Numbers Don’t Lie Crabtree Rivals.com http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=539556 People say recruiting rankings are an inexact science. But this weekend's NFL Draft maybe proved that statement isn't necessarily true anymore. For every sleeper that emerged, there were dramatically more players that were highly ranked by Rivals.com coming out of HS. Of the 32 players drafted in the first round on Saturday, 21 of them were ranked 4 stars or higher. The list also included two former No. 1 players in the country. The Tennessee Titans took QB Vince Young at No. 3 and he was the top player his senior year coming out of Houston Madison. The Detroit Lions took LB Ernie Sims out of with the No. 9 pick overall, and he was ranked No. 1 by Rivals.com coming out of Tallahassee FL North Florida Christian. Other 5 star prospects that went in the first round included USC RB Reggie Bush, the top overall RB and No. 2 player in the class of 2003, DT Haloti Ngata, the top DT and No. 2 player overall in the class of 2002, and Marcedes Lewis, the nation's top TE in the class of 2002. There were 16 players that were ranked as 4-star prospects drafted in Saturday's first round, along with 5, 3-star prospects and 5, 2-star prospects. The biggest miss on their HS ranking to where they ended up being drafted was with Denver Broncos and former Vanderbilt QB Jay Cutler. The No. 11 pick overall was a 2-star prospect coming out of Santa Claus (Ind.) Heritage Hills HS. Rivals.com also missed on the ranking of St. Louis Ram and former Clemson CB Tye Hill. Coming out of HS, Hill was a track star and he only had scholarship offers from Clemson and Auburn. OSU LBs A.J. Hawk (Green Bay Packers) and Bobby Carpenter (Dallas Cowboys) were both picked in the first round with Hawk going at No. 5 and Carpenter going at No. 18. But in HS Rivals.com had Carpenter ranked as a 4-star and Hawk as a 3-star. There are other examples of misses and guys that flat out busted in college, but in the end 8 of the top 10 players picked in the first round Saturday were ranked 4 stars or higher. So maybe Rivals.com recruiting rankings are more of an exact science after all. WHERE IT'S AT Top 100 draft picks by state 13 – FL TX 12 - CA 6 - AL, OH 5 – LA VA 4 – GA IN SC 2 – CO NJ NY NC MI MO OR 1 - AK, AZ, AR, DC IL KS MN MS NM PA SD TN UT WI College coaches also use the NFL Draft to analyze where they should better focus their recruiting efforts and looking at the first round it's easy to see that the state of Florida is the place to be. Of the top 32 picks, the Sunshine State led the way with 6 players selected. Ohio was next with 4 first-round selections, followed by CA and TX, which both had 3 players from the states selected. That trend carries through all the way out to the top 100 picks in the draft. FL and TX both had 13 players picked with CA right there with 12 players. Alabama and Ohio each had six players selected in the top 100 with LA and VA at 5 each. GA and SC had 4 players picked in the top 100 and surprisingly Indiana was right there also. CO NJ, NY, NC, MI, MO and Oregon all had 2 players picked in the top 100. Overall when you break things down by region the South still rules, which is no major surprise. 34 of the top 100 players were from states in the Southeast. The Midlands was a distant second with 19 players, followed by the West at 18, the Midwest at 15, Atlantic East at 8 and East by 5. It's clear from looking at these numbers that college coaches will continue to head South of the Mason-Dixon Line to recruit top talent. Also in the future look for states like Alabama, SC and LA to become more prominent not just for SEC programs but more national teams because it's clear after the past few NFL Drafts that these states are continuing to produce monster talent.