Big Ten Recruiting Class Rankings 7-25-10

Submitted by Tim on

To the front page, since Michigan got a commit.

Action since last rankings:

7-18-10 Michigan gains commitment from Jake Fisher. Iowa gains commitment from Mike Orloff. Purdue gains commitment from Taylor Richards.
7-21-10 Illinois gains commitment from Tony Durkin. Northwestern gains commitment from Jack Konopka.
7-22-10 Illinois gains commitment from Josh Ferguson.

Big Ten+ Recruiting Class Rankings
Rank School # Commits Rivals Avg Scout Avg ESPN Avg
1 Ohio State 17 5.75 3.82 79.18
2 Notre Dame 12 5.64 3.42 75.92
3 Nebraska 13 5.62 3.15 72.77
4 Michigan 8 5.67 3.25 78.00
5 Michigan State 9 5.52 3.00 76.11
6 Indiana 20 5.48 2.45 72.45
7 Northwestern 11 5.50 2.70 76.70
8 Iowa 11 5.50 2.55 73.09
9 Minnesota 11 5.38 2.45 73.27
10 Wisconsin 6 5.45 2.50 71.00
11 Purdue 6 5.30 2.83 65.83
12 Illinois 9 5.31 2.67 65.44
13 Penn State 3 5.57 3.00 76.67

Rivals rankings have been converted to their "RR" scale, which is on a scale from about 5 to about 6.1. Unrated prospects are given a 5.1 rating, on par with the worst of any Big Ten commit last year. Scout is on the 5-star system, and ESPN uses grades out of 100.

#1 Ohio State - 17 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Michael Bennett DT 6.0 4 80
Braxton Miller QB 5.9 5 81
Kenny Hayes DE 5.9 4 78
Steve Miller DE 5.8 5 84
Nick Vannett TE 5.8 4 80
Jeremy Cash S 5.8 4 80
Chase Farris DE 5.8 4 79
Brian Bobek OL 5.8 4 79
Evan Spencer WR 5.7 4 81
DerJuan Gambrell CB 5.7 4 77
Devin Smith WR 5.7 4 76
Jeff Heuerman TE 5.7 3 80
Joel Hale DT 5.7 3 79
Chris Carter OL 5.7 3 78
Ron Tanner S 5.6 4 78
Tommy Brown OL 5.6 3 78
Antonio Underwood OL 5.6 3 75

No change for the Buckeyes.

#2 Notre Dame - 12 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Ben Koyack TE 5.9 5 81
Matt Hegarty OL 5.9 4 83
Eilar Hardy S 5.8 4 79
Jordan Prestwood OL 5.7 4 80
Jarrett Grace LB 5.7 4 78
Tony Springmann OL 5.7 3 78
Conor Hanratty OL 5.6 4 76
Clay Burton DE 5.6 3 79
Ben Councell DE 5.6 3 78
Brad Carrico OL 5.6 3 77
Matthias Farley CB 5.5 3 77
Kyle Brindza K NR NR NR

Long time, no commits for the Irish.

#3 Nebraska - 13 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Tyler Moore OL 5.9 4 78
Bubba Starling QB 5.8 4 81
Jamal Turner QB 5.8 4 81
Ryne Reeves OL 5.8 4 79
Tevin Mitchell CB 5.8 4 79
Ryan Klachko OL 5.8 4 78
Zach Sterup OL 5.8 3 78
Kevin Williams DT 5.7 3 79
Dylan Admire OL 5.6 3 77
Daniel Davie S 5.5 2 75
Aaryn Bouzos CB 5.4 2 76
Daimion Stafford S NR 3 NR
Nicklas Sade K NR NR NR

The Huskers are still awaiting rankings for a couple guys. I imagine all the kickers will be ranked at once in the next updates on the major site, but I'm not sure Stafford will ever be ranked by ESPN, since they list JuCo guys separately.

#4 Michigan - 8 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Brennen Beyer DE 5.8 4 79
Delonte Hollowell CB 5.8 3 79
Chris Rock DE 5.7 3 78
Shawn Conway WR 5.7 3 78
Greg Brown CB 5.7 3 77
Jake Fisher OL 5.6 4 77
Kevin Sousa QB 5.6 3 78
Jack Miller OL 5.5 3 78

Michigan picks up Jake Fisher. He had a strong camp season, so we'll see if he gets a rankings bump.

#5 Michigan State - 9 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Lawrence Thomas LB 6.1 5 80
Connor Cook QB 5.7 2 76
Onaje Miller RB/Ath 5.6 4 78
Taiwan Jones Ath/LB 5.6 3 78
AJ Sims CB 5.6 2 78
Mark Scarpinato DT 5.5 3 76
Trae Waynes CB 5.4 3 75
Joel Heath DE NR 3 76
Paul Lang TE NR 2 68

No change for MSU.

#6 Indiana - 20 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Raymon Taylor CB 5.8 3 77
Zack Shaw LB 5.8 2 76
Max Pirman LB 5.6 3 78
D'Angelo Roberts RB 5.6 3 77
Jake Reed TE 5.6 3 77
Jalen Schlachter TE 5.6 3 75
Ralston Evans OL 5.6 3 74
Tre Roberson QB 5.6 2 76
CJ Robbins DE 5.5 3 75
Nick Stoner S 5.5 3 74
Kirk Harris OL 5.5 2 77
Kyle Kennedy LB 5.5 2 76
Mark Murphy S 5.5 2 NR
Kenny Mullen CB 5.4 3 74
Jay McCants WR 5.4 2 75
Mike Replogle LB 5.4 2 74
Donte Phillips DE 5.4 2 74
Shafer Johnson DT NR 2 77
Nick VanHoose DB NR 2 74
Forisse Hardin S NR 2 74

Hoosiers quietly putting together a solid class. Will it be poached like last year's? The Hoosiers stand to fall and fall hard once some other schools reach comparable commit numbers.

#7 Northwestern - 11 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Sean Cotton S 5.7 3 79
Shane Mertz OL 5.6 3 79
Jack Konopka OL 5.6 3 79
Zack Oliver QB 5.6 3 78
Jarrell Williams CB 5.6 3 76
Matt Frazier OL 5.6 3 75
Geoff Mogus OL 5.5 3 75
Mark Szott TE 5.5 2 77
Derek Watt LB 5.5 2 77
Cameron Dickerson WR 5.3 3 73
Max Chapman DE NR 2 78

The Wildcats pass the Hawkeyes with the same number of commits, and better average rankings on all but Rivals. Iowa stands to regain the lead, since they have more unranked guys at this time.

#8 Iowa - 11 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Austin Blythe OL 5.8 3 79
Ray Hamilton TE 5.7 4 79
JaCorey Shepherd WR 5.6 3 78
Riley McMinn DE 5.6 3 77
Jake Rudock QB 5.6 2 78
Marcus Grant WR 5.6 2 76
Jake Duzey TE 5.5 3 73
Henry Krieger-Coble TE 5.5 2 78
Mike Orloff LB 5.4 NR 68
John Raymon DE NR 3 NR
Austin Vincent WR NR 2 73

Mike Orloff becomes the Hawkeye's lowest-rated recruit on Rivals and ESPN. Scout hasn't looked at him yet.

#9 Minnesota - 11 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Tommy Olson OL 5.7 3 79
Matt LaCosse ATH 5.6 3 78
Max Shortell QB 5.6 3 74
Quinn Bauducco LB 5.6 3 74
Kyle McAvoy OL 5.5 3 79
Luke McAvoy OL 5.4 2 75
Sam Rohr TE 5.4 2 74
Marquise Vann LB NR 3 78
Jephete Matilus LB NR 2 77
Devin Crawford-Tufts WR NR 2 74
Samuel Oyenuga CB NR NR NR

Devin Craford-Tufts grabs a 74 rating from ESPN. The Gophers pass up Purdue on the basis of similar-or-better average rankings and a much higher number of commits.

#10 Wisconsin - 6 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Jake Keefer LB 5.8 3 78
Sam Arneson TE 5.7 3 78
Jordan Frederick LB 5.5 3 75
Austin Maly TE 5.5 2 76
Derek Landisch LB NR 2 74
Eric Steffes TE NR 2 NR

Wisconsin passes Purdue on the basis of (much) higher averages from Rivals and ESPN with the same number of commits. Plus their class is funny because it only has two positions in it.

#11 Purdue - 6 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Russell Bellomy QB 5.5 3 78
Robert Kugler TE 5.5 3 78
Brandon Cottom LB 5.5 3 76
Michael Rouse DT NR 3 73
Randy Gregory DE NR 3 NR
Taylor Richards CB NR 2 77

Taylor Richards joins Purdue. ESPN really likes him, but Rivals hasn't even ranked the guy.

#12 Illinois - 9 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Zeph Grimes S 5.6 3 77
Tony Durkin OL 5.6 3 74
Josh Ferguson RB 5.5 3 75
Chris O'Connor DE 5.4 3 75
Hunter Wells OL 5.3 3 NR
Chris Boles OL NR 3 77
Reilly O'Toole QB NR 3 76
Marquise Mosley WR NR 2 NR
Justin DuVernois K NR NR NR

Illini pick up a couple new prospects, pulling up their averages. They're close to passing Purdue because they have more commits with similar overall averages.

#13 Penn State - 3 Commits
Name Position Rivals Scout ESPN
Shawn Oakman DE 5.8 4 77
Jordan Kerner DE 5.5 3 77
Kyle Carter TE 5.4 2 76

LOLPSU.

Football

Comments

MGoShoe

July 25th, 2010 at 2:53 PM ^

...here are some things to chew on.

Rittenberg's 22 July article on the topic

There seems to be a bit of angst among Penn State fans these days.

Not so much about Joe Paterno's future or even the uncertainty at quarterback entering preseason camp, but rather the team's recruiting efforts for 2011. Or lack thereof.

Penn State has only three verbal commitments for 2011, the lowest total in the Big Ten. It's worth noting that the 2011 class will be smaller than normal and Penn State signed the Big Ten's top recruiting class in February, but the recruiting situation continues to generate attention and anxiety. You should check my inbox if you don't believe me.

And speaking of his inbox, Rittenberg's latest Big Ten Friday Mailbag

Bob from Scranton, Pa., writes: Why is everyone so worried about PSU's recruiting? They have had the top or one of the top recruiting classes in the Big Ten for the last 5 years. With approximately 17 scholarships available, they are taking their time. By the end of the month, I would not be surprised to see several Big time recruits commit to PSU. Paterno knows what he is doing.

Adam Rittenberg: Bob, I like your attitude toward this, but a lot of fans have a hard time being patient about recruiting. And I understand their anxiety as well, especially when teams like Texas, Ohio State and Florida State are racking up top recruits. Heck, even Indiana is pretty much done with 2010 recruiting, and it's only July 22. Penn State's recruiting has been very good for a while after a dip in the early part of the 2000s. This won't be a huge class and might not be as highly rated as the 2010 crop, but I have faith that Joe Paterno's staff will get it done. That said, the longer this goes without Penn State landing a few big-time verbal commits, the more anxious Nittany Lions fans will get.

Joined: 04/23/2009

MGoPoints: 20734

Ziff72

July 25th, 2010 at 3:05 PM ^

Tim,  what do you think of giving unranked ESPN guys a rating of 70 or high 60's?  By giving them a zero it skews the averages pretty bad.

Joined: 07/07/2008

MGoPoints: 9823

Ziff72

July 25th, 2010 at 5:16 PM ^

Makes sense good research...ESPN gives unrated players a 40 or 45.  What I am saying is that these players are at worst 2 stars or the equivalent of a 60's player on ESPN.  They don't rate anyone a 40.  If we can assume they will at least be high 60's then give them that it won't skew he rankings as much.  Any team with an unranked player has their ratings severely effected. 

Joined: 07/07/2008

MGoPoints: 9823

Nez

July 25th, 2010 at 8:42 PM ^

I blindly accepted the Big Ten + marked at the top to be an easy way to usher them into the BT discussion, but considering that they only play three games against BT opponents, you're right. I don't know why they were included here.

Joined: 06/14/2010

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