Alabama Football: Seven Great Crimson Tide Players. All were Zero-Star Recruits. All had solid NFL careers. Four played on Super Bowl Winners.
Alabama Football under Nick Saban has become a college football recruiting Goliath. The parade of elite players marching into Tuscaloosa appears to never end. Elite 5-Star players are expected to shine, 4-Star players are expected to fight their way to Tide greatness.
It may be hard for most fans to believe but the Star Ranking Frenzy of College Football Recruiting is mostly a 21st-century phenomenon. While tracking highly touted high school players has gone on for decades, the digital age explosion of media attention began in 1998 with the formation of the Rivals organization.
Until then college football recruiting was basically a cottage industry, populated mostly by single individuals, disseminating information through newsletters.
The formation of Rivals quickly changed the coverage of emerging high school stars. Scout and 247 Sports followed the Rivals business plan with similar success. These outside-the-mainstream media sources became so popular ESPN created its own recruiting division and in 2006 the ESPN 300 was born.
Prior to this massive growth of the college recruiting industry, some very good players were not picked as 5-Stars or 4-Stars. Technically they were Not Rated (NR). Whatever their range of potential they were, as a result, Zero-Star players.
Let’s look at seven great Alabama Zero-Star players and their Crimson Tide and NFL careers.