re: Class of 2018 Recruiting MEGATHREAD: So Long Old Friend Edition

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Alpha Dog

Amon-Ra St. Brown was awesome. In fact, he was so good that we've made him a five-star on 247Sports. This wasn't a snap reaction. St. Brown has built a five-star resume in pads and throughout the offseason at other events but his showing against the best defensive backs in the country on Saturday night validated a move.

St. Brown was powerful, explosive, competitive and uncoverable. Defensive backs had to resort to holding him to slow him down. The 5-11.5, 191-pounder's signature play came when he had beaten Al Blades Jr. on a corner route but slipped and fell, allowing Blades what looked like an easy interception. Instead, St. Brown popped up, recovered and went up to make the grab. He won another rep after losing a shoe. Nothing was slowing St. Brown down.

Notre Dame, Stanford, Ohio State and USC are among the favorites for St. Brown who has brothers on the Notre Dame and Stanford rosters.

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Next Ten

1. Channing Tindall, LB – The linebacker group dominated the running back group during their one-on-ones and Tindall was probably the best of a great group. He's extremely athletic and moves great laterally.

2. Cameron McGrone, LB – While Tindall doesn't let running backs get around him, McGrone doesn’t even let them get going. The Indiana native was regularly stopping running backs behind the line of scrimmage because of how well he accelerates to the football.

3. Jordyn Adams, WR – There are other wide receivers that made more spectacular plays, that talked more trash, that did more back flips after a catch but Adams was quietly one of the best out there. He's so smooth that he makes things look easy but his ability to stack defensive backs, beat press coverage and glide around the field continue to make him a big stock-up guy.

4. Justin Shorter, Wr – Shorter is the one receiver in attendance that looks like he's a different species. His size at 6-foot-4, paired with his speed makes him such a tough matchup. The Penn State commit is also physical. Defensive backs resorted to trying to knock him off his routes but he showed the strength to run through them and still make plays.

5. Azeez Ojulari, DE – This looks like the rare edge rusher in this 2018 class. Offensive linemen couldn't handle his edge speed and when they adjusted he showed the power to make them pay.

6. Brendan Radley-Hiles, CB – A lot of the cornerbacks took their lumps against the wide receivers but Radley-Hiles was the exception. He came to compete and showed the instincts and physicality to keep his guys in check. Even when he got beat, he bounced back and kept balling.

7. Terrace Marshall, WR – Marshall was maybe the best vertical threat of the receiver group. He continued to get behind cornerbacks and he would track down the football with ease to finish in the end zone.

8. Solomon Tuliaupupu, LB – He flashed from the moment drills began with his athleticism and fluidity during position work. Running backs should be happy this isn't a padded camp  because Tuliaupupu seemed to be itching to light somebody up and certainly could have with the way he was smothering running backs in 1on1 drills.

9. Elijah Moore, WR – There may not be a better route-runner in the house than Moore. He took more reps than any other receiver and he competed like this was the Super Bowl. Moore was a tone-setter with his attitude and his play backed it up.

10. William Barnes, OT – A guy that could play tackle or guard, Barnes looked like the best offensive lineman in attendance in part because he was the most consistent. He's just very sound technically but also is powerful and competitive.

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Was it crowded there? And was it a pretty clean place?

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Alpha Dog

Brendan Radley-Hiles, IMG Academy (Fla.) — There is no way to describe Radley-Hiles’ performance other than dominant. The four-star Nebraska commit basically won all of his reps and went toe-to-toe against some of the best wide receivers in the nation. Radley-Hiles might be undersized, but he makes up for it with freakish athleticism and great ball skills. He had a ‘Honey Badger”-esque performance and also showed off his versatility when he took reps at wide receiver.

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It was very wallet friendly too. We took our 3 kids and another boy and for the 6 of us it was only $101. After paying over $100 a piece for a day at Disney World I was shocked when the cashier told me how cheap it was.

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Emptying The Notebook

— The Opening coaching staff selected the best six defensive backs from 1-on-1’s to compete against the best wide receivers towards the end of the training camp. They were Radley-Hiles, Taylor-Stuart, Cook, Blades, Houston Griffith and Patrick Surtain Jr.

— Two defensive backs that impressed us in 1-on-1’s were Clemson commit Kyler McMichael and four-star athlete Bryan Addison. While they weren’t top performers, both had extremely solid days.

— Texas safety commit BJ Foster returned to major action for the first time since tearing his ACL early in his junior season. Foster showed flashes of potential when he jammed a receiver to the ground but looked tender and hesitant throughout the day.

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