The U.S. Army All-American Bowl took place in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday January 7th and was the premier High School All-Star Game this season. Here is our feedback on some of these recruits based on their performance in the game, it’s important to note that this feedback is just from one game and that this is the first time that some of these recruits are playing on the field with opponents of this caliber. It should also be noted that blitzing was not allowed in this game. In this article you will see some recruiting rankings. We took the Phil Steele approach and did an aggregate of the top recruiting sites out there so that’s where those numbers are from. I will post the Top 150 or 200 sometime next week. If you want a sneak peak, last week we posted the Top 10 “Uncommitted” recruits (of course some have since committed).
CB Ishmael Adams, Westlake Village/Ca (Undeclared)- made a good strip on Stefon Diggs early in the game.
WR/ATH Bralon Addison, Missouri City/Texas, #171 (verbal to Texas A&M)- showed ability to adjust to under-thrown deep ball and make catch.
QB Anthony Alford, Petal/Miss, #101 (verbal to Southern Miss)- needs to work on decision making, threw two INTs both were thrown into traffic (one of which was an overthrow), also made decision to run the ball as time was running out in first half instead of throwing the ball away (clock management).
DL Johnathon Bullard, Shelby/NC, #43 (Florida)- made sack in 4th quarter by pushing OT back and then grabbing the QB as he came out of the pocket.
RB Mike Davis, Stone Mountain/Ga, #107 (Undeclared)- showed good hands out of the backfield and ability to quickly turn the ball up-field after making the catch, ran hard up the middle between the tackles.
WR Stefon Diggs, Olney/MD #14 (Undeclared)- reminds me of a young Branden Smith (currently a CB at Georgia), has great speed in the open field, always seems to be looking to make a play sometimes at the detriment of the situation, lost two fumbles in this game (one of them went out of bounds), lost ten yards on a punt return
WR Dorial Green-Beckman, Springfield/Mo, #1 (Undeclared)- made very impressive one handed catch while fighting off defender on a deep ball (caught ball with one hand and corralled it in) and took it into end zone, good use of arms to create separation as ball came down, dropped a TD pass on a slant that hit him right in the hands for easy TD (ran good route to get open), dropped second pass early in 4th quarter
LB Josh Harvey, Valdosta/Ga, #29 (Undeclared)-Clemons- showed good pursuit and speed in 4th quarter as he tackled Barry Sanders Jr for a loss (completely avoided the FB attempt to block him), on next play came cross field and out-ran teammates to assist with tackle.
QB- Gunner Kiel, Columbus/In, #15 (LSU)- showed ability to make accurate deep throw on the move, can make the quick read on an open receiver, showed ability to get the ball to back quickly when he’s under pressure, got stripped in the pocket on a play where he saw the rush coming but didn’t protect football (still looking down field to make play versus protecting football), threw an INT on a deep ball after a low snap- looked rushed in pocket and threw off front foot as pocket was collapsing (had a guy open but waited to late to throw it and receiver had to wait on ball).
QB Tyler Matthews, McPherson/Tx, (TCU)- Needs to work on pocket presence- took a sack in 4th quarter as he moved the wrong way in the pocket.
QB Cylar Miles, Denver/Co, #141 (Washington)- has quick first step, hits the hole quickly, willing to put his head down and get the extra yard in traffic, good accuracy on the short ball, good avoidance of initial rush but needs to know when to throw ball away or cut losses and not make negative play, threw good slant out of his end zone for gain of 20.
LB Kwontie Moore, Norfolk/Va, #97 (Virginia)- caused fumble in fourth quarter as was also bringing ball carrier to the ground
DL Ondre Pipkins, Kansas City/Mo, #83 (Michigan)- showed good pursuit, made good tackle of a quick QB (Voytek) on sidelines
DE Hassan Ridgeway, Mansfield/Tx, (Texas)- busted through up middle in second quarter and reached out and knocked the ball out of QBs hands causing fumble, good bull rush in 3rd quarter causing QB (Voytek) out of the pocket (and threw an incompletion), good move in fourth quarter to beat guard and force QB to throw ball out of bounds, quick off the edge in pursuit of QB
RB Barry Sanders, Oklahoma City/OK, #79 (Stanford)- showed ability in first quarter to hit the hole and quickly get to the sideline/end zone, very fluid runner
TE Kent Taylor, Land O’Lakes/Fl, #92 (Florida)- left feet to catch pass in 4th quarter, good athleticism for TE position, needs to bulk up to play TE in SEC
OT John Theus, Jacksonville/Fl, #11 (Georgia)- was visible late in game getting down the field to help block after a reception
S Shaq Thompson, Sacremento/Ca, #12 (California)- quick to the football, good pursuit sideline to sideline, good stop at goal-line in one on one situation- went low to meet RB and made one-on-one stop, great closing speed/route to the ball carrier, easily one of the most impressive players in this game
QB Chad Voytek, Cleveland/Tn, (Pitt)- botched hand-off that resulted in loss (out of shotgun), made good 25 yard throw into traffic for completion, put too much air and under threw a sideline pass in 2nd quarter (almost INT), very quick and elusive but didn’t do a good job of putting the ball in a place for receivers to make a play early in the game (when he was on the run), hit Kent Taylor on a roll out between defenders, good at avoiding defenders in pocket, improved with accuracy on the run late in the game, bad read on drop back in fourth quarter that should have been intercepted (threw it behind receiver which actually helped it not get picked), quick sprint up the middle for a TD after pocket collapsed, willing to give up his body to make a play. Voytek got a lot of action and he showed some good and some not so good. Should develop into a good QB under the right tutelage.
DE Adophus Washington, Cincinnati/OH, #25 (Ohio St)- showed quick first step and speed to beat OT in second quarter for a sack
RB Trey Williams, Houston/Tx, #28 (Texas A&M)- quick to the edge, quickly found and hit seam on opening kick-off of second half, caught a screen pass and took it 90 yards (called back for holding) showing raw speed, fumbled when running in traffic between the tackles
RB T.J. Yeldon, Daphne/AL, #37 (Alabama)- makes tacklers miss in the open field, very athletic, takes more than one guy to bring him down, caught a swing pass out of the backfield and quickly turned it up field and leapfrogged a defender for 20 yard gain, showed nice spin move to avoid a defender on an eight yard run, caught quick screen and made first guy miss with side step for short gain, overall one of the most impressive players in this game (along with Shaq Thompson)
Verbal Commitments Made At The Game:
QB Anthony Alford- Southern Miss- #101 overall in CFBZ recruit rankings
LB Keith Brown- Louisville #184
DL Jonathan Bullard- Florida- #43
DB Deon Bush- Miami (Fl)- #99
LB Nick Dawson- Louisville
DB Jordan Diggs- South Carolina
DL Ellis McCarthy- California- #21
DL Tyriq McCord- Miami (Fl) #108
LB Brian Nance- Baylor- #158
WR Jordan Payton- California #146
RB Barry Sanders- Stanford #79
DB Kevin Seymour- USC
LB Elijah Shumate- Notre Dame- #90
DB Shaq Thompson- California- #12
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