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Ok, here is my opinion of Coach Jones 2008 class. Now so that you all know my background, I was a student assistant in SMU’s athletic recruiting office from 1992-1996. I was also hired to be a grad assistant in the recruiting office for 1 year, 1997. For a period of two years I worked with the Kansas City Chiefs recruiting staff, attending training camp with the team in River falls, Wisconsin.

Now, as for the class, I was pleasantly surprised with some of the finds that are now ours. I tried to watch as much film as I could, and I watched film on the following players:

QB/WR Cole Beasley
QB Braden Smith
QB Bo Levi Mitchell
QB Winston Gamso (I’m including him too)
RB BJ Lee
WR EJ Drewery
RB/WR Bryce Lunday
WR Cole Loftin
OL Jordan Free
OL Zach Boyd
OL Blake McJunkin
DL Taylor Thompson
DL Andrew Ellison
LB Victor Jones
LB Zach Line
DB Chris Banjo

I’ll start at the top:

QB:
• Contrary to popular belief, I really like Braden Smith. I know Bo Levi will get most of the hype, but I see an athletic quality and accuracy in Braden that impresses me. In the end, I think Bo Levi will edge Braden out in Coach’s mind, but Braden can definitely play in Conference USA.
• As for Bo Levi, he has a calm demeanor to go with a really good arm. Give Dan Morrison some time to work on his footwork and we have two really solid signal callers. As for Gamso, he is big, tall and rangy and is quick enough that I think he will compete with the other two. Overall, three very solid guys.

Grade: B+

RB:
• With the news that Lunday and Lee will play in the slots, not really much to look at here. Coach did say that Quincy Whittington probably would line up at RB, and if that is true, then we do have another solid player to go with Chris Butler and James Mapps in this offense. I still have some friends in the recruiting biz, and I have heard that Coach Jones was lucky to get Whittington. Apparently he is a solid division I prospect at both RB and CB, and has the athleticism to make an impact at both positions at the next level.

Grade: B-

WR/SLOT: Well it is obvious that coach wanted to upgrade the WR spots. For the purposes of this review, I’ll label Whittington as a RB, which still leaves 5 WRs in this class.
• A quick glance at EJ Drewery made me think of Plaxico Burress, but after I looked deeper at the film, EJ needs some work after all. He runs sloppy patterns and was late a few times looking for the ball. These are things Reinebold can fix though. Throw the ball up and let EJ go get it.
• Lunday and Beasley are quick and tough. Both are a little on the small side, but in the slot, they should be able to run away from safeties and cross up covering LBs, which is the rub as they say.
• BJ Lee looks tailor made to be a kick and punt returner for the Ponies. Little, quick, and ready to lay a lick. I still think Lee would be a better RB for us, but if he plays WR, I think the best thing to do is get him the ball in the open field and watch.
• Cole Loftin is a kid I got really excited about. In the film I watched, he showed really good vision. The tape I saw was him playing QB, and running in and out of defenses. Not only was he quick and elusive, Cole kept his eyes downfield and had the stamina to outrun defenses. On signing day, Cole was one of the first guys I checked on to make sure he was ours.

Grade: A

OL: Obviously offensive line was a position that Coach Jones wanted to solidify. Seven linemen in one class to go with six from Bennett’s last class.
• Jordan Free is a beast. He is big and quick. In the tape I saw of Jordan, he was pulling and mauling at the point of attack. I’m looking forward to watching him bowl over some of the smallish Conference USA LBs.
• Nwangwu and Robiskie I don’t know much about. Robiskie has apparently been working on campus for a good while, so he hopefully will be a step ahead. Nwangwu was heading to Texas Tech, so obviously he has Division I talent.
• Jimmy Chase is an athletic kid who could probably play OL or DL for us. From what I’ve seen he is quick.
• Zach Boyd is big and comes from HP down the road. He seems to have good feet and obviously a good work ethic.
• Emshoff is another big OL who seemed really excited to be a Mustang. He seems to fit the mold of what Coach wants in an OL.
• McJunkin is another player I was surprised that we got. The word I heard is that several schools were interested and when I heard he was coming, I checked the story out. It turned out that Blake is committed to helping turn things around.

Grade: B

DL: Six DLs to go with the 7 OL. It seems that Coach Jones saw the same wholes I saw in our lines last year.
• Let’s be honest, Taylor Thompson has the talent and size to be a game changer on our defense. Period. Huge pickup.
• I was happy to see the pickup of Evan Huahulu (with the balance from his wrestling) and Torlan Pittman. Size is one thing that we really need more of on the DL.
• I was a little confused when I heard about Kevin Grenier from Arizona. 17 sacks in one season. He is not a big kid, but we’ll see if he is really quick enough to be a Trent Cole/Michael Strahan type pass rusher for us.
• Ellison is an athlete. He was a very good TE (as was Thompson) and that athleticism will help our DL tremendously.
• As for Parker, hopefully he grows a little beyond 5’11â€

Ellison is practicing at linebacker, but that's a lot of info. Nice writeup, Texasscout!

Nice.

Look Out Stallion!

This was a great read...thanks, scout.

informative
thanks

It will be interesting to read your opinions of next years class and to make a comparison to this years class. Many thanks for the analysis.


GO PONIES!!!

No offense intended but I never understand these random grades that are given. I need a point of reference for these grades so I can understand the ability of the kids in your analysis. If we get an A for receivers, what are you giving So. Miss who signed a 5 star receiver? If our QBs are a B+ how does Ohio State rank with a 6 star? This is not an attempt to lessen your detailed report, which I do appreciate since I can not get there to see the kids play in high school or in practice, but every year we get folks grading us with As and Bs but we never beat anyone. I am so confused.

mrydel wrote:No offense intended but I never understand these random grades that are given. I need a point of reference for these grades so I can understand the ability of the kids in your analysis. If we get an A for receivers, what are you giving So. Miss who signed a 5 star receiver? If our QBs are a B+ how does Ohio State rank with a 6 star? This is not an attempt to lessen your detailed report, which I do appreciate since I can not get there to see the kids play in high school or in practice, but every year we get folks grading us with As and Bs but we never beat anyone. I am so confused.

It might just be a grade for us on how well we are filling a need? I'm just throwing it out there

Thanks for the compliments everyone. I really appreciate it.

My grades are on recruits who have never stepped foot on Ford field. So trust me I understand the skepticism.

I will answer it this way, my grades are based on my experience grading players, something I have done both on my own and professionally in my life. Football has always been a passion of mine, and I started grading football players in my own head at the age of 12. At that point I was just the weird kid drawing up football plays in study hall, but over the years I have developed skills and experience as a recruiter and a scout of football talent.

I'll try to briefly explain my thinking in my analysis.

QB: For QBs, you have to look at certain aspects of their game. I ALWAYS look at mechanics with QBs (footwork, ease of the dropback, how quickly they make reads, and where the ball is released when they throw. These are the things that determine how the pass will get to the receivers, and that is the point, right?

RB: For RBs, I look at vision and tenacity. What I mean by tenacity is how hard a back runs. Does he run hard through holes? does he show a burst through traffic? does he switch the ball in the open field to avoid being stripped? Does he go down after the first pop? Does he keep the legs churning?

WR: Ok WRs are a little tougher. Personally I like the tall ones. They have longer strides, can separate easier, and can reach over DBs to make plays. For WRs, you have to look at the route running ability, how they catch the passes, how they run with the ball. If a WR has good instincts on how to maneuver through traffic, I notice that. Keep in mind with WRs that if they are not open, they can't be effective. So all of the ways that a receiver can get open will usually give you a clue if they will be a success. Thats why I like Cole Loftin. I just saw so much potential there.

OL: Offensive lineman are usually scouted based on hands and feet. If an OL has good hand placement and has strong hands, thats key. Football in 2008 is a weird game in that there is some type of holding on every play, so the OLs that have good hand placement usually can hide what they are really doing. As for the feet, good OL look very fluid, whether they are dropping back to pick up a rush end on the corner, blocking down or pulling around the other side. Size is important, but technique is key. Jordan Free is an example of a player who looks extremely strong with his hands, uses leverage well, and has the grit to get his nose bloody.

DL: When it comes to defensive linmena, DEs are scouted differently than DT/NTs. At least I scout them differently. For DT's I look at burst, power, and leverage (i.e staying low) Think of Chris Zorich who used to play for Notre Dame and the Chicago Bears. He was small, but because he had such strong burst and balancehe played on the nose. DTs need to stay low and penetrate the line, but you can also look to see how quick they are on their feet. If ta DT gets cut, do they roll over and get back up or do they stay down?
For DE's its about quick feet and strong hands again. A DE has to make sure than an OL doesn't get his hands inside him and into his chest. OL line coaches teach this, so good DEs know that the only way to get to the QB is to win the hands battle with an OL, and use his quickness and/or strength to get past. This is why size on DEs is not a huge key. Sure you want a DE to take up space, but if he is big and lumbering, he's not to get in the backfield.

LB: Linebackers are hard to scout alot of times because they have to be part DL and part safety. Linebackers have to be quick enough to cover RBs, quick enough to avoid being cut bu an OL, and good enough tacklers to take down a RB with a runing start. I justge a good LB by watching how he flows to the ball, his ability to avoid being blocked, how he pursues a RB or QB across the field (i.e pursuit angles), his judgement in determining where the ball is going, and how a LB covers a RB or TE moving through the middle zone. For all of these reasons, you usually don't want a LB too big or too small, and they have to be quick on their feet.

DBs: Ask any scout and they will tell you than CB is the absolute hardest position to scout. Unless you are scouting a Deion Sanders or Champ Bailey, you have to pay attention to almost everything he does. You watch how physical he can be with the WRs, how quick is his backpedal, how fluid is his break out of the backpedal, how quickly can he determine where the ball is going, can he run with a WR step for step in the 3rd and 4th quarters when he's exhausted, can he judge the ball position in the air, does he have an extra gear to go steal a pass and yes, can he tackle.
For safeties, they are like the QBs of the secondary. They have to be able to process what the offense is doing fast and get to the ball, whether it is a run or pass. If its Cover 2 or 3, they have zone responsibility, so it is important that they maintain that responsibility until they are sure where the play is going(otherwise the reverse of fleaflicker will kill them). That's why the "ball hawk" mentality is so attractive and thats what you look for. I saw a ballhawk in Banjo, but when Banjo needed to make a hit, he did that too. So safeties have to be quick, decisive, tough and be able to catch.

Now those are my thoughts. I am not scouting now, but I worked very hard to get where I was and it will always be in my blood. In fact you can probably hear me yelling at the games if you listen close enough.

Now to answer the question about the Julio Jones' and the Terrelle Pryors of the world, those are special players. Think of the "men among boys" cliche' when you look at those guys. They are 6 stars because of that mentality and because some guy scouted them and saw that they will probably be stars at the next level and have a good shot at the NFL.

Scouting is an inexact science. In all my experience, no two scouts see the same player exactly the same way. Sitting where we sit, we want to see a numeric score to see that Coach Jones is building the team up, but we won't know for sure until August.

Thanks for reading my thoughts, I appreciate this board, and please ask any questions you have. I would love to share.

--Texasscout96

Thanks for all of your input!

Thanks Alex. I have been reading this board for a while and I felt like it was time to start contributing. So thats the next step.

If anyone on the board has questions, please ask me. I'd be happy to help.

GO PONIES!

Keep posting real information.

I am so glad this post did not go the.... He said... she said - Waaa Waa I'm better than you, way.

Good solid info - How cool.

Thanks Again.

Thanks Bus. The truth is that I have this knowledge and experience. In watching this board, I have observed the question of "How are we doing?, how are we doing?"

If I can add value to this board and help everyone get a little insight in to how these players are "graded" and what the coaches see and look for, I'm happy to do it.

Thanks.

--Texasscout96