What’s A Star Worth?
September 4th, 2008 - by 
5 Star, 4 Star, No Star, What does it all mean? It can mean a lot in the recruiting world or it can mean nothing at all. Highly ranked players often end up with many scholarship offers early in the process, but under the radar recruits still have their place with major college programs. Penn State opened their football season with an impressive victory on Saturday. The media likes to focus on team captain Derrick Williams the former #1 recruit in America, but his counterparts Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood also contributed heavily in the Penn State victory. The Morning Call.com examined the performance of their wide receivers and their vastly different recruiting stories.
This is not to suggest that Penn State shouldn’t chase everybody’s All-Americans, or that smart recruiting is conducted only on the fringes. Over the summer, quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno took a glancing blow at the recruiting services, saying, ”There are a lot of great football players that Rivals and Scout don’t know about.” True, but there are even more whom they do know about — and who don’t end up at Penn State.
So, what does this have to do with recruiting? Remember, both were overlooked in high school. Butler was a preferred walk-on, and Norwood might have been known better as a basketball player at State College High. In fact, that’s why Paterno offered him a scholarship in the first place.”I’ll take credit for Jordan Norwood,” the head coach said Saturday. ”I’m serious about that.”
”Recruits complain all the time about where they’re rated on these Web sites,” Jay Paterno said this past summer. ”It’s like, Why do you care? Get to your schools, prove everybody wrong.”’
Many times the only thing separating a recruit with a 5 star rating from a no star rating is a little exposure. I suggest recruits work to get their name out early and often so they don’t end up as walk-ons a.k.a long shots.
