I follow recruiting closely in Texas so each year after the NFL draft I find out which draftees played their high school ball in Texas. Interesting to me to see which guys got drafted, where they were ranked coming out of high school and how their college careers went.
1st Rd
1. Matt Stafford, Georgia, Dallas Highland Park
Five stars. The top rated QB in the country.
2. Jason Smith, Baylor, Dallas White
Two star player. Baylor, Kansas and Minnesota offered. Everybody missed on this guy, probably because he was 6'5" 220 in high school. Why spend 3 years putting weight on an offensive lineman when you can go get a 300 pounder high schooler?
10. Michael Crabtree, Texas Tech, Dallas Carter
Two stars. High school quarterback also offered by A&M, Baylor, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kansas State and OU. Character issues? Mike Leach says he's a good guy, but he turned off ESPN during a visit to their network headquarters. Yes, he was considered a douche by the same network that hired Stephen A. Smith.
13. Brian Orakpo, Texas, Houston Lamar
Three star player. Also offered by Colorado, A&M, Houston, Missouri and Stanford. Considered the second best prospect on his team behind Drew Kelson. Remember kids. Western Africa=sprinters and football players. Eastern Africa=distance runners.
20. Brandon Pettigrew, Oklahoma State, Tyler Lee
Three stars. Also offered by Iowa, Baylor and Tech. Didn't play his junior year because of a knee injury.
32. Ziggy Hood, Missouri, Amarillo Palo Duro
Two stars. Offers from Missouri, UTEP, Baylor, Arizona State and TCU. Listed as a 6'4" 230 lb defensive end in high school.
2nd Rd
48. Darcel McBath, Texas Tech, Gainesville
Three stars. Also offered by Notre Dame, Oklahoma State and A&M. His stock rose after his senior season.
3rd Rd
78. Louis Vasquez, Texas Tech, Corsicana
Three stars. Offers from pretty much everyone in the Big 12 except OU.
81. Roy Miller, Texas, Killeen Shoemaker
Four stars. Also offered by OU, Utah, Tech, Arkansas and Baylor. Initially committed to OU, but he switched to Texas in January. Was told by Stoops after he committed that they wouldn't recruit any more DTs. They recruited more DTs.
94. Ryan Mouton, Hawaii, Katy
Four star JC transfer from Blinn also offered by Kansas.
99. Juaquin Iglesias, Oklahoma, Killeen
Two stars. Also offered by SMU and UTEP. Great job by OU finding and developing him.
4th Rd
101. Stephen McGee, Texas A&M, Burnet
Four stars. Also offered by Georgia, OU, Tennessee and Texas. Great offer list, but he liked the cut of Dennis Franchione's jib. If he attends another school, he gets drafted on the first day.
105. Henry Melton, Texas, Grapevine
Four stars. Also offered by A&M, OU, Oklahoma State, Florida State, Tech and Arkansas. If Melton plays defensive end from day one at Texas, he gets drafted in the first two rounds.
107. Mike Thomas, Arizona, DeSoto
Three stars. Also offered by Georgia Tech, Kansas, Notre Dame, Tech, Wake Forest and Wisconsin. The inimitable Steg identified this guy as a player.
111. Mike Goodson, Texas A&M, Klein Collins
Five stars. Top 10 player in the state. Was asked to leave early during his official visit to Oklahoma State. Was then asked to leave early during his career at Texas A&M. When your head coach announces you're leaving early for the draft, you might be a redneck cancer.
120. Brandon Williams, Texas Tech, Fort Worth South Hills
Two stars. Also offered by Central Florida, SMU, Colorado and Iowa State. Great find by Tech.
122. Anthony Hill, North Carolina State, League City Clear Brook
Went to Hargrave Military Academy for a year and recently turned 24. So there were probably some grade issues. Also offered by North Carolina, Mississippi State, Baylor, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Ohio State. High school defensive end.
5th Rd
137. Jason Phillips, TCU, Waller
Two stars. Listed as a 6'0" 210 pound high school quarterback that TCU turned into a 240 pound linebacker. A lot of high school teams will take their best player and put them at QB. TCU then takes them and puts them at linebacker.
140. Johnny Knox, Abilene Christian, Channelview
Transferred from Tyler JC.
144. Jarrett Dillard, Rice, San Antonio Sam Houston
One star. Graduated first in his class, and his sister played basketball for Texas. Yet drew no interest from Texas or anyone else.
151. Rhett Bomar, Sam Houston St, Grand Prairie
Five stars. Offered by everyone. You know the rest of the story.
152. James Casey, Rice, Azle
Didn't play his senior year because of injury and then was drafted by the White Sox. Walked on at Rice after three years in the minor leagues. Played like 8 positions in a single game, had three majors and probably didn't fuck a single hot chick at Rice.
158. Cody Glenn, Nebraska, Rusk
Three stars. High school running back also offered by A&M, Arizona, Oklahoma State, BYU and Kansas. Franchione cancelled his official visit to A&M on the morning he and his head coach were scheduled to leave Rusk. Moved to linebacker his senior year in college. Yes, Bo Pelini will make a difference at Nebraska.
164. Thomas Morstead, SMU, Pearland
He's a punter. He went to SMU. If a tree falls in the forest...
167. Herman Johnson, LSU, Denton
Four stars. Also offered by OU, Oklahoma State and Houston. Passed over by Texas because he weighed 360 pounds as a high school senior.
6th Rd
186. Robert Henson, TCU, Longview
One star. Committed to TCU in January of his senior year.
188. Brice McCain, Utah, Terrell
Two stars. Only offer was from Utah, but he played as a true freshman and started for three years. If you're a second tier defensive prospect in the state of Texas, you should really consider TCU or Utah. They play great defense and get the most out of their players.
192. Aaron Brown, TCU, Katy Mayde Creek
Two stars. Also offered by Colorado and Kansas.
196. Keith Null, West Texas A&M, Lampasas
Who? Coached in college by former Charger Ryan Leaf. Same district as Stephen McGee so the starting quarterbacks in the 2004 Burnet-Lampasas game both got drafted.
197. Stephen Hodge, TCU, Tatum
Two stars. Also offered by Baylor, Houston, Missouri and A&M. A 6'1" 185 quarterback that TCU turned into a 230 pound linebacker.
199. Stryker Sulak, Missouri, Rockdale
Two stars. Offers from Missouri and Houston. Great find by Missouri.
206. Dominique Edison, Stephen F Austin, San Augustine
He led his team to the 2A state title in football and won the 200m at the state track meet. Grades?
209. Bernard Scott, Abilene Christian, Vernon
Didn't play his senior year in high school and attended four different colleges. Why? "He hates school, doesn’t trust a lot of people and obviously has some anger issues." Oh.
7th Rd
211. Chris Ogbonnaya, Texas, Houston Strake Jesuit
Three stars. Also offered by UCLA, Arkansas, Colorado, LSU, Michigan, Northwestern, OU and Syracuse. High school wide receiver. Same school as DrJHorn and srr50 so it's nice to finally see a Strake Jesuit grad make good.
225. Blake Schlueter, TCU, Ganado
Two stars Listed as 6'3" 245 in high school which will pretty much get you ignored by most colleges. Best player to come out of Ganado since MilkmanDan.
229. Manuel Johnson, Oklahoma, Gilmer
Four stars. High school quarterback was also offered by Oklahoma State, Tech, A&M, Houston, Kansas State and Nebraska. Almost transferred from OU after the coaching staff gangraped his puppy with cancer. Or maybe they just yelled at him a lot.