FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — On paper, Arkansas should take care of Cincinnati with ease this Saturday. But paper does not tell the whole story.
The Bearcats feature a roster that has no starter who was rated higher than a three-star coming out of high school. The Hogs have 11 starters who were rated higher than a three-star.
Cincinnati proved last season that stars do not matter when it became the first Group of 5 team to make it to the College Football Playoff. On the flip side, the Razorbacks have shown that a strong recruiting effort can take a team to the next level.
Come Saturday, whatever rating a player had coming out of high school can be thrown out the window. The game will be a battle between two top-25 teams that are worried about much more than how many stars a player had as a prospect.
"It’s going to be a tough, nasty game, just like the environment’s going to be," Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell said. "We’ve prepared ourselves for that. That’s what the expectation is."
But, looking back at how the players were rated out of high school is fun. Here is how the two teams' starters compare based on star rating:
*Used first Cincinnati player at each position based on the depth chart below, though there are many OR spots.*
