Day Two of our Rivals Camp Series in L.A. featured our annual Quarterback Challenge, and every top 2017 target in the region was in attendance (aside from Tate Martell, who's nursing an injury). It's a bit of a quirky environment to evaluate QBs, because they get points for hitting stationary targets - not for being fluid or spinning the ball well or being 6 feet 4. So some QBs struggled in the competition, but looked great. Others did well in the competition, but looked poor.
So with that caveat out of the way, here were the news and notes:
-Jack Sears was the top QB in the event today. He dominated the competition, hitting multiple targets in the bread basket portion of the target. He wasn't just good in throwing at inanimate objects, though. His release was clean, the ball was almost always a tight spiral and obviously he was pinpoint accurate. The only knock I could find on him was his fastball just isn't that fast. But when you have film that shows you can throw and run, you've now demonstrated at two separate offseason events the past few weeks that you're accurate and you spin a good ball, you've done enough to earn Pac-12 offers, despite a heater that lacks pace. UCLA still hasn't offered, and if it doesn't offer by the end of this month, they're probably going to miss on the top three QBs in the region.
-Tua Tagovailoa wasn't too far behind Sears' dominant day. He spins it well, he was accurate enough to be in the final three or four in the competition, he throws a great fastball, and he really shined in the drills where he had to throw on the move. He was off on Saturday, but his performance today pretty much locks him in into my top QB spot in the region. As for his recruitment, watch this video interview with Adam Gorney and tell me how much of a chance you think UCLA has here.
-Nick Sipe is a guy I've been touting as a potential UCLA offeree, and while he was far from outstanding today, he locked in a spot in my top five in the region. He really struggled to throw on the run and he too lacked good pace on his fastball, but he has all the size you want and more than enough arm strength to make all the throws we required them to do out there today. I have it as 1. Tagovailoa, 2. Martell, 3. Sears, 4. Ryan Kelley and 5. Sipe in the West region this year.
-After winning the L.A. Elite 11 competition a few weeks ago, I was excited to see Chase Garbers this afternoon, but he was what I thought he was. He's a solid 6 feet 1 and pretty well-built, and while he hit a large portion of his targets, his ball fluttered constantly and that's what I saw from him at Nike a few weeks ago as well. He's a high Mountain West, low Pac-12 guy in my opinion and somewhere in the 7-10 range in my QB region rankings.
-2018 UCLA lean Dorian Thompson-Robinson continued to chuck lasers out there. I don't think he scored well in the competition, missing too many targets to make noise, but I still liked the way his football came out no less. I'm sad I didn't get to watch more of Brevin White and Matt Corral this weekend, because I would have loved to have compared DTR to those two in the 2018 class. Regardless, he's going to be a high four-star no doubt.
So with that caveat out of the way, here were the news and notes:
-Jack Sears was the top QB in the event today. He dominated the competition, hitting multiple targets in the bread basket portion of the target. He wasn't just good in throwing at inanimate objects, though. His release was clean, the ball was almost always a tight spiral and obviously he was pinpoint accurate. The only knock I could find on him was his fastball just isn't that fast. But when you have film that shows you can throw and run, you've now demonstrated at two separate offseason events the past few weeks that you're accurate and you spin a good ball, you've done enough to earn Pac-12 offers, despite a heater that lacks pace. UCLA still hasn't offered, and if it doesn't offer by the end of this month, they're probably going to miss on the top three QBs in the region.
-Tua Tagovailoa wasn't too far behind Sears' dominant day. He spins it well, he was accurate enough to be in the final three or four in the competition, he throws a great fastball, and he really shined in the drills where he had to throw on the move. He was off on Saturday, but his performance today pretty much locks him in into my top QB spot in the region. As for his recruitment, watch this video interview with Adam Gorney and tell me how much of a chance you think UCLA has here.
-Nick Sipe is a guy I've been touting as a potential UCLA offeree, and while he was far from outstanding today, he locked in a spot in my top five in the region. He really struggled to throw on the run and he too lacked good pace on his fastball, but he has all the size you want and more than enough arm strength to make all the throws we required them to do out there today. I have it as 1. Tagovailoa, 2. Martell, 3. Sears, 4. Ryan Kelley and 5. Sipe in the West region this year.
-After winning the L.A. Elite 11 competition a few weeks ago, I was excited to see Chase Garbers this afternoon, but he was what I thought he was. He's a solid 6 feet 1 and pretty well-built, and while he hit a large portion of his targets, his ball fluttered constantly and that's what I saw from him at Nike a few weeks ago as well. He's a high Mountain West, low Pac-12 guy in my opinion and somewhere in the 7-10 range in my QB region rankings.
-2018 UCLA lean Dorian Thompson-Robinson continued to chuck lasers out there. I don't think he scored well in the competition, missing too many targets to make noise, but I still liked the way his football came out no less. I'm sad I didn't get to watch more of Brevin White and Matt Corral this weekend, because I would have loved to have compared DTR to those two in the 2018 class. Regardless, he's going to be a high four-star no doubt.
