In college football recruiting, it’s never a bad thing to get a “steal” whether it’s going into a place and plucking a prospect out of a state ahead of in-state powers or getting a prospect that is better than his offer list would indicate.

Hjalte Froholdt is a huge steal for Arkansas.

There has been plenty of that type of occurrence in the 2015 cycle, so we’re counting down the top 15.â€¨â€¨

15. Lee Autry, DT, Wake Forest - The Demon Deacons got a big-time steal late last cycle with stud defensive tackle Zeek Rodney out of South Carolina. The new staff in Winston-Salem gets another one out of ‘D-line Heaven.’ Autry has the size (6-2, 265) and had offers from North Carolina and Mississippi State.Â

14. JF Thomas, WR, TCU - The Horned Frogs appeased mom on an unofficial visit and kept one of DFW’s best X-receivers at home. In the spring the 6-foot-4, 185-pounder picked up offers from Ohio State, LSU, Nebraska, Louisville and Boise State. Thomas, also a solid basketball prospect, caught 38 passes for 707 yards and 15 touchdowns in his first year of playing football last season. Plenty of upside.Â

13. Karan Higdon, RB, South Florida - The reeling Bulls landed a four-star get from right down the road in January. Higdon’s one of the Top 10 backs in Florida this cycle. Its the kind of get South Florida must keep around the Tampa area to turn its fortunates around. Arizona, Arkansas, Syracuse and Kentucky have since offered. The Sarasota (Fla.) Riverview standout hopes to visit all of those spots later this summer.Â

12. Hjalte Froholdt, DT, Arkansas - How many four-star guys has Arkansas ever landed from Ohio? Sure he’s a Foreign Exchange Student, but when do the Buckeyes let top talent out of the borders, even if the prospect is currently residing well beyond those borders (and the borders of this country)? Not often. Not of this caliber. And not to the Razorbacks.Â

11. Eli Brown, LB, Kentucky - The gem of Kentucky’s class thus far. Also had an offer from Ohio State. Four-star get and a major feather in the hat of Mark Stoops and company in Lexington.Â

10. Sheriron Jones, QB, Florida - Coming off a cycle where the Gators inked two four-star quarterbackss with Treon Harris and Will Grier some questioned if they could follow that up with another one of that ilk. Credit the staff for going to QB heaven in So Cal and landing one of the nation’s top dual-threats. Almost all of America’s best quarterback recruits this cycle are in California. He’s one of them and the Gators got him to come cross country from the same high school they got Ronald Powell out of- it is a big pull.Â

9. Malik Henderson, CB, Pitt - There’s so much talent in south Florida that there’s overlooked sleepers everywhere especially in terms of speed and skill. Secondary coaches nationwide love tall defensive backs. They can’t get enough of them. Henderson has the goods in terms of length and height (6-foot-1) along with speed (4.51) and academics (3.8 GPA). As Paul Chryst continues to rebuild the Panthers he’ll need to continue to land these types of steals out-of-region.Â

Prentice McKinney could develop into an All-American at Notre Dame.

8. Georgia's south Florida commits - Juwan Taylor & Deandre Baker - Two of the best in America’s most loaded bin, per capita, for Division 1 talent. Credit Georgia for offering Taylor first. While everyone in the country went in this spring to see his teammate, four-star linebacker Sh’mar Kilby Lane, many noticed the guy right next to him was pretty doggone good, too. After the Dawgs offered, the likes of Tennessee, Clemson and LSU followed suit. Evidence enough. Meanwhile, Clemson offered Baker first last fall and 15 others followed. The confident cover corner did more than enough to impressive Georgia defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt at camp to land an offer, something he hopped on less than 30 minutes later. Baker has the speed and coverage skills that earned him a spot in the U.S. Army All-American Game.Â

7. Deltron Sands, RB, Maryland - Terrapins running backs coach Andre’ Powell is familiar with back-up running backs from Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas. Sands, who plays behind four-star FAU commit Jordan Scarlett, would start at most high schools in America. Rewind five years and Powell had another backup back at STA, James White, who was behind Giovanni Bernard, all but committed as an assistant at Clemson. The Tigers opted to instead take D.J. Howard and Demont Buice out of Alabama. White went on to put up huge numbers at Wisconsin and is now playing for the New England Patriots. Powell will get the chance to coach one from one of America’s powerhouses this round. The speedy Sands often has the Raiders offense humming at an even better tune when he’s on the field.Â

6. Prentice McKinney, S, Notre Dame - At 6-foot-3, 185-pounds, McKinney has the length and growth potential to fill in as a legit rangy big safety for the Irish. The ball skills are there with eight picks as a junior. He’s part of one of the most talented secondaries in America at Dallas (Texas) South Oak Cliff, loaded with four D. 1 starters. UCLA and Auburn came in with offers this spring. But the rapport Notre Dame had built up led to an early commit and steal deep in the heart of Dallas for the Irish.Â

5. James Allen, RB, Louisville - He was at or near the top of Tennessee’s running backs board. Allen raced for over 300 yards in his team’s spring game last month. A trip to Louisville last week blew him away and the Cardinals upset the Volunteers in landing the three-star back, one of the best at his position in Florida. Allen called the Cardinals staff minutes after exiting an unofficial visit to Tennessee last Thursday afternoon to commit.Â

4. Breiden Fehoko, DT, Texas Tech - Four-star defensive tackle from Hawaii. The hardest to find position on the recruiting trail: powerful defensive tackles over 6-foot-2. Has offers from Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and many others. Commits early to the Red Raiders. Yep, that’s a steal.Â

3. Jordan Scarlett, RB, FAU - The four-star big back followed his high school coach, Roger Harriott, who was hired in January as an Owls assistant. Its the commit that sticks out the most of any in the Top247. The highest ranked commit in Florida Atlantic school history. Wisconsin, Central Florida and South Carolina, among others, have taken their push at Scarlett since. The over/under for a de-commit by some was July 4. The over is looking very good for the Owls and the stickiness longterm continues to trend up as well.Â

2. Deon Cain, WR, Clemson - In what now has turned into a trend, every cycle of late the Tigers staff hones in on one or two elite recruits in Florida and beats the three Superpowers in the Sunshine State. Cain is as good as any wide receiver in Florida this cycle. He favored Florida State, yeah that FSU fresh off a National Title, early this spring. Florida was heavily involved. LSU even offered him at his high school position of quarterback in a late attempt to lure the U.S. Army All-American. Still the Tigers went into Tampa and landed one of America’s best. Add his name to the likes of Sammy Watkins, Jamie Harper, Mackensie Alexander, Artavis Scott and C.J. Spiller as ‘upset’ gets from Florida for Clemson.Â

1. Preston Williams, WR, Tennessee - Few programs have a better history of developing receivers than the Volunteers. Alvin Harper, Thomas Woods, Jermaine Copeland, Jayson Swain, Peerless Price, Dante Stallworth, Joey Kent, Carl Pickens, Anthony Miller and Cordalle Patterson to name a few. Of course this is also a Vols’ program that has three consecutive five win seasons. To go into metro Atlanta and beat out the world, aka the SEC powers, for the nation’s No. 1 wideout was a major coup for Butch Jones and company.Â

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