More stars means better players. Better players means more wins. More wins means more money and job security for said coaches.

With the advent and evolution of national recruiting analysis services such as Rivals.com, Scout.com and ESPN’s Recruiting Nation in the past decade, any potential prospect worth a Division 1 coach’s time is promptly listed, evaluated and assigned a “star rating” from one to five based on skill. A five-star-rating represents the most elite high school athletes.

It seems simple enough in theory, right?

In reality, hundreds of players get undervalued, ignored and shut out in the cold of the increasingly chaotic recruiting world every season. In some cases, the oversight is as simple as a player’s inability to attend the right camp, not living in the right region of the country or, most puzzling, not receiving ample attention from rival schools.

During his seven seasons in East Lansing, head coach Mark Dantonio and his staff have demonstrated a unique ability to not only identify, but develop, so-called diamonds in the rough.

The ascent of the Spartan program absolutely has been aided by infusions of top-shelf talent throughout Dantonio’s tenure, but being geographically triangulated by traditional powers Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame can leave the already-slim offerings in the Midwest even slimmer for MSU.

Ironically, this dynamic has proven beneficial to both parties. For the most part, MSU has to work harder than the blue-bloods, but the overlooked players they uncover tend to be hungrier, more driven and determined to prove themselves after receiving middling recruiting interest.

These players arrive on campus with a point to prove — that the stars lied.

Sophomore defensive end Shilique Calhoun and senior cornerback Darqueze Dennard were honored this week by the Big Ten as the top players at their positions. Add their ratings together as high school recruits and you’ve got one five-star player.

Combining the profiles of current NFL players Kirk Cousins and Le’Veon Bell produces a total of four stars.

Since Dantonio took the job, his recruiting classes have earned an average rank of 35th, according to Rivals, which is trumped by the average annual haul of Ohio State, U-M, Nebraska and Penn State during that span.

Even so, since 2008, MSU has won a Big Ten championship, two Legends Divisions titles and more conference games than any program in the league.

“I think the key to recruiting is recruit guys that can fit your program and fit your system,” Dantonio said. “And then you take your system, and you wrap that around the players and let them rise to the top within the system. I think we’re doing a good job in that respect.

“But as important as anything is recruiting the person, not the player, and I think we’ve gotten good people here that will compete and will raise their level of play and will work.”

Analyzing the stars

Under Dantonio, MSU has earned a respectable share of the region’s top players, such as wide receiver Aaron Burbridge, defensive tackle Lawrence Thomas and Dantonio’s lone five-star signee, former defensive end William Gholston. Sprinkling in upper-echelon players with a bunch of overachieving guys has produced positive results for MSU, Rivals Midwest recruiting analyst Josh Helmholdt said.

However, Helmholdt pegged the Spartans a tier below U-M and the Buckeyes in terms of consistently inking blue-chip players.

The entire Big Ten faces challenges in stocking its rosters going forward, with just one of the top-five recruiting states, Ohio, in the conference’s footprint, he said.

Considering those challenges, though, he feels MSU’s recent run of success hasn’t been a blip on the radar.

The Spartans’ success is proof that while recruiting rankings tend to hit more than miss, projecting future successes solely on them can be unreliable.

“Rankings and success on the field do correlate, but they don’t absolutely correlate,” Helmholdt said. “Development, putting players in the right position to make plays, utilizing your talent, that’s all obviously very important. Does it surprise me? No. Michigan State’s had very good recruiting classes … and I think what they’ve done with that talent is probably among the best in the Big Ten and that’s resulted in a string of several good seasons.”

In August, MSU hired Curtis Blackwell as its director of college advancement and performance camp/director. His fancy title translates into one thing: boosting access to top recruits.

Increased media attention and exposure, coupled with growing prominence of recruiting blogs and websites have accelerated the recruiting process tremendously in recent years, Blackwell said.

As well as coordinating special events to woo recruits, Blackwell assists the MSU staff by tapping into a vast pool of connections across Michigan in an attempt to gain an edge on young recruits. To keep up with the Joneses, so to speak, schools are pressured into evaluating and offering athletes as early as eighth grade.

“The goal is to try to get as many kids as possible up here for college games,” Blackwell said. “And we’re having a great season this year, so that helps out a whole lot because it’s not hard to get them to come up here when you’re (winning).”

Playing with a chip

No matter the spattering of stars, senior linebacker Max Bullough said there is little room for egos in MSU’s program.

“Once you’re here for a year or so, you don’t really have that four-star or five-star recruit mindset,” he said. “You’re part of a team and you can’t have that mindset because we go through so much together you just get broken down. … I think guys just come here to work hard and are team-oriented.”

Many Spartans are bonded by the fact that they were modest or unheralded recruits. They play together with an tenacious edge that can only be formed from being perceived as inadequate.

Senior linebacker Denicos Allen prefers to dismiss high school perceptions with hard evidence.

“We’re playing like we’re four? or five?star recruits out here,” he said. “So that just speaks for the quality of players Coach (Dantonio) brings in.”

No player embodies MSU’s prowess of finding hidden gems than Dennard. He was virtually off the radar entering his senior season playing in Dry Branch, Ga., with no offers in hand.

Today, he’s on the radar of the Thorpe Award, given to the nation’s best defensive back, the Nagurski Trophy for defensive player of the year, and NFL general managers as a likely first-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft.

“I think every player here has their own story and every player here has a chip on their shoulder,” Dennard said. “And that’s what makes us better than anybody around us and that’s what makes us play harder than anybody.

“So I think just being low?balled you could say, under?recruited throughout the process and not getting recognition, it all drives us to be better.”