College football coaches are celebrated when they secure commitments from five-star prospects and recruits ranked inside the ESPN 300. Often, those are the flashy commitments and instant-impact recruits who can help improve a program.
But what about the teams that develop underrated or under-recruited high school players? Sure, those commitments don't make as many headlines, but there is something to be said for coaches who can see the potential in an undersized prospect and turn that potential into production.
This isn't to say that stars and rankings don't matter; we have simple math and percentages that suggest that rankings are good indicators of future talent.
But coaches will say that they can't fill their entire recruiting classes with five-stars, and they probably wouldn't want to if they could. They need the three-star, the unranked prospect who has a surprising senior season and the player who needs to add 40 pounds to have a shot. Those players are essential to every program, and a few schools have received a ton of production out of that potential.
We examined which schools have done the best of turning prospects outside the ESPN 300 into college football stars over the past four years by breaking down how many of those prospects turned into NFL draft picks, All-Americans and all-conference players.
Here is a look at which programs stand out and who does the most with less in recruiting.