College football coaches are celebrated when they secure commitments from five-star prospects and recruits ranked inside the ESPN 300. Often, those are the flashy commitments and instant-impact recruits who can help improve a program.
But what about the teams that develop underrated or under-recruited high school players? Sure, those commitments don't make as many headlines, but there is something to be said for coaches who can see the potential in an undersized prospect and turn that potential into production.
This isn't to say that stars and rankings don't matter; we have simple math and percentages that suggest that rankings are good indicators of future talent.
But coaches will say that they can't fill their entire recruiting classes with five-stars, and they probably wouldn't want to if they could. They need the three-star, the unranked prospect who has a surprising senior season and the player who needs to add 40 pounds to have a shot. Those players are essential to every program, and a few schools have received a ton of production out of that potential.
We examined which schools have done the best of turning prospects outside the ESPN 300 into college football stars over the past four years by breaking down how many of those prospects turned into NFL draft picks, All-Americans and all-conference players.
Here is a look at which programs stand out and who does the most with less in recruiting.
NFL draft picks
For this category, we looked at the past four years of NFL draft picks from the first five rounds. Programs that had a non-ESPN 300 player drafted were rewarded.
This includes some four-star players who weren't in the top 300, but for the most part, the list is made up of former three-star and unranked prospects.
Here are the numbers first:
Iowa: 13
Utah: 12
Wisconsin: 11
Washington: 11
Ohio State: 10
Michigan: 10
North Carolina: 9
NC State: 9
Boston College: 8
Clemson: 7
Notre Dame: 7
Penn State: 7
Oklahoma: 7
What stands out with Iowa's high total is that of those 13 picks, only one was ranked four stars. Three players were unranked out of high school, two were two-star prospects, and the rest were three-stars.
Those prospects weren't taken in later rounds, either. Three were first-round draft picks, two were second-rounders, two were third-rounders, four were fourth-rounders, and two were fifth-rounders. Utah, Wisconsin and Washington all producing draft prospects from three-stars is indicative of their recent on-field success, too.
Ohio State, which has had a ton of production from its five-star and ESPN 300 prospects, has shown that it can develop underrated and under-recruited talent as well. It's a sign that the Buckeyes' success on the field is more than just from their stars, and the same goes for Michigan, Clemson, Notre Dame and Oklahoma.
All-Americans
We looked only at consensus All-Americans for this section. Any prospect outside the ESPN 300 who was a consensus All-American made it on this list.
If one player was an All-American twice, then he counts twice, as we are measuring the number of times a team had a non-ESPN 300 prospect as an All-American in the past four years.
Here are the numbers:
Wisconsin: 5
Ohio State: 3
Washington State: 3
Iowa: 2
Oklahoma State: 2
Kentucky: 2
Notre Dame: 2
Memphis: 2
NC State: 2
Texas: 2
15 teams: 1
Wisconsin and Iowa again find themselves at the top of this list. Both programs have developed under-recruited prospects, and both have seen their players achieve individual success over the past four years.
Wisconsin offensive linemen Tyler Biadasz and Beau Benzschawel, along with running back Jonathan Taylor were all three-stars. Taylor was an All-American in 2018 and 2019. Iowa's Josey Jewell and Joshua Jackson were both All-Americans in 2017, and both were three-stars out of high school.
Once again, Ohio State is at the top of this list, which speaks to the ability of the program to develop all of its players. Among this list, Ohio State has had the most ESPN 300 commitments the past four years, yet the Buckeyes are here with three All-Americans from the other recruits they signed.
Having the most ESPN 300 commitments means the Buckeyes didn't have as many spots for three-stars, so Ohio State is maximizing all of its recruiting classes. Offensive lineman Pat Elflein was a four-star, but not ranked in the ESPN 300. Malik Hooker and Denzel Ward were both All-Americans and rated three stars. as well
All-conference players
It is important to include all-conference players to show which teams are developing their recruits, but it is one of the more difficult data points to comparatively analyze. Conferences sign different numbers of ESPN 300 recruits each year, so in some conferences, there are more three- and two-star recruits who get the opportunity to play and develop.
In the 2016-19 recruiting classes, the SEC signed 424 ESPN 300 recruits, whereas the Big Ten signed 213, the ACC 186, the Pac-12 169 and the Big 12 136. These numbers will skew more toward the Pac-12 and Big 12 because there are more prospects to sign within those conferences. However, we are analyzing only consensus first-team all-conference players for this section.
Here are the numbers:
All-ACC
NC State: 8
Boston College: 7
Clemson: 6
Virginia: 6
Virginia Tech: 6
Louisville: 5
Pitt: 5
Wake Forest: 4
Duke: 3
Syracuse: 3
North Carolina: 2
Miami: 1
All-Big Ten
Wisconsin: 14
Iowa: 5
Michigan: 5
Ohio State: 5
Minnesota: 3
Indiana: 2
Penn State: 1
Purdue: 1
Michigan State: 1
Maryland: 1
Northwestern: 1
All-SEC
Kentucky: 4
LSU: 2
Florida: 2
Missouri: 2
Alabama: 1
Texas A&M: 1
Auburn: 1
Georgia: 1
South Carolina: 1
Mississippi State: 1
Arkansas: 1
Ole Miss: 1
All-Pac-12
Utah: 13
Washington: 13
Stanford: 5
Colorado: 4
Washington State: 4
Oregon: 3
UCLA: 3
Cal: 2
USC: 2
Arizona: 1
All-Big 12
Oklahoma: 10
Oklahoma State: 7
Kansas State: 6
TCU: 5
Kansas: 4
West Virginia: 4
Iowa State: 3
Baylor: 2
Texas Tech: 2
The SEC has far fewer players in this category than the Pac-12 and Big 12, which is not necessarily an indicator of how SEC teams are developing their underrated recruits. Rather, it is related to the higher number of ESPN 300 prospects listed above, as there is a large number of elite prospects competing each year for the top honors.
Wisconsin again sticks out, with 14 players landing on the all-Big Ten list over the past four years. That is an impressive total, especially considering how well programs such as Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State recruit.
Perhaps a surprising Big 12 team on this list so far is Oklahoma. The Sooners do well with their higher-ranked prospects, and based on these numbers, the staff gets production out of its lower-ranked recruits, too.
Clemson also falls in that category. Having six all-conference players while signing a ton of ESPN 300 recruits is a testament to the development that takes place under Dabo Swinney as well. The Tigers signed 66 ESPN 300 prospects from 2014 to 2019, which is a lot of elite prospects.
In those six classes, Clemson's staff had 130 total commitments, which means almost half of their commitments were ranked outside the ESPN 300. From the success the team has had and the number of players on this list, you can see how the development all around is better than that of most programs.
Who does the most with less?
Taking all of this information into account, some teams clearly have done more with less the past four years.
Let's look at the numbers for some of the teams that stand out before we dive into it.
Draft picks: 11
All-Americans: 5
All-conference: 14
Draft picks: 13
All-Americans: 2
All-conference: 5
Draft picks: 12
All-Americans: 1
All-conference: 13
Draft picks: 11
All-Americans: 1
All-conference: 13
Draft picks: 10
All-Americans: 3
All-conference: 5
Draft picks: 10
All-Americans: 1
All-conference: 5
Draft picks: 9
All-Americans: 2
All-conference: 8
Draft picks: 7
All-Americans: 2
Draft picks: 7
All-Americans: 1
All-conference: 10
Teams such as Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame and Oklahoma often fill their recruiting classes with mostly ESPN 300 recruits, an indication that there are fewer opportunities for underrated recruits to shine and develop. Seeing them land on this is impressive and shows that they know what types of players fit their systems well.
The fact that most of Wisconsin's roster consists of players who were ranked outside the ESPN 300 in high school and that the program not only is consistently one of the better teams in the Big Ten but also consistently produces NFL draft prospects and all-conference players shows why this program is at the top of the list.
Iowa and Utah are especially impressive, considering the talent pools around their states and how difficult it can be to get recruits to flock to those programs.
Our Position U series, which ran in August and pointed to the programs that produce the most talent at each position, identified which programs excel at developing players by position, dating all the way back to 1998.
For instance, Wisconsin ranks No. 2 at running back, No. 2 at offensive line and No. 7 at tight end. Iowa is No. 2 at tight end and No. 9 at offensive linemen. That's pretty remarkable for schools that combined to sign only 10 ESPN 300 prospects from 2016 to 2019.