Recruiting still trending up for Bears over five-year span

The push by Matt Rhule's staff in Waco on the recruiting trail has been nothing short of remarkable, but how does the recruiting stand up to recruiting on the back of a Heisman Trophy in 2011, two Big 12 Championship seasons, and four 10-plus win seasons? That's where the story gets even more intriguing.

After a quick glance at the SicEm365 Class Breakdown, I removed freshmen tight end Rob Saulin‍ and linebacker Terrel Bernard‍ from the sophomore class and placed them in a newly created redshirt freshmen class for the table. Both prospects are expected to receive their freshman season of eligibility back after injuries prevented them from finished their first seasons on campus. 

Completely removed the calculations are contributors on the special teams as they are naturally lower rated and would skew their classes overall rating. There were outliers in multiple classes caused by transfers. Defensive end James Lockhart‍ and offensive lineman Jake Fruhmorgen, neither of which have played a down for the Bears yet, takes the Junior class from an 85.6 to 87.4 average rating. The low rating of Temple safety grad transfer Derrek Thomas offsets the high four/five-star rating of Jalen Hurd‍ for the senior class. 

An interesting observation can be seen from the Redshirt Freshmen class with the higher rated skill position players from the 2017 class seeing the field first. Another observation is the 2017 redshirt tight end class pulling the class down .7 in rating. One can easily argue Rob Saulin‍ played above his 78 rating before an injury ended his season and he could be moving to a new position for 2018.

• The star potential for Charlie Brewer is evident, but the 6.8 point jump to Gerry Bohanan is noticeable as much as the difference in offers.

• Running back sees a nice bump with Craig Williams after a fall from JaMychal Hasty over the past two years.

• Wide receiver is actually the highest if Jalen Hurd is factored out for what many considered WRU.

• Tight end takes a leap up from relatively unknown Tyler Henderson and Rob Saulin.

• The offensive line is another position which shows the future could be bright compared to past classes.

• Defensive end recruiting from Matt Rhule was a step up, but taking a developmental prospect like Marje Smith isn't out of the question if the staff sees what they want.

• Linebacker took a leap for the 2016 and 2017, but Clay Johnston is severely underrated in the 2015 class.

• Cornerback shows another strong class put together by Fran Brown.

• Safety still needs improvement, but considering Trevon Lewis wasn't on any radar prior to winning the Houston TD Club Defensive Player of the Year his 84.8 could be low. Blake Lynch also skews the junior safety class by a positive 1.2 points with his 91.1 rating as a wide receiver.