Being the number one high school football recruit in the country comes with a ton of pressure and weight on your shoulders. Some can handle it and some just flat out can’t. I started to ask myself, where are the all the former number one football recruits according to Rivals.com. In this feature, I will dive into every number one overall recruit since 2002. Let’s get the ball rolling.
2002 – Vince Young (Texas, Dual Threat QB)
Vince Young had a wildly successful collegiate career at the university of Texas, highlighted by winning a national championship in what some consider to be the greatest national championship game ever played. Young was then drafted by the Tennessee Titans and had a semi successful NFL career making the pro bowl in 2006 and 2009. Although his time in the NFL was somewhat short, Young is widely considered one of the greatest college quarterbacks to ever play the game of football. Vince Young is currently working as a real estate agent in Austin, Texas. Rivals was about as accurate as you can be with having Young at number one in the 2002 rankings.
2003 – Ernie Sims (Florida State, ILB)
Ernie Sims was an undersized inside linebacker who never really lived up to his number one overall billing. Sims played his entire college career at Florida State and even managed to make second team All-ACC and First team All-American according to ESPN. He was drafted ninth overall by the Detroit Lions and found himself being compared to Derrick Brooks by his pro coaches. Ultimately, Sims is considered a bust by most NFL draft scouts because he never lived up to the first round draft pick status. He bounced from team to team from 2006-2014. Sims is currently living in his hometown of Tallahassee, Florida and owns his own training gym. He also runs his own radio show in Florida.
2004 – Adrian Peterson (Oklahoma, RB)
Adrian Peterson is still the best running back I have ever seen play in college. During his true freshman season at Oklahoma, Peterson had such a spectacular season that he was invited to the Heisman ceremony where he finished second in the voting behind Matt Leinart. Eventually, he was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings with the seventh overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft. Peterson surpassed expectations and absolutely lived up to his billing. Adrian Peterson is widely considered to be one of the greatest running backs of all time and will be a first ballot Hall of Famer whenever he decides to hang the cleats up. Peterson is currently a free agent in the NFL after finishing the 2017 season with the Arizona Cardinals. No matter the injury, Adrian Peterson always came back stronger, faster and better every single time.
2005 – Derrick Williams (Penn State, Athlete)
Derrick Williams was widely considered the top high school football prospect in America regardless of what website you follow. He was a standout freshman playing quarterback, running back and wide receiver. He had a successful college career at Penn State, making first team All-Big Ten in 2008 and being drafted in the third round of the NFL draft in 2009. Although he only played two seasons in the NFL, he was a star in college football. He never lived up to that number one ranking, but did find success under Joe Paterno. Derrick Williams is currently working as a radio broadcaster with a Penn State radio broadcast.
2006 – Percy Harvin (Florida, WR)
Percy Harvin played his college football at Florida and won two national championships there. Harvin was a first team All-American in 2008 and still remains one of the most explosive receivers to ever play college football. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 2009 and enjoyed a four year career with them, in which time he made the pro bowl in 2009, but was traded to the Seattle Seahawks in 2013.
If not for injuries, Harvin very well may have been one of the great wide receivers in the NFL, but his career was cut short and he retired for the second and final time in 2017 after a stint with the Buffalo Bills. Percy Harvin is currently living in Gainesville, Florida and helping mentor players on Florida’s football team. Florida Head football coach Dan Mullen and Percy Harvin remain friends and actually live in the same subdivision in Gainesville. If not for injuries Harvin may have actually lived up to the billing, but we will cut Percy a break because of those same injuries.
2007 – Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame, Pro Style QB)
Jimmy Clausen attended Notre Dame for his college years and actually had a decent amount of success there. Although he never lived up to that “next best quarterback of all time” hype he still found ways to win games at Notre Dame. Clausen threw for 3,000 yards in his Sophomore and Junior seasons at Notre Dame and chose to forgo his senior year and enter the NFL Draft.
Clausen was widely thought to be the first quarterback off the board, but he slid all the way into the back half of the second round, ultimately being selected by the Carolina Panthers with the 48th overall pick. Jimmy Clausen was not a good quarterback at the NFL level and the Panthers drafted Cam Newton the next year with the first overall pick to further prove this. He had stints with the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Ravens, but after the 2015 season he never played a down in the NFL again. Jimmy Clausen currently resides in California and is a real estate agent who has a son and a wife. Clausen did not live up to the number one ranking. He is commonly referred to as a bust by most football fans.
2008 – Terrelle Pryor (Ohio State, Dual Threat QB)
Terrelle Pryor had a chance to win the Heisman trophy and probably a National Championship at Ohio State if it wasn’t for some dumb tattoo scandal that cost him his senior season. He was a freak athlete with crazy speed and one of the most explosive players to play the quarterback position in college football history. Once he was suspended for the first five games of his senior season, Pryor chose to put his name in the supplemental draft and was taken in the third round by the Oakland Raiders. He saw some success as as a quarterback in the NFL while at Oakland, with his biggest hang up being the ability to throw the ball down field.
In 2016, Pryor made the switch to receiver with the Cleveland Browns after a couple unsuccessful attempts at being a backup QB around the NFL and actually had a 1,000 yard receiving season for the Browns in 2016, resulting in a big contract by the Washington Redskins. The Redskins stint wasn’t what Pryor had hoped for as injuries cost him most of his season. Terrelle Pryor is currently playing on a one-year deal worth 4.5 million dollars with the New York Jets. In college Pryor absolutely lived up to the number one overall billing, but his NFL career never took off like most people thought it would.
2009 – Bryce Brown – (Tennessee & Kansas State, RB)
The Bryce Brown situation is one that will always make you ask the question “What if?” Bryce Brown had a handler in his recruiting that actually charged people to gain access to what was happening with Brown’s life. The handler, named Brian Butler, probably ruined Bryce Brown’s career because of all the ridiculous things he put Brown through. Brown’s brother Arthur Brown played at Miami and Bryce was expected to follow him there, but after not committing to sign until a month after signing day, Bryce Brown ended up playing at Tennessee.
Brown played at Tennessee one season before transferring and following his brother who transferred to Kansas State. Bryce Brown would never play a down at Kansas State and left the football team in 2011 to get ready for the 2012 NFL draft. He was selected with the 229th pick in the seventh round by the Philadelphia Eagles. Brown actually had two games for the Eagles in 2012 in which he rushed for over 100 yards. After short stints with the Seahawks and Bills, Bryce Brown would never play another down in the NFL.
This situation has to make everyone a little frustrated because of how talented Brown was, every football fan will always be wondering what could have been. Bryce Brown is currently a free agent and looking to get back into the league. He is married with two kids. Bryce Brown hasn’t posted on social media since 2016 so finding personal information is pretty difficult. He was undoubtedly a massive bust, but had he not had someone pulling the strings for him, who knows how his career would have turned out.
2010 – Ronald Powell (Florida, WDE)
Ronald Powell may have had the best performance in a high school All-Star game I have ever seen. Powell won the MVP at the Army All-American bowl and looked like a surefire future college football star. He had a relatively quiet college career at Florida and actually tore his left ACL twice. Even before the injuries, Powell still didn’t look like the star he was touted to be coming out of high school. He finished his college career playing in eleven games as a senior with the Gators. The New Orleans saints took a flier on him in the fifth round of the NFL Draft, and he played one season with them before being cut and spent some practice squad time with the Bears and Seahawks. Powell is currently an NFL free agent. This was just a huge whiff by the Rivals recruiting analysts. Even before the injuries Powell never played at the number one overall recruit level.
2011 – Jadeveon Clowney (South Carolina, SDE)
Jadeveon Clowney dominated high school football like no other player in South Carolina high school football history. I went to watch him at the Shrine Bowl and was just blown away at how one player could honestly be so dominant. Clowney enjoyed a three year college career with the University of South Carolina and was as dominant in college as he was in high school, even though he sat out some games in his junior season because he did not want to get hurt before the NFL Draft. Jadeveon Clowney was drafted number one overall by the Houston Texans in the 2014 NFL Draft, which most people saw coming. Clowney made the pro bowl in 2016 and 2017 and was an All-Pro in 2016. Jadeveon Clowney is another great hit by the Rivals.com staff, although he was sort of a cant-miss prospect, it still counts as an absolute hit at number one.
2012 – Dorial Green-Beckham (Missouri & Oklahoma, WR)
Dorial Green-Beckham’s high school highlight tape showed that his competition was probably not the best because all of them were just so much smaller than him. Green-Beckham’s college career at Missouri was basically defined by mistake after mistake. He was always getting into some kind of legal trouble that caused him to miss games. When he was on the field, though, he was usually playing at a very high level. Once Green-Beckham was finally dismissed from Missouri, he transferred to Oklahoma, where he never played a down and declared for the 2015 NFL Draft. Green-Beckham was taken in the second round with the 40th overall selection by the Tennessee Titans and played one season with them before being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. Green-Beckham was waived by the Eagles after the 2016 season. Two seasons is all that this former number one prospect could last in the NFL. This was another huge miss by Rivals, although they couldn’t see all the legal trouble he was going to get himself into, they should have taken a closer look at the competition he was playing against in high school. Green-Beckham is currently back in his home state of Missouri dealing with legal issues from a DWI.
2013 – Robert Nkemdiche (Ole Miss, SDE)
Robert Nkemdiche’s recruiting process involved more drama than an early 2000’s reality TV show. His mother pulled all the strings and he was once committed to Clemson, then eventually signed with Ole Miss. Nkemdiche saw a ton of success at Ole Miss, playing inside and outside on the defensive line. He earned first team All-Sec honors in 2015 and most people expected him to declare for the draft. Then he had an incident where he jumped out of a fourth story window to try to escape police officers, which did not work. He then, after this major incident declared for the draft where this situation caused him to drop to pick 29 of the first round. Nkemdiche has been pretty quiet in his first two NFL seasons, never playing in all sixteen games. He is considered by some to be on the roster bubble entering the 2018 season.
Nkemdiche never really lived up to the hype of being the number one overall guy, but he had a pretty good college career. Nothing special enough for people to remember him other than the Rivals number one overall guy in 2013.
2014 – Da’Shawn Hand (Alabama, SDE)
Da’Shawn Hand played defensive end most of his time at Alabama and made All-SEC second team in 2016 and 2017. This one always confused me because I thought Myles Garrett, who Rivals ranked number two behind Hand, was a superior high school prospect based on his highlights. Hand had a pretty good career at Alabama and was eventually drafted by the Detroit Lions with the 114th pick in the fourth round of the 2018 NFL Draft. I think this was a big miss by Rivals to have Hand at number one over the likes of guys like Jabrill Peppers, Myles Garrett and Leonard Fournette. Hand is currently a member of the Detroit Lions and about to go through his first NFL training camp, so maybe the light will turn on and he will finally become the superstar Rivals predicted him to be.
2015 – Byron Cowart (Auburn &Maryland, SDE)
Byron Cowart’s film from his high school days in Florida looked like a thing of pure beauty. This guy was supposed to come in and absolutely wreak havoc in the SEC and that just never happened. Cowart only played two seasons at Auburn before transferring to Maryland. The expectations won’t be as high at Maryland as they were in the SEC. Here’s to hoping Rivals didn’t miss on this guy and his light will come on when he switches from defensive end to defensive tackle at Maryland.
2016 – Rashan Gary (Michigan, DT)
Rashan Gary was a jumbo defensive tackle prospect out of New Jersey who signed with the Michigan Wolverines. In his first two seasons at Michigan he has been an absolute monster, so this seems like a big hit for the guys over at Rivals. Gary made first team All-Big Ten in 2017 during his Sophomore campaign. He is projected to be a top 5 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft by most draft websites. So far, Rashan Gary has lived up to the number one overall expectations, which has proven to be very rare thus far.
2017 – Najee Harris (Alabama, RB)
Najee Harris’s high school highlight reel was absolutely jaw dropping. He is currently entering his Sophomore season at Alabama and was the leading rusher in Alabama’s national championship victory this past season. Harris will look to take on a much bigger role this upcoming season. The verdict isn’t out yet on Harris. So we can shove this one in our back pocket for later, but so far so good for Najee Harris.
2018 – Trevor Lawrence (Clemson, Pro Style QB)
Mike Farrell of Rivals.com called Trevor Lawrence the best high school prospect he has ever scouted and I don’t think anyone would disagree with that statement. Lawrence has a chance to take the keys to the car and run the show for the Clemson team that looks poised to win a National Championship in 2018. Lawrence will be in a battle with incumbent Kelly Bryant to win the starting spot on this team. Clemson coaches have basically said this is the most talented quarterback they have ever seen play the sport, so we will put this one as a to be determined, but everything coming out of Clemson’s camp sounds like this was a BIG hit.
Conclusion
Rivals is batting about .500 on number one prospects, so it’s hard not to keep trusting them with recruiting rankings. No number one overall high school recruit according to Rivals.com has won a Heisman trophy. Also if you are a QB who can’t make it in the NFL you should really go into real estate.
For more college football and Clemson insight this season follow me on twitter @JohnnyRambos .