National Signing Day 2013: How Top Recruits Filled the Super Bowl 2013 Rosters
By Josh Sanchez
The biggest day in professional football, Super Bowl Sunday, is in the books and one of the biggest days in college football is just around the corner. National Signing Day is less than a week away and it seemed appropriate to connect the two and examine the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers rosters to see how many top recruits lived up to their potential.
Of course, the star rating system did not start prior to 2002, so some of the information is not available, but there are still a large number of five-star, four-star and three-star recruits.
Surprisingly, there were only four five-star recruits that made it to Super Bowl XLVII and three of them were members of the 49ers. San Francisco offensive lineman Alex Boone and linebacker Ahmad Brooks were among the five-star recruits represented, but the other five-star member of the 49ers is a man that struggled — Chris Culliver.
Baltimore only had one five-star recruit on the roster, Haloti Ngata. Ngata was the highest rated high school recruit in the Super Bowl after being the No. 2 player in the nation in 2002.
Four-star recruits had a stronger presence in the game with Ravens tackle Michael Oher, 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree, tight end Vernon Davis, linebacker Navarro Bowman and defensive backs Dashon Goldson and Donte Whinter.
Both of the quarterbacks in the big game — Joe Flacco and Colin Kaepernick — were three-star high school recruits, along with Ray Rice, Patrick Willis and Aldon Smith.
Surprisingly there were a few players who were not rated at all coming out of high school that made an impact in Super Bowl XLVII. One of those recruits had a historic night in New Orleans — Ravens receiver and return man Jacoby Jones.
Examining the Super Bowl rosters and breaking them down by the ratings of high school recruits just goes to show that National Signing Day will feature gems all throughout the nation.
It isn’t always the elite players that make or break a program and develop into stars, but the players who are in the middle of the pack that will work harder to grow as a player throughout the college years.
Here is a breakdown of the Super Bowl rosters, via Rivals.com:
Stay tuned to FanSided.com for the latest college football recruiting news and be sure to visit us on National Signing Day for up to date signing announcements on the nation’s top recruits.