Tyrell Higgins didn’t even plan to redshirt, let alone end his Texas career prematurely.
“I was going to go play for four years and go pro,” he recalled. “That pretty much was my mindset.”
On Wednesday, hundreds of high school stars around the country will sign national letters of intent to play major college football just as Higgins did in 2007. Coaches and fans will agonize over those 25 or so guys pledging to each school.
But how those recruiting classes make their mark on the field in a few years will often look very different from those tidy lists released by teams. Consider the consensus top five hauls in 2007: Florida, USC, Tennessee, LSU and Higgins’ pick, Texas. An analysis by The Associated Press showed that of the 123 high school players who sent in letters to those programs on signing day, only 59 (48 percent) were still on the teams’ rosters as seniors in 2010 or ’11 (depending on whether they redshirted).
Some turned pro early. Some never made it to campus in the first place. Many departed at some point during their careers for a variety of reasons: disciplinary problems, academics, injuries, lack of playing time.
Higgins has noticed how many of
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