In today’s college football recruiting world, it has become increasingly difficult to find the diamond in the rough. When USC head coach Lane Kiffin is offering scholarships to quarterbacks who are looking for dates for the next junior high dance, and every college recruit is given a page on Scout.com and a rating, high school football players simply don’t fly under the radar.
However, when the NFL announced its next Hall of Fame class on Feb. 6, there was one notable inductee who flew under the radar in high school: Jerry Rice.
The Crawford, Miss., native, who was ignored by major colleges coming out of high school (including nearby Mississippi State), put together one of the most productive careers in NFL history.
One reason Rice was overlooked was where he played high school ball. What is now East Oktibbeha County High School was B.L. Moore High School when Rice graduated from there in 1980.
If you have ever been to East Oktibbeha High School, it is easy to see how a player from there would go unnoticed. Crawford is a small, rural town with a population of 624, according to city-data.com.
As in intern with Starkville Daily News last fall, I spent two Friday nights watching the East Oktibbeha Titans play football, and I can guarantee I was the only member of the media covering the game. You have to use your imagination to see what some of the numbers are on the scoreboard, and walking on the field after a five-overtime game against Weir High School, I felt like I was sinking ankle-deep into the muddy playing surface. Needless to say, scouts and college recruiters often overlook the small 1A high schools like East Oktibbeha.
That is a trend MSU head coach Dan Mullen is looking to change. Since coming to Starkville over a year ago, Mullen has made recruiting in-state players his top priority. His 2010 recruiting class is heavy on in-state talent, with 19 of his 26 signees coming from Mississippi.
At his signing day press conference on Feb. 3, Mullen said he did not want to overlook Mississippi’s small schools and miss out on future stars.
“When you have those types of schools, a lot of people overlook them,” Mullen said. “The commitment we’ve made in our staff meetings is to recruit the state of Mississippi. I tell them, ‘We need to be in every single high school in Mississippi in spring recruiting, before we cross the state lines.'”
Mullen has already produced one small high school gem from his first recruiting class: safety Johnthan Banks, from East Webster High School, which is in Cumberland, Miss., In his freshman season, Banks recorded 33 tackles and four interceptions, two of which were run back for touchdowns against SEC East champion Florida.
Mullen said players like Rice and Banks are the reason why small Mississippi high schools cannot be overlooked.
“We need to evaluate every player in this state to make sure that we don’t go miss on Jerry Rice, just skip over him because he’s at a small school. We don’t miss on Johnthan Banks that’s at a small school . that we get in to every school in the state and evaluate those players.”
In the same press conference, Mullen pointed out that Rice, Brett Favre and Walter Payton, all Mississippi natives, are among the best to ever play their respective positions. There is sound logic there, but there is not a Favre or Rice graduating high school every year. Rice, Favre and Payton are all players that come along once in a generation, not every two or three years.
While it remains to be seen how well the ‘recruit the hell out of Mississippi approach’ will work for Mullen, there is no denying the talent that is produced in the Magnolia state. This summer’s hall of fame induction ceremony will be just one more example of the talent within Mississippi’s borders.