All that means is that college recruiting rankings, by the public, internet, pay for service, ranking systems is meaningless in predicting team success in professional football. Hardly an earth shattering revelation.
What there is, that is easily demonstrated, is a high correlation between college football team success and the same recruiting rankings. Correlation - is different than causation.
What I think, is that professional players that do well, are the kinds of players that have a pre-requisite skill and talent set, are well motivated, and are capable of continued and non-stop acceptance of good coaching, and development. It's a reality in football, that by the time that really good players have gained enough knowledge to really be dominant at the sport at the highest levels - their bodies no longer can compete. The endless frustration of a coach. The players that can play physically, are eternally behind the curve in mentally learning the game - no matter what level you are at.
What I also think, is that the same kinds of players that show up in college at the 2.5 public, pay for service, ranking systems - will have the same characteristics as those successful NFL players. They are capable of absorbing good coaching and developing continually. The difficulty in college, is that you either have to have a very deep and well stacked depth chart to develop those players into upperclassmen balanced as roster across the board, or you need to have an accelerated learning curve through exceptional coaching and work ethic from both player and coach.
I just posted a look at 2015 upper classmen. We are thin.
We can have success at UCONN, with the 2.5 star players - but we need to develop adequate depth charts, and quality coaching.