Best "Surprise" Recruit You Ever Landed?

[Gloves 82]

Quote: Originally Posted by illwill10

I landed a 4*Juco JR QB 88 OVR with Georgia my 2nd year. He was a pocket qb, great Arm Strength and Acc, but had no speed at all. The "Surprise" was even though I ran a Prostyle offense, I played terrible with him. I played way better with a 80 OVR Soph QB who has a scrambling qb. I usually play better with a QB that has at least 70 Speed

Sounds familiar. Tyler Gabbert's redshirt freshman year, I threw for over 50 TDs and 5,799 yards (on heisman). As his career went on and his overall got higher, I played worse with him and he ended up losing his starting job multiple times. It was weird.

On topic though, I was Minnesota and I found this receiver later in the recruiting process named Jimmy Ford. He was 6-4 with 94 speed and 90 some acceleration. He was a 3* I think and didn't have great hands, but I knew he'd end up a beast. He finished his career with 5352 yards and 51 TDs although he had about 60 drops. He was a beast though.

[BA2929]

I was playing as Kansas last year in '11 (not sure what year it was in the dynasty, but it was at least 6-8 years down the road) and I really, really needed a QB. Wait....Let me preface this by saying that I NEVER recruit good QBs. Ever. Anyway, I'm probably a 5-6 star program at this point, so I figure I might as well go after the top 3 QBs, hoping to maybe land one. Needless to say, I didn't have my hopes up. Somehow, the first two guys instantly commit. So I have the top 2 QBs already committed after week 1. So I get greedy. Since one of the guys that instantly committed was a pocket passer, and one balanced, I figure I might as well go after the 3rd guy, who was a scrambler. Well, amazingly enough, he commits after about week 7 or 8. So I have the top 3 QBs in this class. Turns out, the balanced guy was the best, at like an 86(?) overall. So he's my starter. Then, I get lucky and that 3rd QB I recruited (the scrambler) has 90 speed with pretty good hands, like 80 or something, so I try changing his position to WR...... 85 overall. Turns out, both those guys win Heismans in back to back years. first the WR, then the QB. You've probably forgotten about the 3rd guy...the pocket passer...... well he ended up riding the pine for 2 years, then tried to transfer but I talked him into staying in case someone got hurt. Never again will I have a 97 overall starting QB, a 90 overall backup, and a 93 overall QB turned 95 overall WR on the same team.

(these ratings are not 100% accurate, as I haven't played '11 in a few months and this season was probably 5-6 seasons ago.)

[Solidice]

another recruit I remember now, I recruited a 4* DE, he was low in the 4* players, but he was a 6'7" 282lbs DE with mid 90s Acc and high 70s Speed. He was over 300lbs when he graduated with 97 Acc and 80 or so speed, and is currently my school's career sack lead(and sacks in a season). He only started 2 season as he wasn't a high rated player(graduated as a 87 overall), but he was a big player on my defense.

[Redlightning]

In my fourth year as Indiana (a 4* school at this point,) I managed to land the #1 overall player, an ATH named Fred Amos who I moved to defensive tackle. I got his commitment over 6* Alabama, 5* Notre Dame (he was from Indiana) and 6* Michigan. However, the craziest thing was that this was on Heisman recruiting.

[plak89]

Quote: Originally Posted by Redlightning

In my fourth year as Indiana (a 4* school at this point,) I managed to land the #1 overall player, an ATH named Fred Amos who I moved to defensive tackle. I got his commitment over 6* Alabama, 5* Notre Dame (he was from Indiana) and 6* Michigan. However, the craziest thing was that this was on Heisman recruiting.

Now that is impressive.

[SonOfEd]

I was in a dynasty as Bowling Green. Since couldn't land a solid kicker when I needed one I thought I would grab one for depth, and see what progression would do for him. I picked up a 1star kicker, as my starter would be a jr. Once this cat was on roster I realized he had 92 speed with throwing ratings in the mid to high 70's. He instantly became an excellant weapon as a wildcat QB, adding a nice wrinkle to my offnse, and played a major role getting the Falcons a huge BCS bid.

[Soarindude02]

Quote: Originally Posted by SonOfEd

I was in a dynasty as Bowling Green. Since couldn't land a solid kicker when I needed one I thought I would grab one for depth, and see what progression would do for him. I picked up a 1star kicker, as my starter would be a jr. Once this cat was on roster I realized he had 92 speed with throwing ratings in the mid to high 70's. He instantly became an excellant weapon as a wildcat QB, adding a nice wrinkle to my offnse, and played a major role getting the Falcons a huge BCS bid.

Wow! Never heard about that! Good find!

[TDenverFan]

Quote: Originally Posted by SonOfEd

I was in a dynasty as Bowling Green. Since couldn't land a solid kicker when I needed one I thought I would grab one for depth, and see what progression would do for him. I picked up a 1star kicker, as my starter would be a jr. Once this cat was on roster I realized he had 92 speed with throwing ratings in the mid to high 70's. He instantly became an excellant weapon as a wildcat QB, adding a nice wrinkle to my offnse, and played a major role getting the Falcons a huge BCS bid.

The same thing has happened to me. My dude was a 2* Kicker who came in at 50-something overall. I was going to cut him, but noticed he had high speed and decent QB skills. He could be a 82 HB or a 77 QB. I made him a Freshman Starter QB, since I had a 79 overall senior HB and a 75 overall freshman hb, whereas my best QB (Besides him) was just a 74. He eventually became a heisman winning 90 overall QB.