In star recruiting system, three may be a nugget of gold in college football

Aaron Rodgers, Dak Prescott, Le’Veon Bell, Von Miller.

Marcus Mariota, Sam Bradford, Aaron Donald, Luke Kuechly.

Richard Sherman … OK, enough.

To recognize college football’s national signing day, I thought of devoting an entire column to a recitation of former three-star high-school prospects who turned out all right. Because counting the stars attached to a kid’s name is an obsession. And because the absence of a fourth or fifth star often dims the enthusiasm with which a signee is regarded by any given fan base, including Tennessee’s.

Coveted are the five-star prospects. They are the few and the elite.

Celebrated are the four-star players. They rose above the crowd.

Blessed, however, are the three-star kids. They are the backbone of football, both college and professional.

Coach Jeremy Pruitt’s first recruiting class at UT will this week announce several three-star additions to the nucleus he signed in December. Some of them will likely end up being only marginal contributors over the course of their careers. Others will play above their grade, and that’s the mystery and the beauty of three-stardom.

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Rivals, 247Sports, ESPN and the other folks that scout and rank prospects created the star system and it’s made recruiting a whole new ballgame. Signing classes are evaluated by the number of five- and four-star studs they land.

That said, three-star grades are by far the most common assignments. Thus, it’s a category that covers a wide, wide range of possibilities.

A 2016 article I found reported 37 NFL Pro Bowl picks that year were three-star recruits. A 2014 NFL draft projection listed 24 of the top 50 picks as three-star or less. That included a Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Manziel, and a two-star quarterback, Jimmy Garappolo.

Baker Mayfield recently joined Mariota, Bradford and Manziel as a three-star Heisman winner.

J.J. Watt was a two-star recruit. Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, a couple of slightly better-than-average NFL quarterbacks, were zero-star recruits. So were a couple of better-than-average receivers, Antonio Brown and Delani Walker.

Of course, you still want five-star recruits in your class. Think what the Vols would have missed had Eric Berry not shown up. Or, in the current context, Trey Smith.

And the more four-star signees the better. Darren Kirkland Jr., Nigel Warrior, Jarrett Guarantano, Ty Chandler and, possibly, Jauan Jennings, will have a say in whether Tennessee can scramble back to bowl eligibility in 2018.

Still, keep an eye on the three-star posse.

Who were the most productive players from the Vols’ miserable 2017 season? John Kelly, a three-star tailback, and Rashaan Gaulden, a three-star defensive back. They’ve both skipped their senior season to try the NFL.

Three-star Jashon Robertson started four years on the offensive line. Three-star Ethan Wolf climbed to third on UT’s tight-end receiving-yardage chart. Three-star Kendal Vickers was the most consistent defensive lineman. They’re all gone, a considerable loss of (three-) star power.

The secondary needs help and needs it now. Don’t discount three-star help. Maybe there’s a Cam Sutton or Brian Randolph in this class.

Three-star guys make up the bulk of Pruitt’s first signing class. Some of them you’ll only see on special teams over the next few years. But a couple of them you might see in the NFL.

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