I’ve found over the years a “5-star” football prospect is typically a player with elite athleticism in their designated position. If you have 4.4 speed at cornerback, it’s a maybe, but if you project to safety or linebacker with 4.4 speed then you have a great chance at getting the 5th star from the service rankings. The 6-4, 300 pound defensive lineman who has 10+ sacks and great edge-rushing film is also often getting a 5-star designation. “Look at this guy, elite edge with 50 extra pounds!”
Another occasion where you’ll see a 5-star designation awarded is when a player is more of a pure athlete than a specific sort of football player. Texas has been in on several such players over the last few seasons.
Jordan Whittington played wide receiver, safety, and wildcat quarterback for Cuero high school while guiding his team to a State Championship. What position does he play in college? Texas is still working it out while trying to get him consistently healthy, but when he was a senior in high school his theoretically wide open future was a plus. At Texas it’s been more of a problem thus far.
Ditto Bru McCoy, who had nice film as both a sort of possession receiver AND an edge rusher. He didn’t necessarily look elite in either regard, but as a 230 pound true athlete with potential in either direction, he got a 5th star almost as a hedge. An illness forced a redshirt from McCoy and he’s beginning to translate his general athleticism and ball skills into a wide receiver spot with the Air Raid USC Trojans now.
Ja’Tavion Sanders is the newest of this tradition. At 6-3, 240 with above average quickness, flypaper hands, and some edge rushing film he tends to get the benefit of the doubt as a guy who could become either a tight end or outside linebacker/end. Would he be a 5-star if his film only included him in one of those roles? Less clear, but he has some elite attributes you would want to see in an NFL draft pick and could theoretically get there via a couple of positions.
Here’s a look at the 5-star players for the state of Texas in the 2021 class and the upcoming 2022 class and whether their rankings are due to elite projection at key positions or general athleticism.
The 2021 5-stars in Texas per the 247 composite
Tommy Brockermeyer: 6-6, 283. All Saints Episcopal HS (Fort Worth). .9979. Signed with Alabama
Brockermeyer’s dad Blake was an NFL offensive lineman after an All-American career at Texas. Tommy has a good deal of size, strength, and technical knowhow as you might guess from being the son of an NFL player and one of four sons. His twin brother James is good as well, although smaller, and heading to Alabama with him, leaving older broker Luke (walk-on linebacker) behind in Austin.
Brockermeyer is an obvious talent with obvious projection to offensive tackle and both a clear sense of how to achieve success as well as considerable oversight in the process.
Ja’Tavion Sanders: 6-4, 240. Denton Ryan HS (North Dallas). .9933. Signed with Texas
Sanders was dominant for an overpowering Denton Ryan team also boasting 4-star wide receiver Billy Bowman, 4-star defensive tackle Bear Alexander, and some other high level talents. Denton Ryan had more blue chip talent on this team than the majority of the programs in the Big 12.
Anyways, Sanders could be a great tight end in Sarkisian’s offense or a great Jack linebacker for Pete Kwiatkowski but he might be a 5-star more for the multiple paths than his projection in any one spot.
Donovan Jackson: 6-5, 308. Episcopal HS (Houston). .9902. Signed with Ohio State
Jackson is athletic, bendy, and powerful with ready-made size for the college game. He’s listed as a guard and I’m not sure why because his wingspan is that of a 6-10 man. It’s not super common to see a player with his reach, athleticism, and size out of high school so all those tools make for an obvious 5-star stamp.
Shemar Turner: 6-4, 282. DeSoto HS (South Dallas). .9879. Signed with Texas A&M
Lightning quick and powerful off the ball at 6-4, 282, Turner checks all the physical boxes for a defensive lineman prospect. DeSoto used him everywhere. In limited senior highlights you can see him drop better than many linebackers into zone coverage before running down a scrambling quarterback and turn the corner on an offensive tackle when lined up at defensive end. He runs around like a linebacker at 6-4, 280, there’s not much else to be said. I suspect he’ll end up replacing DeMarvin Leal at A&M’s crucial strongside end position in 2022.
Camar Wheaton: 5-11, 190. (East Dallas) .9836. Signed with Alabama
Wheaton is a lightning fast athlete who’s been clocked at 10.6 in the 100m and he’s a solid running back on film. Honestly though, this one doesn’t make a great deal of sense. The jump cuts and top speed are great, the numbers aren’t actually particularly amazing though and I wonder how effective he is at breaking tackles and managing tacklers when he doesn’t have as much space to operate in.
There seems to be too much excitement to give out a 5th star to running backs with elite level quickness (Zach Evans, Jase McClellan, Jonathan Gray) regardless of whether they have proven skill at finding lanes and picking up gains when they aren’t operating in wide open space in a spread concept. It’s a different ball game when finding the same level of open space as high school first requires being able to break an arm tackle from a guy like Shemar Turner, or dealing with a safety who can cut off angles.
No one will be surprised if/when these five guys are successful in college, I actually think Brockermeyer, Jackson, and Turner are the players though who are most likely to translate their awesome athleticism into results for their college programs though.
The 2022 5-stars in Texas per the 247 composite
Quinn Ewers: 6-3, 195. Southlake Carroll HS (North Dallas). 1.000. Committed to Ohio State
Ewers is the highest rated prospect in history, obviously, since his score is perfect. The suggestion from his score is he’s totally without flaws for a high school quarterback prospect. It seems a bit much, but it is hard to find many holes in his game worth making any real stink over.
If I had to nitpick, I’d circle in on his lack of elite escapability and athleticism as a runner. He’s not going to Vince Young or Kyler Murray a team to a title. Ewers is the best high school passer I’ve ever seen though and his ceiling in college would be as a force multiplier in an offense with a good offensive line and play-action passing game, setting him up to throw open double moves down the field. If he can do that, he’ll put up Sam Bradford type numbers and his team will score 50 points per game. If you need someone to erase mistakes from the offensive line and call his own shots? He won’t be elite there, although I suspect he’ll be able to deal out a great deal of damage with even sporadic protection.
Obviously he’s a quarterback, this is a generational thrower.
Denver Harris: 6-1, 180. North Shore HS (Houston). .9944. Uncommitted
Harris plays press-man coverage in the ultimate press-man defense at North Shore. He has elite athleticism and he’s getting a lot of excellent instruction and very difficult reps (both in practice and in the games) playing press-man coverage in 6A ball for the perennially contending North Shore Mustangs.
This is a no brainer, it’s hard to find guys who can flip their hips and run with top wide receivers with Harris’ length and size. Usually you’re giving up something on one end of the equation.
Devon Campbell: 6-4, 295. Bowie HS (Arlington). .9937. Uncommitted
Much like Donovan Jackson, if you are rating a player as a guard and calling him a 5-star it feels more like you’re saying “I’m pretty sure he’s going to be a guard in the NFL” than really projecting them to play guard in college. At 6-4 with solid reach and elite athleticism, it’d be hard for even a college like Alabama or Ohio State to keep Campbell away from tackle for the duration of his career.
He’s playing right tackle and nose right now at Bowie and they’re using him for the run game. He’s a terrific overall athlete and immensely powerful at the point of attack so it’s easy enough to say “at the least, he’ll be a guard you can run behind and has NFL quality.” I don’t love the OG vs OT designations on 247 though, you shouldn’t be trying to project an NFL position for a high schooler. If he can learn to kick step he’ll play outside unless on a team with multiple other NFL athletes on the offensive line who are even better.
As it happens, I’ve seen the other top lineman within the state in this cycle and it’s not at all obvious to me Devon Campbell is the best, although any school would be thrilled to sign him.
Harold Perkins: 6-3, 200. Cy Park HS (West Houston). .9902. Uncommitted
Now things get really interesting. Perkins is pretty similar to another 5-star “linebacker” to come out of Texas in recent years, Marcel Brooks. Coming out of Flower Mound as a 6-2, 205 pounder, Brooks took his 4.4 athleticism to LSU where they had him at linebacker before transferring to TCU where Gary Patterson tried him at linebacker and edge last year before he eventually moved to wide receiver for this upcoming season. Pretty bizarre.
Perkins is also similar to Malik Jefferson, who played as a nickel linebacker in a 3-4 defense at Garland and put up sick highlights coming unblocked off the edge with unexpected speed to wreck plays for opposing offenses. Perkins is basically doing the same thing on 90% of his highlights. So what position will he play in college?
He’s similar to guys like Roy Williams or Isaiah Simmons in athletic profile, but those guys had a lot of reps at safety coming into college. Williams could fit the box from the hash mark and then they taught him to play the edge at nickel as well. Isaiah Simmons could turn and run with receivers and play man on slots. Perkins could theoretically do those things, because he’s fast, but he hasn’t had much foundation in high school games doing so, he’s just been able to fly to the ball unimpeded. Can he learn to read flow from inside linebacker and gain extra weight to hold up inside? If he does, will he still maintain the speed which makes him elite?
I understand a 4.4 sprinter who’s 6-3, 200 out of high school is an exciting canvas to paint on but I’ve seen this Robert Ross episode a few times and the painting isn’t always particularly brilliant. Will he be Gary Johnson, Baron Browning, or Tyler Owens?
Caleb Burton: 6-0, 165. Del Valle HS (Austin). .9874. Committed to Ohio State
Ohio State’s favorite pastime these days is plucking high level recruits out of Austin, if they can sign a top player from Austin it occasionally seems they relish it over poaching from anywhere else.
Burton missed his junior year with a knee injury, which complicates his projection a little, but he has freshman and sophomore film going up against quality Westlake and Lake Travis defenses so he’s certainly not a total unknown. What he’s shown so far is fantastic coordination both as a route runner and in securing catches. It’s easy for him to get open and then he’s reliable at securing the catch afterwards and making something of his opportunities with the ball in his hands in space. It’s not clear if he’ll be an elite deep threat which is what I’d want to see in order to make a receiver a 5-star, but his ability to change speeds and go get the ball suggests he probably will be. Receivers can be very hard to evaluate off high school film because they may or may not be paired with the sort of quarterback and passing game who can maximize their ability. The same issue plays out with some of these offensive linemen who’s high schools tend to put their athleticism to use in paving paths for ballcarriers rather than mastering pass protection skills.
Kelvin Banks: 6-5, 300. Summer Creek HS (North Houston). .9844
To my eyes Kelvin Banks is actually the best and most promising athlete of all the linemen in the 2022 class for Texas, which is high praise. This is a uniquely strong group for the state, possibly the best I’ve seen, but Banks is the best athlete of the bunch and probably a little further ahead with the kick step than the others.
The fact Campbell is the highest rated is indicative of how the 5-star rankings don’t always mean what you’d think. Does he have the highest chance of making a pro someday? Maybe, it’s pretty close with a lot of the in-state linemen who all appear to have pro-potential. Is he going to be the most valuable player for the college program he signs with over all the other instate linemen?
Only if he plays left tackle. A dominant guard is simply not likely to have the same impact for his team as a good left tackle.
The 5-star rankings regularly aim to identify the players who most cleanly project to playing football at the highest level because of elite-level measurables. Sometimes that means players with murky projections but outstanding talent get high ratings, sometimes it means players who won’t necessarily have a massive impact for their college program but have a good shot at translating their skills into paychecks.
The recruiting services have managed to correlate their rankings decently to NFL draft results, that in turn can tell you which teams have some of the best players and talents, but the devil is in the details. There isn’t a perfect correlation and sometimes the appraisal of elite measurables over actual utilization on the field paints the wrong picture.
Another occasion where you’ll see a 5-star designation awarded is when a player is more of a pure athlete than a specific sort of football player. Texas has been in on several such players over the last few seasons.
Jordan Whittington played wide receiver, safety, and wildcat quarterback for Cuero high school while guiding his team to a State Championship. What position does he play in college? Texas is still working it out while trying to get him consistently healthy, but when he was a senior in high school his theoretically wide open future was a plus. At Texas it’s been more of a problem thus far.
Ditto Bru McCoy, who had nice film as both a sort of possession receiver AND an edge rusher. He didn’t necessarily look elite in either regard, but as a 230 pound true athlete with potential in either direction, he got a 5th star almost as a hedge. An illness forced a redshirt from McCoy and he’s beginning to translate his general athleticism and ball skills into a wide receiver spot with the Air Raid USC Trojans now.
Ja’Tavion Sanders is the newest of this tradition. At 6-3, 240 with above average quickness, flypaper hands, and some edge rushing film he tends to get the benefit of the doubt as a guy who could become either a tight end or outside linebacker/end. Would he be a 5-star if his film only included him in one of those roles? Less clear, but he has some elite attributes you would want to see in an NFL draft pick and could theoretically get there via a couple of positions.
Here’s a look at the 5-star players for the state of Texas in the 2021 class and the upcoming 2022 class and whether their rankings are due to elite projection at key positions or general athleticism.
The 2021 5-stars in Texas per the 247 composite
Tommy Brockermeyer: 6-6, 283. All Saints Episcopal HS (Fort Worth). .9979. Signed with Alabama
Brockermeyer’s dad Blake was an NFL offensive lineman after an All-American career at Texas. Tommy has a good deal of size, strength, and technical knowhow as you might guess from being the son of an NFL player and one of four sons. His twin brother James is good as well, although smaller, and heading to Alabama with him, leaving older broker Luke (walk-on linebacker) behind in Austin.
Brockermeyer is an obvious talent with obvious projection to offensive tackle and both a clear sense of how to achieve success as well as considerable oversight in the process.
Ja’Tavion Sanders: 6-4, 240. Denton Ryan HS (North Dallas). .9933. Signed with Texas
Sanders was dominant for an overpowering Denton Ryan team also boasting 4-star wide receiver Billy Bowman, 4-star defensive tackle Bear Alexander, and some other high level talents. Denton Ryan had more blue chip talent on this team than the majority of the programs in the Big 12.
Anyways, Sanders could be a great tight end in Sarkisian’s offense or a great Jack linebacker for Pete Kwiatkowski but he might be a 5-star more for the multiple paths than his projection in any one spot.
Donovan Jackson: 6-5, 308. Episcopal HS (Houston). .9902. Signed with Ohio State
Jackson is athletic, bendy, and powerful with ready-made size for the college game. He’s listed as a guard and I’m not sure why because his wingspan is that of a 6-10 man. It’s not super common to see a player with his reach, athleticism, and size out of high school so all those tools make for an obvious 5-star stamp.
Shemar Turner: 6-4, 282. DeSoto HS (South Dallas). .9879. Signed with Texas A&M
Lightning quick and powerful off the ball at 6-4, 282, Turner checks all the physical boxes for a defensive lineman prospect. DeSoto used him everywhere. In limited senior highlights you can see him drop better than many linebackers into zone coverage before running down a scrambling quarterback and turn the corner on an offensive tackle when lined up at defensive end. He runs around like a linebacker at 6-4, 280, there’s not much else to be said. I suspect he’ll end up replacing DeMarvin Leal at A&M’s crucial strongside end position in 2022.
Camar Wheaton: 5-11, 190. (East Dallas) .9836. Signed with Alabama
Wheaton is a lightning fast athlete who’s been clocked at 10.6 in the 100m and he’s a solid running back on film. Honestly though, this one doesn’t make a great deal of sense. The jump cuts and top speed are great, the numbers aren’t actually particularly amazing though and I wonder how effective he is at breaking tackles and managing tacklers when he doesn’t have as much space to operate in.
There seems to be too much excitement to give out a 5th star to running backs with elite level quickness (Zach Evans, Jase McClellan, Jonathan Gray) regardless of whether they have proven skill at finding lanes and picking up gains when they aren’t operating in wide open space in a spread concept. It’s a different ball game when finding the same level of open space as high school first requires being able to break an arm tackle from a guy like Shemar Turner, or dealing with a safety who can cut off angles.
No one will be surprised if/when these five guys are successful in college, I actually think Brockermeyer, Jackson, and Turner are the players though who are most likely to translate their awesome athleticism into results for their college programs though.
The 2022 5-stars in Texas per the 247 composite
Quinn Ewers: 6-3, 195. Southlake Carroll HS (North Dallas). 1.000. Committed to Ohio State
Ewers is the highest rated prospect in history, obviously, since his score is perfect. The suggestion from his score is he’s totally without flaws for a high school quarterback prospect. It seems a bit much, but it is hard to find many holes in his game worth making any real stink over.
If I had to nitpick, I’d circle in on his lack of elite escapability and athleticism as a runner. He’s not going to Vince Young or Kyler Murray a team to a title. Ewers is the best high school passer I’ve ever seen though and his ceiling in college would be as a force multiplier in an offense with a good offensive line and play-action passing game, setting him up to throw open double moves down the field. If he can do that, he’ll put up Sam Bradford type numbers and his team will score 50 points per game. If you need someone to erase mistakes from the offensive line and call his own shots? He won’t be elite there, although I suspect he’ll be able to deal out a great deal of damage with even sporadic protection.
Obviously he’s a quarterback, this is a generational thrower.
Denver Harris: 6-1, 180. North Shore HS (Houston). .9944. Uncommitted
Harris plays press-man coverage in the ultimate press-man defense at North Shore. He has elite athleticism and he’s getting a lot of excellent instruction and very difficult reps (both in practice and in the games) playing press-man coverage in 6A ball for the perennially contending North Shore Mustangs.
This is a no brainer, it’s hard to find guys who can flip their hips and run with top wide receivers with Harris’ length and size. Usually you’re giving up something on one end of the equation.
Devon Campbell: 6-4, 295. Bowie HS (Arlington). .9937. Uncommitted
Much like Donovan Jackson, if you are rating a player as a guard and calling him a 5-star it feels more like you’re saying “I’m pretty sure he’s going to be a guard in the NFL” than really projecting them to play guard in college. At 6-4 with solid reach and elite athleticism, it’d be hard for even a college like Alabama or Ohio State to keep Campbell away from tackle for the duration of his career.
He’s playing right tackle and nose right now at Bowie and they’re using him for the run game. He’s a terrific overall athlete and immensely powerful at the point of attack so it’s easy enough to say “at the least, he’ll be a guard you can run behind and has NFL quality.” I don’t love the OG vs OT designations on 247 though, you shouldn’t be trying to project an NFL position for a high schooler. If he can learn to kick step he’ll play outside unless on a team with multiple other NFL athletes on the offensive line who are even better.
As it happens, I’ve seen the other top lineman within the state in this cycle and it’s not at all obvious to me Devon Campbell is the best, although any school would be thrilled to sign him.
Harold Perkins: 6-3, 200. Cy Park HS (West Houston). .9902. Uncommitted
Now things get really interesting. Perkins is pretty similar to another 5-star “linebacker” to come out of Texas in recent years, Marcel Brooks. Coming out of Flower Mound as a 6-2, 205 pounder, Brooks took his 4.4 athleticism to LSU where they had him at linebacker before transferring to TCU where Gary Patterson tried him at linebacker and edge last year before he eventually moved to wide receiver for this upcoming season. Pretty bizarre.
Perkins is also similar to Malik Jefferson, who played as a nickel linebacker in a 3-4 defense at Garland and put up sick highlights coming unblocked off the edge with unexpected speed to wreck plays for opposing offenses. Perkins is basically doing the same thing on 90% of his highlights. So what position will he play in college?
He’s similar to guys like Roy Williams or Isaiah Simmons in athletic profile, but those guys had a lot of reps at safety coming into college. Williams could fit the box from the hash mark and then they taught him to play the edge at nickel as well. Isaiah Simmons could turn and run with receivers and play man on slots. Perkins could theoretically do those things, because he’s fast, but he hasn’t had much foundation in high school games doing so, he’s just been able to fly to the ball unimpeded. Can he learn to read flow from inside linebacker and gain extra weight to hold up inside? If he does, will he still maintain the speed which makes him elite?
I understand a 4.4 sprinter who’s 6-3, 200 out of high school is an exciting canvas to paint on but I’ve seen this Robert Ross episode a few times and the painting isn’t always particularly brilliant. Will he be Gary Johnson, Baron Browning, or Tyler Owens?
Caleb Burton: 6-0, 165. Del Valle HS (Austin). .9874. Committed to Ohio State
Ohio State’s favorite pastime these days is plucking high level recruits out of Austin, if they can sign a top player from Austin it occasionally seems they relish it over poaching from anywhere else.
Burton missed his junior year with a knee injury, which complicates his projection a little, but he has freshman and sophomore film going up against quality Westlake and Lake Travis defenses so he’s certainly not a total unknown. What he’s shown so far is fantastic coordination both as a route runner and in securing catches. It’s easy for him to get open and then he’s reliable at securing the catch afterwards and making something of his opportunities with the ball in his hands in space. It’s not clear if he’ll be an elite deep threat which is what I’d want to see in order to make a receiver a 5-star, but his ability to change speeds and go get the ball suggests he probably will be. Receivers can be very hard to evaluate off high school film because they may or may not be paired with the sort of quarterback and passing game who can maximize their ability. The same issue plays out with some of these offensive linemen who’s high schools tend to put their athleticism to use in paving paths for ballcarriers rather than mastering pass protection skills.
Kelvin Banks: 6-5, 300. Summer Creek HS (North Houston). .9844
To my eyes Kelvin Banks is actually the best and most promising athlete of all the linemen in the 2022 class for Texas, which is high praise. This is a uniquely strong group for the state, possibly the best I’ve seen, but Banks is the best athlete of the bunch and probably a little further ahead with the kick step than the others.
The fact Campbell is the highest rated is indicative of how the 5-star rankings don’t always mean what you’d think. Does he have the highest chance of making a pro someday? Maybe, it’s pretty close with a lot of the in-state linemen who all appear to have pro-potential. Is he going to be the most valuable player for the college program he signs with over all the other instate linemen?
Only if he plays left tackle. A dominant guard is simply not likely to have the same impact for his team as a good left tackle.
The 5-star rankings regularly aim to identify the players who most cleanly project to playing football at the highest level because of elite-level measurables. Sometimes that means players with murky projections but outstanding talent get high ratings, sometimes it means players who won’t necessarily have a massive impact for their college program but have a good shot at translating their skills into paychecks.
The recruiting services have managed to correlate their rankings decently to NFL draft results, that in turn can tell you which teams have some of the best players and talents, but the devil is in the details. There isn’t a perfect correlation and sometimes the appraisal of elite measurables over actual utilization on the field paints the wrong picture.
