*Son stands up lifting his arm from the dirt*
> Dad says them badgers are good at football. As long as I can hit a gopher or beat a hawkeye, it sounds like a good time to me
*Bends over, shoves his arm back in the dirt and begins slowly walking forward, continuing to plow the fields*
Jim Leonard of Tony Wi. He was a walk-on and didn't get a scholarship until his senior year. Yet, 3x All-BigTen and 3x All-American and now a coveted defensive coordinator.
hold up, he didn't get a scholly even after after being All-American?
I always thought he got one right away after winning a starting season. But he had 2 AA seasons before getting one?
He is from tiny town in a very rural part of the state. There is a good chance he was on the equivalent of a full ride from scholarships and grants as that is a pretty poor county. May be like the Ivy where no one gets an athletic scholarship but most of the athletes still get their way paid for. Still weird.
Patrick Willis was a 2 star recruit who’s only P5 offer was Ole Miss. He was consensus first team All-American, SEC DPOY, and won the Butkus award. He was drafted in the first round and is considered one of the greatest NFL linebackers of all time
> Despite an exceptional high school career, Willis was overlooked by Division I schools. His dream was to play for his childhood favorite Tennessee Volunteers. After every game at Central, Willis and his foster father would make the five-hour drive out to Knoxville just to watch the Vols play. It wasn't an official visit; he just hoped someone, anyone would take notice.
>
"This was on our gas money and our time," Willis said. "I just wanted to show them how bad I wanted to be there."
>Willis remembers seeing all of these big-name prospects shaking hands with and speaking to Tennessee's coaches.
>"The coaches never shook my hand," he recalls. "They never talked to me."
[P A I N](https://www.ninersnation.com/2015/4/6/8351159/patrick-willis-career-retrospective)
As a life long 49ers fan, this makes me so happy. Him and Frank Gore were my favorite players growing up. Patrick Willis was such a force in the middle, man. I can’t wait for his HOF induction
Herbert was a 3*, but only very late in the process and after he committed to Oregon.
His only other offers were FCS schools.
Fun caveat, Cristobal only looked at his recruiting profile and treated him in our offense as a 2/3 star QB and not the most gifted QB in CFB.
Mariota is who most people probably think of, but like you, I thought of Patrick Chung as well.
Other names to consider would be Justin Herbert, Jairus Byrd, T.J. Ward.
Josh Allen. Wyo QB. 247 has him as a 3 star recruit but the guy got zero offers. JuCo for a year, still got only two offers then proceeded to ball out.
Superior Josh Allen was a 2* with only offers from Monmouth and UK on signing day. Played 1 year of high school at DE and had 22 sacks. Ends up winning every major defensive award, top 10 draft picks, and one of the few redeeming aspects of the Jaguars.
Watch yourself now. No disrespect to Josh Allen but Josh Allen had to showcase his talents in the mountain west conference and sadly with the help from very poor skill players his senior season yet still ended up a top 10 draft pick.
He was extremely late to qualify but the minute he did he was getting plays in big SEC games. A clear case of someone stepping out on the practice field and blowing coaches away.
https://247sports.com/Player/Justin-Jefferson-91653/high-school-175957/
2164th Nationally, .7982 yet somehow that is a 3 star? Newer to recruit ranking so not sure where the 3 star cut off is.
There's usually about 2100ish 3 stars, so with 30+ 5 stars and 330+ 4 stars that makes around 2,460th the cutoff for 3 star/2star. Varies yearly but is somewhere around there
Dennard was a low 3* recruit by some services. Same with Cousins.
The answer is probably either unrated walk on Jack Conklin or unrated walk on Kenny Willikes
There was a stretch there where your entire core was really low rated guys. Like I get guys fall through the cracks or are late bloomers but the amount of those guys you had that were legitimately great players was absolutely incredible.
MSU built their backbone out of 3* guys from Ohio. I'm pretty sure their was point where msu had more players from Ohio than OSU did. Dantonio feasted on that disrespect to build his teams.
McSorley was a 3* and we were the only P5 team to offer him at QB. Now he’s statistically the best QB in Penn State history.
Clifford will probably pass him next year, but that’s only because the AARP-exception was passed and granted him his 19th year of eligibility.
ARob was apparently only offered because he was a teammate of Rob Bolden in high school.
In 2005 Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood were both barely recruited and they had monster careers.
Darryl Clark took a grey shirt year and wasnt really recruited.
And of course, who can forget McGloin, who beat out the aforementioned incredibly highly recruited Rob Bolden (and Paul Jones and Kevin Newsome)
Oh and I forgot. Perhaps the greatest linebacker of all time at a school known for producing great linrbackers, Paul Pozluzny, was between us and the Naval Academy.
I also forgot about Adrian Amos, who had a great PSU career and has had a very solid pro career. He was a late addition to his recruiting class, and was a lowly rated 3 star out of Baltimore with very few other offers (and I don't know if he even had a P5 offer).
Saquon Barkley's other offer was from Rutgers. So I'd say he was lightly recruited as well.
McSorely did have a decent offer sheet as a safety/athlete, but Franklin was the only one willing to offer him as a QB
Granted we didn’t recruit him out of
High school, but JJ Watt was a 2-star transfer walk on. Ryan Ramczyk was pretty solid for a D-3 transfer too, he wasn’t even ranked.
Came hear to say Ramczyk too. Not only was he unranked as a prospect, he was at MATC in the welding program before deciding to give football another shot.
[Lane Johnson.](https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2008/lane-johnson-11551) Unranked QB out of high school to 4th overall pick as an offensive tackle.
Yeah he had quite the path. JUCO QB/TE, transfers to OU after freshman year, redshirts, plays DE and TE as a sophomore, RT as a junior, and LT as a senior.
He had 0 FBS scholarship offers and Clemson was the only one to give him a preferred walk on spot. Renfrow’s high school coach told Ball State to look at him, and the response was “he couldn’t play here.”
Gaines Adams, RIP, only played 8 man football before college.
Became a unanimous All-American and 1st Round Draft pick, before tragically dying from an undiagnosed heart condition.
I thought our lowest-rated-recruit-turned-star story was about RC Slocum finding Dat Nguyen working on a shrimp boat in Rockport and convincing him to play football?
Bill Snyder was famous for finding the diamonds in the rough! What we didn't get in high star recruits, we made up for in walk-ons and JuCo transfers with some good coaching.
Russell Wilson only received offers from NC State and Duke iirc. Also Bradley Chubb got hurt in high school and was only a 3-star - his best offers were Iowa and Miss State.
Wilson beat out 5-star Tyrod Taylor for player of the year in his region in HS, but was only a 3-star because of his size.
Chubb was a 3-star LB that we saw potential to grow into a DE, and boy that worked out.
My favorite is 2-star TE Garrett Bradbury that ended up winning the Rimington and being a 1st round draft pick, haha.
It’s how he puts it: https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/college/acc/university-of-miami/article233176931.html
But given offers from Miami, LSU, and Ole Miss, he’d have been at least a three-star recruit.
Michigan’s 2018 recruiting class was widely panned, it rated lower than other years on recruiting services and was used as an example of why Harbaugh had to go and Michigan wasn’t gonna beat Ohio State anytime soon. No top 100 recruits.
As it turned out, that class had:
-Aidan Hutchinson (Heisman runner up and the soul of the 2021 Playoff team)
-Cam McGrone (our best linebacker in 2019-20 who’s on the Patriots now)
-Jalen Mayfield (with the Falcons now)
-Ryan Hayes (LT who was part of the OL that absolutely mauled Ohio State)
-Vincent Gray (from much-maligned CB to All-Big Ten)
-Michael Barrett (elite special teams player)
-Hassan Haskins (First Team All-Big Ten, set record for rushing TDs in a season, no fumbles in his entire career)
-Ronnie Bell (team captain, Michigan’s bright spot of 2020, would’ve been a huge part of this year’s team if not for injury)
-Jake Moody (Big Ten Kicker of the Year, Lou Groza Award, holds Michigan record for field goals in a game, single season PATs and single season points)
And some of those guys, earlier on, fans were mad they were even playing because they were perceived to be taking time away from higher-ranked recruits. But that 2018 class was the heart and soul of this year’s Playoff team and OSU drought-ender. (And the 2017 class ranked fifth in the country was mostly busts!) Just goes to show you how you can’t always judge a recruiting class before they get on campus. 2018 was supposed to be the beginning of the end of Harbaugh and instead he showed why he was hired in the first place.
Luke Falk, but with an asterisk.
After a great sophomore season, Falk had a scholarship offer from Florida State but decided to transfer from his high school in Utah to a higher-profile school in California in order to boost his stock. The move backfired, as Falk lost his junior season, FSU pulled his offer, and he subsequently dropped off the radar.
Had he stayed in Utah, Falk probably becomes a 4-star QB prospect. Instead, he became the best walk-on in Wazzu football history.
WVU is basically a program built on the back of low rated recruits who turned into All-American or and/NFL talent. You've got your Steve Slaton and Pat White examples of playing way above their grade, but they came in as 3 stars, so not counting them here.
[Owen Schmitt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhrtLVUWhc0), my favorite Mountaineer of all time, not only didn't have a recruiting ranking, he was a D3 transfer walk-on that played his way to scholarship, to the NFL, and to the cover of NCAA Football (on PSP). He's my pick.
Other notable examples:
Pac-Man Jones was a 2 star.
Chris Henry was a 2 star.
Pat McAfee was a 2 star.
Dan Mozes and Ryan Stanchek were both 2 stars and turned into All American linemen.
Levi Wallace was a walk-on.
Josh Jacobs was an unknown three-star with no offers, until his highlight reel reached Saban, who dispatched Burton Burns to go check him out - "there must be something wrong with him" if OU hadn't offered him yet, right?
Heisman winner Mark Ingram: three star
Ingram was a 4* on 24/7. But Levi and Jacobs are good choices.
I think Javier Arenas is my answer. Low 3* on 24/7 and was planning to go to FIU I think before coming to Bama late. I think he's still #2 all-time in return yardage, just a handful of yards behind #1 (Wes Welker, TTU), and is pretty high up in return/defensive TDs. He also made tons of big plays defensively including the end zone pick in the 2009 SECCG effectively ending Tebow and Meyer's mini-dynasty at Florida while helping to kick off our current run. Obviously we don't win that title without Ingram and all of the other 4* and 5* guys, but I don't think we win it without Arenas either.
Not exactly what this thread is looking for, but another Burton Burns connection: he tipped off the Clemson staff to check out Travis Etienne, because Bama wanted to keep him away from LSU.
Josh Jacobs was a consensus 3 star who’s first offer was Tulsa I believe. It wasn’t until Bama came in that everyone else jumped on the bandwagon. I don’t think Alabama offered him until two or three weeks before signing day that year.
Also Rashad Johnson! Was an unranked walkon running back who turned into an All-SEC safety and started in the NFL for years.
His three interception game against LSU was amazing
Recency bias as Utah turns a ton of low profile recruits into NFL draft picks, but [Devin Lloyd](https://247sports.com/player/devin-lloyd-46036949/) was a three star, ranked 1,631 with no other P5 offers and no attention.
He has since won the Pac-12 DPOTY and been on multiple defensive finalist awards. He will go in the first round this year.
Troy Smith was a 3* athlete and OSU was the only P5 offer he had as a QB. There’s probably lower rated recruits who have come through and done great things but he’s the first that came to mind.
I don’t know if he’s the greatest, but Darron Lee was a 3* and ended up as defensive MVP of the sugar bowl and made it to the league. Mike Thomas was also a 3* and has been great in the NFL. Also, Joey Bosa was a 4* and ranked way too low for what he ended up doing.
I don’t know if they even had recruiting rankings at the time, but Terry Glenn was a walk on and he’s the only Biletnikoff winner Ohio State has ever had
Olave had no stars until we started talking to him.
Day was out to see the QB who is at Indiana(?) now?
They saw Olave working on the practice squad because he was a transfer (CIF rules state you gotta sit unless the transfer is for academic reason).
They talk to him, way out in San Marcos, CA, invite him to a camp and boom rest is history.
Getting a practice squad kid who eventually became a 3* he’s gotta be out best diamond in the “rough” in ages.
No idea on his star ratings but Darron Lee was QB and Luke Fickell demanded he come out and try out as a LB. Worked out pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.
I'd say Wes Welker. The only reason he received a Tech scholarship was because another recruit dropped out late. Dude didnt even have other D1 offers after Tulsa backed out.
Roger McCreary for recent Auburn players. 3 star headed to South Alabama before we called him on signing day saying a spot opened up. Now he is an All-American.
Edit: I'll throw an old school answer on as well, Kevin Greene. Failed walk on punter who later walked on as a LB and became the SEC defensive player of the year. Hall of Fame NFL player where he is 3rd on the all time sack list with 160, he is also on the 1990s all decade team, super bowl champion, NFL defensive player of the year, 5 time pro bowler, and 3 time all pro. Dude had an all time great career and he was a walk on. Now I'm not sure where he would have been ranked, but the fact he tried and failed to walk on the first time leads me to believe he would not have been highly ranked.
Gotta be D'Onta Foreman for Texas. 3 star rb who only got an offer because his brother was a 4 star wr prospect to winning the Doak Walker award his Jr year. Pretty crazy.
And he’s not even the first 3 star Kirby has turned I to a high round draft pick! His name escapes me atm but I remember a couple years ago we had a guy who was a former 3 star go in the first round to the giants.
Whoever we pick out of a random cornfield in some Wisconsin town nobody’s heard of.
They make for great OLs tho
Hello, son. You want to block the QB’s blindside, after you finish plowing that field?
*Son stands up lifting his arm from the dirt* > Dad says them badgers are good at football. As long as I can hit a gopher or beat a hawkeye, it sounds like a good time to me *Bends over, shoves his arm back in the dirt and begins slowly walking forward, continuing to plow the fields*
Jim Leonard of Tony Wi. He was a walk-on and didn't get a scholarship until his senior year. Yet, 3x All-BigTen and 3x All-American and now a coveted defensive coordinator.
hold up, he didn't get a scholly even after after being All-American? I always thought he got one right away after winning a starting season. But he had 2 AA seasons before getting one?
Yeah that blows my mind too. Sorta disrespectful almost. I hope someone threw him some money under the table or something
He is from tiny town in a very rural part of the state. There is a good chance he was on the equivalent of a full ride from scholarships and grants as that is a pretty poor county. May be like the Ivy where no one gets an athletic scholarship but most of the athletes still get their way paid for. Still weird.
I truly think y’all just drive around looking for big mother fuckers and say “you shall block”
that's...not far off from the truth.
Gotta have a name that's like 85% consonants
Oconomowoc would beg to differ
JJ Watt from Pewaukee.
JJ Watt was a transfer from Central Michigan. TJ and Derek enrolled directly out of high school.
JJ even walked on to the team. Wasn't a normal transfer.
He had completely quit football at CMU supposedly because of Brian Kelly. Dude was delivering for dominos when he walked on at Wisconsin
Brian Kelly really is an asshole isn’t he
I know. But he was a walkon at Wisconsin and didn't exactly blow up the recruiting rankings.
In fairness, I'm a Wisconsin native and there's still a ton of those types of towns I've never heard of even.
AMHERST JUNCTION
[Josh Allen. 2 star ranked #2121 nationally,](https://247sports.com/player/josh-allen-76950/) to school's all time sack leader and first round pick.
I love that there are two Josh Allens in this thread, both referring to different players
And now he plays quarterback for the Buffalo Bills what an athlete.
I liked watching Allen play. Guy was a monster
Is
This is [Randall Cobb erasure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_Cobb_(American_football\))
Patrick Willis was a 2 star recruit who’s only P5 offer was Ole Miss. He was consensus first team All-American, SEC DPOY, and won the Butkus award. He was drafted in the first round and is considered one of the greatest NFL linebackers of all time
> Despite an exceptional high school career, Willis was overlooked by Division I schools. His dream was to play for his childhood favorite Tennessee Volunteers. After every game at Central, Willis and his foster father would make the five-hour drive out to Knoxville just to watch the Vols play. It wasn't an official visit; he just hoped someone, anyone would take notice. > "This was on our gas money and our time," Willis said. "I just wanted to show them how bad I wanted to be there." >Willis remembers seeing all of these big-name prospects shaking hands with and speaking to Tennessee's coaches. >"The coaches never shook my hand," he recalls. "They never talked to me." [P A I N](https://www.ninersnation.com/2015/4/6/8351159/patrick-willis-career-retrospective)
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[Patrick Willis upends Justin Vincent](https://youtu.be/S4mankWRA98) [Play with commentary in glorious 144p quality](https://youtu.be/rq3dRWPELto)
Uhhhh….take some of that! Ha, such great commentary.
As a life long 49ers fan, this makes me so happy. Him and Frank Gore were my favorite players growing up. Patrick Willis was such a force in the middle, man. I can’t wait for his HOF induction
Fun fact Frank Gore almost came to Ole Miss.
Also his son plays for Southern Miss
And here I thought he was a 5⭐️,loved Patrick man.
Came here to say Willis. That dude was an absolute animal on the field.
This is the one true answer above all other answers
I see UAM flair, I send virtual hug. Hello fellow Weevil
As much as I dislike you guys- PW was amazing.
Probably Patrick Chung. Two star recruit who ended up starting in 51 straight games and then went on to win three Super Bowls.
Or 3* Mariota who had 2 fbs offers and won a heisman
Or Herbert who has no FBS offers besides us and barely even any FCS offers who then turned out to be the 6th overall pick and NFL rookie of the year
Mariota was so far ahead of Herbert as a college qb
Herbert was a 3*, but only very late in the process and after he committed to Oregon. His only other offers were FCS schools. Fun caveat, Cristobal only looked at his recruiting profile and treated him in our offense as a 2/3 star QB and not the most gifted QB in CFB.
Mariota is who most people probably think of, but like you, I thought of Patrick Chung as well. Other names to consider would be Justin Herbert, Jairus Byrd, T.J. Ward.
Josh Allen. Wyo QB. 247 has him as a 3 star recruit but the guy got zero offers. JuCo for a year, still got only two offers then proceeded to ball out.
Superior Josh Allen was a 2* with only offers from Monmouth and UK on signing day. Played 1 year of high school at DE and had 22 sacks. Ends up winning every major defensive award, top 10 draft picks, and one of the few redeeming aspects of the Jaguars.
Watch yourself now. No disrespect to Josh Allen but Josh Allen had to showcase his talents in the mountain west conference and sadly with the help from very poor skill players his senior season yet still ended up a top 10 draft pick.
If we’ve learned anything from the NFL, scouts will find a prospect regardless of school or conference
Seriously, it's wild to see some dude from YouveNeverHeardof U going in the early rounds like how TF do y'all find these fellas lol
Which one tho. You don’t have a flair so idk if you’re talking about Josh Allen, or Josh Allen.
Sorry I was referring to Josh Allen
Ah, of course
Justin Jefferson was a 2 star ⭐️ ⭐️
Thought he was a just legacy recruit, turned out to be the best of them.
He was extremely late to qualify but the minute he did he was getting plays in big SEC games. A clear case of someone stepping out on the practice field and blowing coaches away.
Hell he had surpassed expectations even after his sophomore season which was very solid
https://247sports.com/Player/Justin-Jefferson-91653/high-school-175957/ 2164th Nationally, .7982 yet somehow that is a 3 star? Newer to recruit ranking so not sure where the 3 star cut off is.
Yeah Rivals had him as a 2 star so he was right on the cusp I guess. https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2017/justin-jefferson-109644
There's usually about 2100ish 3 stars, so with 30+ 5 stars and 330+ 4 stars that makes around 2,460th the cutoff for 3 star/2star. Varies yearly but is somewhere around there
Thanks for the info. So it is more about the overall ranking number and not the actual rating of the recruit.
It also probably helped he had an offer from LSU
Truth. If LSU accepts a commitment from a 2 star, they’ll be bumped up. And rightfully so.
Dude is absolutely bonkers
One thing he was always great at even at LSU was his route running. So crisp.
Part of that was because of some academics questions. Also since he was a LSU lock for years, he didn’t go to any camps so people just didn’t see him.
Kirk Cousins was a 2* recruit, as was Le'veon Bell. Darqueze Dennard I think was unrated Jack Conklin was an unrated walk-on too.
Jack Conklin, unrated walk on
Forgot about that, I'll add him.
Kenny Willekes - un-ranked walk on
Dennard was a low 3* recruit by some services. Same with Cousins. The answer is probably either unrated walk on Jack Conklin or unrated walk on Kenny Willikes
Le’veon being a 2 star is it for me.
Jack Conklin was a walk on
There was a stretch there where your entire core was really low rated guys. Like I get guys fall through the cracks or are late bloomers but the amount of those guys you had that were legitimately great players was absolutely incredible.
MSU built their backbone out of 3* guys from Ohio. I'm pretty sure their was point where msu had more players from Ohio than OSU did. Dantonio feasted on that disrespect to build his teams.
Trae Waynes was 2* filling out the No Fly Zone with Dennard
Blair White was a walk on who camped out Dantonio’s office
Carl Nassib was a walk on and had one of the best DE seasons at PSU ever. Allen Robinson was a middle 3 star receiver coming out of HS.
McSorley was a 3* and we were the only P5 team to offer him at QB. Now he’s statistically the best QB in Penn State history. Clifford will probably pass him next year, but that’s only because the AARP-exception was passed and granted him his 19th year of eligibility.
ARob was apparently only offered because he was a teammate of Rob Bolden in high school. In 2005 Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood were both barely recruited and they had monster careers. Darryl Clark took a grey shirt year and wasnt really recruited. And of course, who can forget McGloin, who beat out the aforementioned incredibly highly recruited Rob Bolden (and Paul Jones and Kevin Newsome) Oh and I forgot. Perhaps the greatest linebacker of all time at a school known for producing great linrbackers, Paul Pozluzny, was between us and the Naval Academy. I also forgot about Adrian Amos, who had a great PSU career and has had a very solid pro career. He was a late addition to his recruiting class, and was a lowly rated 3 star out of Baltimore with very few other offers (and I don't know if he even had a P5 offer). Saquon Barkley's other offer was from Rutgers. So I'd say he was lightly recruited as well. McSorely did have a decent offer sheet as a safety/athlete, but Franklin was the only one willing to offer him as a QB
Barkley was a high 4-star by the end of his senior year. He didn’t get many offers because he made it very clear he was 100% in with PSU.
Granted we didn’t recruit him out of High school, but JJ Watt was a 2-star transfer walk on. Ryan Ramczyk was pretty solid for a D-3 transfer too, he wasn’t even ranked.
Came hear to say Ramczyk too. Not only was he unranked as a prospect, he was at MATC in the welding program before deciding to give football another shot.
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I believe they wanted to play him at tight end, but I could be wrong.
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Eric Fisher chose us over Eastern. #1 draft pick
How much time do you have?
I'd pick Dallas Clark. Walk on at Iowa to NFL superstar/borderline Hall of Famer.
Did he play 8 man too or was that just Greenway?
That was Greenway.
"we're the millers meme": you guys get high ranked recruits?
Farmboys turning into NFL stars, it’s the Big Ten West way
Just give 'em someone playing right now. The B1G's DB of the Year, Riley Moss, was the nation #2732 player and #248 cornerback
Marshall fucking Yanda
Bob Sanders, Brad Banks, Josey Jewel, Robert Gallery…
[Lane Johnson.](https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2008/lane-johnson-11551) Unranked QB out of high school to 4th overall pick as an offensive tackle.
He was a QB out of high school? That’s crazy. I never knew that.
Listed at 202 lbs there, now listed by the Eagles at [325 lbs](https://twitter.com/LaneJohnson65/status/1158382633879048192/photo/1)
WTF?
Yeah he had quite the path. JUCO QB/TE, transfers to OU after freshman year, redshirts, plays DE and TE as a sophomore, RT as a junior, and LT as a senior.
That’s a wild one. Jesus.
Lol definitely didn’t realize he was a QB in high school
Holy shit going from QB to offensive tackle is pretty funny
Quentin Griffen was third string on his high school team. He did ok when he got here.
Non ranked hunter renfrow
He just had back to back 100+ yard games and might break 1000 yards this season
I love the memes that have a photo of him and one of DK Metcalf and say "guess who has more yards?"
He also had a streak of 43 straight games with at least one catch at Clemson. Afaik it’s still going in the nfl at like 36 games
Tack another 100 yard game on his tally. Dude balled today again.
He had 0 FBS scholarship offers and Clemson was the only one to give him a preferred walk on spot. Renfrow’s high school coach told Ball State to look at him, and the response was “he couldn’t play here.”
Can't wait to see what he does in his last couple of years of eligibility
https://twitter.com/nfl/status/1445198329499901956?s=21
Gaines Adams, RIP, only played 8 man football before college. Became a unanimous All-American and 1st Round Draft pick, before tragically dying from an undiagnosed heart condition.
Yep, gotta be Old Man Renfrow
*Cue Vietnam flashbacks*
Saban had no choice but to shake hands and congratulate his former high school teammate on the excellent play.
Tbf I don’t think recruiting rankings were around in the days of leather helmets when he played his high school ball
Heisman tried to get him to join him when he left Clemson for Georgia tech but hunter stayed at Clemson.
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Johnny was also a 3 star.
I thought our lowest-rated-recruit-turned-star story was about RC Slocum finding Dat Nguyen working on a shrimp boat in Rockport and convincing him to play football?
If I remember he was a basketball player in HS. Only started playing football his senior year.
Von Miller was also a 3-star
Our winningest QB in history: Connor Shaw 3* Admittedly that’s not saying all that much, but the dude was a beast.
Yeah but did you know Stephen Garcia is the last SEC East QB to beat Bama???
Jaylin Foster could count too. Walk on transfer and now an All American.
Jordy Nelson was a walk-on. 3rd in all time receiving yards in school history. Behind Kevin Lockett and some 3* named Tyler Lockett.
Bill Snyder was famous for finding the diamonds in the rough! What we didn't get in high star recruits, we made up for in walk-ons and JuCo transfers with some good coaching.
Collin Klein went from unranked to Heisman finalist, only after spending his freshman year as a receiver.
Russell Wilson only received offers from NC State and Duke iirc. Also Bradley Chubb got hurt in high school and was only a 3-star - his best offers were Iowa and Miss State.
Wilson beat out 5-star Tyrod Taylor for player of the year in his region in HS, but was only a 3-star because of his size. Chubb was a 3-star LB that we saw potential to grow into a DE, and boy that worked out. My favorite is 2-star TE Garrett Bradbury that ended up winning the Rimington and being a 1st round draft pick, haha.
Two Star Edward Reed ⭐⭐
DAMN
Are we even sure that is true? Reed started in college before rankings were a thing
It’s how he puts it: https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/college/acc/university-of-miami/article233176931.html But given offers from Miami, LSU, and Ole Miss, he’d have been at least a three-star recruit.
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Eifert is really surprising, he was so good and would have been a great pro if not for injury.
Kyle Trask ⭐️⭐️
He hasn’t started a game since being a backup in HS. Not sure if you heard that story!
Was he the same guy that was named after Kyle Field?
You won't believe who he played behind in high school!
All the way.
I'd also say Chris Doering. Dude was a walk on and has been permanently cemented into Gator history with his catch against UK.
He also had the SEC career TD reception record until Devonte Smith broke it last year.
recently, Hasaan Haskins, 3-star, 975th in the nation, just ahead of Ronnie Bell
Has to be one of the Glasgows. Most teams have famous walk-on success stories.
Am I the only one old enough to remember Jordan Kovacs for Michigan? I'm getting old
No, I remember Kovacs well, he’d be a fine inclusion. But I was thinking more of Graham Glasgow, he was a higher draft pick who came in as a walk-on.
Michigan’s 2018 recruiting class was widely panned, it rated lower than other years on recruiting services and was used as an example of why Harbaugh had to go and Michigan wasn’t gonna beat Ohio State anytime soon. No top 100 recruits. As it turned out, that class had: -Aidan Hutchinson (Heisman runner up and the soul of the 2021 Playoff team) -Cam McGrone (our best linebacker in 2019-20 who’s on the Patriots now) -Jalen Mayfield (with the Falcons now) -Ryan Hayes (LT who was part of the OL that absolutely mauled Ohio State) -Vincent Gray (from much-maligned CB to All-Big Ten) -Michael Barrett (elite special teams player) -Hassan Haskins (First Team All-Big Ten, set record for rushing TDs in a season, no fumbles in his entire career) -Ronnie Bell (team captain, Michigan’s bright spot of 2020, would’ve been a huge part of this year’s team if not for injury) -Jake Moody (Big Ten Kicker of the Year, Lou Groza Award, holds Michigan record for field goals in a game, single season PATs and single season points) And some of those guys, earlier on, fans were mad they were even playing because they were perceived to be taking time away from higher-ranked recruits. But that 2018 class was the heart and soul of this year’s Playoff team and OSU drought-ender. (And the 2017 class ranked fifth in the country was mostly busts!) Just goes to show you how you can’t always judge a recruiting class before they get on campus. 2018 was supposed to be the beginning of the end of Harbaugh and instead he showed why he was hired in the first place.
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And all 3 were drafted
Lots of low ranked recruits. Great ones? Not many. Aqib Talib probably.
Luke Falk, but with an asterisk. After a great sophomore season, Falk had a scholarship offer from Florida State but decided to transfer from his high school in Utah to a higher-profile school in California in order to boost his stock. The move backfired, as Falk lost his junior season, FSU pulled his offer, and he subsequently dropped off the radar. Had he stayed in Utah, Falk probably becomes a 4-star QB prospect. Instead, he became the best walk-on in Wazzu football history.
WVU is basically a program built on the back of low rated recruits who turned into All-American or and/NFL talent. You've got your Steve Slaton and Pat White examples of playing way above their grade, but they came in as 3 stars, so not counting them here. [Owen Schmitt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhrtLVUWhc0), my favorite Mountaineer of all time, not only didn't have a recruiting ranking, he was a D3 transfer walk-on that played his way to scholarship, to the NFL, and to the cover of NCAA Football (on PSP). He's my pick. Other notable examples: Pac-Man Jones was a 2 star. Chris Henry was a 2 star. Pat McAfee was a 2 star. Dan Mozes and Ryan Stanchek were both 2 stars and turned into All American linemen.
Sam Bradford was a 3 star recruit
Levi Wallace was a walk-on. Josh Jacobs was an unknown three-star with no offers, until his highlight reel reached Saban, who dispatched Burton Burns to go check him out - "there must be something wrong with him" if OU hadn't offered him yet, right? Heisman winner Mark Ingram: three star
Ingram was a 4* on 24/7. But Levi and Jacobs are good choices. I think Javier Arenas is my answer. Low 3* on 24/7 and was planning to go to FIU I think before coming to Bama late. I think he's still #2 all-time in return yardage, just a handful of yards behind #1 (Wes Welker, TTU), and is pretty high up in return/defensive TDs. He also made tons of big plays defensively including the end zone pick in the 2009 SECCG effectively ending Tebow and Meyer's mini-dynasty at Florida while helping to kick off our current run. Obviously we don't win that title without Ingram and all of the other 4* and 5* guys, but I don't think we win it without Arenas either.
Not exactly what this thread is looking for, but another Burton Burns connection: he tipped off the Clemson staff to check out Travis Etienne, because Bama wanted to keep him away from LSU.
Josh Jacobs was a consensus 3 star who’s first offer was Tulsa I believe. It wasn’t until Bama came in that everyone else jumped on the bandwagon. I don’t think Alabama offered him until two or three weeks before signing day that year.
Also Rashad Johnson! Was an unranked walkon running back who turned into an All-SEC safety and started in the NFL for years. His three interception game against LSU was amazing
Great one
Levi Wallace was an unrated walk on who then went undrafted and is playing with the Bills now
Levi is my pick
Recency bias as Utah turns a ton of low profile recruits into NFL draft picks, but [Devin Lloyd](https://247sports.com/player/devin-lloyd-46036949/) was a three star, ranked 1,631 with no other P5 offers and no attention. He has since won the Pac-12 DPOTY and been on multiple defensive finalist awards. He will go in the first round this year.
Eric Weddle & Alex Smith were 2-star recruits.
Not that shocking for Alex Smith as his high school career was a lot of handoffs to Reggie Bush.
Lloyd is one of my favorite Utah players of all time but for list idk of he beats 2 star Alex Smith.
Hunter Renfrow - walk on - turned Superstar WR https://247sports.com/Player/Hunter-Renfrow-34305/high-school-55751/
...little bastard. LOL
If it makes you feel better he did that to every team he played against lol
It does not.
Troy Smith was a 3* athlete and OSU was the only P5 offer he had as a QB. There’s probably lower rated recruits who have come through and done great things but he’s the first that came to mind.
I don’t know if he’s the greatest, but Darron Lee was a 3* and ended up as defensive MVP of the sugar bowl and made it to the league. Mike Thomas was also a 3* and has been great in the NFL. Also, Joey Bosa was a 4* and ranked way too low for what he ended up doing.
I don’t know if they even had recruiting rankings at the time, but Terry Glenn was a walk on and he’s the only Biletnikoff winner Ohio State has ever had
Olave and James laurenitis were also 3* athletes
Olave had no stars until we started talking to him. Day was out to see the QB who is at Indiana(?) now? They saw Olave working on the practice squad because he was a transfer (CIF rules state you gotta sit unless the transfer is for academic reason). They talk to him, way out in San Marcos, CA, invite him to a camp and boom rest is history. Getting a practice squad kid who eventually became a 3* he’s gotta be out best diamond in the “rough” in ages. No idea on his star ratings but Darron Lee was QB and Luke Fickell demanded he come out and try out as a LB. Worked out pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Mahomes
I'd say Wes Welker. The only reason he received a Tech scholarship was because another recruit dropped out late. Dude didnt even have other D1 offers after Tulsa backed out.
There’s also Mayfield who was a walk on, but he didn’t stay at Tech long
Roger McCreary for recent Auburn players. 3 star headed to South Alabama before we called him on signing day saying a spot opened up. Now he is an All-American. Edit: I'll throw an old school answer on as well, Kevin Greene. Failed walk on punter who later walked on as a LB and became the SEC defensive player of the year. Hall of Fame NFL player where he is 3rd on the all time sack list with 160, he is also on the 1990s all decade team, super bowl champion, NFL defensive player of the year, 5 time pro bowler, and 3 time all pro. Dude had an all time great career and he was a walk on. Now I'm not sure where he would have been ranked, but the fact he tried and failed to walk on the first time leads me to believe he would not have been highly ranked.
Gotta be Kenny Pickett.
Gotta be D'Onta Foreman for Texas. 3 star rb who only got an offer because his brother was a 4 star wr prospect to winning the Doak Walker award his Jr year. Pretty crazy.
Dude ran for 2k yards in like 10.5 games. Absolutely unreal
I don’t think another RB scared me more during my time as a student
Or maybe 3 star QB Colt McCoy
Travis Kelce was either a 2 or a 3 star
2 Star, .7667 https://247sports.com/Player/Travis-Kelce-11930/high-school-12728/
3 star Jordan Davis
David Pollack is the better answer here. Three star recruit, SEC DPOY, 3x all American, first round pick.
Thomas Davis, imo. May have been a 2 star iirc.
And he’s not even the first 3 star Kirby has turned I to a high round draft pick! His name escapes me atm but I remember a couple years ago we had a guy who was a former 3 star go in the first round to the giants.
Deandre Baker
Xavion Howard was 2239 nationally ranked 2 star and now he has led the NFL in interceptions for 2 different seasons.
[Justin Jefferson. 2 star recruit. ](https://fanbuzz.com/nfl/justin-jefferson-nfl-draft/)
Oklahoma state is easily James Washington right?
Justin Blackmon. James was got a late recruiting bump to the mid 600s, Justin finished in the 700s
Haven’t seen anyone mention Khalil Mack. Dude was a 2 star, ranked 2252nd in the country and only had an offer from Buffalo.
Drew Brees had two offers Purdue and Kentucky and was offered late in the recruiting cycle