How the 2012 All-Big East Team Ranked as High School Recruits

Author:
Braden Gall
Dec 21, 2012 5:50 AM EST

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Rutgers Scarlet Knights

College Football

The merits of recruiting rankings are debated in every sports bar and around every water cooler in the nation. Athlon continues its look at how each all-conference team ranked as high school recruits with the first-team All-Big East team.

2012 Offensive All-Big East Team as Recruits

Teddy Bridgewater, QB, Louisville (2011) AC100
The lone Athlon Consensus 100 prospect on the All-Big East team was the star quarterback from Louisville. He was the No. 96-rated overall prospect in the nation hailing from famed Miami (Fla.) Northwestern. He was the No. 6-rated quarterback in the nation and the No. 18-rated player in the state of Florida. He picked the Cards over Florida, LSU, Miami, Rutgers, Tennessee and USF and was given four stars by Rivals.com. Bridgewater goes to show what landing just one elite player can do for a program.

Ray Graham, RB, Pitt (2009) National Recruit
The state of New Jersey has had a great run of producing talented running backs and Graham is the latest. Hailing from Elizabeth (N.J.) High, he signed with the Panthers over offers from Michigan State, Rutgers, NC State, Maryland, UConn and South Carolina. He was a four-star recruit who was ranked by Rivals as the No. 11 running back, the No. 5 player in the state and the No. 243 player in the nation.

Montel Harris, RB, Temple (2008)
The Jacksonville (Fla.) Trinity Christian got only three scholarship offers coming out of the prep ranks. Despite playing at a famous high school, Harris was targeted by only Boston College, Duke and Ball State. He was a two-star recruit who nearly became the ACC’s all-time leading rusher at BC before transferring to Temple.

Alec Lemon, WR, Syracuse (2009)
The Cuse got a steal in the Gambrils (Md.) Arundel prospect. He had one FBS offer on his sheet and that was from the Orange and his only other option was Delaware. He was a two-star recruit by Rivals and was unrated in the state or positional rankings.

DeVante Parker, WR, Louisville (2011)
The play-making wide receiver knew all about the Louisville Cardinals as he played in the city at Ballard High School. Indiana, Kentucky and UCF were his other three offers besides the Cards. Rivals gave him three stars and rated him as the No. 77 wide receiver in the nation and the No. 6 player in the state.

Travis Kelce, TE, Cincinnati (2008)
The Cleveland Heights (Ohio) High “athlete” was a two-star recruit by Rivals.com. He was unranked in any way but received three BCS offers from Cincinnati, UConn and Pitt. He also had a few MAC offers as well — Akron, Eastern Michigan and Miami (Ohio).

Eric Lefeld, OT, Cincinnati (2010)
Lefeld signed with the Bearcats out of Coldwater (Ohio) High back in 2010. He held one offer to play college football. Rivals rated him as a two-star prospect and he didn’t land in the Ohio state rankings or the national position rankings. He had interest from Ball State, Miami (Ohio) and Toledo but never officially got scholarship offers from any of them.

Justin Pugh, OT, Syracuse (2009)
The All-Big East blocker and potential NFL Draft pick slipped under the recruiting radar when he signed in 2009. The Holland (Pa.) Council Rock South prospect held only one offer (Syracuse) and wasn’t ranked in the Keystone State rankings or national positional rankings (Top 100 offensive tackles). Rivals gave him just two stars.

Antwan Lowery, OG, Rutgers (2009) National Recruit
Hailing from Miami (Fla.) Columbus High School, Lowery was only a three-star recruit by Rivals. Yet, he was highly touted by multiple other recruiting services and it nearly landed him in the AC100. He was the No. 170 prospect in the nation by Athlon Sports and was the No. 16 defensive tackle prospect. While Rivals clearly missed on the offensive guard, his offer sheet — and eventual All-Big East honors — matched his Athlon ranking. He picked Rutgers over Auburn, Clemson, Michigan, Miami, Oklahoma, USC, Florida, Florida State, North Carolina and many others.

Austen Bujnoch, OG, Cincinnati (2009)
From famed Cincinnati (Ohio) Elder High School, Bujnoch held quality offers from Louisville, NC State, Indiana, UConn and Cincinnati in the BCS leagues and East Carolina, Miami (Ohio) and Akron on the mid-major level. He was a three-star prospect by Rivals and was rated as the No. 55 offensive tackle and No. 39 player in Ohio.

Mario Benavides, OC, Louisville (2008)
The elder statesman of the Cardinals' offensive line inked with Louisville out of Los Fresnos (Texas) High back in 2008. He was a three-star recruit who was the No. 40-rated offensive guard in the nation by Rivals. His offer sheet was solid, however, as Texas Tech, Arizona, Baylor, Iowa State and Houston were all after the blocker.

Matt Brown, AP, Temple (2009)
The explosive all-purpose runner for Temple was a two-star prospect by Rivals. He was an unranked all-purpose back from New Berlin (N.Y.) Milford Academy who had no other offer to play college football. He clearly made the best of his situation.

Related: The Athlon Consensus 100

Star ranking breakdown of the first-team All-SEC (by Rivals.com):


Star Ranking	No. of Players
	0
	5
	7
	12
Walk-On	0

2012 Defensive All-Big East Team as Recruits

Dan Giordano, DL, Cincinnati (2008)
The Bearcats' talented lineman hails from Frankfort (Ill.) Lincoln Way East. He was a two-star recruit as rated by Rivals.com and had only four chances to play college ball on scholarship. Giordano got two MAC offers from Miami (Ohio) and Eastern Michigan and one BCS offer from the Bearcats. Eastern Illinois also pursued the strongside defensive end prospect. He was unranked by Rivals in anyway.

Trevardo Williams, DL, UConn (2008)
The strongside defensive prospect was ranked as the No. 7 player in the state of Connecticut back in 2008. He had no other offers than UConn to play college ball so the two-star recruit from Bridgeport (Conn.) Central jumped at the chance to play in the Big East. Needless to say, he made the best of his lone opportunity.

Aaron Donald, DL, Pitt (2010)
The Pittsburgh (Pa.) Penn Hills prospect was the No. 14 player in the state by Rivals. He was the No. 37 defensive tackle prospect in the nation and was given three stars by the recruiting website. Rutgers and Pitt were his two best offers with Akron and Toledo also giving the undersized defensive lineman a scholarship.

Scott Vallone, DL, Rutgers (2008) National Recruit
Few players on the All-Big East team were as highly touted as this big defensive lineman from Central Islip (N.Y.) St. Anthony’s. He had an excellent offer sheet that included Rutgers, Maryland, NC State, Syracuse, Virginia, Minnesota, Duke, Boston College and UConn. He was the No. 3 player in the state and the No. 20 defensive tackle in the nation by Rivals — which gave him a four-star rating.

Khaseem Greene, LB, Rutgers (2008)
The all-everything tackler has vastly outperformed his recruiting stock. The Avon (Conn.) Old Farms product was a two-star recruit by Rivals with a rather uninspiring offer sheet. Akron, UMass and UConn were his only other FBS offers as well as the Scarlet Knights. He also had offers from Hofstra and Rhode Island as well.

Greg Blair, LB, Cincinnati (2011) JUCO
The Panthers' linebacker originally graduated from Schenley High School in Pittsburgh, Pa. He ended up at Scranton (Pa.) Lackawanna Community College before signing his only scholarship offer with the Bearcats.

Sio Moore, LB, UConn (2008)
Moore was just a two-star recruit by Rivals.com coming out of high school and had to go up North to play football. From Apex (N.C.) High, his only offer was from the UConn Huskies.

Yawin Smallwood, LB, UConn (2010)
UMass and UConn were the only two programs to offer Smallwood a scholarship to play college football. Yet, he was a three-star recruit according to Rivals. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound outside linebacker from Worcester, Mass., was the No. 4 player in the state.

Adrian Bushell, CB, Louisville (2008) National Recruit
The DeSoto (Texas) High product was an elite prospect back in 2008 when he signed with Florida. He had offers from major powers like Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma and numerous others. He was a four-star recruit by Rivals which ranked him as the No. 157 overall player in the nation. He was the No. 15 “athlete” and the No. 19 player in the state of Texas. He transferred to Louisville after getting playing time in his first two seasons in Gainesville — including a pair of tackles in 2009 SEC Championship game.

Logan Ryan, CB, Rutgers (2009) National Recruit
From Voorhees (N.J.) Eastern High School, Ryan signed with Rutgers over some big-time offers. Michigan State, Iowa, West Virginia, Maryland, Purdue, Virginia and others pursued Ryan heavily. The four-star recruit was the No. 9 player in the Garden State and the No. 32 cornerback in the nation by Rivals.

Duron Harmon, S, Rutgers (2009)
The Rivals three-star safety signed with Rutgers out of Wyoming (Del.) Caesar Rodney. He had quality offers from Pitt, Stanford, Maryland, Virginia, Iowa and UConn as well as Rutgers. He was the No. 5 player in the state and the No. 69 overall “athlete” in the nation in the Class of 2009.

Shamarko Thomas, S, Syracuse (2009)
Thomas landed in up-state New York from Virginia Beach (Va.) Ocean Lakes High School. He held BCS offers from just Louisville and Syracuse as well as small offers from Richmond and Old Dominion. He was a two-star recruit by Rivals.