Congrats to Levi, great job. This is why I question the reliability of recruiting services. I would guess as many 5 star recruits don't make it at the major college level as those who do. Then there are those, like Levi, who make it on their own perseverance and are coachable.
And you would be wrong. The vast majority of 5-star players do exactly what they are predicted to do: start at the major college level. Yes, there are busts who never make an impact but they are a relatively small number.
The recruiting services aren't trying to project where a player will be in four years or, especially, where he will end up in the NFL draft; they are predicting primarily how ready the player is to contribute from day one with a small nod toward eventual production.
For example, an athletic freak who goes on to become a unanimous All-American, a first-round draft pick, and an NFL Hall of Famer would correctly be labelled as a 3-star if he didn't play football until his senior year and took two years of development at the major college level before he was able to really start regularly making an impact on the field.
Another example of a 3-star player is the guy who doesn't show the skills in high school, for whatever reason, to be able to start as a freshman or maybe even a sophomore but has the talent to at least be a role player. Then, after a couple of seasons in college, he becomes a late-bloomer who earns a starting job and starts displaying top-level skills late in his college career. Example given, Levi Wallace.
