Both Rivals and 247sports were pretty busy last week. Rivals released their Rivals250 for the 2022 class, while 247 released the first 100 of their Top247 for the class of 2023. With high school football returning in some states, I thought it might be worthwhile to dive into these two rankings updates.
Full disclosure, we rarely use Rivals around here. It always seems like they are so far behind 247. This week is just one example of that. 247 has already gone through enough freshmen film to put together a working list of 100 players at the same time Rivals is trying to catch up on the 2022 guys. Anyway, Rivals put in the work, so let’s take a look at the highlights of their 2022 rankings updates.
Quinn Ewers, the best QB prospect since Trevor Lawrence, picked up his fifth star from Rivals this week. The Texas Longhorns commit is Rivals’ top QB, but he’s ranked as the second-best player in the state of Texas and number six nationally. He’ll end up number one in the class because the QB position is so important, but I guess Rivals just wants to slow-play it.
Ewers wasn’t the only player to receive his fifth star this week. Ohio State LB commit CJ Hicks is a new 5-star. Cornerback Will Johnson and offensive lineman Zach Rice both picked up their fifth star as well. Both Rice and Johnson are still undecided.
Mike Farrell and Adam Gorney think the 2022 CB class has a chance to be as good as the 2013 CB class that included Jalen Ramsey, Tre’Davious White, Vernon Hargreaves, Artie Burns, Jourdan Lewis, Mack Alexander, and Eli Apple. Rivals has already given five cornerbacks a fifth star, including three of their top five players overall. The 2022 CBs aren’t likely as good individually as Ramsey and White at the top, but there’s much more depth in the first couple of tiers than 2013 had.
Rivals only has one 5-star receiver right now, and that’s Luther Burden. He’s a 6’2″ 194-pound receiver from Cardinal Ritter College Prep in St. Louis, Missouri. Burden is an explosive athlete, but still raw as a pass-catcher. He currently has 40 scholarship offers, and Rivals’ FutureCast is pretty confident that he’ll end up at the Ohio State University.
There are a few other receivers who are close to joining Burden as 5-stars. The one who has my attention, thanks to a tip from @Admlewis, is Tampa, FL product Erriyon Knighton. He’s a track star whose track speed translates to the football field. Check out what he did at a track meet earlier this month.
Rivals’ top running back is 5’9″ 170-pound Raleek Brown. He’s an all-purpose back from Mater Dei. He’s currently sitting at 30th overall. He has 30 offers, but no clear leader as far as interest goes.
The 2022 class as a whole is defense-heavy right now. For example, the QB group is a little weaker than what we’ve been used to recently, but these guys are just juniors, and the most significant leap for recruits usually comes between their junior and senior seasons.
Moving on to 247’s debut of their 2023 prospect rankings, these guys are so young that even if you follow recruiting religiously, you probably don’t know many of their names… yet. The one name in the class that we all know is Arch Manning, so let’s start there. Cooper Manning’s son debuted as the top QB in the 2023 class. Already 6’3″ and 195 pounds, the position comes easy for him, which makes sense given that Peyton and Eli are his uncles. Unlike his uncles, Arch has some playmaking ability. He can scramble, buy time, improvise, and run for yards and scores. He gets that from his grandfather Archie Manning. Ole Miss, Tennessee, Duke, LSU, and Georgia are the early schools battling for the next Manning.
Here’s what 247’s Charles Power said about Manning’s ranking:
“Arch Manning is not ranked as high because his last name is Manning. Let’s just be clear about that. He had arguably the best freshman season of any quarterback nationally. I think you could maybe debate him and Dante Moore, who we have as the third-best best quarterback, and he’s No. 12 overall, out of Michigan. But Arch had a great freshman year, and despite having all the eyes on him. He threw for 34 touchdowns and just six interceptions, 2,400 yards.”
Is there another offensive skill guy who could end up as the top player in the class of 2023? All signs point to WR Brandon Inniss as the answer to that question. In the grand scheme of things, the WR position isn’t that important, and that will be his biggest hindrance. Innis comes in at seventh overall in 247’s 2023 rankings. The site compares him to USC WR Amon-Ra St. Brown. Inniss is 5’11” and 179 lbs. right now, but he has already figured out a way to play much bigger than that. He’ll be a priority for all of the big programs, especially the three in his home state of Florida.
