Cal's NFL Draftees in Relation to Recruiting Ranking

By Ryan Maquiñana

Maqdown.com

Schwartz went to Cleveland in round two. (NFL.com)

As a Cal alum (and a longtime diehard season ticket holder at that), I thought it was worth taking a break from the boxing coverage for a brief moment to look at Cal's six NFL draftees--a number which led the Pac-12--and where they stood coming out of high school with recruiting services like Rivals.com and Scout.com:

MITCHELL SCHWARTZ - Browns (2nd Rd., 37th overall)

RIVALS: 3 stars, #27 OT

SCOUT: 3 stars, #24 OG

MYCHAL KENDRICKS - Eagles (2nd Rd., 46th overall)

RIVALS: 3 stars, #45 OLB

SCOUT: 3 stars, #29 WLB

 BRYAN ANGER - Jaguars (3rd rd., 70th overall)

RIVALS: 3 stars, #4 K

SCOUT: 4 stars, #2 P

MARVIN JONES - Bengals (5th Rd., 166th overall)

RIVALS: 4 stars, #22 WR, #168 prospect overall

SCOUT: 4 stars, #23 WR

TREVOR GUYTON - Vikings (7th Rd., 219th overall)

RIVALS: 3 stars, #43 DT

SCOUT: 4 stars, #18 DT

D.J. CAMPBELL - Panthers (7th Rd., 216th overall)

RIVALS: 3 stars, #58 ATH

SCOUT: 3 stars, #75 CB

THE FINAL SCORE

RIVALS: 5 three-star recruits, 1 four-star recruit

SCOUT: 3 three-star recruits, 3 four-star recruits*

U.S. ARMY ALL-AMERICANS: 0

UNDER ARMOUR ALL-AMERICANS: 0

*These rankings occurred before Cal's longtime staff were mysteriously let go by Scout/Fox Sports and have been curiously biased against the Bears in recent years.  Case in point: In 2010, they had Avery Sebastian (nee Walls, ranked the #27 safety in the nation despite his being selected U.S. Army All-American. Scout is also notorious for dropping players in rank after they have committed to Cal, e.g., Mustafa Jalil in 2011., and based on trends possibly stemming from their webmasters, showing preference toward an unnamed school in the Pacific Northwest.)  As a result, take Scout's rankings with a grain of salt and recognize the Rivals rankings instead for accuracy and objectivity. Oh, and don't expect to see ESPN's rankings on here. When you invest millions into broadcasting an All-American Game, the chances of your rankings reflecting an insane bias toward the players in it don't exactly speak highly of your credibility.

The question now becomes: How well do recruiting rankings really predict success, and how much of it is due to Jeff Tedford and his staff getting the most out of his players on the field?

I think it's worth noting that these players came from the 2007 and 2008 classes.  Here's how the last four classes have compared:

2009

RIVALS: 8 three-star recruits, 6 four-star recruits

SCOUT: 11 three-star recruits, 5 four-star recruits

U.S. ARMY ALL-AMERICANS: 2

UNDER ARMOUR ALL-AMERICANS: 2

2010

RIVALS: 10 three-star recruits, 7 four-star recruit, 1 five-star recruit

SCOUT: 10 three-star recruits, 4 four-star recruits, 1 five-star recruit*

U.S. ARMY ALL-AMERICANS: 5

UNDER ARMOUR ALL-AMERICANS: 0

2011

RIVALS: 12 three-star recruits, 10 four-star recruits

SCOUT: 13 three-star recruits, 8 four-star recruits, 1 five-star recruit*

U.S. ARMY ALL-AMERICANS: 6

UNDER ARMOUR ALL-AMERICANS: 1

2012

RIVALS: 9 three-star recruits, 7 four-star recruits

SCOUT: 9 three-star recruits, 4 four-star recruits, 1 five-star recruit*

U.S. ARMY ALL-AMERICANS: 1

UNDER ARMOUR ALL-AMERICANS: 2
U.S. MARINE ALL-AMERICANS: 5

THE FINAL SCORE

RIVALS: 39 three-star recruits, 30 four-star recruits

SCOUT: 43 three-star recruits, 24 four-star recruits, 2 five-star recruits*

U.S. ARMY ALL-AMERICANS: 14

UNDER ARMOUR ALL-AMERICANS: 5
U.S. MARINE ALL-AMERICANS: 5

*see above

Based on recent results, many have deemed Tedford's seat a hot one, but with the unprecedented amount of talent on the Berkeley campus now, the cupboard will hardly be bare in 2012.

Norcalboxing.net's Ryan Maquiñana is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and Ring Magazine’s Ratings Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his weekly column for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.