Dabo Swinney climbed up on his soapbox for a minute last week 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 2010 haul.
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
Reid Webster – 3-star OL (5.7)
Webster played a combined total of 61 snaps during his redshirt freshman and sophomore seasons. He more than doubled that total in 2013, logging 156 snaps in garbage time.
After playing nearly every position during the three previous seasons, he settled in as a 13-game starter as a senior — at three different positions. Webster finished with 18 knockdown blocks that season.
Dabo Swinney has mentioned Webster was an MVP candidate for that 2014 team. His versatility made him a very valuable commodity that season. It took him four years to live up to the 5.7 rating.
D.J. Howard – 3-star ATH (5.7)
One of Howard’s best seasons was his first one. As a redshirt freshman, he rushed for 230 yards on 41 carries with a touchdown. Maybe the game of his career was against Auburn — the team he was committed to before Clemson. Howard had a team-high 86 yards on nine carries in the Death Valley, South Carolina game.
Howard spent his career as a backup, totaling 776 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground. He also caught 18 passes for 181 yards and one touchdown. Based on his production, Howard’s Rivals rating was generous.
Joe Craig – 3-star WR (5.7)
A redshirt 2010, Craig caught three passes for 18 yards in seven games in 2011. An altercation with a female resulted in a three-game suspension at the start of his only season on the field with the Tigers. He was dismissed from the program that offseason after an for criminal domestic violence.
Craig made a junior college stop before using his final two seasons of eligibility at Memphis. He caught 42 passes for 412 yards over two seasons with those Tigers and returned 47 kickoffs for 1,172 yards, which was fifth in school history.
Demont Buice – 3-star RB (5.7)
Buice never registered a carry during his Clemson career — word of his transfer was announced in the middle of the 2011 season. He went to a junior college before landing at Florida A&M. His first season as a Rattler was his best: 68 carries for 238 yards and three touchdowns. As a senior, Buice carried 30 times for 119 yards.
Bashaud Breeland – 3-star ATH (5.7)
Breeland started in 12 games over the 2011 and 2012 seasons before he was named second-team All-ACC in 2013.
The Allendale native had a productive career at Clemson: 159 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, six interceptions and 20 pass breakups He played 1,713 snaps over 37 games (24 starts) at Clemson.
A fourth-round draft pick by the Redskins, Breeland has emerged as one of the NFL’s best young cornerbacks. In 31 career games (29 starts), Breeland has 147 tackles, 30 pass breakups and four interceptions.
Rivals was wrong on Breeland’s rating.
Victor Beasley – 3-star ATH (5.7)
Rivals undervalued Beasley. For about a year, it looked like the company had him overvalued.
Beasley set the Clemson sack record (33). He also finished fourth in tackles for loss (52.5) and tied for seventh with seven forced fumbles. A two-time first-team All-American and two-time first-team All-ACC selection, Beasley was a first-round draft pick by the Falcons in 2015.
After registering 26 tackles, four sacks and two forced fumbles as a rookie, Beasley revealed that he played all season with a torn labrum.
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