Recruiting: How last 10 Heisman Trophy winners ranked as recruits
By David Rouben
Like the draft, college football recruiting can offer a mixed bag when it comes to predicting the success of future Heisman winners.
When it comes to college football, recruiting matters. It’s how the top programs reload every year and is the reason there isn’t much parity in the sport. For example, Alabama is a powerhouse because their last six recruiting classes have ranked first in the country. And ever since Urban Meyer arrived at Ohio State, the average ranking of his recruiting classes has been fourth.
That isn’t to say there’s no parity in college football. While top-ranked recruits will usually go to the bigger programs, there are a few factors that can help tip the scales towards lesser schools.
One of them is coaching — any school with a well-respected coach will naturally have recruits flock towards them. The other is the ability to land a diamond in the rough — these are the players that don’t generate tons of buzz coming out of high school, but thrive at the collegiate level because they ended up in the right system.
While some Heisman Trophy winners were highly touted recruits, others fell under the radar. However, recruiting rankings translate to success at the collegiate level far more often than a Heisman does at the NFL level. The last 10 players to win the Heisman Trophy are a microcosm of that sentiment.
All recruiting rankings and stats are courtesy of 247Sports.
Lamar Jackson – 2016 Heisman Winner
Despite how Louisville’s last three games went, Lamar Jackson had an incredible season. It’s one thing to get compared to Michael Vick, but it’s an entirely different thing to have Vick himself call you five times better. And after going from 23 to 51 touchdowns in the span of a single season, many feel as though Jackson has more room to grow heading into his junior year.
Despite what you may think, Lamar Jackson wasn’t always getting heaps of praise. He played for Boynton Beach High School in Florida, and was a three-star recruit, with a national composite ranking of 401. Perhaps the most shocking part is that he was ranked the No. 13 dual-threat quarterback that year. Kyler Murray was ranked No. 1 — funny how that works.
By all metrics, it sounded like Jackson had a pretty unspectacular high school career. But after he tore Florida State to shreds, an old touchdown of Jackson in high school went viral. The way he pressed the pause button before waltzing into the end zone was very Le’Veon Bell-esque: