Film Study: Assigning comparisons for every member of the 2020 signing class...

[DeviousDawg]

I've been watching film of the 2020 signing class for the last couple of weeks, and I think we got a pretty damn good class. This is obviously opinion based, but I assigned a former MSU player comparison(mainly players from the last decade, but a few from the Croom and even Sherrill years) for each member of the 2020 class. The players are listed in no particular order other than the position groups. Recruiting experts, please feel free to weigh in...


WIDE RECEIVERS:

Caleb Ducking(6-5/200) --> O'Neal Wilder(6-5/200);
Honorable Mention--> Brandon McRae(6-4/205); Joe Morrow(6-4/205)

Lideatrick Griffin(5-10/175) --> Jameon Lewis(5-9/175)

Rufus Harvey(5-10/170) --> Donald Gray(5-9/180)

Malik Heath(6-3/215) --> Tony Burks(6-4/205)

Jaden Walley(6-0/175) --> Gabe Myles(6-0/183)



RUNNING BACKS:

Dillon Johnson(6-0/200) --> Ladarius Perkins(5-10/195);
Honorable Mention--> Christian Ducre(6-0/200)

Jo'quavious Marks(5-10/185) --> Nick Turner(5-11/195)


QUARTERBACK:

Will Rogers(6-2/200) --> Wesley Carroll(6-2/190)



OFFENSIVE LINEMAN:

Grant Jackson(6-6/325) --> Justin Malone(6-6/315)

Calvin McMillian(6-5/305) --> Blaine Claussell(6-6/300)



FRONT 7:

Armondous Cooley(6-2/300) --> Josh Boyd(6-3/295);
Honorable Mention--> Kyle Love(6-2/315)

Jevon Banks(6-2/265) --> AJ Jefferson(6-2/255);
Honorable Mention--> Fletcher Adams(6-3/260)

Jordan Davis(6-4/250) --> Denico Autry(6-5/255)

Tre Lawson(6-5/235) --> Preston Smith(6-5/235)

Jamari Stewart(6-4/215) --> Gerri Green(6-5/230);
Honorable Mention--> K.J. Wright(6-3/210)

Rodney Groce Jr.(6-2/245) --> Deonta Skinner(6-2/230);
Honorable Mention--> Errol Thompson(6-2/235)

Tyrus Wheat(6-2/250) --> Quinten Culberson(6-1/236);
Honorable Mention--> Beniquez Brown(6-1/238)



DEFENSIVE BACKS:

Emmanuel Forbes(6-0/165) --> Johnthan Banks(6-2/180);
Honorable Mention--> Taveze Calhoun(6-1/175)

Javorrius Selmon(5-10/175) --> Corey Broomfield(5-10/180)

Decamerion Richardson(6-2/175) --> Justin Cox(6-2/185)

Kyle Cass(6-2/195) --> Kivon Coman(6-1/200);
Honorable Mention--> Dee Arrington(6-1/200)

Janari Dean(5-11/185) --> Derek Pegues(5-10/192);
Honorable Mention--> Charles Mitchell(5-11/200)

Cam Threatt(6-0/165) --> Jay Hughes(5-11/175);
Honorable Mention--> Kendrick Market(5-10/180)

[DeviousDawg]

Players rated 3 stars that looked like they had 4 star talent/potential:


S Janari Dean- This guy just has IT. I love this guys story, he can do it all too. Derek Pegues reincarnated, but only given 3 stars because he committed to State too early.
DB Decamerion Richardson- This guy was a HUGE get. He has elite length and speed, and just needs to learn proper technique. Potential 1st rounder.
LB/S Tyrus Wheat- will only play LB but can move around, great in coverage, played safety in high school, he is a plug and play guy, will start day 1 and be drafted in 2 years
LB/DL Jamari Stewart- freak athlete that just needs a year or 2 in the weight room, this guy is gonna be hell on wheels in Arnett's Defense)
DT Armondous Cooley- This guy is severly underrated. His burst off the line is special, i mean EXPLOSIVE, and he already has NFL size. Reminds me a lot of Benito Jones out of HS size and skill wise, but he will actually develop at State. Big time pick up here.




Richardson and Stewart were two big time late out of state pickups to fill in the class by Leach and company. We are really starting to stack some classes together, just look at next years 2 deep on the OL...

[Todd4State]

I think Ducking watching his film could be a big time steal. He played in a triple option offense at Holmes CC but his video when he actually was thrown the ball is really impressive.

I don't know if Dean is as explosive a play maker as Pegues was for us. I think he's going to be a great leader on defense though. I'm thinking more of a Charles Mitchell comp with him?

Richardson and Stewart were both out of state steals.

Tyrus Wheat = Ashley Cooper.

Armondous Cooley I think may be quicker than Love or Boyd. Maybe Willie Blade.

I think Will Rogers was close to be a four star as well. I think he has a much stronger arm than Carroll. In his video I've seen him complete passes at least 45-50 yards downfield. I don't remember Carroll doing that a lot. I'll go ahead and compare him to Gardner Minchew.

[ShotgunDawg]

I've been watching film of the 2020 signing class for the last couple of weeks, and I think we got a pretty damn good class. This is obviously opinion based, but I assigned a former MSU player comparison(mainly players from the last decade, but a few from the Croom and even Sherrill years) for each member of the 2020 class. The players are listed in no particular order other than the position groups. Recruiting experts, please feel free to weigh in...


WIDE RECEIVERS:

Caleb Ducking(6-5/200) --> O'Neal Wilder(6-5/200);
Honorable Mention--> Brandon McRae(6-4/205); Joe Morrow(6-4/205)

Lideatrick Griffin(5-10/175) --> Jameon Lewis(5-9/175)

Rufus Harvey(5-10/170) --> Donald Gray(5-9/180)

Malik Heath(6-3/215) --> Tony Burks(6-4/205)

Jaden Walley(6-0/175) --> Gabe Myles(6-0/183)



RUNNING BACKS:

Dillon Johnson(6-0/200) --> Ladarius Perkins(5-10/195);
Honorable Mention--> Christian Ducre(6-0/200)

Jo'quavious Marks(5-10/185) --> Nick Turner(5-11/195)


QUARTERBACK:

Will Rogers(6-2/200) --> Wesley Carroll(6-2/190)



OFFENSIVE LINEMAN:

Grant Jackson(6-6/325) --> Justin Malone(6-6/315)

Calvin McMillian(6-5/305) --> Blaine Claussell(6-6/300)



FRONT 7:

Armondous Cooley(6-2/300) --> Josh Boyd(6-3/295);
Honorable Mention--> Kyle Love(6-2/315)

Jevon Banks(6-2/265) --> AJ Jefferson(6-2/255);
Honorable Mention--> Fletcher Adams(6-3/260)

Jordan Davis(6-4/250) --> Denico Autry(6-5/255)

Tre Lawson(6-5/235) --> Preston Smith(6-5/235)

Jamari Stewart(6-4/215) --> Gerri Green(6-5/230);
Honorable Mention--> K.J. Wright(6-3/210)

Rodney Groce Jr.(6-2/245) --> Deonta Skinner(6-2/230);
Honorable Mention--> Errol Thompson(6-2/235)

Tyrus Wheat(6-2/250) --> Quinten Culberson(6-1/236);
Honorable Mention--> Beniquez Brown(6-1/238)



DEFENSIVE BACKS:

Emmanuel Forbes(6-0/165) --> Johnthan Banks(6-2/180);
Honorable Mention--> Taveze Calhoun(6-1/175)

Javorrius Selmon(5-10/175) --> Corey Broomfield(5-10/180)

Decamerion Richardson(6-2/175) --> Justin Cox(6-2/185)

Kyle Cass(6-2/195) --> Kivon Coman(6-1/200);
Honorable Mention--> Dee Arrington(6-1/200)

Janari Dean(5-11/185) --> Derek Pegues(5-10/192);
Honorable Mention--> Charles Mitchell(5-11/200)

Cam Threatt(6-0/165) --> Jay Hughes(5-11/175);
Honorable Mention--> Kendrick Market(5-10/180)


Great job Devious.

Just for discussion sake & because I want to discuss football:

Malik Heath - Too me Heath is more naturally talented than Tony. Twitchier & stronger. I'm big on Heath's raw ability

Marks - I'll take Nick Turner's talent in Mike Leach's offense every day.

Ducking - O'Neal Wilder is a sneaky "what if" in MSU football history. Remember him catching that bomb against Kentucky & then basically exiting stage left

Griffin - Tubby is a good comp, but Griffin is strong & more explosive IMO

Donald Gray - not sure why he could never get open.

Walley - Love the Gabe Myles comp. Spot on

Rogers - He looks way better than Carroll to me. Much better arm strength & size. Stronger frame

I could on but this was fun to read. thanks

[R2Dawg]

I think Ducking watching his film could be a big time steal. He played in a triple option offense at Holmes CC but his video when he actually was thrown the ball is really impressive.

I don't know if Dean is as explosive a play maker as Pegues was for us. I think he's going to be a great leader on defense though. I'm thinking more of a Charles Mitchell comp with him?

Richardson and Stewart were both out of state steals.

Tyrus Wheat = Ashley Cooper.

Armondous Cooley I think may be quicker than Love or Boyd. Maybe Willie Blade.

I think Will Rogers was close to be a four star as well. I think he has a much stronger arm than Carroll. In his video I've seen him complete passes at least 45-50 yards downfield. I don't remember Carroll doing that a lot. I'll go ahead and compare him to Gardner Minchew.

Reading this thread has me a little more excited about last year's class. Looks like a typical MSU class. Low rated big talent just waiting to grow into NFL talent. Our D is gonna be just fine. The throwback pressure D from 90s has me excited too. Watching that 91 youtube team, I'll take some more of that.

[DeviousDawg]

Malik Heath - Too me Heath is more naturally talented than Tony. Twitchier & stronger. I'm big on Heath's raw ability

I agree, and to be honest, I really struggled to find a good comp for Heath without reaching way back into MSU's history. Heath was easily the hardest one to find a comp for, and I knew Burks was a stretch but it was the best I could do, even though I believe they are 2 slightly different style of WR's. With that said, I would love if Heath could step in and have a Junior season similar to that of Tony's, I believe he had over 800 yards, and that was in a Croom offense with zero talent around him.

I almost reached back into the mid 90s and made the Eric Moulds comparison, but that wouldn't be fair standards for Heath to live up to. I do think they are similar styles, but Moulds had much more straight line speed, agility, and lateral quickness. He was a freak, but they do carry similar frames.

Heath's true comparison is probably a hybrid of Tony Burks and Eric Moulds, both style and talent wise.


Marks - I'll take Nick Turner's talent in Mike Leach's offense every day.

Turner was easily an elite NFL talent, he and Norwood were both before their times style wise, they both would've been hell on wheels in a spread offense, and both would have fit great into the air raid scheme, imo. I almost went with the Norwood comp, but it didn't feel as right as the Nick Turner comp did. Norwood was just a bit too scatty too make that comparison imo.


Ducking - O'Neal Wilder is a sneaky "what if" in MSU football history. Remember him catching that bomb against Kentucky & then basically exiting stage left

No doubt O'Neal Wilder could've played in the NFL. I remember when we signed him, I watched his highlights on Scout and the first play was a kick return for a touchdown, straight up the gut. It almost looked fake, at that point of my life I had never seen someone that big run that fast, he just went up the gut shot out of a cannon and then he pulled away from the pack at a rate I thought impossible. I tried to find that film but it's gone.

I believe his SR in high school was his first year to play football. He redshirted his true freshmen year and then was our 2nd leading reciever as a redshirt freshman behind only Bumphis(by less than 100 yards too). He ended his first and only year of college football with 14 receptions and 236 yards, which is ~17 yards per reception.

I honestly loved this comparison because while Ducking doesn't have elite track speed like Wilder did, he does have legit mid to low 4.5 speed, which is blazing for that size. I also think Ducking is much more polished as a receiver than Wilder was when he got to campus. Great job by Moorehead and staff getting that guy to camp and offering him based on what your eyes see, not what the recruiting sites say. Apparantly he was turning heads in a major way when he camped with State, this could be a huge pickup.

Ducking finished last year with only 9 catches for 207 yards and 3 TD, he also had 1 carry for 71 yards and a TD. This is understandable because he is in a triple option offense, shades of Megatron. Here are 8 of his 9 receptions from last year. Watch the body control and hands he displays in the video vs Jones. He looks the part no doubt, if we can put some weight on him, he might just be catching footballs for a living in a couple years, steal of the class.

vs Itawamba- 1 catch for 38 yards and 1 TD; 1 carry; 71 yards; 1 TD
http://www.hudl.com/v/2C0RZ4

vs Northwest- 4 catches for 83 recieving yards and 2 TD
http://www.hudl.com/v/2BzMBT

vs EMCC- 2 catches for 44 yards and 1 TD
http://www.hudl.com/v/2C4cFd

vs Jones- 1 catch for 27 yards
http://www.hudl.com/v/2BzNxx

In those 4 games he averaged 24 yards per reception and 29.2 yards per touch. He also average a touchdown for every ~2 touches. Big play ability, no doubt.


Walley - Love the Gabe Myles comp. Spot on

Yep, this was easily my favorite comparison, for a lot of reasons. I also believed it was spot on.


Rogers - He looks way better than Carroll to me. Much better arm strength & size. Stronger frame

I agree that Rogers projects better based on arm strength, but I don't believe their frames are too much different. It wasn't a perfect comparison, but using only MSU players post-2000, it was easily the best I could do. Carroll came in and led us to our first bowl in years as a true freshmen. His decision making and accuracy were pretty advanced for a true freshman. I think there are many parallels between Carroll and Rogers, but that's just my opinion. I should also add, it's no knock on Rogers comparing him to Carroll.

[ShotgunDawg]

Ducking does look good. Reminds me some of Dwayne Jarrett.

Hopefully he can catch.

[DeviousDawg]

don't know if Dean is as explosive a play maker as Pegues was for us. I think he's going to be a great leader on defense though. I'm thinking more of a Charles Mitchell comp with him?


I think the Pegues comp felt better than the Charles Mitchell comp in part because of the USP connection between Pegues and Dean. The Charles Mitchell comp may be slightly better, but in the end I think all 3 are very similar players both on and off the field.

I think the Pegues comp feels a little off because of the vast difference in their rankings (Pegues was a 5 star compared to Dean who is a 3 star). With that said, I think Janari Dean may just be not only the most underrated player in our 2020 class, but also the most underrated player in the country. There is a reason for this underrating, but it really comes down to the recruiting sites being lazy, and not listening to the local site moderators like Paul and Steve, who have been screaming underrated for over a year. There is absolutely no reason Janari should not be a 4 star.

Dean had season ending injuries before his freshman and sophomore seasons even began. He got his first SEC offer(Arkansas) before his junior season, this was before he had played one snap of high school football. He is uber talented. Pegues had the benefit of starting for 4 years, touching the ball every snap(QB), and also the spotlight of leading the best team in the country to 4 straight State Championships, not to mention a gluttony of talented surrounding him. I'm not going to link it, because it's from that rag that we do not recognize, but I will copy and paste this article below because I actually thought it was really good. This article is very eye opening, and every MSU fan should read it.




BATESVILLE -- The light went out on Janari Dean twice.

An injury in the spring of his eighth-grade year wiped out his freshman season of high school football. Then, the following year, an off-the-field accident ended his sophomore season before it even began.

During rehab for the injuries, he grew depressed, wondered if he'd ever play again and contemplated a career as a respiratory therapist.

"You realize you're not playing football, you've got to work hard to get back to where you were," Dean said. "I was working every day. That's what really made me get depression. I was like, "Man, everybody ain't focused on me now. You lose the light. It's like you fade away."

A torn ACL, a broken arm and a scary blood clot might have dissuaded some guys from pursuing a football career.

Not him.

His perseverance and passion for football led him back to the field. His talent and tenacity paved the way for success and scholarship offers. His pad-popping productivity made him a member of the Clarion Ledger's 2019 Dandy Dozen, a collection of the top 12 rising seniors in high school football for the state of Mississippi.

The Early Days and the Injuries

Dean was always a football player. What position? Didn't matter.

He played running back in pee-wee football and coaches remember watching in awe as a kid so young was so resolute in his need to score every time he touched the ball.

In the spring of his eighth grade year, Dean was called to practice with the big boys at South Panola High School, where he was fast-tracked to be a starter at safety. Random happenstance had other plans. One day, he was defending a deep pass over the middle and leapt to make a play on the ball.

When he came down, his foot got caught in the ground. He tried to get up. He fell back down. He tried to get up again. He fell another time.

He tore his ACL, and with it lost his freshman season, and his sense of identity.

So he shifted his focus. Dean turned his schoolwork into his new football, approaching every school day like a game. If he showed up, listened and was nice to his teachers and classmates, he figured the results would be comparable to what happens when you work out, practice and study your playbook. Soon thereafter, Dean said he became an A student.

And a year later, after daily rehab, Dean the football player was back.

But first, he and some teammates decided to go off-roading in a side-by-side, which is effectively like a cross between an ATV and a golf cart.

Dean's an outdoorsy guy, after all. He hunts. He fishes. In his free time, he makes extra cash caring for and training show horses.

Still, taking the side-by-side out was admittedly a bad idea. The friends were bored. They needed something to do. But it?d been raining. And the off-roader was able to hit speeds around 50 or 60 mph.

Dean let all of his friends drive first. He went last out of precaution. But he still lost control, flipping the four-wheeler four times.

The light went out again.

He had broken his arm, and that was the least of his worries.

Dean was hospitalized for a week as doctors worked to disperse a blood clot that had formed after the accident. During his week in the hospital, his father, James, came to visit with sobering news. The wife of one of his friends from high school had just died from a surprise blood clot.

A rising sophomore at this point, Dean escaped the same fate. His doctors caught the blood clot promptly and put him on a strict regimen of daily blood thinners for three months, a prescription that taught him discipline.

The Reckoning

Then Dean was back in familiar territory. Another year of rehab. And though rehab was physically easier the second time, the mental toll weighed on him. He thought maybe football had passed him by. Opportunities were running out.

So Dean concocted a plan. If football had in fact passed him by, he was going to focus on his grades, get into a top college and become a respiratory therapist. And he'd train horses on the side. He had everything figured out.

But he still believed he had a promising future in football. He just needed to stay healthy.

"I knew once I got back on the field that I would be phenomenal," he said.

Was he right? Let's just say his Plan B as a respiratory therapist might have to wait.

The Attention

In the spring of his sophomore year, Dean could finally play football again. After two years away, he found himself hitting with renewed vigor. He felt like he had two years of hits built up inside him and he used that spring to set them free. To use his words, he came out teeing off on people.

It wasn't long before colleges started taking notice. About a month after spring practices ended, Dean was working at the nearby barn, where he keeps his horse, Trip, and looks after a few others.

But Dean was needed at the high school. So his coaches called his mom. And his mom called his boss. Then his boss said Dean had stepped out for lunch. So Dean?s mother drove around town and eventually found her son at a nearby gas station. She told him to get to the school.

Dean thought someone was in trouble. He got in his truck and drove faster than he should've, speeding to South Panola. He wasn't confronted with trouble. He was greeted by recruiters from Arkansas. They wanted to offer him a scholarship.

He hadn't even played a high school football game and an SEC school wanted him.

Breakout Year at South Panola

That said, one major question remained. What position would Dean play?

Dean fancies himself a defensive back. That's where he thinks he'll end up making money some day. But an instinctive, quick and powerful running back like Dean could give South Panola's offense the spark it had with Darrell Henderson, a former Memphis running back who the Los Angeles Rams drafted this year.

Ricky Woods, an eight-time state championship winning head coach, views a two-way player like Dean as an invaluable asset.

"College recruiters come by and they're recruiting him and ask if he wants to play offense or defense and I'll say, He wants to play defense, but he'll actually do anything you want him to do," Woods said.

Entering his 38th year of coaching, Woods said Dean is the first player he has coached that colleges are recruiting for positions on both sides of the ball. And Woods estimates he has coached 10 Dandy Dozen players.

Perhaps this split interest from recruiters is because Dean keeps validating Woods' decision to play him at running back. Dean is adamant he's a safety. At 6-foot and 190 pounds, recruiting services list him as a defensive back. But as a junior in 2018, Dean rushed for 2,030 yards and 18 touchdowns, eclipsing the 100-yard mark in 10 games and scoring multiple touchdowns in seven games.

This includes a star-turn performance Oct. 12 against Tupelo High School. South Panola was 3-5. Postseason chances were slipping away. And Dean's coaches told him he needed to be the spark plug that night. So Dean obliged.

He carried 31 times for 247 yards and three touchdowns en route to a 21-7 win, then South Panola won its following three games. Dean's attitude with the ball was contagious and "brought something out of the whole team," he said.

"Once I start teeing off on people, everybody did," Dean said. "Our quarterback even started popping people. I had never seen him do that. Little wide receivers started popping people. It was a domino effect and it was pretty cool to see that."

Artee Smith, South Panola's running backs coach, wasn't surprised to see Dean run that way. Smith was teammates with Dean's father, James -- a Clarion Ledger Dandy Dozen in 2000. Smith said he has seen similarities in the way father and son play running back.

"They both have that killer instinct," Smith said. "They want to be good at what they do. They both want to win. And they'll do it by any means necessary."

What's Next for Janari Dean?

Dean committed to Mississippi State in June. He plans to play safety in college. And yes, he plans to bring his horse with him to Starkville. Playing in the SEC is no excuse for letting Trip relax on his show training.

But before he gets to Mississippi State, he has a few goals he wants to achieve first. Foremost, he wants to lead South Panola to a state championship, a feat the Tigers haven't achieved since 2014.

Beyond that, he wants to break the South Panola single-season rushing record. Even though he doesn't know what the record is -- Darius Barksdale rushed for 2,917 yards in 2007 -- he wants to break it.

Dean has already achieved his goal of being named a Dandy Dozen like his dad. Not bad for someone who spent two years wondering if he'd ever play football again.

"Now I feel like if I set my mind to it, the only person stopping you is you," Dean said. "I feel like now can't nobody tell me what I can't do. You say I can't get that touchdown? I'm finna get that touchdown."



That article should be eye opening for all MSU fans. Not many know Dean's story, but they should. He is my favorite player in this class.

Dean had almost 4,000 rush yards in just 2 years of playing high school football, and his coach wouldn't even allow him to play his true position of safety. His rushing numbers were better than Pegues in his respective JR and SR years. The fact is, by the time 99% of 4 and 5 star players are going into their junior years, they have already made national names for themselves, they already have put up stupid numbers, and have already been anointed as a blue chip prospect, this was the case for Pegues. However, when Dean was going into his Junior year, he had still yet to play a single snap of high school football. He was destined to be underrated because of this. Add in that he has a non-flashy, workman-like(a.k.a. MSU-like) personality, handling his recruitment maturely and efficiently, he stood no chance of being accurately rated. If he had not committed to MSU early, and really dragged out his recruitment and raked in offers and official visit invited from blue bloods across the Southeast, I 100% believe he would've been rated a high 4 star by signing day.

Dean is the epitome of MSU football and the prototype MSU football player. He enjoys horses and hunting rather clubs and partying. He focuses on his grades and long term future while approaching life realistically. He quietly and maturely navigated his recruitment, making an informed and wise decision based on what fit him best, and what was best for his future. Janari Dean is MSU football. He will be a fan favorite and an eventual multi year starter and captain on MSU's defense. It is such a joke that he is a 3 star, but in Dean's case, the recruiting sites do get somewhat of a pass. You couldn't make up a better scenario for a top 100 player being overlooked and underrated as a 3 star.

I could've, and probably should've, made an entire thread on Janari Dean and how vastly underrated he was. The gap between Pegues and Dean's abilities/potential as a SEC DB is nowhere near the gap reflected by their respective rankings. Pegues in reality was probably a mid to high 4 star DB. Dean, in reality, is probably a mid to high 4 star DB. Size and speed wise, Pegues and Dean are almost identical.

I had Janari Dean at #2 prospect in Mississippi last year, only behind McKinnley Jackson and a hair ahead of Emmanuel Forbes and Jakivuan Brown(hated to miss on him, he's legit, almost had him at #3 in MS, we sign these type players 9 times out of 10 over OM), meaning Dean was a top 100-150 player in the country, in my book. FWIW, here is my top 10 for last years MS class:



DT McKinnley Jackson(TAMU)
S Janari Dean(MSU)
CB Emmanuel Forbes(MSU)
LB Jakivuan Brown(OM)
WR Lideatrick Griffin(MSU)
DT Armondous Cooley(MSU)
WR Alex Adams(LSU)
ATH Jeremiah Pegues(AU)
RB Dillon Johnson(MSU)
OL Xavier Hill(LSU)


Also, I want to add, it's a damn shame and typical recruiting site BS to have Trey Benson 4-6 spots(depending on if using 247 or composite rankings) ahead of Dillon Johnson in the Mississippi's rankings. It should easily be a push if not the other way around (FWIW, I still like Benson and had him at #11 in the state, compared to Johnson at #9, but Benson being up to 6 spots ahead of Johnson is nothing but ignorance). There is absolutely no excuse for this, because they played on the same team, in the same backfield, the film is out there. It's just a joke, and it is purely based on the fact that Benson committed to Oregon while Dillon Johnson committed early to MSU, and also the fact that Benson ran his 40 time 0.07 seconds faster at The Opening combine. That is literally the only edge Benson has on Johnson. The difference in shuttle times is eye popping.

D. Johnson(left) vs T. Benson(right) --

The Opening results:
40 time: 4.56 vs 4.49
Shuttle: 4.19 vs 4.56
Vertical: 36.60 vs 35.00

High School Stats:
Passing yards: 1,227 vs 13
Passing TD: 15 vs 0

Rushing yards: 4344 vs 3616
Rushing TD: 50 vs 48

Receiving yards: 590 vs 250
Receiving TD: 6 vs 2

Total Yards: 6161 vs 3789
Total TD: 71 vs 50

[Turfdawg67]

Great article on Dean. And you're right, most of us don't know the backstory on this soon-to-be fan favorite!