Athlon Sports releases its positional recruiting rankings for the Class of 2013.
National Signing Day 2013 is right around the corner and Athlon Sports is releasing its position-by-position rankings for the Class of 2013 based on the Athlon Consensus 100. Who is left on the board? Who has the best class at one position? Who had positional needs to fill? And, obviously, who are the stars of tomorrow fans can look forward to at every position?
Every quarterback class is different and the tiers of talent vary greatly from one year to the next. In the Class of 2013, there are two names, literally and figuratively, above the rest.
Max Browne is the nation's top quarterback and is headed to USC from storied Pacific Northwest prep program Skyline High School. He is a prototypical Trojans quarterback at 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds. Browne is poised, mature, a natural leader, has an accurate arm and will push for early playing time.
Meanwhile, 3000 miles away at Fork Union Military Academy, Christian Hackenberg has Penn State fans excited about their future for the first time in over a year. Hackenberg has a huge frame, huge arm and huge upside. There is a reason Bill O’Brien stayed put at Penn State instead of bolting for the NFL and he stands 6-foot-4 and will grow into a 230-pound monster in Happy Valley.
No other quarterback is ranked in the top 70 nationally, so these two pro-style signal callers are head and shoulders above the rest of this class.
The rest of the rankings read as a who’s who of college football powerhouses. And since very few quarterbacks are willing to compete with another star recruit for playing time, everyone got in on the action. Miami, Michigan, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, LSU, Texas, Stanford, Washington and a dozen other major programs landed their future leader at quarterback.
In fact, Texas A&M is the only program with two nationally ranked quarterbacks committed currently in Lone Star State prospects Kenny Hill and Kohl Stewart. Running Kevin Sumlin’s system is extremely attractive and Johnny Manziel has made College Station a glamorous place to play, so both players are willing to compete for time. Few programs right now can demand competition for star quarterback recruits like the Aggies.
The name to watch might be out in the desert, however. Rich Rodriguez has found a guy to immediately replace Matt Scott in dual-threat star Anu Solomon. He led famed high school Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas to a 57-3 record and four straight state championships. He has the perfect skill set to run the zone read option and is thick enough (205 pounds) to withstand the beating. Pac-12 defensive coordinators might want to start watching film on him as soon as possible.
2013 Positional Rankings: QB | RB | WR | TE | OL | DL | LB | DB | ATH
| Name | AC100 | Hometown | Ht | Wt | Verbal | |
| 1. | Max Browne | No. 11 | Sammamish, WA | 6-5 | 210 | USC |
| 2. | Christian Hackenberg | No. 13 | Fork Union, VA | 6-4 | 210 | Penn St |
| 3. | Shane Morris | No. 74 | Warren, MI | 6-3 | 200 | Michigan |
| 4. | Cooper Bateman | No. 76 | Salt Lake City, UT | 6-3 | 195 | Alabama |
| 5. | Brice Ramsey | No. 86 | Kingsland, GA | 6-3 | 200 | Georgia |
| 6. | Kevin Olsen | No. 87 | Wayne, NJ | 6-3 | 195 | Miami |
| 7. | Ryan Burns | No. 113 | Ashburn, VA | 6-5 | 225 | Stanford |
| 8. | Troy Williams | No. 114 | Harbor City, CA | 6-0 | 175 | Washington |
| 9. | Cody Thomas | No. 119 | Colleyville, TX | 6-5 | 220 | Oklahoma |
| 10. | Hayden Rettig | No. 143 | Los Angeles, CA | 6-4 | 210 | LSU |
| 11. | Tyrone Swoopes | No. 150 | Whitewright, TX | 6-4 | 230 | Texas |
| 12. | Mitch Trubisky | No. 151 | Mentor, OH | 6-3 | 195 | North Carolina |
| 13. | Aslantli Woulard | No. 153 | Winter Park, FL | 6-3 | 205 | -- |
| 14. | Jeremy Johnson | No. 155 | Montgomery, AL | 6-5 | 205 | Auburn |
| 15. | Joshua Dobbs | No. 166 | Alpharetta, GA | 6-3 | 190 | Arizona St |
| 16. | Kohl Stewart | No. 170 | Houston, TX | 6-3 | 185 | Texas A&M |
| 17. | Anu Solomon | No. 173 | Las Vegas, NV | 6-1 | 205 | Arizona |
| 18. | J.T. Barrett | No. 175 | Wichita Falls, TX | 6-1 | 210 | Ohio St |
| 19. | Bucky Hodges | No. 188 | Farnham, VA | 6-5 | 225 | Virginia Tech |
| 20. | Damion Terry | No. 198 | Erie, PA | 6-4 | 210 | Michigan St |
| 21. | Malik Zaire | No. 199 | Ketting, OH | 6-0 | 195 | Notre Dame |
| 22. | Aaron Bailey | No. 215 | Bolingbrook, IL | 6-2 | 215 | Illinois |
| 23. | Kenny Hill | No. 219 | Southlake, TX | 6-1 | 205 | Texas A&M |
| 24. | Jared Goff | No. 224 | Kentfield, CA | 6-4 | 190 | Cal |
| 25. | Anthony Jennings | No. 231 | Marietta, GA | 6-2 | 205 | LSU |
| 26. | Zack Greenlee | No. 232 | Stockton, CA | 6-2 | 185 | Fresno St |
View the complete 2013 Athlon Consensus 100
Recruiting Videos:
AC100 On Campus: Su'a Cravens
AC100 On Campus: Jalen Ramsey
AC100 On Campus: Ethan Pocic
AC100 On Campus: Robbie Rhodes
AC100 On Campus: Jalin Marshall
AC100 On Campus: Jake Raulerson
AC100 On Campus: Cameron Burrows
AC100 On Campus: Dontre Wilson
AC100 On Campus: Taco Charlton
AC100 On Campus: Torii Hunter Jr., Part I
AC100 On Campus: Torii Hunter Jr., Part II
AC100 On Campus: Josh Banderas, Part I
AC100 On Campus: Josh Banderas, Part II
