Rivals released their final 2020 rankings recently and outside of discovering that this event will really make the tears flow on Twitter,\u00a0 there are some other more important things that we can learn here.<\/p>\n
Many will say that rankings don’t matter.\u00a0 I am not one of them.\u00a0 The recruiting media will protect,\u00a0 defend and applaud their ranked players and the schools that land them like a mother hen.\u00a0 Before you criticize that,\u00a0 you should realize that anyone of you would do the same in their shoes.\u00a0 In this age of social media,\u00a0 we are in a constant daily battle to not only be right but proclaim it loudly.\u00a0 This practice will catapult one college football player over another,\u00a0 at times without merit,\u00a0 simply because the wave has moved in that direction.<\/p>\n
With that said,\u00a0 as I combed through the most recent rankings from Rivals.com,\u00a0 I picked up on a few noteworthy things.\u00a0 Here are the 5 most noteworthy of the noteworthy.<\/p>\n
1 – Defensive Line Still Dominant<\/strong><\/p>\n Of late,\u00a0 in any given recruiting year,\u00a0 the rankings will either spit out a defensive lineman at the top spot or defensive linemen being the dominant position group in the Top 10.\u00a0 This year,\u00a0 Maryland’s Demascus high school defensive lineman Brian Bresee was the nation’s top recruit.\u00a0 Bresee signed with Clemson in the early signing period in December.\u00a0 He edged out a pair of California quarterbacks (Bryce Young and D.J. Uiagalele) for the top spot.\u00a0 Only two defensive lineman were in the Top 10 this year but Bresee was king of the hill.\u00a0 Over the last five cycles,\u00a0 defensive linemen have either been the most or tied for the most in the Top 10.\u00a0 Twice over that period has a defensive lineman been the top recruit (Rashaan Gary 2016).\u00a0 \u00a0My theory on this remains that offensive lineman are the most athletically disadvantaged position group on the football field and that gap is wide at the high school level.\u00a0 This allows defensive lineman to make more plays and dominate at the prep level.\u00a0 That and they are rather close to the football.<\/p>\n 2 – State of California is Getting Robbed<\/strong><\/p>\n Remember when USC used to keep the top talent in the state?\u00a0 Good for you,\u00a0 I hope you have pictures of it because that is no longer the case.\u00a0 No hotbed for talent got more pillaged this cycle than did California.\u00a0 Back in time,\u00a0 people rushed out West for gold.\u00a0 Now California recruits are rushing back East for titles.\u00a0 Only one of California’s top 10 recruits remained in state to play college football and that was Corona Centennial WR Gary Bryant who inked with USC this month.\u00a0 Contrast that with the state of Florida which has been known to get raided by out of state schools.\u00a0 Florida kept three of their top 10 prospects in state thanks to the Gators signing 5 stars Gervon Dexter and Derek Wingo.\u00a0 Florida State picked up 7th ranked cornerback Demorie Tate.\u00a0 Further exasperating the situation for schools like USC, UCLA and California is the fact that Oregon and Utah each came in and each grabbed a top 10 prospect out of the state.<\/p>\n