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re: Class of 2017 Recruiting MEGATHREAD: Say Your Goodbyes Edition
Posted on 11/16/16 at 11:32 pm to MagillaGuerilla
Posted on 11/16/16 at 11:32 pm to MagillaGuerilla
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Meanwhile, Auburn's commit has missed 10 kicks this year in the Colorado altitude.
That kid is the little brother of their current kicker. Their mom was in a sorority AT Bama with my business partner's wife. Their grandfather is a huge Bama fan and wanted both to go to Tuscaloosa. Older didn't get an offer and younger bro decided on au instead of Bama bc he'd been to AU so many times that he fell in love with idea of replacing bro and continuing legacy.
Stinks bc that older bro had been so consistent for his entire career. Would've been great to have him kicking for Bama.
5
Posted on 11/17/16 at 6:30 am to Bama3714
If Townsend moves to offense, what does that do for our numbers? Does he count as one of the 4 wide receivers? I'm not sure it make sense to take 5 receivers with numbers so tight, but I sure don't want to miss on Ruggs of Davonta Smith.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 6:46 am to TideSaint
I maintain that we'll likely be a major player for Wilson. Whether we sign him, I don't kno , but I do think he visits us well after the season.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 6:49 am to JoeBama
The numbers baffle me every year. This year is no different. Who knows?
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:26 am to Bama3714
Hank said last night in a late submission to his chat that Conliffe is still a take.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:27 am to TideSaint
Hank on our DBs in this class:
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I think the class will look like McDonald, Dean, Shaun Wade, then Deangelo Gibbs or Wright.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:28 am to TideSaint
Hank thinks we are the team to beat for Javon Kinlaw.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:34 am to TideSaint
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The Maxwell Football Club announced 19 semifinalists for their national high school player of the year award. There are 11 states represented on the list, and several of teh prospects have already made their college commitments.
The list will be pared to six finalists on Dec. 15, and the winner will be announced on Jan. 18 and will receive his award Friday, March 10 at a ceremony in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The Maxwell club also presents a national college player of the year (Maxwell Award) and the Bednarik Award, for the outstanding defender in college football. The high school award began in 2007, and the previous winners are Jacob Eason (Lake Stevens HS - Georgia), Trenton Thompson (2014 Westover HS - Georgia), Will Grier (2013 Davidson Day School - Florida), Derrick Henry (2012 Yulee HS - Alabama), Noah Spence (2011 Bishop McDevitt HS - Ohio State), Jeff Driskel (2010 Hagerty HS - Florida), Sharif Floyd (2009 George Washington HS - Florida), Jamarkus McFarland (2008 Lufkin HS - Oklahoma) and DeVier Posey (2007 Cincinnati LaSalle HS - Ohio State).
Let's take a look at this year's semifinalists.
LINK
This post was edited on 11/17/16 at 8:35 am
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:35 am to TideSaint
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Cam Akers, RB, Clinton (Miss.) High School
The Maxwell Football Club announced 19 semifinalists for their national high school player of the year award. There are 11 states represented on the list.
The list will be pared to six finalists on Dec. 15, and the winner will be announced on Jan. 18 and will receive his award Friday, March 10 at a ceremony in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Let's take a look at this year's semifinalists in alphabetical order, starting with Cam Akers.
Akers is a five-star recruit and the No. 5 overall player in the country in the class of 2017 according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite. Akers is considering offers from Alabama, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Florida State, LSU, Tennessee, Michigan, Georgia and others. He has been selected to participate in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:36 am to TideSaint
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Najee Harris, RB, Antioch (Calif.) High School
Najee Harris is a five-star recruit and the No. 1 overall player in the country in the class of 2017 according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite. Harris has committed to play college football at Alabama. He has also been selected to participate in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:36 am to TideSaint
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Dylan Moses, LB, IMG Academy - Bradenton, Fla.
Dylan Moses is a five-star recruit and the No. 8 overall player in the country in the class of 2017 according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite. Moses has committed to play college football at Alabama.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:37 am to TideSaint
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Tua Tagovailoa, QB, St. Louis High School - Honolulu, Hawaii
Tua Tagovailoa is a five-star recruit and the No. 33 overall player in the country in the class of 2017 according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite. Tagovailoa has committed to play is college football at Alabama. He has also been selected to participate in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:37 am to TideSaint
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Jeff Thomas, WR, East St. Louis (Ill.) High School
Jeff Thomas is a four-star recruit and the No. 46 overall player in the country in the class of 2017 according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite. The Missouri Tigers appear to have a big lead in his recruitment, but schools like Alabama, Ohio State, Auburn, Michigan, Michigan State and Texas A&M are still in the running.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:38 am to TideSaint
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Shaun Wade, DB, Trinity Christian Academy - Jacksonville, Fla.
Shaun Wade is a five-star recruit and the No. 21 overall player in the country in the class of 2017 according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite. Wade has committed to play college football at Ohio State. He has also been selected to participate in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:39 am to bamasgot13
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HONOLULU — Alabama 5-star quarterback commit Tua Tagovailoa has been in this situation before. When he heads to Tuscaloosa in January, all he’ll have to do is think back to two years ago.
Tagovailoa was a sophomore at Saint Louis High School. Ryder Kuhns looked like he would be the Crusaders’ starting quarterback that season. After all, Kuhns was a senior and was selected to the All-State team his junior year.
Heading into Tagovailoa’s sophomore year, he wasn’t going to make Kuhns’ life easy. He pushed for the starting job all summer and into fall camp. Saint Louis deployed a quarterback-by-committee approach in its first two games that season, and Tagovailoa eventually won the job outright.
“Tua would come home every day and tell me he couldn’t sit anymore,” Galu Tagovailoa, Tua’s father, told SEC Country.
He’s taking that mindset with him to Alabama next season. He isn’t going to Tuscaloosa with the idea of redshirting his freshman year. That’s not how Tagovailoa operates. He’s going there to push Jalen Hurts for the starting quarterback job even if the true freshman leads the Tide to a national championship victory at the end of this season.
Saint Louis coach Cal Lee, who has coached at the collegiate level at the University of Hawaii, said Tagovailoa is one of the ultimate competitors he’s been around.
“He could have said (as a sophomore), ‘Well, (Kuhns) is a senior and I’ll have two years to play,” Lee said. “He’s the kind of competitor you want all of your kids to be. You don’t want the kid that says he’ll wait until his senior year to play. When kids are going to college and they tell me they may want to redshirt, I say the coach tells you that. You don’t go in there looking to redshirt because you aren’t going to put in any effort.
“He knows there’s a freshman starter and he’ll have to compete. That’s life. Life is about competing and seeing what happens when you do that.”
Hurts is making his case to be included in the Heisman Trophy conversation. He has amassed 2,032 passing yards, 735 rushing yards and 27 total touchdowns. He already is the career leader in rushing touchdowns for a quarterback in the Nick Saban era with 11 and is the first QB in Alabama history to throw for 300 yards and rush for 100 yards in the same game.
Of course, schools that want Tagovailoa on their roster are negatively recruiting against Alabama by spewing out those stats to him when these coaches talk to him and his father. The Tagovailoas didn’t want to name the schools on the record, but at least one of the teams is in the SEC. The same question that several fans have asked him is being asked by college coaches: Why go to Alabama when Hurts already is on the roster?
“He’s going to Alabama because he wants to play for the best,” Saint Louis offensive coordinator Ron Lee said. “That’s it.”
Tagovailoa’s recruitment is similar to another one of Ron Lee’s former players — kicker Peter Kim, whom he coached at Kaiser High School in Hawaii before he enrolled at Alabama in 1980. Kim had a scholarship offer to attend Hawaii, but he chose the harder route.
It paid off big time for Kim. He kicked three field goals and made four PATs in Bear Bryant’s 300th win. Kim is No. 8 all-time in career field goals made at Alabama.
“Peter saw Bear Bryant on TV and Alabama was No. 1 in the country at the time,” Ron Lee said. He gave up his scholarship to walk-on at Alabama. He eventually won a scholarship and was successful for them.
“Tua is just like Peter. He wants to play for the best team in the country. He can go to other places that may be easier, but he wants to play for Nick Saban and the No. 1 team in the country.”
Would Alabama really make a quarterback change in 2017, especially if the Tide win it all this season? The Tagovailoas have been told by Saban that there’s always a quarterback competition when a new season begins.
All Tagovailoa wants is the opportunity to have a chance. His quarterback coach at Saint Louis — Vinny Pappas — said Tagovailoa’s game elevates when he’s pushed.
“People ask me why is he going to Alabama because they have their guy already who’s a freshman,” Pappas said. “He’s going to compete for a job. I think that’s going to bring the best out of him and make him better. Right now, I’m struggling to find ways to make him better because no one is really pushing him for that spot.”
The U.S. Army All-American agreed that in order for him to compete at his full potential, he likes when there’s another quarterback fighting alongside him. That was evidenced this summer at the Elite 11 MVP competition at The Opening at Nike headquarters. Tagovailoa went up against the top high school quarterbacks in the country and dominated, en route to him being given one of the most prestigious awards a high school quarterback can get.
“I believe competition brings out the best in everyone,” Tagovailoa said. “The hardest thing to me is competing against yourself because you don’t know how much harder you need to push. You don’t have anyone other than yourself to compete against.”
The nation’s No. 1 dual-threat quarterback has heard the doubters of his commitment. He knows what he’s getting himself into. Tagovailoa was very complimentary of Hurts, saying he has all of the tools for the next level.
Tagovailoa believes he has all of the tools necessary to excel, too.
“Everyone is always going to have their own opinion and say this guy is so much better than you,” Tagovailoa said. “I think it just comes with my competitive nature. Whether he’s a true freshman or not, you’re always going to want to compete with the best, and if he’s the best, I want to go up against the best.”
LINK
Posted on 11/17/16 at 8:43 am to bamasgot13
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HONOLULU — Vinny Passas vividly recalls one play where a Saint Louis School receiver slipped and fell leading to a Tua Tagovailoa interception that ricocheted off his teammate’s helmet as he was falling down. It was just one of three turnovers for Tagovailoa his sophomore season — a big reason why he took hold of the Crusaders’ starting quarterback job over a returning senior in Ryder Kuhns who was on the All-State team.
Passas’ memory also stretches back when the school’s most notable alumni to football fans was still a student. That student now is Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota.
When football fans across the nation mention Tagovailoa, Mariota is usually brought up soon after. Mariota started the first big wave of people knowing high school football players in Hawaii could play at an elite level. Tagovailoa now is the reinforcement wave.
It’s hard for Passas to compare the two Hawaii legends.
“That’s like asking me who I love more, my mom or my dad,” Passas told SEC Country. “They are both my brothers, and I love both of them to death. They both have their unique qualities. Marcus was an amazing student here. He was our team tutor. He ran a 4.5 40. He wasn’t as accurate as Tua is. Tua has a bit stronger arm than Marcus at this stage. Tua had more game experience here than Marcus because he played since sophomore year. Marcus was competing from day one, but he didn’t start until his senior year.”
Pappas sees a lot of similarities in Mariota’s and Tagovailoa’s game. He calls both quarterbacks mechanically sound, meaning they release the ball around 12 o’clock, as he likes to describe. They release the ball in front of their bodies and get the point of the football going downward instead of upwards, giving them more control of where they place their passes. Where some quarterbacks may lose accuracy when moving in the pocket, Tagovailoa and Mariota excel because of their footwork.
An advantage both quarterbacks have, Pappas says, is that ability to come directly over the top with their passes. Tagovailoa is 6-foot-2, but releasing the ball at 12 o’clock gives him an extra two inches, Pappas says.
At this stage of their careers, Pappas believes Tagovailoa has a clear advantage.
“He’s an amazingly accurate thrower,” Pappas said. “I’ve never seen a guy spin the ball like this. His leadership skills are pretty amazing, and it comes from his spiritual side by listening to prayers and how he can quote the gospel.
“Marcus isn’t so much of a rah-rah type of guy. He leads more with his actions. He doesn’t get on people vocally, where as Tua will get on you. Marcus was more of a quieter leader than Tua is.”
Both quarterbacks are tremendous when it comes to competing. Although Mariota didn’t win the starting job until his senior season after his predecessor graduated, he always was ready to go. It’s an advantage Pappas sees from the 2014 Heisman Trophy winner.
Alabama has a true freshman quarterback in Jalen Hurts who has exceeded all expectations through the first 10 games of his career. Would Alabama really make a quarterback change in 2017, especially if the Tide win it all this year? The Tagovailoas have been told by Nick Saban himself that there’s always a quarterback competition when the season ends no matter how many wins the team has.
For Tagovailoa, that’s important because he’s been “the guy” on every team he’s been on for the majority of his life, as Pappas explains.
“In one instance, Marcus was prepared for college,” Pappas said. “He was able to sit, compete every day and then get ready when called on. I’ve seen guys who have been starters since Pop Warner all the way through senior year, and when they get to college, they aren’t the guy anymore and they don’t know how to react. Marcus had experience going through that. Tua doesn’t have that. His level skyrocketed when he was competing for something.
“He could be the exception to the rule. He still has that driving force to figure out how he can get better by spending more time in the weight and film rooms.”
Make no mistake about it, Tagovailoa didn’t commit to Alabama just to sit behind Hurts until he either leaves for the NFL draft or graduates. He’s going to Tuscaloosa in 2017 to take his job. That’s his mindset.
“People ask me why is he going to Alabama because they have their guy already who’s a freshman,” Pappas said. “He’s going to compete for a job. His level of play climbs a couple of notches when there is competition. I think that’s going to bring the best out of him and make him better. Right now, I’m struggling to find ways to make him better because no one is really pushing him for that spot.”
The nation’s No. 1 dual-threat quarterback has had a more illustrious career than the man who put the Polynesian culture and Hawaiian football on the map. Tagovailoa is 87 away from eclipsing Timmy Chang’s state record of 8,001 career passing yards — a record that will likely be broken this Saturday in the state championship game against Kahuku.
It’s still hard for Pappas to choose which quarterback he’d rather have.
“If I had to take the first pick between those two, I think I would have to defer that one,” Pappas said with a laugh. “No matter which one you get, you end up with an amazing player.
“I think Tua can be a Sunday guy, and, like Marcus, I think he can be a Heisman guy as well.”
LINK
Posted on 11/17/16 at 9:54 am to bamasgot13
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Todd Harris’ recruitment will proceed just a little bit longer.
Harris, a 4-star safety from Plaquemine (La.) High School, has delayed his decision. The standout defensive back and Louisiana native was expected to announce his commitment on Jan. 1, 2017 at the Under Armour All-America Game in Orlando, Fla., but has had a change of heart.
After discussing his future and all of his available options with his family, Harris is going to announce his commitment instead on National Signing Day (Feb. 1, 2017).
Harris has already confirmed the change with Under Armour All-America Game officials and is resolute on taking advantage of the added time in his recruitment.
“My parents and I discussed it and we feel that it’s best for me to wait until National Signing Day,” Harris told SEC Country. “I can explore all of my options basically. There’s no need to rush my decision.”
The 6-foot, 180-pounder received his Under Armour honorary jersey a month ago when he revealed that he expects to decide from LSU, Alabama, Texas A&M and Ole Miss.
With the added time in his recruitment, Harris will likely take advantage of all or most of his official visits, with all four of the aforementioned SEC teams likely to get the highly touted safety on campus leading up to National Signing Day.
LINK
Posted on 11/17/16 at 10:05 am to bamasgot13
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Neil Farrell, 3-star DL (Mobile, Ala.)
Like the case with Edwards-Helaire, Farrell’s 3-star rating is not indicative of his production on the field during his senior season.
The 6-4, 295-pound Alabama native is labeled as a defensive tackle, but can play all over the defensive line. In fact, in LSU’s 3-4 front, Farrell is best suited to play defensive end, where he plays most of his snaps for Murphy High.
Through 10 regular-season contests, he had 85 tackles, including 25 for loss. There’s that, plus 12 sacks, 12 quarterback hurries, two passes defended and a forced fumble.
Comparatively speaking, Farrell has superior statistics than most defensive linemen in the country — in terms of tackles per game (7.6), tackles for loss per game (2.5), sacks (1.2) and quarterback hurries (1.2).
He even mustered a sack to preserve one of his team’s victories this season.
Farrell is rated as the No. 29 defensive tackle in the 2017 recruiting cycle, and position aside, there are fewer prospects at the position with better production and better offers. The LSU commit holds offers from Alabama, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Southern Cal, Michigan, South Carolina and Tennessee, among others.
It’s almost criminal that Farrell is only a 3-star recruit after this kind of season.
I know we aren't really recruiting him, but I saw this and thought I'd share it for the LSU lurkers since I can't post over there.
LINK
Posted on 11/17/16 at 11:40 am to bamasgot13
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Michigan will play host to the nation's number one overall prospect for the second time, as Antioch (CA) 2017 five-star running back Najee Harris will visit Michigan the weekend of December 10th.
Posted on 11/17/16 at 11:51 am to TideSaint
I've heard for a while that our coaches like Farrell, but that he has potentially serious issues with one of his legs that might impede his development. Not sure what the deal is exactly with it. Looks like he had a really nice senior season.
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