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At the dawn of the internet recruiting rankings era, Baylor was a perennial Big 12 bottom-feeder.

The Bears went three consecutive seasons (1999, 2000, 2001) without winning a conference game. That was part of a nine-year stretch, from 1996 through 2004, in which they didn’t win more than one Big 12 game in a season. The recruiting rankings reflected that, with Baylor typically finding itself outside of the top 60.

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Things have changed. Since 2011, the Bears have recorded six double-digit win seasons and won three Big 12 titles. They now regularly recruit at a top-40 level and even flirt with top-25 recruiting status at times.

There have been plenty of recruits who made such success possible, including one who changed the face of the program forever. But even before the modern era, Baylor nabbed a few big-name recruits, from receiver Lawrence Elkins in the 1960s to Odell James in 1996. Let’s look back at some of the highs and lows of Baylor recruiting over the years.

Best recruit, pre-internet rankings: Mike Singletary, LB

Coming out of Worthing High in Houston, Singletary was considered to be one of the top linebacker recruits in the state in the Class of 1977. When he arrived at Baylor that fall, coach Grant Teaff made a proclamation, to the late, great Dave Campbell of the Waco Tribune-Herald.

“I’m going to predict right now that before Mike Singletary walks away from this university, he’s going to be nationally known,” Teaff said in September 1977.

Teaff was spot on. Singletary was a three-time All-Southwest Conference pick and two-time consensus All-American. He was named SWC Defensive Player of the Year twice. He went on to a Hall of Fame career with the NFL’s Chicago Bears and is regarded as one of the greatest linebackers of all-time.

Best recruit in program history, modern era: KD Cannon, WR

Cannon is one of only two five-star recruits Baylor has signed in the modern era. Ranked No. 30 in the 247Sports Composite in the Class of 2014 and fourth nationally among receivers, Cannon had an impressive offer list that included Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Florida, Florida State and Notre Dame.

At Mount Pleasant (Texas) High, Cannon stood out. He was a prep All-American, a two-time all-state selection, topped 1,000 receiving yards in each of his final seasons and ran 10.63 seconds in the 100-meter dash as a member of the track team. Baylor led for a significant portion of his recruitment, but landing the national top-50 prospect was still a big win for the Bears.

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At Baylor, he made an immediate impact. He set six school records as a true freshman, was a two-time All-Big 12 selection and caught at least one pass in all 38 games he played over three seasons. He left Baylor ranked third all-time in career catches (195), receiving yards (3,113) and receiving touchdowns (27).

Cannon declared for the 2017 NFL Draft following his junior season. Despite his quality production and an impressive showing at the combine, where he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.41 seconds and recorded a 37-inch vertical jump —,Cannon went undrafted and never played in an NFL game.

Most important/influential recruit in program history: Robert Griffin III, QB

Griffin, a four-star recruit in the Class of 2008, was a terrific talent with a decorated high school resume. He took Copperas Cove (Texas) High School to consecutive state championship game appearances. He set state records in track, claiming the No. 1 spot in the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles. But Baylor wasn’t his original destination. He was initially committed to Houston to play for then-Cougar coach Art Briles.

But when Briles left to take the Baylor job, Griffin followed. He took over as the top quarterback early in his first game on campus and went on to earn Freshman All-America honors. A knee injury disrupted most of his sophomore year, but he came back to lead the Bears to back-to-back winning seasons in 2010 and 2011, the first time Baylor had done so since 1994 and 1995.

The 2011 season was special: Baylor went 10-3, and Griffin, who set or tied 54 school records in his 41 games, won the Heisman Trophy.

The impact of Griffin’s success at Baylor can still be felt today. When Griffin arrived at Baylor, the Bears had endured 12 consecutive losing seasons, many of those spent at the bottom of the league standings. Average attendance for home games dipped below 30,000 at various times during that stretch.

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McLane Stadium, the pristine $266 million home for Baylor football, opened in 2014. The largest donation for the building, which came from former Astros owner and Baylor alumnus Drayton McLane, arrived three months after Griffin won the Heisman.

According to the Tribune-Herald, after Griffin threw his 35-yard game winning touchdown pass to Terrance Williams with eight seconds left to take down No. 5 Oklahoma in 2011 and fans stormed the field at old Floyd Casey Stadium, Brian Nicholson, the Baylor official who would oversee McLane Stadium’s construction, texted Reagan Ramsower, then the school’s vice president, “That pass just cost us $250 million.”

Biggest bust: Robbie Rhodes, WR

Rhodes is the highest-rated recruit Baylor has signed in the modern era, but his career in Waco was short-lived. The five-star prospect was ranked No. 28 overall and the No. 3 wide receiver in the Class of 2013 coming out of Southwest High in Fort Worth, Texas. He was also a state champion in track, with a 200-meter time of 21.06.

“I don’t know how you could be any better, to be that big, that fast, have such great hands and to be able to track the ball like he does,” Briles said on signing day in February 2013.

As a freshman, Rhodes caught 10 passes for 157 yards and never made it to his second season. He was dismissed from the team in June 2014. He transferred to Bowling Green, caught three passes for 130 yards in 2015 but was dismissed from the Falcons in 2016.

Best developmental story: Xavien Howard, CB

Howard was a two-star recruit coming out of Houston’s Wheatley High. He was the 2,246th-ranked prospect in the class according to the 247Sports Composite; on Rivals, he didn’t even have a ranking.

He was a talented two-way weapon at Wheatley, playing quarterback and cornerback. As a senior, he intercepted nine passes, returned two for touchdowns and made the all-state team. But Howard was a late qualifier academically, leading him to initially sign with Trinity Valley (Texas) Community College in February 2012.

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It turned out, however, that Howard was a Division I qualifier and he eventually signed with Baylor in June 2012, redshirted as a true freshman, played a backup role and on special teams as a redshirt freshman then moved into the starting lineup as a sophomore.

In his two seasons as a starter, Howard helped Baylor to a Big 12 championship in 2014 and earned first-team All-Big 12 honors in 2015. He declared for the 2016 NFL Draft and the Miami Dolphins chose him in the second round. In 2019, he signed a contract extension that made him the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL at the time.

The one who got away: Devin Duvernay, WR

After a sexual assault scandal engulfed the Baylor campus and led to the ouster of Briles, athletic director Ian McCaw and school president Kenneth Starr in 2016, more than half of the Bears’ 2016 signing class requested releases from their national letters of intent.

Duvernay, a four-star receiver and the 37th-ranked recruit in the country, was one of them. He ended up at Texas — as did his brother Donovan, a fellow Baylor signee.

Devin thrived with the Longhorns, catching 106 passes for 1,386 yards as a senior, the second-most in a single season in Texas history. The first-team All-Big 12 pick was the 92nd pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

(Top photo of Robert Griffin III: Greg Nelson / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

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