I’ve been studying the histories of the SEC players taken in the draft this year and while I’m only through the first 15 guys, the first rounders, I discovered something that I haven’t heard a lot of talk about. 13 out of the 15 SEC guys taken in the first round were in the 2017 recruiting class. Only Burrow (2015) and Derrick Brown (2016) seem to have spent more than 3 years in a D1 college uniform. South Carolina DT, Kinlaw should have been in the 2016 class but had to go JUCO for a year. He then signed with Carolina in 2017. That’s got to be a good selling point in recruiting. Come to our school kid, work your tail off, and you’ve got a good shot at getting to the league in 3 years.
High school evaluations are pretty decent but there are some gross misses by the services and this is just on the guys that made it. I’m not looking at the guys that didn’t. For example, Burrow was a 5.6 dual threat QB according to rivals but the worse miss was by everybody. Justin Jefferson, WR from LSU, #22 pick in the first round, was rated by rivals as a 5.2, 247 had him at 83, and ESPN didn’t bother. His composite was 7982.
Noah Igbinoghene, CB from Auburn, #30 pick, was a consensus WR coming out of high school, and a consensus 4-star, barely. This should be encouraging for Bryce and Alontae.
Patrick Queen, taken #28 as a LB from LSU, came out of high school being touted by 247 as an athlete, ESPN as a RB, and rivals as an OLB . This is our track for Beasley and Whitehead.
It’s pretty interesting backtracking the guys to their evaluations but the most striking thing so far is the overwhelming number that are 3-year guys. I no longer care about stars so much, just bring us a lot of 3-year guys. Obviously, Trey would have been a 3-yearer without the medical issue, To’o To’o is on track to be a 3-yearer, maybe Wanya and Darnell. It’ll be interesting to see who else emerges. jmo.