Most services had Joe Alt as a 3 star recruit, and Rivals had him at 5.6. Those aren't exactly great numbers, since 5.8 is the minimum for a 4 star rating.
He was 257 lbs at the time we were recruiting him, and his only other Power 5 offers were Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri, Northwestern, and Rutgers, along with North Dakota State and South Dakota State.
I don't think that anyone in his right mind can question that he turned out quite well, and anyone who questioned why we would "waste" a scholarship on a 3 star undersized (at the time) fellow should be happily eating crow right now. As for my own evaluation, I thought he would be challenging for a starting spot around his junior year after some S&C and experience, since he already had great technique and footwork. I'm also glad to have been proven wrong when it came to his timeline.
Jeff Quinn wasn't a very good line coach, but to his credit, he did know how to bring in the talent.
For that matter, a lot of Nebraska's excellent success in the 90's was done with offensive line who were barely on the radar. Those O-line coaches under Osborne knew what they were looking for, and I would dare say, were the next best thing to having Joe Moore as a line coach.