9 Highly-Touted High School Football Recruits Who Ended Up Being A Bust In College

Recruiting talented high school players is an essential aspect of forming a successful high school football team, and programs exert a ton of time and effort to try to land the best players in the country. However, there have been more than a few scenarios where some highly-touted prospects crashed and burned after making the leap to the next level.

These are the most notable college football busts in recent memory

More than a million people suit up to play high school football every year, and a very small percentage of them will have what it takes to continue their career at the college level. Others will end up thrust into the national spotlight before they’re old enough to buy a lottery ticket, but there’s no guarantee they’re going to live up to expectations as a college football player—as evidenced by busts like…

Arik Gilbert

Arik Gilbert had some big expectations to live up to as the fifth-ranked player in the 2020 recruiting class, which also made him the top-ranked tight end prospect in college football history.

The Georgia native, who was named Gatorade Football Player of the Year for his play at Marietta High School during his senior season, opted to take his talents to LSU.  He had 35 catches for 368 yards and caught two touchdowns during his freshman season, but he transferred to Georgia for his sophomore campaign.

Glibert sat out for a year before returning in 2022, but only had two catches for 16 yards. He opted for another change of scenery at Nebraska the following year but saw that plan derailed after he was arrested for burglarizing a vape store, although he does have a shot for some redemption this year after heading to Savannah State.

Fred Rouse

Fred Rouse was teammates with Antonio Cromartie at Lincoln High School in his native Tallahassee, which is located around a 15-minute drive from Florida State, the school where he arrived as a freshman in 2005.

The second-ranked wide receiver in his class said he thought he had what it took to play in the NFL straight out of high school, but he had just six receptions for 114 yards during his first and only season with the Seminoles. He saw those numbers improve to 10 and 379, respectively, for the 10 games he played at UTEP in 2007, which was good enough for 314th in the country that year.

Rouse declared for the NFL Draft in 2011 but was not picked or signed by any of those 32 teams. He signed with the Omaha Nighthawks of the UFL but was released before playing a game, and ultimately met the same fate with two CFL squads.

Ryan Perrilloux

Gilbert isn’t the only recruit on this list with ties to LSU, as Ryan Perriloux became an absolute sensation during his time as a quarterback at East St. John High School in Louisiana before the Tigers landed the local product, who had initially committed to Texas before heading to Baton Rouge in 2005.

Perriloux was unfazed by the competition he faced from another notable bust (albeit at the NFL level) in the form of JaMarcus Russell, and he asserted he’d be able to win the Heisman Trophy as a true freshman if given the chance. He was deprived of that opportunity after redshirting, and he had a single completion while serving as the third-string QB in 2006.

He served as Matt Flynn’s backup during LSU’s run to a national championship in 2007 and saw his minor contributions on the field overshadowed by some legal trouble (he tried to use his brother’s license to gain access to a casino and was also suspended after being involved in a fight at a club).

Perriloux was kicked off the team ahead of his junior year for a string of violations of program rules and ended his college career at Jacksonville State. He did spend some time as a member of the Giants’ practice squad, but he never played in an NFL game before settling for a series of stints with teams in a number of lower-tier pro leagues.

Tate Martell

Tate Martell initially committed to play at Washington when he was just 14 years old, but the quarterback who excelled at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas and won Gatorade Football Player of the Year eventually announced his intention to play at Texas A&M.

He was very confident he had what it took to start for the Aggies as a true freshman based on the infamous DM where he took a shot at Nick Starkel, but he ultimately had another change of heart and kicked off his college career at Ohio State.

However, that hubris turned out to be pretty unfounded based on how things played out.

He served as the backup to Dwayne Haskins after redshirting as a sophomore and transferred to Miami after Justin Fields defected to the Buckeyes (a move that transpired after he publicly taunted his fellow QB). However,  Jarren Williams beat him in the battle to start for the Hurricanes, which prompted a temporary switch to wide receiver ahead of a season where he appeared in three games.

He capped off his career at UNLV in 2021 but only saw the field twice, and when he officially hung up his cleats, he’d racked up just 26 completions for 303 yards and recorded a single passing touchdown.

Antonio Alfano

Antion Alfano was a five-star defensive lineman hailing from New Jersey who was ranked the fifth-best player in the recruiting class of 2019, and Alabama was able to box out a number of perennial contenders to land his services.

However, he was nowhere to be found when his freshman year began, and he never played a single snap for the Crimson Tide before transferring to Colorado (Nick Saban said he “basically quit” when asked about his departure). Alfano headed to Boulder because then-head coach Mel Tucker had recruited him to Georgia when he was still coaching for the Bulldogs, but he never suited up for the Buffaloes after his suitor headed to Michigan State.

He subsequently enrolled at Independence Community College in Kansas but never appeared in a game. That dubious streak was finally broken when he played his first (and final) college season at Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna College, appearing in five games where he recorded 14 tackles, four sacks, and a forced fumble.

Whitney Lewis

Reggie Bush was a force to be reckoned with at USC, but there was another player who was expected to give him a run for his money when they both arrived on campus in 2003: Whitney Lewis, who became the first high school player in California history to record 1,000 rushing and passing yards in the same season during his senior year at  St. Bonaventure.

Some scouts had Lewis ranked higher than Bush on their list of recruits, but those predictions aged very poorly. The former had three receptions for 27 yards and three rushes for 11 yards during his eight games as a Trojan, and he faded into obscurity after transferring to Northern Iowa, an FCS program, the following year.

Bryce Brown

Bryce Brown is the only player on this list who actually saw playing time in the NFL, but he’s still worth mentioning due to the circumstances surrounding his journey to what turned out to be a fairly short-lived professional career.

The running back was the top overall recruit in the country due to his play at Wichita East High School in Kansas before heading to college in 2009, and the schools that wanted to court him had to go through Brian Butler, the self-described trainer and handler who raised some eligibility questions due to his involvement in the process.

Brown, who initially committed to Miami, was clear to play at Tennessee in 2009 and split reps with Montario Hardesty as a freshman while recording 460 rushing yards and three touchdowns. However, he transferred to Kansas State (where his brother played) after Lane Kiffin took the head coaching job at USC and sat out a year while embroiled in the scandal concerning infamous Miami booster Nevin Shapiro.

He made his debut for the Wildcats in 2011 but had just three rushes for 16 yards while playing in two games. He declared for the 2012 NFL Draft and was selected by the Eagles in the seventh round, but he only spent four years in the league before his career came to an end.

Demetris Summers

It would be a bit unfair to call Demetris Summers a total bust due to how his college career began, but he’s still worth mentioning due to how it ended (and what unfolded after it did).

Summers, who was a standout running back at Lexington High School in South Carolina, was ranked above Reggie Bush in the 2003 recruiting class and earned All-Freshman SEC honors after rushing for 638 yards and averaging 5.1 yards per carry during his first year with the Gamecocks. That first number declined to 487 during his sophomore season, but the second rose to 5.5 and he seemingly had two more seasons to improve.

However, he was kicked off the team for failing a drug test after Steve Spurrier replaced Lou Holtz as head coach, and he never found a new home before he was passed over by every team in the 2006 NFL Draft. He did win a Grey Cup as a member of the Calgary Stampeders while playing in the CFL,  but he spent close to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to making and selling crack cocaine in 2017.

Willie Williams

Willie Williams was expected to be the next in a long line of linebackers who’d struck fear into the hearts of Miami’s opponents, and he’d already stirred up plenty of controversy by the time he made his debut with the Hurricanes in 2003.

The LB, who hailed from Hollywood, Florida, attracted plenty of attention for candidly sharing his thoughts about the schools he visited in the “recruiting diary” that was published by The Miami Herald.  He snubbed the University of Florida on National Signing Day shortly before he was charged with two misdemeanors for discharging fire extinguishers in a hotel in Gainesville during a visit.

He’d also been convicted of burglary before arriving at Miami, where he had 28 tackles during the nine games he played as a freshman in 2005. He opted to transfer but was turned away by programs including Tennessee and West Virginia, which led to him settling for  West Los Angeles Community College.

He got one more shot at Louisville in 2007 but spent just three games with the Cardinals, as he was kicked off the team when he tried to swallow marijuana that was in his car when he was pulled over for speeding. That was not the first nor last time he ended up in legal trouble, as he’d been arrested more than a dozen times as of 2011.