The two most successful in SP history both went to Bama. Townsend & Rudd. Everyone else out of SP have been busts.
Bust like Peria Jerry of the Falcons, Jamarca Sanford of the Vikings, Isaac Gross, the true freshman DT starter last year at Ole Miss, or Brassell who has done his JUCO time and will be back as one of the best CB's in the SEC for Ole Miss?
In a fairly recent survey, Mississippi was second to Louisiana in NFL players per capita. With Alabama sitting on the state line, it would seem foolish to walk away from so much potential talent.
What RTR91 and I are trying to say doesn't seem to be coming across, so let me try one more time. We're not trying to run down
ALL recruits from Mississippi. No one's arguing that the state doesn't produce top flight NFL talent. However, most of that talent wasn't heavily recruited coming out of high school. For whatever reason, Mississippi is the opposite of most states. The top end talent rarely pans out while the 2 & 3 star guys are the ones who go on to have solid-to-great NFL careers. Heck just look at the top 4 all time from the state. Walter Peyton, Jerry Rice, Brett Favre & Steve McNair. Only 1 of those played for an FBS school, and even then it was Southern Miss. Just look at the guys you named. Peria Jerry, 3-star, JaMarca Sanford, 2-star, Isaac Gross, 3-star. While other guys from South Panola like Chris Strong & Chris Herring, both of whom were highly rated 4-stars, were busts.
Here's a list of the 2006 top 10 from the state of Mississippi according to Rivals
1. Allen Walker - Last seen in the IFL playing for the Tri-Cities Fever.
2. Terry Grant - Spent 1 season with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL before hanging up his cleats for good.
3. Derrick Odom - Kicked out of LSU before ending up at Memphis. Never made an impact with the Tigers.
4. Anthony Summers - Transferred to Central Arkansas after failing to make an impact at Mississippi State
5. Terry Levy - Failed twice to qualify, ended up at West Alabama where he never made an impact.
6. Cordera Eason - Spent 1 month with the Bengals before being cut in 2010. Currently with the Colorado Ice of the IFL.
7. Anthony Dixon - 6th round pick by the San Francisco 49ers. Current backup to Frank Gore.
8. Richard Dixon - Signed with the Lions as an undrafted FA, waived a few months later. Hasn't stepped on a field since.
9. Marcus Tillman - Last seen walking off the field after an Ole Miss loss.
10. Justin Woodall - Failed to make the NFL. Drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays. Suspended in August for 50 games for testing positive for Methamphetamine.
I grabbed 2006 arbitrarily, but just for the heck of it, I'll go ahead and look back at other years. I'm actually pretty interested to see how this little exercise turns out.