The highest-rated football recruit for any Big 12 school in 247Sports' 2017 class is … hold on, still scrolling … still scrolling … Jack Anderson, a four-star guard who signed with Texas Tech. Anderson is not a top-25 recruit, nor is he a top-50 recruit. He's not even in the top 75. The big man from Frisco, Texas, is the Big 12's top recruit in 2017, buried at No. 76.
Though a parade of four-star Big 12 recruits follow Anderson, it was a bizarre and whiff-filled year for a conference whose 10 logos routinely line player rankings. Let's go back to times that were more fruitful for the conference.
MORE: Best Heisman Candidate for Each Big 12 Team
Here is the highest-rated high school recruit for each Big 12 school.
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Baylor – Robbie Rhodes, WR (2013)
Robbie Rhodes was the third-ranked receiver and 28th-ranked player in the 2013 class. He did not meet expectations of a five-star talent, catching 10 passes for 157 yards as a freshman in 2013. Rhodes transferred to Bowling Green after the season.
He played in four games for the Falcons in 2015, catching three balls for 130 yards and one score, but was dismissed in June 2016. Rhodes' composite score of 0.9861 was nearly beaten by another receiver one year later, KD Cannon (0.9853).
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Iowa State – Allen Lazard, WR (2014)
Allen Lazard passed on offers from Notre Dame, Oregon and others to sign with nearby Iowa State in 2014. With a composite score of 0.9616, he's by far the highest-rated player to ever sign with the Cyclones.
He passed on the 2017 draft to return to Ames, where he ranks third in program history with 2,419 receiving yards.
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Kansas – Brandon Duncan, LB (2005)
Brandon Duncan is the only recruit with a 0.9000 rating or higher to play at Kansas.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pounder from Garland, Texas, committed to Texas but his relationship with the Longhorns broke down around signing day in 2005, causing him to enroll at Kansas just weeks before the season.
After a redshirt year, Duncan registered seven tackles in three games for the Jayhawks in 2006 but left after the season.
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Kansas State – Ayo Saba, FB (2001)
Bill Snyder has won 202 games despite rarely recruiting elite talent. He did, however, snag four-star fullback Ayo Saba from New Jersey in 2001.
Saba carried a rating of 0.9667, the 108th-best in the class, when signing with the Wildcats. After redshirting, he played four seasons, helping lead Kansas State to back-to-back 11-win seasons (2002-03). Saba had 11 career touchdowns, all rushing.
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Oklahoma – Adrian Peterson, RB (2004)
Adrian Peterson's 0.9996 rating in 2004 is tied with Leonard Fournette for the second-highest ever for a running back, only behind Joe McKnight (0.9997 in 2007).
Peterson averaged 11.7 yards per carry as a senior at Palestine (Texas) High School and signed with the Sooners as the top-overall prospect in the 2004 class. He racked up more than 4,000 yards and 41 touchdowns in just 31 games before the Minnesota Vikings made him the seventh pick in the 2007 draft.
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Oklahoma State – Bobby Reid, QB (2004)
The 32nd-ranked prospect in the 2004 class, Bobby Reid had a composite score of 0.9845. Long before he was the subject of a newspaper article that led to Mike Gundy's infamous rant — which Reid later said "basically ended my life" — Reid was an electric dual-threat quarterback at North Shore High School in Houston.
He appeared in 28 games over three seasons for the Cowboys before transferring to Texas Southern, where he threw for 1,791 yards and 12 scores in 2008.
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TCU – Jalen Reagor, WR (2017)
Tyson Thompson was the highest-rated player (0.9869) to ever sign with TCU but he didn't qualify academically and spent two seasons at Garden City Community College and one at San Jose State.
That leaves 2017 four-star prospect Jalen Reagor (0.9559) as the Horned Frogs' best recruit ever. The 5-foot-11, 185-pounder joins TCU's truckload of all-purpose players and should play immediately.
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Texas – Vince Young, QB (2002)
The highest-rated quarterback recruit ever, Vince Young earned a perfect 1.0000 rating — one of five 1.0000-rated players all-time — after recording nearly 13,000 yards of offense at Madison High School in Houston.
He won a national title, was a consensus All-American and finished second in 2005 Heisman voting. The Tennessee Titans selected him with the third pick in the 2006 draft.
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Texas Tech – Jack Anderson, G (2017)
The highest-rated recruit in Texas Tech history arrived this year. Jack Anderson, a 6-foot-5, 315-pound offensive lineman from Frisco, Texas, was the 76th-ranked prospect in the 2017 class and fourth-ranked guard. He carried a composite score of 0.9620.
Anderson was listed atop the depth chart at right guard during the spring.
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West Virginia – Noel Devine, RB (2007)
Noel Devine was a five-star running back from North Fort Myers (Fla.) High School when he enrolled at West Virginia in 2007. He was the third-rated running back in the class behind two USC signees: Marc Tyler and Joe McKnight.
Devine, who had a composite of 0.9956, racked up 5,025 total yards and 31 touchdowns in four seasons. He went undrafted in 2011 and spent less than a week on the Philadelphia Eagles' offseason roster.
