Either Cam Ward, Travis Hunter, Dillon Gabriel or Ashton Jeanty will win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night in New York City. This year’s finalists prove that recruiting rankings do not matter if you’re willing to work hard.
All but one of the four players who were invited to the Big Apple (and two players who were not invited) were not considered can’t-miss prospects out of high school. Look at them now!
Travis Hunter is the only player who was expected to be as good as he is. The former No. 1 overall recruit in the Class of 2022 is likely going to be named as the best player in college football this season.
The other Heisman Trophy finalists are underdogs!
If Hunter does not win, it will be Ashton Jeanty. Boise State’s workhorse running back came three yards short of 2,500 rushing yards with 29 touchdowns. He was considered a three-star recruit out of high school. 247 Sports ranked him as the 90th-best player at his position and the 1,284th-best player in the country.
From there, it is a pair of quarterbacks.
Cam Ward was not even ranked as a 0-star recruit. He began his career at Incarnate Word and proved himself on the FCS level, which allowed him to transfer up from there. A breakout year at Washington State led the electrifying quarterback to Miami. 10 wins, 4,123 yards and 37 touchdowns later, Ward is no longer an underdog.
Dillon Gabriel is a journeyman like Ward. The sixth-year senior played three years at UCF, two years at Oklahoma and one year at Oregon. Only eight schools offered him out of high school as a three-star recruit. Now he is going to quarterback the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.
Bryson Daily and Cam Skattebo were not invited to the Heisman Trophy ceremony. However, they were also overlooked during the recruiting process. The former was a two-star recruit with only one FBS offer from Army. The latter, like Ward, did not have a star rating in high school and started on the FCS level.
All of this goes to say that recruiting rankings are fun but they don’t actually matter. Five of the top six vote-getters for this year’s Heisman Trophy were rated as three-star recruits or lower!