2023 football commit high school roundup - Printable Version
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2023 football commit high school roundup - msqueri - 09-17-2022
Given a busy period of work, I am about a month behind on my usual tracking of high school action for Stanford's football commits. This is far too much work to do every week, but I'll see what's possible periodically. What I've seen from the last month (not including last night's games, to be covered in next update):
The early season game I had circled was Oaks Christian (Luke Baklenko) vs. Sierra Canyon (Cameron Brandt). Alas, the game was remarkably uninteresting and lacked insight for us. Oaks Christian won comfortably, very few individual highlights were posted by either team, Baklenko played left tackle and Brandt was on the other side of the line, Baklenko looked fine in the clips I saw, and Brandt had a relatively quiet game (four tackles, no other stats). Of most interest was a Chase Farrell 57 yard touchdown and incoming PWO specialist Aidan Flintoft uncorking a 68 yard punt, making a 32 yard field goal, and making his extra points. Didn't learn anything from this one unfortunately. Nor did Baklenko have occasion to square off the next week against Nebraska LB commit Hayden Moore of Regis Jesuit, though Moore's highlights show some good plays for Baklenko and some in which Baklenko couldn't stay engaged on his blocker. On the season for Oaks Christian, Baklenko is credited with two pancake blocks and Flintoft is averaging 39 yards per punt and has made both of his field goal attempts. On the season for Sierra Canyon, there's a reason I said the Oaks Christian game was relatively quiet for Brandt: Brandt has a tackle for loss in each of the other three games, a sack in two of them, and two forced fumbles in one of them (one of the forced fumbles within the one yard line at the last possible moment before the back was going to punch in a touchdown). Of most interest was the Mission Viejo game, as they have numerous major college football players on offense. In that game, Brandt had a sack and was occasionally double-teamed, as is often the case, but far from every play in this one as it looks like he had a good battle with 2024 OT prospect Mark Schroller. I wonder if our coaches will take a look at Schroller, seemed to do a credible job against Brandt.
Bishop Gorman's early season schedule is, of course, a cornucopia of games to see Zak Yamauchi against some of the top teams in America. Like many players at this early stage of the season he has not posted individual highlights, so I have to piece together from other sources. At the top of the food chain in terms of competition, of course, is Mater Dei. The Mater Dei-Bishop Gorman game this year was a 24-21 instant classic national title game-caliber affair win for Orange County's professional team. The first thing I notice from that game is that Yamauchi came out to midfield as one of the captains for the coin toss. One might wonder why I'm highlighting somebody being a captain for a high school team. Well, this is Bishop Gorman. I am not being facetious when I say that I am not sure our current Gael, Benjamin Hudson, was even one of the top 25 players. Yamauchi for the coin toss made me happy. [Of note for us, Leviticus Su'a and Jordan Onovughe both came out for Mater Dei....this Onovughe has really come out of nowhere.] The second thing I noticed is that Yamauchi is still at left tackle. I had thought he would flip to right tackle as a senior to protect the QB's blind side, but I guess they're going with a phenom sophomore, Douglas Utu, to protect the blind side. Then I turned my attention to performance. There was a sack on Yamauchi's side on a play where the pocket collapsed comprehensively and the QB scrambled right to where Yamauchi and 3-star 2024 LB Ramere Davis were battling (Davis not credited with the sack in the swarm but could have been). There was a really crazy play where Yamauchi blocked inside and a blitzing safety became a free runner, hurrying the throw into an interception, which was returned 58 yards before a Bishop Gorman defender knocked the ball loose and the hustling QB recovered the ball back in the endzone. In general it seemed to me Yamauchi and Davis each won some battles but I'd probably give the edge to Davis. Against St. Louis, Yamuauchi's man was kind of sort of involved in a swarm for a sack, but breakdowns on that play mostly occurred elsewhere. Arizona edge commit was lined up against the aforementioned sophomore Utu, so no insight there. I'm still hoping Yamauchi posts highlights from Corner Canyon, Mater Dei, St. Louis, and Hamilton so I can spotlight him at his best and get insights that way rather than piecing from other videos.
JShawn Frausto-Ramos is another player who has played elite competition but hasn't posted individual highlights. Through three games (three dominant wins, preserving the now practically perennial Mater Dei-St. John Bosco "national championship game"), Frausto-Ramos has 2.7 tackles per game, an interception, and a pass defended. The interception is notable because I believe it may be the first turnover he's ever caused (not trying to throw shade, check out my three dimensional analysis to see how I quite like him as a prospect). It came against Texas power Allen and their 4-star QB 2024 Michael Hawkins. That game was so brutal for Hawkins he didn't post highlights despite posting highlights for the subsequent games. The interception was a bit behind and/or over the receiver, who reached back for it and tipped it, allowing Frausto-Ramos, who was playing deeper, to dive/fall to the ground to catch it off the tip (may have had it without a dive if there hadn't been tip?). I can only imagine how sweet it was for Frausto-Ramos to finally get an interception and to do it in a $60 million, 20,000 person stadium as nice as it gets in high school football. Frausto-Ramos wasn't spotless, though, getting beat on a back shoulder pass up the sideline for probably 20-30 yards (tough angle to evaluate). The next week, against Bishop Amat, he had a pass breakup and did not appear to be victimized in any of Bishop Amat's highlights. Up in Portland the next week against Central Catholic, the Braves pitched a shutout and gave up just over 4 yards per pass attempt (75 yards total) so Frausto-Ramos must have done just fine.
Sedrick Irvin's first game went for 11 carries for 39 yards (3.5 yards per carry) and two touchdowns with zero receptions. Even taking out goal-line touchdowns that's about 4 yards a carry, adding fuel to the fire of my discontent that his high school production suggests he sucks. It came against a team Maxpreps pegs #74 in Florida and has zero major college football prospects. There have been two additional games and stats have not been updated for those. The team highlights for the second game did not have any for Irvin (he was in the plays, just standing around on big passing plays or not in the game on the long run). News reports indicate Irvin found the end zone three times against Tampa Jesuit, including two receiving touchdowns (a seven yarder leaking out of the backfield and a 50 yarder, half of that on a seam route and the other half racing to the endzone after exploiting a missing tackle) and a rushing touchdown (a one yard run). The team highlights from the first and third games show Irvin to be a willing and effective pass blocker but by far my favorite thing is that in the Jesuit game there were two plays in which Irvin looked good against Georgia whale LB commit Troy Bowles: a five yard run where Irvin got through the line and Bowles tackled him on the second level, but Irvin's head of steam knocked Bowles on his back (a play where they both kind of looked good) and the 50 yard reception where Irvin beat Bowles to the corner pylon for the touchdown (albeit not a fair fight given where Bowles was coming from after his teammate's missed tackle). Not enough to go on to give an arrow but Irvin is a recruit I'm very skeptical about.
RE: 2023 football commit high school roundup - msqueri - 09-17-2022
Miscellaneous notes:
* Jaden Platt had a quiet first game but has had some notable moments since. He got a chance to match up against Arizona State safety commit Chase Davis and they each had a highlight against one another, a 29 yard reception crossing over the middle for Platt and a pass breakup in the endzone by Davis on a pass targeting Platt. Against Hebron is when Platt really broke out, hauling in 8 catches for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns. In that game, other than a few tackles I didn't pick out anything of note in terms of Platt vs. Arkansas LB Carson Dean (Dean looked like a force on his highlights but not at Platt's expense). At points in the various highlights Platt is split out and at other points he's in-line but to date I have been more impressed with Platt as a receiver.
* So far LJ Martin has been picking up at a dominant level (though not so far at the eye-popping 257 yard from scrimmage per game level as last year), and through three games he is averaging 182 yards rushing per game and 10.1 yards per carry, with 5 touchdowns so far. He's also got 3 catches for 56 yards and a receiving touchdown. As has been the case throughout his career, the competition is laughable, which creates a Houdini/Pop Warner quality to his highlights. He's also his team's punter (41.1 yard average with two of his nine punts inside the 20) but, notably given the talk of him maybe getting a look at linebacker in college, has not played defense.
* Ahmari Borden is another guy dominating terrible competition. Through three games he has 16 catches for 262 yards (16.4 yards per catch) and 3 touchdowns, all of his team's receiving touchdowns and 46 percent of the passing offense. He's also got an 80 yard kick return and 2.3 tackles per game on defense.
* It's a pattern at the skill positions: Tiger Bachmeier has been feasting on over-matched competition too, to the tune of a three game total of 28 catches for 470 yards (16.8 yards per catch) and 3 touchdowns, all of his team's receiving touchdowns and 74 percent of the passing offense. He's also wrecking opponents in the return game, taking two of the three kick returns he's fielded all the way for touchdowns (so an insane 63.7 yards per return) and averaging 14.2 yards per punt return on five returns (a 31 yarder and four others averaging 10 yards), plus 2 tackles per game on defense. This is another level of dominant than the others I've highlighted. In some past years that would go in the section up top but the last few years I've had a general rule that only data points against significant competition merit/demerit mention above the miscellaneous portion. Still, this is nice to see.
* Behind Simione Pale's road-grading at right guard, Elk Grove is again on the very extreme end of the offensive balance spectrum with an 89/11 run/pass ratio. Four games in, all four non-QB leading rushers are averaging at least 6.9 yards per carry and the team average is an impressive 7.9 yards per carry, though it's hardly been dominant as the team has a losing record and has twice been kept to 20 points or fewer. On defense Pale has 2.8 tackles per game and a sack. Based on watching the highlights, which show a lot of Pale at defensive end (!), I don't think the stats are comprehensive, as it seems he may have at least one other tackle for loss and maybe a forced fumble as well. The sack is the last highlight of the San Ramon Valley highlights on his Hudl page and resulted from working steadily against the right tackle to push him back and then being athletic enough to collapse on the QB when he tried to move up in the pocket. The Menlo-Atherton highlights only showed Pale on offense, which was a bummer for me as I wanted to see him against Washington OT commit Soane Faasolo. Faasolo has not posted highlights this season and I'm not sure he's playing given the highlights I saw.
* In the first two games, Gavin Geweniger averaged 5 tackles per game and had 3 tackles for loss and a pass defended. All of the significant stats were against a team without major prospects. I'd like to see Geweniger and Salpointe Catholic's 3-star 2024 OT Luis Cordova post highlights of the Chaparral-Salpointe Catholic game to show some insight into Geweniger's performance in that game.
* Hunter Clegg's team is very fast to post Maxpreps stats so he is one case where stats are updated through last night. In six games he has 5.2 tackles per game (fourth on the team), 5 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, and a fumble recovery (opportunistic/closing on a bobbled snap on a punt). I liked his early productivity this season but he's slowed down a bit, not to over-emphasize the arbitrariness of particular stats. He also has 2 catches for 37 yards. The stats and highlights reveal work at tight end, which is interesting because recall that last year he played offensive tackle (intriguingly competently in fact). I continue to vacillate on which kind big athlete he is (OLB/TE or DE/OT), though granted the distinction for us doesn't matter as much since he'll be an edge defender mostly in a 5-technique it seems.
RE: 2023 football commit high school roundup - ADPinWDC - 09-18-2022
Roger that -- Excellent highlight film here on Tiger Bachmeier, 100% commit to Stanford 2023.
Brings track meet speed, great off the slant or flanker screen. Very good YAC; does not go down on first touch.
https://youtu.be/JmPFUOGBJpU
RE: 2023 football commit high school roundup - BostonCard - 09-18-2022
Thanks, Matt, for the detailed report. A couple questions, if you don’t mind… how do the results for our guys so far this year compare to historical classes of comparable quality? And, also, based on what you have seen, are there any players (especially some lower ranked ones) that looked poised to have great seasons at Stanford, and, conversely, are there any guys who are looking like they might be duds?
BC
RE: 2023 football commit high school roundup - old spanish trail - 09-18-2022
Thanks alot, Square. And, wondered about the same questions as BC.
RE: 2023 football commit high school roundup - msqueri - 09-18-2022
(09-18-2022, 12:30 PM)BostonCard Wrote: Thanks, Matt, for the detailed report. A couple questions, if you don’t mind… how do the results for our guys so far this year compare to historical classes of comparable quality? And, also, based on what you have seen, are there any players (especially some lower ranked ones) that looked poised to have great seasons at Stanford, and, conversely, are there any guys who are looking like they might be duds?
BC
It will be easier to judge at the end of the year with the benefit of more data points and perspective but I don't mind conjecturing now. Love the questions.
Comparing to past classes is a bit difficult for me because my methods in this project evolved over time in light of available information. For about 15 years the method was scraping search engines for local newspaper reports. That produced much less information and was more useful at some positions than others, but had a certain charm in terms of feeling like a bell went off when an interesting tidbit presented itself. Over time Maxpreps became more and more all-encompassing, and has been a great source for schedules, rosters, and stats for a while now. And then it's been within the last half decade that Hudl and Twitter completely change the game of recruit watching. In particular individual prospects having their own curated highlights allows insights into so many players compared to before, not to mention being able to watch the opposition for non-curated highlights. Because of this evolution, comparison over time is difficult.
Grains of salt disclaimers aside, this strikes me as a pretty solid month of action for Stanford prospects. The course of the season and playoff action will be interesting to see what holds up, who rises to the occasion, and who recedes. In general, it feels to me like a productive group of skill position talent. Platt is a very dynamic receiver compared to what tight ends usually do at the high school level. Martin, Borden, and Bachmeier don't face much good competition but they make the most of their opportunities. Couple these guys with Reuben, Ayomanor, Roush, and Hawkins and I think Stanford has weapons going forward. On paper it's nothing to write home about compared to some of our past recruits, but in between the lines on Friday they deliver reliably enough that I have confidence we can have good weapons. The questions are who will get them the ball, will the line give them a chance, and is it a problem we're light on high voltage star power.
On favorites/least favorites, don't hold me to this if my mind changes by the end of the year, but I'm highly confident Platt, Brandt (at least as much as one can be with a DL, the crapshoot of all positions), and Frausto-Ramos can play at Stanford and Irvin is one of my least favorite borderline 4-star recruits ever (and I think his profile will continue to drop such that he's nowhere near that border). I liked each of the OL individually as recruits but it's a heck of a third, fourth, and fifth OL in a class more so than a first, second, and third OL in a class.