2017 3* Dual QB Malik Willis Commits to AU!!! 12/30/16

[ellitor 33,076]

8 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Or.... to simplify... we need to build in some depth for 2019 or we give history a chance to repeat itself. We have to give ourselves the best shot at having 2-3 QBs who can successfully lead the team every year, in case case of injuries and to avoid relying on freshmen or having to find/land high quality transfers.

See. Told y'all he could answer it better than me. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

I really don't remember ever thinking, "Man, we have too many quarterbacks." In fact, I can only think of one year in the last 10 that I thought we had enough. 

Hope we land this guy. Gotta love an EE, too. 

 

[ellitor 33,076]

31 minutes ago, alexava said:

I hope this is somewhat correct but i aint drafting him yet. Good selling point to recruits tho.

Well if all goes very well he would like to go pro in 1 more year.

[autan 737]

Shouldn't be a problem to get a 3* DT QB each year. Trick is to get the right one.  I think you go after the best one after their Senior season and after you strike out on the 4 or 5 star guys. Likely he will flip to stay closer to home.  Looks like we'll be getting a good one.  UAT signed one last year and he turned out OK. Who knows?  Willis could beat out all the higher ranked guys like Hurts.

[ellitor 33,076]

2 minutes ago, autan said:

Shouldn't be a problem to get a 3* DT QB each year. Trick is to get the right one.  I think you go after the best one after their Senior season and after you strike out on the 4 or 5 star guys. Likely he will flip to stay closer to home.  Looks like we'll be getting a good one.  UAT signed one last year and he turned out OK. Who knows?  Willis could beat out all the higher ranked guys like Hurts.

First thing you do is not look at stars at all. If a 3* is the top of your board you take him when you can regardless of what sites think are 4 & 5 star prospects. Also Jalen was a 4* through most of his recruitment.

[aujeff11 6,243]

Gus just has to have himself a project QB. 

[Timeslider 6 269]

Now, we need more than anything to go out and recruit a good DT QB coach when the NCAA opens up another slot for coaches on the staff. It would be nice to have someone who can spend all their time developing these young guns at AU.

[wildlife alumni 304]

17 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

Gus just has to have himself a project QB. 

He can have all he wants as long as a few start panning out!

[AUinfusion 390]

12 minutes ago, ellitor said:

First thing you do is not look at stars at all. If a 3* is the top of your board you take him when you can regardless of what sites think are 4 & 5 star prospects. Also Jalen was a 4* through most of his recruitment.

Not trying to be a jerk in any way, but that's reaching a bit. We are closing in on February. Hurt was the #3 247 composite dual threat QB around this time, and everybody knew who he was. Willis might turn out to be awesome, but IMHO, if we were looking at him as a Jalen Hurts type talent, he would have gotten his committable offer a lot sooner. I'm rooting for him all the way, but I'm not a fan of acting like someone is our top choice when it's pretty clear that was not the case. I'm a fan of ANYONE who dons the orange and blue, but I'm of the age where I like to be realistic, too. JMHO.

[aujeff11 6,243]

4 minutes ago, wildlife alumni said:

He can have all he wants as long as a few start panning out!

Agreed. Looking at this guys throws though ain't purty.

[aujeff11 6,243]

4 minutes ago, AUinfusion said:

Not trying to be a jerk in any way, but that's reaching a bit. We are closing in on February. Hurt was the #3 247 composite dual threat QB around this time, and everybody knew who he was. Willis might turn out to be awesome, but IMHO, if we were looking at him as a Jalen Hurts type talent, he would have gotten his committable offer a lot sooner. I'm rooting for him all the way, but I'm not a fan of acting like someone is our top choice when it's pretty clear that was not the case. I'm a fan of ANYONE who dons the orange and blue, but I'm of the age where I like to be realistic, too. JMHO.

Well said.

Edited December 30, 2016 by aujeff11

[The Plainsman 948]

3 hours ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Need to take at least one high school QB in every class. 

No matter who?   At some point you strike out on QB recruiting,.  I would think you would be the first to note that with our staff.  

I see this as Jonathan Wallace type sign.    And before everyone goes off on that,. I do not mean that as a knock on Jonathan Wallace or this kid,. But why is the ONLY HS commit we have this year a project that we stole from his only other P5 conference offer?  

[TexasTiger 12,826]

6 minutes ago, The Plainsman said:

No matter who?   At some point you strike out on QB recruiting,.  I would think you would be the first to note that with our staff.  

I see this as Jonathan Wallace type sign.    And before everyone goes off on that,. I do not mean that as a knock on Jonathan Wallace or this kid,. But why is the ONLY HS commit we have this year a project that we stole from his only other P5 conference offer?  

His ratings are similar to Lamar Jackson. Not saying he's the next LJ, but a lot of 3 stars pan out.

[LakeBum 187]

2 minutes ago, TexasTiger said:

His ratings are similar to Lamar Jackson. Not saying he's the next LJ, but a lot of 3 stars pan out.

The QB at USF looked pretty good, too, and I doubt he was a high star guy coming out of HS. Look what MSU picked up as a QB to take over from Dak.  Houston, KSU, VT,  and many other QBs have looked good and weren't 5 * prospects out of HS.   Picking a QB out of HS is a crap shoot and I am not sure the guys in the recruiting services are any better at picking the next Lamar Jackson than the coaches.

[Potatooooooes!! 1,370]

18 minutes ago, TexasTiger said:

His ratings are similar to Lamar Jackson. Not saying he's the next LJ, but a lot of 3 stars pan out.

Exactly. The key is coaching them up. 

[ellitor 33,076]

41 minutes ago, AUinfusion said:

Not trying to be a jerk in any way, but that's reaching a bit. We are closing in on February. Hurt was the #3 247 composite dual threat QB around this time, and everybody knew who he was. Willis might turn out to be awesome, but IMHO, if we were looking at him as a Jalen Hurts type talent, he would have gotten his committable offer a lot sooner. I'm rooting for him all the way, but I'm not a fan of acting like someone is our top choice when it's pretty clear that was not the case. I'm a fan of ANYONE who dons the orange and blue, but I'm of the age where I like to be realistic, too. JMHO.

You misunderstood my post. You are making my point on Hurts. Autan compared Hurts to Willis, not me. I was clarrifying the difference between the 2 in ratings. Also I was just making a blanket statement that you take a guy regardless of where they are rated when you want them. That statement was not to be taken specifically about Willis as to imply he was a long top target at all. I never said nor implied that Willis was our top choice for a while. That point should be clear from when I said the staff waited til things were finalized with Narcisse before moving on Willis. Sure the staff has monitored Willis this season long before it became public but did not jump on him til LN ended his recruitment finalizing on LSU.

[ellitor 33,076]

39 minutes ago, The Plainsman said:

No matter who?   At some point you strike out on QB recruiting,.  I would think you would be the first to note that with our staff.  

I see this as Jonathan Wallace type sign.    And before everyone goes off on that,. I do not mean that as a knock on Jonathan Wallace or this kid,. But why is the ONLY HS commit we have this year a project that we stole from his only other P5 conference offer?  

That does not and should not matter. It should be clear from his film that he has a lot more QB potential than JW.

[ellitor 33,076]

25 minutes ago, LakeBum said:

The QB at USF looked pretty good, too, and I doubt he was a high star guy coming out of HS. Look what MSU picked up as a QB to take over from Dak.  Houston, KSU, VT,  and many other QBs have looked good and weren't 5 * prospects out of HS.   Picking a QB out of HS is a crap shoot and I am not sure the guys in the recruiting services are any better at picking the next Lamar Jackson than the coaches.

Exactly. If Gus is committed to dual QBs we should take 2 high schoolers each year and if they don't show real promise after a season or 2 then move them to WR or DB. That would increase our odds of hitting on QBs more often.

[McLoofus 35,182]

Hey @ellitor, I'm totally with you on paying attention to film and not to stars. But what about the lack of P5 offers? Like I said in a previous post, I hope we get this kid, but that does seem like a valid concern when assessing this recruitment from the armchair. 

[autan 737]

17 minutes ago, ellitor said:

You misunderstood my post. You are making my point on Hurts. Autan compared Hurts to Willis, not me. I was clarrifying the difference between the 2 in ratings. Also I was just making a blanket statement that you take a guy regardless of where they are rated when you want them. That statement was not to be taken specifically about Willis as to imply he was a long top target at all. I never said nor implied that Willis was our top choice for a while. That point should be clear from when I said the staff waited til things were finalized with Narcisse before moving on Willis. Sure the staff has monitored Willis this season long before it became public but did not jump on him til LN ended his recruitment finalizing on LSU.

My bad E.  I was thinking Hurts was a 3* but that was incorrect. He was #3 DT and a solid 4*, so it was a bad comparison. 

[ellitor 33,076]

1 minute ago, McLoofus said:

Hey @ellitor, I'm totally with you on paying attention to film and not to stars. But what about the lack of P5 offers? Like I said in a previous post, I hope we get this kid, but that does seem like a valid concern when assessing this recruitment from the armchair. 

As has been said many times offer sheets don't often tell the story of a recruit. Sure the offers would be nice to see but there are many overall misses by P5 programs on not to give commitable offers to guys each year that turn out to be very good. Also there are many P5 offers reported by recruits each year that are not commitable.

For example OU's OT Orlando Brown was a mid level 3* out of high school from Geargia in 2014 but is now an All American. Of his 11 reported SEC offers out of high school none were commitable. The entire SEC missed on him.

[ellitor 33,076]

2 minutes ago, autan said:

My bad E.  I was thinking Hurts was a 3* but that was incorrect. He was #3 DT and a solid 4*, so it was a bad comparison. 

We Gucci Tan. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, ellitor said:

As has been said many times offer sheets don't often tell the story of a recruit. Sure the offers would be nice to see but there are many overall misses by P5 programs on not to give commitable offers to guys each year that turn out to be very good. Also there are many P5 offers reported by recruits each year that are not commitable.

For example OU's OT Orlando Brown was a mid level 3* out of high school from Geargia in 2014 but is now an All American. Of his 11 reported SEC offers out of high school none were commitable. The entire SEC missed on him.

Oh yeah, definitely got ya on all that. I'm just curious if there are any suspicions why schools are sleeping on this kid in particular. 

[ellitor 33,076]

All I'm saying is look at the kid's tape and make up your own opinion on him instead of just looking at *s and supposed offer sheets. If you don't like what you see then that's fair.

Me personally, I like his upside, especially for this offense. Plus he's a winner. He took his team to the state title game in one of the best classifications in Georgia & only loss of the season was there by 3 to national power Grayson.

[1auburn1 1,110]

I'm just glad that Gus has arrived at the same conclusion I did a long time ago - the only way we're going to be able to win big in this league, under Gus's leadership, is to have a stable of DTQBs.  It's what he understands well enough to be successful.