You must reevaluate your perception of star ratings. A breakdown.

This is new for all of us. The rules and/or contracts will likely be modified every year due to exploitations, along with incidents like Williams/Washington and Wisconsin/Lucas


Money aside, with a 12+ game playoff, players are seeing that they can win without HAVING to go to the "usual suspects". The Era of 3-deep rosters of 4*/5* players is over, as they can go to a low-level school, prove themselves/ball out, then go to a more recognizable school for a large payout.

Coaching is more important than ever. Specifically, evaluation. It's more valuable to go out and grab players that fit into your scheme. Most of us have heard this in one form or fashion, but this is just to preface the following data.

Here is a contrasted view of 2 usual contender relying on the star system vs two with more of an evaluation approach:

Category Indiana Oregon Ohio State Alabama
5-stars 0 2 3 9
4-stars 2 11 16 9
Top 100 recruits 1 8 10 14
2-stars or below 9 2 1 2

(Niziolek, 2026)


It goes without saying that the first two are still playing. Abnormality? Maybe. I do believe this trend to continue, though.




Here's a simple analysis of Indiana and some of its key starters. I'm aware it's no secret that Indiana has a lot of players from smaller schools. I just wanted to put it on paper, so to speak. Just looking at the starters;

OFFENSE
Fernando Mendoza QB 3*
Elijah Sarratt RB Unranked
E.J. Williams WR 3*
Omar Cooper Jr WR 4*
Carter Smith LT 3*
Drew Evans LG Unranked
Pat Coogan C 3*
Bray Lynch RG 3*
Adedamola Ajani RT 3*
Riley Nowakowski TE Unranked
Roman Hemby RB 3*


DEFENSE
Mikail Kamara DE Unranked
Tyrique Tucker NT Unranked
Mario Landino DL 3*
Daniel Ndukwe DE 3*
Rolijah Hardy LB Unranked
Aiden Fisher LB Unranked
Jamari Sharpe CB 3*
Louis Moore SS Unranked
Amare Ferrell FS 3*
D'Angelo Ponds CB 3*
Devan Boykin NB 3*

On3 rankings



It's crazy. In the not-so-distant past, if you saw this lineup, not a single one of us would have thought they'd even make the playoffs. Much less perform as well as they have. This isn't a fluke team getting up for a few games this year. This is calculated. A masterclass of evaluation and utilizing low-ranked talent.



As impressive a job as Cignetti has done, Indiana isn't the only one utilizing lower-rated players.


To further catch a glimpse of the effects of the transfer portal, we can look at a Mock draft and see how the star system and the teams performed.

Ried's Mock Drsft per ESPN

1. Fernando Mendoza, QB 3* Indiana (Transfer from Cal)
2. Dante Moore, QB 5* Oregon (Transfer UCLA)
3. Francis Mauigoa, OT/G 5* Miami (Transfer from Washington State)
4. Arvell Reese, Edge/LB 4* Ohio State
5. Carnell Tate, WR 4* Ohio State
6. Jordyn Tyson, WR 3* Arizona State (Transfer from Colorado)
7. David Bailey, Edge 4* Texas Tech
8. Jeremiyah Love, RB 4* Notre Dame
9. Rueben Bain Jr., DL 4* Miami
10. Caleb Downs, S 5* Ohio State (Transfer from Alabama)
11. Spencer Fano, OT 4* Utah
12. Sonny Styles, LB 5* Ohio State
13. Makai Lemon, WR 4* USC
14. Peter Woods, DT 5* Clemson
15. Keldric Faulk, Edge 4* Auburn (Transfer from Florida State)
16. Kayden McDonald, DT 4* Ohio State
17. Caleb Lomu, OT 4* Utah
18. Mansoor Delane, CB 3* LSU (Transfer from Virginia Tech)
19. Kenyon Sadiq, TE 4* Oregon
20. Cashius Howell, Edge 3* Texas A&M (Transfer from Bowling Green)
21. KC Concepcion, WR 3* Texas A&M (Transfer from North Carolina State)
22. Kadyn Proctor, OT 5* Alabama
23. Denzel Boston, WR 3* Washington
24. CJ Allen, LB 4* Georgia
25. Jermod McCoy, CB 3* Tennessee (Transfer from Oregon State)
26. Brandon Cisse, CB 3* South Carolina (Transfer from North Carolina State)
27. A'Mauri Washington, DT 4* Oregon
28. Olaivavega Ioane, G 3* Penn State
29. Matayo Uiagalelei, Edge 4* Oregon
30. Avieon Terrell, CB 4* Clemson
31. Jake Golday, LB 0* Cincinnati (Transfer Central Arkansas)
32. Colton Hood, CB 4* Tennessee (Transfer from Auburn)

ESPN: Ried's Mock Draft (Cross referenced with On3 recruiting rankings)



The mock draft seems to be a pretty standard mix of ranked players. However, how the teams performed should be considered. As well as the fact that many of these players were not signed out of H.S. by the schools by their names. It's wild that, in this mock draft, nearly half are transfers. This is round 1. Its a safe bet to assume the later rounds will have more transfers, and obviously lower ranked players.







TL:DR version: Stop stargazing. Let Coach Kiffin do his thing and remember that this is a rebuild that started in the final moments of the recruiting cycle. We do have talent. We also had a lot of highly rated players who didn't really contribute. Or that were head cases. Locker room cancer. However you want to put it. We also need to stop freaking out every time a highly rated high school player that never did shite @ LSU enters the portal. With the exception of a few, many times, we are better off not trying to force a 4*/5* tag in a role that isn't clicking.

The difference is that we now have coaches who can evaluate and develop talent. There's still a lot of moves to be made. It doesn't happen overnight.