Dabo Swinney climbed up on his soapbox for a minute last Wednesday to make his case against the star-rating system.
“I think the interesting thing about recruiting — I just think it’s all backwards,” he said. “To me, what we should be doing today, we should be coming out and assigning stars to the guys that came in four and five years ago. Their star should be assigned today.”
Up next in our multi-part series on Clemson’s past recruiting classes is the bottom half of the 2009 haul — better known as The Dandy Dozen.
According to Rivals: A five-star prospect is considered to be one of the nation’s top 25-30 players, four star is a top 250-300 or so player, three-stars is a top 750 level player, two stars means the player is a mid-major prospect and one star means the player is not ranked.
The ranking system ranks prospects on a numerical scale from 6.1-4.9.
6.1 Franchise Player; considered one of the elite prospects in the country, generally among the nation’s top 25 players overall; deemed to have excellent pro potential; high-major prospect
6.0-5.8 All-American Candidate; high-major prospect; considered one of the nation’s top 300 prospects; deemed to have pro potential and ability to make an impact on college team
5.7-5.5 All-Region Selection; considered among the region’s top prospects and among the top 750 or so prospects in the country; high-to-mid-major prospect; deemed to have pro potential and ability to make an impact on college team
5.4-5.0 Division I prospect; considered a mid-major prospect; deemed to have limited pro potential but definite Division I prospect; may be more of a role player
4.9 Sleeper; no Rivals.com expert knew much, if anything, about this player; a prospect that only a college coach really knew about
J.K. Jay – 4-star OL (5.8)
Jay injured his back while lifting weights the summer before his freshman season began. At the time, he was listed as a co-starter at right tackle.
After two back surgeries that fall, Jay’s career was over. The Greenville-Christ Church product never played a down of college football.
Spencer Shuey – 3-star LB (5.7)
Shuey played just over 100 snaps during his first two years on the field, which included a stint at the Bandit defensive end position. It wasn’t until midway through 2012 that Shuey started to make an impact. After taking over as the staring middle linebacker, Shuey finished the season with 93 tackles, six tackles for loss and a sack.
As a senior, he was a quarterfinalist for the Lott Impact Trophy and named third-team All-ACC. Shush started at weak-side linebacker and totaled 119 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss.
His career as an undrafted free-agent with the Jaguars was short-lived, but he was an impact player at two different linebacker spots for Clemson. The 5.7 rating by Rivals proved to be accurate.
Quandon Christian – 3-star LB (5.6)
Christian enjoyed a productive career: 149 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, three sacks, two interceptions and seven pass breakups in 1,725 snaps over 53 games (31 starts).
In each of his first three seasons, Christian started at least seven at strong-side linebacker for the Tigers.
The Redskins signed him as an undrafted free-agent, and Christian has also played in the FXFL.
Like Shuey, Christian’s Rivals rating proved to be accurate.
Corico Wright – 3-star LB (5.6)
Known as Corico Hawkins for much of his playing career at Clemson, Wright started 24 games at linebacker in 2010 and 2011. As a senior in 2012, he totaled 30 tackles in 163 snaps over 13 games.
Wright’s career numbers: 200 tackles, 17 tackles for loss and five sacks in 1,737 snaps over 52 games.
His Rivals rating — like the other two linebackers — was pretty accurate.
Tyler Shatley – 3-star DT (5.6)
After taking a redshirt in 2009, Shatley was a two-year rotational player at nose guard. He had 41 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and one sack in 444 snaps over 26 games (two starts).
In 2012, Shatley was moved to the offensive side of the ball where he became a starting guard. Shatley had 60 knockdowns in 1,776 snaps over 25 games, all of which he started. As a senior, he was named third-team All-ACC.
An undrafted free-agent by the Jaguars, Shatley has appeared in nine games during his two-year NFL career. Like Brandon Thomas, Shatley was an highly underrated commodity out of high school.
Darrell Smith – 2-star DE (5.2)
Smith played a couple of different positions on defense before settling in as a tight end. He was also an effective special teams player through his career, finishing with 26 tackles.
As a tight end, he rushed twice for five yards and caught three passes for 11 yards over 379 snaps. Rivals was spot on with his 5.2 rating.
Chandler Catanzaro – 2-star K (NR)
Catanzaro ended his Clemson career as one of the most decorated kickers in school history, finishing first in points, extra-points made and field goals from 40-plus yards. From 2011-12, he made a school record 20 consecutive field goals.
The three-time All-ACC selection was also a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award in each of his final two seasons.
The Cardinals signed Catanzaro as a rookie free-agent and he’s been their kicker for the last two seasons.
As a rookie, Catanzaro tied an NFL record with 17 consecutive made field goals. He also set the rookie record for points (114). In 2015, he connected on 90 percent of his field goals, which topped his rookie mark of 88.
Rivals missed on Catanzaro, who originally walked on at Clemson. In fact, he’s the 13th player on our list. Catanzaro was not originally counted as apart of ‘The Dandy Dozen’ class.
If you haven’t already order your copy today of Guts & Glory – Tales of Clemson’s Historic 2015 Football Season to help you celebrate and remember this special season.
