Recruiting Roundtable: Our thoughts on Rivals Rankings Week

Over the past couple of days, Rivals has rolled out their updated rankings for the entire Rivals250.

There were a number of players who suffered from drops in this latest update, while several others saw their stock rise greatly.

BuckeyeGrove wanted to take this week's "Recruiting Roundtable" to assess everything we learned from this new batch of rankings. In the piece below, Andy Anders and Joseph Hastings explain their biggest surprise from yesterday's reveal, which Ohio State commit they believe should have been a five-star and dish out a general assessment of the new Rivals250.

Anders: I’d say it’s probably offensive tackle and former Ohio State target J.C. Latham, an Alabama commit, jumping 21 spots to land at No. 2 in the class.

That or the 118-spot jump of fellow Crimson Tide pledge Dallas Turner to slot in at No. 18.

Both Latham and Turner are tremendous prospects, no doubt, but to vault that many other five- and in Turner’s case high-end four-star prospects is rare.

In Turner’s case, those who made the rankings saw an explosive, edge-rushing force at outside linebacker and a versatile defender who could stay outside or transition to put a hand in the dirt at defensive end.

Latham turned in a great season, not a surprise given he plays at IMG Academy in Florida. For those that don’t know, IMG builds superteams of some of the nation’s best prospects, with players transferring in from around the country to play at the boarding school. MaxPreps considers them the No. 1 team in all of American high school football.

I’ve seen others surprised by the spots dropped by five-star defensive end Jack Sawyer and four-star running back TreVeyon Henderson, both Ohio State commits. Here’s the thing -- neither played a snap of football this season. It’s hard to keep highly-rated prospects as highly rated when there’s no game tape or no way to see marks of improvement through camps. Other players are surging and playing incredible football on film.

Hastings: I completely agree with everything Andy said above.

The biggest surprise for me was that Latham and Turner made such large leaps. Turner is somebody I always thought was deserving of being in the top-100, but him going from a fringe Rivals100 recruit to a five-star overnight is something I did not expect.

Also, Latham's rise in the rankings over the past two updates has been remarkable. He went from in the 70s to No. 23, then he jumped to No. 2 overall in the country. That is something you do not see too often, but the competition he went up against and his play this year must have deemed him worthy of such a large jump.

A close second here, to answer this question, would have to be Kyle McCord. McCord rose just two spots in the previous update, though I said back in August that he'll earn his fifth star as long as he does not suffer a significant drop.

Well, that's what happened as McCord's ranking fell, and he is four spots away from becoming a five-star. Depending on how many more additional five-stars are assigned by Rivals in the final 2021 update, it is not a guarantee that McCord will earn that coveted fifth star.

This is definitely a disappointment as McCord put on a show at the Elite 11 Pro Day, and was nothing short of spectacular in his senior campaign. I still believe he'll get to five-star status, but we'll have to wait and see for that to happen.

Anders: My answer here without hesitation is quarterback Kyle McCord.

Above, I mentioned how Henderson and Sawyer didn’t play a high school season, and without game film had little chance to move up in the rankings update. The opposite is true of McCord, who put together a phenomenal season playing for St. Joseph’s Prep in Pennsylvania.

McCord fell just four spots short of five-star status, but dropped six spots in the rankings after winning his third consecutive state title, capped off by a 21-for-28, 337-yard, four-touchdown passing performance in the championship game.

I’m unable to access McCord’s season statistics but having run the prep report every week, I know that despite missing a game or two, he had a tremendous year.

Want proof from a camp? How about McCord winning the Pro Day at this year’s Elite 11 quarterback competition against the nation’s best high school gunslingers.

McCord is an elite arm talent with solid mechanics who can make throws from a variety of arm angles. He deserves to be a five-star in my estimation.

Hastings: I am going to go with TreVeyon Henderson here. For me, it's essentially a tie with McCord.

Seeing Henderson's film for the first time, it was like watching him play at double-speed while the defenders chasing him down were in slow motion. Granted, some of this could be attributed to the competition he was going up against, but the Virginia-based prospect is a special talent.

Henderson has track-like speed that leaves his opponents in the dust, with him recently telling us that he believes he clocks in at roughly a 4.3 40-yard dash time. It's also incredible how quickly he accelerates and turns on the jets after making a cut to avoid a defender.

Besides his obvious speed, the way Henderson sees the field really sticks out as he knows exactly where every defender is at all times. It's almost as if he has eyes on the side of his helmet because of his proverbial vision and how he anticipates incoming contact.

Other aspects about Henderson that you want in a running back are his reliable hands out of the backfield and his intangibles. Henderson is someone I am expecting to be one of the leaders for the Buckeyes in the coming years, and should be a captain at the next level.

McCord should eventually get his fifth star, but Henderson is too far away from that mark at this time, which is unfortunate.

Anders: All I can do is analyze it from an Ohio State perspective, as that’s the film I’ve watched and the players I’m familiar with.

I stated above that Henderson was a difficult player to move up because his high school season wasn’t played, but to come in at No. 79? That’s a bit of a stretch. Even in his past three years of ball and performances at camps, he’s shown to be one of the best backs in America.

Ohio State running backs coach Tony Alford has a penchant for developing these types of players too, and potential development at a program is a factor when evaluating players.

Where Sawyer ended up is fair, still one of the top 10 prospects in America but dropping a few spots which seems fair to me.

Four-star defensive tackle Michael Hall is someone I definitely thought should have moved up, not down. He was a force for Streetsboro this season once he returned from injury and is still one of the more explosive, quick defensive tackle prospects I’ve seen.

Three-star outside linebacker Jaylen Johnson didn’t pick up his fourth star after being in on what seemed to be every play for a stout La Salle defense, four-star cornerback Jordan Hancock landing outside the top 100 is interesting too.

One position group that received a ratings bump for Ohio State commits was at offensive lineman. Donovan Jackson bumped up to No. 13, deservedly so.

Offensive tackle Zen Michalski picked up a fourth star. I did a deep dive on Michalski’s film when he committed -- unfortunately, I think he’s too developmental a prospect to earn that designation. But I’ve certainly been wrong before.

Overall, from the Ohio State side, I view this batch of rankings as a mixed bag.

Hastings: In recent weeks, I have been hesitant about saying the Buckeyes will definitively end up with the No. 1 class in the country because of the potential effect of the rankings.

Unless there are some major changes in the final update, it is unlikely that Ohio State will usurp Alabama when it's all said and done. The Buckeyes now trail the Crimson Tide by 305 total points after previously being less than 100 points behind them.

Hall, Henderson, McCord, Sawyer, Pryor, Andre Turrentine, Ben Christman, Denzel Burke, Jakailin Johnson, Jayden Ballard and Reid Carrico each dropped at least four spots in this latest update.

Ballard, Carrico, Christman, Hall, Henderson and Pryor each fell by double digits, with Ballard falling 36 places in the Rivals250.

The ones who did rise were Donovan Jackson, Jordan Hancock and Marvin Harrison Jr. Jackson rose three spots, while Hancock went from No. 117 to No. 108. Harrison Jr. did jump an impressive 36 spots to No. 84, but that just is not going to make up for all those other drops.

It is now almost impossible for Ryan Day's program to finish with the top-ranked class on Rivals, which is something Ohio State has never done. They'll hopefully have more luck at earning that achievement in the 2022 cycle.

Stay tuned to BuckeyeGrove.