The 247Sports recruiting guru’s each ranked their own top prospects and yesterday they owned up to some prospects they individually had ranked higher than others. According to their composite rankings, only 31 players made the prestigious 5-Star ranking, so with that discrepancy, the experts had some explaining to do.
Brandon Huffman had one Irish commit ranked much higher than his peers, OT Tosh Baker from Arizona. Huffman ranked Baker as the 28th overall player, while the composite put Baker at 56th in the country. His explanation did not penalize Baker’s injury during the week of the All-American Bowl which kept him out that game as well as the Polynesian Bowl.
Huffman had an opportunity to see Baker earlier in the year and made his assessment on him then as “Baker dominated his defender, another FBS prospect. He has elite athleticism for his size, a tribute to his basketball background, his mobility and quickness not a commonality with tackles.” To see what Huffman is talking about, you can see Baker’s senior highlights right here.
It is typical for one expert to differ from another on assessments of prospects, which creates these kinds of outliers among them. Huffman is very high on Baker as a tackle, something that Brian Kelly and Offensive Line Coach Jeff Quinn must feel as well.