry, I meant Reese was solid but unspectacular. Hall was awesome at UCF and just as valuable as Perrimen to the team.
June 3rd, 2015 at 9:13 am
Sorry Tank. Research Joe did showed comparable percentage of hits/misses in evaluating high school rankings to college players’ draft selection to pro success.
June 3rd, 2015 at 9:32 am
Joe, if both of those players did exactly as their ranking indicated, and became the 146th and 193rd player drafted this year, they would’ve went in the 5th and 6th round respectively. Which in itself is a risky proposition to make a ballclub.
Rivals also rated recently departed bust Daquan Bowers the number two overall player in the 2008 HS Class. Who was number one? Terrelle Pryor, another guy who is presently hoping to stick to an NFL roster.
June 3rd, 2015 at 10:19 am
I love the “America’s QB” moniker. I also love the fact that it annoys people with nothing more important to be disturbed about. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK JOE!!! LOL
June 3rd, 2015 at 10:35 am
This is why the cannon is on our team, Schiano loved him in high school, wonder where he was ranked, I know he was high on Rutgers board
June 3rd, 2015 at 11:23 am
@buccos
Really?
June 3rd, 2015 at 12:40 pm
For some reason, the the “America’s QB” moniker doesn’t bother me nearly as much as calling Mark Dominik a “Rock Star”.
June 3rd, 2015 at 12:47 pm
Agreed with Dan and Tyson. Reese was never clutch enough, would make some good plays but also too many critical drops. Rannell hall is the real deal though.
Decent speed, great hands and great catch radius. Tough guy, can play in the slot or outside. Really hope he impresses in OTAs and makes the team.
June 3rd, 2015 at 1:57 pm
Rannell Hall was one of our highest rated UDFA’s. If you look at his bio on the NFL site you’ll see a scout that was disappointed that he did well in the Sr Bowl because he wanted to keep him under the radar.
If Joe’s obsessed with rivals ratings then maybe we should sign Christian Green, WR from FSU. He wasn’t able catch more than 157 yards in any of the past 3 seasons (and 1 TD) despite “America’s QB” throwing to him, but he was a 4-star guy rated 61st overall on rivals coming out of HS 😉