Thoughts on the Position U Rankings

We created the Position U Rankings in an effort to help settle the debate about which team actually is producing the best players at each position. Despite our best efforts, the debate will rage on, but we tried. Our methods are explained here.

The Position U Rankings are live and can be found here. Here are a few things that caught our eye.

Quarterback

Oklahoma is on fire the last 3 seasons and leads the way overall. It’s hard to argue with the success Lincoln Riley has had, although the 2020 season is the 1st time he will be developing a QB he recruited to Oklahoma out of high school. Still, the Sooners have the top spot and don’t appear to be giving it up anytime soon.

Florida State hasn’t had a QB drafted since 2015 and there doesn’t appear to be a draft pick on the docket in 2021, look for the Seminoles to slide back some in these rankings next year. Mike Norvell maybe able to get this turned around but that process looks like its going to take a few years.

Clemson and Ohio State are obvious picks to shoot up the QBU rankings next year with Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields both looking like top of the board draft prospects. If both are picked in the Top 10, both teams will jump into the Top 5.

Running Back

Alabama has dominated the draft with RBs over the last 10 years. The Tide don’t appear to be relenting the top spot in these rankings anytime soon. Najee Harris should come off the board in the first 3 rounds next year and keep the Tide rolling at RB.

It seems like Wisconsin always has a good running back racing toward the record books, and sure enough there they are at 4th in the RBU rankings. The Badgers do not dominate the recruiting rankings the way the 4 teams around them in these rankings do, but they keep churning out talented backs.

The fact that Michigan and Iowa have not had a RB drafted in the last 10 years is shocking. Both teams are traditionally known for their running game but can’t seem to break through recently in the draft. Whether its recruiting or player development something has to change.

Wide Receiver

The Top 5 in the WRU rankings are basically a whose who when it comes to recruiting WRs. Alabama, Oklahoma, Clemson, Ohio State and LSU have recently brought in some of the best WR classes so they don’t appear to be relenting the top spots in these rankings. It will be interesting to see how they jockey for the top spot over the next few years.

Arizona State has had a WR drafted in the 1st round of the last 2 drafts and really made a move up the rankings. Rob Likens has moved on to be the WR Coach at Miami now, but Herm Edwards and company seem to be doing a great job and should keep climbing these rankings as they recruit better talent to the Sun Devils.

Purdue may be sitting at 67 right now, but that should change the next few years. Jeff Brohm pass happy offense features big time play-makers like Rondale Moore and David Bell both of whom should be drafted early in the near future.

Memphis has climbed to 25 in the rankings with receivers drafted each of the last 3 years. Mike Norvell is gone, but Memphis survived Justin Fuente leaving so there is hope that Ryan Silverfield will keep the offense humming along.

Tight End

It wasn’t at all surprising to see Notre Dame, Stanford and Iowa in the top 3 spots at TE. All 3 teams have a great reputation for putting TEs in the league, and anyone who watches the NFL has seen these TEs making plays on Sundays.

2 decades ago Miami would have dominated most of the Position U rankings. Now TE is the only spot in the Position U rankings where Miami places in the top 5. The good news is that with Brevin Jordan catching passes from the TE spot the Hurricanes should be here to stay.

Offensive Line

This is another position that Alabama has just dominated the competition. The Tide recruit some of the best lineman in the country and keep putting them in the league. In the last 10 years there is only 1 draft (2011) where Alabama did not have at least 1 Offensive lineman drafted.

Not surprisingly, Wisconsin is in the 2nd spot and a good 100 points ahead of the 3rd place team. The Badgers have done a great job of developing talent on the O-Line and the NFL has taken notice over the last decade.

Of the Top 10 team in the OLU rankings 4 are from the SEC (Alabama, Texas A&M, Georgia, and Florida) and 3 are from the Big 10 (Wisconsin, Ohio State and Iowa). These 2 conferences are dominating the OLU rankings and we don’t see that changing in the near future.

Defensive Line

Clemson, Alabama and Ohio State are in the Top 3 spots and no one is really close. These 3 teams have been dominant in the last decade and DL play has been a major factor. In fact over the last 5 years all 3 of these teams have separated themselves from the field in the DLU rankings. If you only counted the last 5 years for these 3 teams they would still place in the top 7 (Alabama with 565 points, Ohio State with 555 points and Clemson with 510 points).

NC State had a monster class in 2018 with 210 points, but has little to support that in the rest of the decade. The Wolfpack had 4 Defensive linemen drafted in 2018 and only 2 the rest of the decade, it appears that 2018 was an aberration and not a sign of things to come.

It was surprising to see Virginia Tech ranking 62nd in the DLU rankings. Bud Foster has maintained strong defensive play in Blacksburg over the past decade but for whatever reason that has not translated to defensive linemen being drafted by the NFL.

Linebacker

Alabama and LSU hold the top 2 spots in the LBU rankings and both teams have had at least 1 LB drafted in 9 of the past 10 years. The teams are within 25 points of each other and we could see them to continue to jostle for the top spot.

Georgia is a really solid 3rd in the LBU rankings. The Bulldogs are over 100 points behind the top 2 but also hold a 155 point lead over Ohio State who is in 4th. Kirby Smart has recruited at a high level since being hired at Georgia and the Dawgs are well positioned to continue to pump out talent to the NFL.

UCLA at 5 was a bit of surprise as the Bruins seem to have fallen on hard times recently. Time will tell if Chip Kelly can turn the program around but the 1st half of the decade was much stronger than the 2nd half.

Penn State fans like to claim the moniker LBU but over the past decade that couldn’t be further from the truth. Micah Parsons will certainly help boost the Nittany Lions up the rankings but its a long climb up from the 45th spot to relevance.

Defensive Back

This is the closest Top 3 of any position’s rankings; LSU, Ohio State and Alabama are all within 15 points of one another. The Tigers and Tide have been strong all decade but Ohio State has really come on the last 7 years, they have had 7 DBs drafted in the 1st round in the last 5 years.

As close as the Top 3 are there is a huge drop down to Florida in the 4th spot. Florida is over 200 points behind the top 3. The Gators have been doing a good job putting DBs like CJ Henderson in the league but they are still well behind the top 3.

Utah is in 8th place, and has been consistently putting DBs in the league. They may not be a traditional recruiting power but the Utes have been recruiting and developing DBs all decade.

A few other teams ranked higher than we thought they would be are West Virginia at 11, Connecticut at 21 and Temple at 29. Temple has been on the rise recently but we didn’t expect them to be in the top 30 of the DBU rankings. Connecticut has been a doormat for sometime and to find them 21st in anything was a surprise. West Virginia hasn’t been known for their defense but the parts must be greater than the sum, because the NFL keeps drafting West Virginia DBs.

Next Update

The next update to the rankings will come after the 2021 draft. Of course we will have plenty of College Football content between now and the next update, but until then debate on.

To view the full rankings click here.

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