ReRank Breakdown: 2007 Northern Illinois Recruiting Class

The 2007 recruiting class for Northern Illinois displayed a notable trend of unranked recruits outperforming expectations, with four players achieving All Conference honors. This is significant considering the class's original low national ranking of 116, which was later improved to 25 in the S2S reevaluation. The successful development of these unranked recruits highlights the program's ability to identify and cultivate talent that may not have been recognized during the initial recruiting process.
Conversely, the class included a couple of ranked recruits, such as Keith Otis and DeMarcus Grady, whose outcomes did not align with their higher expectations. Otis, with an original ranking of 951, became a college starter but did not exceed the anticipated impact, while Grady, ranked 899, only made contributions without achieving a higher status. This juxtaposition suggests a discrepancy between the recruiting rankings and the actual performance, indicating that the coaching staff effectively developed lower-ranked and unranked players while struggling to maximize the potential of some higher-ranked recruits.

Overall, the 2007 class for Northern Illinois outperformed expectations, particularly due to the impact of unranked recruits who excelled at the collegiate level. The S2S rerank moved significantly upward as the program successfully developed talent that had been overlooked by traditional recruiting services. The ability to nurture players who were not highly regarded in the recruiting process is a clear takeaway from this class's outcomes.