Football Recruiting Class of 2025+ - Printable Version
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RE: Class of 2025 - Langdude - 02-05-2024
This is great news!
When I was at Reunion Weekend, I talked to some folks at the game that said that a local family had taken in Tiger and really made him and his family feel at home at Stanford. This could not have hurt getting his brother here, too!
Though I agree that, had we not moved to ACC, we most likely would not have gotten Bear. When I wrote the above, it was looking like we were going to stay in the PAC. Thankful we got an eleventh-hour deal worked out.
Also agree that, with NIL and ease of transferring, we must get a top-tier signal-caller every year (this should have already been the case, but even more vital now). Sounds like recruits respect Taylor and his acumen.
This is awesome. Now we REALLY need some skilled beef in the trenches to keep those QB recruits upright, on the field, and at Stanford!
-m.
RE: Class of 2025 - SkiBum80 - 02-05-2024
(02-05-2024, 05:22 PM)Langdude Wrote: This is great news!Much appreciation to that local family
When I was at Reunion Weekend, I talked to some folks at the game that said that a local family had taken in Tiger and really made him and his family feel at home at Stanford. This could not have hurt getting his brother here, too!
Though I agree that, had we not moved to ACC, we most likely would not have gotten Bear. When I wrote the above, it was looking like we were going to stay in the PAC. Thankful we got an eleventh-hour deal worked out.
Also agree that, with NIL and ease of transferring, we must get a top-tier signal-caller every year (this should have already been the case, but even more vital now). Sounds like recruits respect Taylor and his acumen.
This is awesome. Now we REALLY need some skilled beef in the trenches to keep those QB recruits upright, on the field, and at Stanford!
-m.
RE: Class of 2025 - newguy - 02-05-2024
Bear is the real deal.
RE: Class of 2025 - CardinalSagehen - 02-05-2024
Coach Taylor on ACC Network today: “The average starting salary for a Stanford grad is $201,000 if they don’t go to the NFL.” I like the salesmanship, but there’s no way that is correct. He must have misunderstood the stat. His point was that the brand is strong and the draw is undeniable for the right kind of student-athlete. (Very reminiscent of Shaw on that talking point…)
RE: Class of 2025 - MVDan - 02-17-2024
2025 OG Josh Williams will be announcing his commitment decision on Monday, Feb 19th at 5pm EST.
OL Josh Williams to announce Monday on 247Sports YouTube channel
RE: Class of 2025 - msqueri - 02-19-2024
Four dimensional analysis on Williams:
Services: On3 industry #428 (#30 interior OL), 247 composite #439 (#26 interior OL), On3 #30 interior OL, 247 #26 interior OL, Rivals #14 OG (5.7 grade, same grade as Charlie Hoitink, Ziron Brown, Zak Yamauchi, Kenji Swanson, James Pogorelc, Jake Hornibrook, Trey Stratford, Jack Dreyer, AT Hall, Thomas Oser, Cameron Fleming, David Yankey, Cole Underwood, Khalil Wilkes, Kevin Danser, Jonathan Martin, David DeCastro), ESPN NR
Offers: Stanford, Michigan, Penn State, Boston College, Cal, Cincinnati, Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State, Missouri, Nebraska, Pitt, Rutgers, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wisconsin
Production: It's always very difficult to cite "production" for OL recruits and even harder when the team doesn't report stats that I would otherwise use to try to at least glean insights on style of play, offensive effectiveness, and so forth. All I can really say is that junior year Williams played bottom 37 percent of Stanford recruit competition, sophomore year he played bottom 36 percent of competition, and his freshman year he played bottom 16 percent of competition. His calling card as a recruit is his athleticism, or at least so people say because of surprisingly competing in sprinting events as a 300 pounder. He had a 5.1 40 at a Penn State camp and has claimed a 12.8 and 13 second 100, though those aren't on verified sites. What I do see verified is a 42' 3.25" shot put (low end by our recruits' standards but he has half of his high school track career ahead of him) and a 27.22 200 (off the charts uncompetitive but again it's a 300 pounder clocking these as an underclassman).
Highlights: Williams' freshman and sophomore highlights are full season reels, saving me the time (but also the insight) of breaking down individual game film. Alas, there was an error loading both files on Hudl so I can't even watch those. The majority of the junior highlights were run blocking plays using his athleticism to get to the second level, though there is some blocking defensive linemen as well as some good pass blocking, with the tape claiming Williams did not get beat in pass protection his entire junior year. The first game of junior year was the main tape I was interested in as it was against Imhotep Charter, an undefeated nationally notable team (#69 in the nation according to Maxpreps) which featured major opposition for Williams to square off against. Williams' highlights show a run block of Pitt DL Jahsear Whittington (on a play that got blown up and Williams got a bit bulldozed backward but at least fought Whittington off away from the ballcarrier), a pass block of Ohio State whale edge commit Zahir Mathis, another run block on Whittington (this one kind of battling Whittington where they stood and effectively sealing Whittington off from getting near the ballcarrier), a run block on Mathis that was effective enough to prevent Mathis from setting the edge as the back got around him, another run block on Mathis pushing Mathis back enough to allow a six yard or so run behind Williams, and a pass block against Mathis (though a quick release by the QB so not a long clip). Whittington's highlights had one of the most insanely cool pick sixes I've ever seen from a DL at any level but Williams was a bit player in that play, as well as a sack by Whittington where Williams and a teammate were double-teaming Mathis and Whittington was able to work through the middle of the line to chase the QB back for a massive sack. The most negative play for our guy on Whittington's tape was a run block where he and a teammate gave Whittington a pop but did not stay engaged and Whittington bulled forward to bring the back down for a tackle for loss. Mathis' highlights show a tackle for short or no gain where he came around the edge on a play where Williams tried to block inside instead of taking Mathis on and a QB hurry stunting around Williams (Mathis glanced the QB and then the second defender, who was Williams' man initially on the play, to get to the QB had a strip sack....kind of exposes the idea Williams never got beat as a junior as a fib), and then a few plays abusing other guys. As for other games, Malvern Prep is one of the best teams in Pennsylvania and that game had some good examples of getting to the second level and of holding up in pass blocking, including a few plays against a guy with Boston College and Duke offers, Bernard Blakey. Blakely's highlights didn't square off too prominently against Williams, so that's a decent sign.
This is a good day for Stanford recruiting. OL is arguably our biggest need for the 2025 class and Williams looks like a good recruit for us by all four dimensions above. He is, at the moment, our highest ranked OL commit in a few years (have to go back to Fisher Anderson and Lucas Heyer). Beating out numerous good programs is something Taylor has done exceedingly little of so far in recruiting, and Williams had offers from 4-5 of the top 25 most talented teams in the country (Penn State, Michigan, Nebraska, Missouri, plus On3 says Texas A&M offered), not to mention solid programs Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Kentucky. The track pedigree and film show a guy who is highly athletic for a 300 pounder. He's played a mix of right tackle and left tackle in high school but most seem to project him as a guard, and I would think he has work to do on technique (and I don't think will be able to get away with second level blocking as his calling card in the ACC, so he's going to have to get stout at the point of attack). In the big picture, he fits broadly with Hoitink, Ziron Brown, and Yamauchi as very credible reinforcements coming for the interior OL, though the distinction between interior and tackle can be fluid and very dependent on who else is around (i.e., perhaps Williams could be needed at tackle). I'd feel better if we had OL coaches who had proven anything, as these guys are an echelon of recruit that is a real crap shoot, or if we were getting some clearly stud OL recruits. It is very odd and disturbing to me that Stanford has not been able to get an elite OL recruit for over five years (1,867 days and counting since Hinton committed). But as long as we are going to toil in the football wilderness guys like Williams are going to be among the most important guys we get in a given year. He also seems like an obvious case of a guy who may be viewed as an extremely high 3-star by conventional wisdom but in our coaches' eyes actually is elite. They may or may not be right about that but the pipeline got better today.
RE: Class of 2025 - PVTree - 02-19-2024
Williams committed to Stanford (Yay!). Big get.
RE: Class of 2025 - MV72018 - 02-19-2024
(02-19-2024, 04:02 PM)PVTree Wrote: Williams committed to Stanford (Yay!). Big get.
With recent commitments, life insurance premiums for our young QBs the next few years should substantially decrease.
RE: Class of 2025 - SkiBum80 - 02-19-2024
Thanks very much for the detailed analysis Msqueri
After QB, which was successfully got, I thought getting OLine the next most important position
Kudos to Coach TT & Co for this very successful get
RE: Class of 2025 - newguy - 02-20-2024
now that's one impressive offer list.
RE: Class of 2025 - BigEasyCard - 02-20-2024
Here is the Josh WIlliams announcement:
WATCH: Josh Williams commits to Stanford LIVE on 247Sports (youtube.com)
Geaux Cardinal!
RE: Class of 2025 - MV72018 - 02-20-2024
(02-20-2024, 12:39 PM)BigEasyCard Wrote: Here is the Josh WIlliams announcement:
WATCH: Josh Williams commits to Stanford LIVE on 247Sports (youtube.com)
Geaux Cardinal!
Very, very impressive young man. Fine family. Should provide a real boost to the Cardinal O line and the team in general. Great get, Coach T!
RE: Class of 2025 - SamuelMcF - 03-11-2024
Rest of our offers thus far...
8/11/2023 S Kainoa Winston DC
9/16/2023 WR Daylan McCutcheon TX
9/19/2023 OL Josh Williams PA - commit
10/14/2023 WR Liam Thorpe NY
10/27/2023 WR Vernell Brown III FL
11/12/2023 ILB Alex Tatsch PA
11/15/2023 TE Brock Schott IN
11/15/2023 OLB Gabe Kaminski IL
11/16/2023 DL Kade Pietrzak ND
11/17/2023 TE Linkon Cure KS
11/17/2023 TE Thomas Meyer IA
11/23/2023 S Anquon Fegans AL
11/26/2023 OL Jackson Lloyd CA
12/5/2023 S CJ Jimcoily TN
12/8/2023 OLB Dominik Hulak IL
12/8/2023 ILB Cooper Catalano WI
12/8/2023 TE AJ Ia CA
12/11/2023 DL Kole Briehler NJ
12/13/2023 OLB Justin Hill OH
12/13/2023 CB Braxton Winston NC
12/13/2023 DL Landon Rink TX
12/13/2023 DL Gordy Sulfsted OH
12/14/2023 CB Na'eem Offord AL
12/17/2023 DL Isaiah Campbell NC
12/19/2023 ILB Zaydrius Rainey-Sale WA
12/19/2023 OL Andrew Babalola KS
12/19/2023 ILB Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng FL
12/20/2023 OL Darrin Strey MI
12/25/2023 DL Kelepi Vete CA
1/3/2024 WR Raiden Vines-Bright AZ
1/4/2024 S Seaonta Stewart OH
1/16/2024 DB Omari Gaines NJ
1/16/2024 OL Brian Tapu UT
1/16/2024 OL Vaea Ikakoula UT
1/16/2024 WR Isaiah Mozee MO
1/17/2024 OL Malachi Goodman NJ
1/17/2024 OLB Austin Alexander KY
1/22/2024 DL Christian Garrett GA
1/23/2024 DB Chris Garland GA
1/23/2024 OLB Julius Holly GA
1/23/2024 CB Tristan Haynes OK
1/24/2024 OL Matty Augustine CT
1/24/2024 OL Nolan Davenport OH
1/26/2024 OLB Jayden Woods KS
1/26/2024 S Micah Rice OH
1/29/2024 OLB Mason Posa NM
2/1/2024 RB Jamarion Morrow TN
2/5/2024 OL Emeka Ugorji TX
2/7/2024 S Donte Utu HI
2/7/2024 OLB Nusi Taomoepeau UT
2/7/2024 ILB Cyrus Polu UT
2/7/2024 WR Christian Neptune FL
2/14/2024 TE Reiman Zebert NE
2/14/2024 TE Caden Piening OH
2/14/2024 CB Onis Konanbanny SC
2/21/2024 TE Blake Bryce CA
2/26/2024 CB Elgin Sessions SC
3/5/2024 OL Ziyare Addison FL
3/11/2024 TE Charlie Wingfield NJ
RE: Class of 2025 - washingtonismoney - 04-22-2024
Any takes on the newish commits, Lonnie McAllister and Mickey Vaccarello?
RE: Class of 2025 - msqueri - 04-22-2024
Four dimensional analysis on McAllister:
Services: On3 Industry Ranking NR, 247 composite #962 (#87 CB), 247 #48 CB, Rivals 5.5 grade (same grade as Jaylen'Dai Sumlin, Darrius Davis, Javion Randall, Che Ojarikre, Caleb Ellis, Alaka'i Gilman, Zahran Manley, Denzel Franklin, Drew Madhu, Barry Browning, Ed Reynolds, Harold Bernard, Marcus Rance),
Offers: Stanford, Virginia Tech, Duke, Charlotte, Marshall
Production: As a junior against very good competition (top 24 percent of Stanford recruits), McAllister was named Washington Catholic Athletic Conference honorable mention. For context, seven Gonzaga teammates made first team (including two fellow junior DBs), six made second team, and five made honorable mention (including another fellow junior DB). Statistically McAllister was tied for sixth in tackles per game and had a tackle for loss (tied for eighth) but was not credited with any other counting stats (four teammates had interceptions). The stats don't look complete and it's been reported elsewhere that McAllister had 40 tackles (compared to the 27 Maxpreps credited), five pass breakups (not reported by Gonzaga for anybody on Maxpreps), and two tackles for loss. As a returner he's listed as having two kick returns for 30 yards, the fourth best average output of the five guys with multiple returns, and was the primary punt returner but is listed as having a long return of 12 yards on eight returns. As a sophomore against excellent competition (top 18 percent of Stanford recruits), McAllister was 15th in tackles per game and was not credited with any other counting stats (six Gonzaga players had interceptions and 11 had defensive counting stats). In track there are a couple of 4X200 relay times as a sophomore but nothing to really judge.
Highlights: McAllister's sophomore highlights were a mix of coverage and tackling, with one punt return featured, and mostly plays in coverage with the ball going elsewhere or falling untouched rather than McAllister making plays per se. The biggest sophomore test was against Our Lady of Good Counsel. The top highlight on that one was McAllister playing disciplined zone coverage and dropping back to defend a pass (though drop an easy interception would be another way to say it) intended for 2025 WR prospect DaMarion Fowlkes. There were also some solid tackles, including a few in which McAllister gave incoming Florida State 4-star WR Elijah Moore some cushion and surrendered a modest gain but kept it to that. Moore's tape shows another one of those plays where McAllister missed the tackle and Moore fought for another couple of yards, though McAllister got back up and was part of the eventual gang tackle and was not otherwise featured on Moore's tape. Fowlkes' highlights didn't feature McAllister at all. I was interested in the sophomore game against Archbishop Spalding as they had fellow sophomore now 4-star QB prospect Malik Washington and now James Madison WR Maxwell Moss. I got nervous when I saw Moss' monstrous stats from the game but was quite intrigued when I saw that all of the work on Moss' highlights came against some poor other soul and moreover that McAllister's highlights show good coverage of a Moss slant at the goal line where Washington looks that way but decides against it and tucks to run for a short non-scoring run. Washington's highlights show one play where McAllister bit on a pump fake resulting in a 20 yard gain, but otherwise it was all away from McAllister, which I take as encouraging. DeMatha is a big name program but I didn't find those clips as interesting. McAllister had a pass defended on a jump ball down field in one game and a few plays where he was kind of guarding space in zone coverage and passes fell harmlessly in the other. Most DeMatha big name prospects were in the trenches/not relevant to McAllister tape. Against McDonogh, 2025 4-star WR Jeff Exinor victimized McAllister badly on a button hook where McAllister got to him a step or two late, Exinor easily shed the tackle and then raced up the sideline for a 40 yard gain. Nothing significant to report from the game against St. John's and Maryland WR Sean Williams or Archbishop Carroll and South Carolina mega whale WR Nyck Harbor.
The junior highlights get off to a skepticism-inducing start with a long punt return for a touchdown that had not one but two very visible penalty flags nullifying it and then had a couple instances of the multiple play sleight of hand (understandable but annoying in game highlights but more directly misleading in a season highlight). There were a few good coverage plays I detail below, a fair amount on special teams in the return, coverage, and block phases, and tackling support on plays in front of him. McAllister's junior year he got two games against the big kahuna, Our Lady of Good Counsel (#20 in the nation that year), but the aforementioned Elijah Moore missed both of those games so they became less interesting from our perspective. With Our Lady of Good Counsel being such a national powerhouse, though, it's still a very interesting tape to dissect. Alas, in one game McAllister just showed five angles of one play contributing an assisted tackle of incoming 4-star Wisconsin RB Dilin Jones. The other game's tape was far more interesting (albeit super tedious to be over four minutes just showing four plays due to McAllister's five angles of the same play approach). Those four plays were another tackle of Jones for little gain after Jones did some spin moves/attempts to bounce outside when there was nothing available, two pass breakups in tight coverage of quick slants by the aforementioned DaMarion Fowlkes, and a tackle of a receiver underneath after covering Fowlkes and then peeling off back up field to bring down the other guy. This is probably the best game tape I've seen in McAllister's career. In one of those games Fowlkes put two touchdowns on tape, but one of them was on another corner and the other was lined up against McAllister but McAllister stayed underneath while the safety had responsibility for the flag route Fowlkes executed. In exonerating McAllister for responsibility on this play it bears mentioning that it looks like he almost always plays zone defense, which is just something to think about in projecting his skill set. The other game's tape does have a play of Fowlkes directly victimizing McAllister for about a 23 yard gain, though I must say McAllister shadowed Fowlkes pretty closely in nice coverage amid a dynamic route and it was a nicely executed play all around. Jones' highlights at RB exposed how much better Jones got of McAllister as they included three different nifty runs in which Jones made McAllister miss, one a dive at Jones' ankles, one a downfield tackle attempt at full speed in which McAllister overran Jones as Jones changed direction, and one of McAllister grabbing air and falling on his rear as Jones juked him. In the junior game against DeMatha, the Stags didn't have particular matchups I was interested in seeing McAllister against but the #52 team in the nation is serious competition so the highlights are still interesting. There's a punt coverage tackle, blocked field goal (I think, or maybe just rushed, but pretty sure he got a hand on it), an open field tackle of a scrambling QB, an assisted tackle (if that) of a run up the middle in the red zone, a coverage play downfield on a pass that fell harmlessly, and a red zone tackle of 2025 RB prospect Bud Coombs that is much more McAllister's doing than the other red zone tackle. The third top 100 national team McAllister played against this past season was St. John's. In that game, McAllister had a tackle for no or short gain near the goal line, a handful of plays being in on tackles of RBs catching passes, and being in on a punt coverage tackle (and somehow all this took nearly 12 minutes of tape because these are the worst-edited highlight reels I've seen in my life). In the Loyola Blakefield game, incoming Duke WR Jayden Moore had a big game but his highlights were all going away from McAllister. McAllister's highlights include a play shedding a block by Moore to make a tackle in run support.
If I had only been a Stanford recruitnik the last 15 years I would be apoplectic about this commitment at this stage of the cycle. With decades of perspective on Stanford recruiting, I unfortunately know that Stanford coaches not named Duane Akina often bring in DBs like this. Very hard position for us to recruit historically and, with one of the most legendary position coaches ever now gone we need to get used to trying to find diamonds in the rough. That's where we are here. This will be the sixth DB Taylor has brought in who gets a bare minimum kind of grade from Rivals. We are in the process of seeing a very dramatic diminution of our DB talent. We have to hope our coaches can get more out of less and also find diamonds in the rough. Paul Williams has a track record of it so it's reasonable to have that hope. As for McAllister specifically, there's nothing to like about the first three dimensions while the highlights are a bit more encouraging. His approach of doing numerous replays of each play is kind of a tell tale sign of somebody begging to be appreciated/not having very many highlights to show, but my close analysis of his tape and opponents' tape shows that he's not a total scrub. He has stuck with some pretty good receivers and there's a very encouraging dearth of evidence showing him getting burned even though he's played very good competition. I've seen enough of his opponents' tape to know that he's not a strong tackler, notwithstanding what his own tape would want people to believe, but there's enough here to hope he can be a credible part of nickel competition (none of the highlights are from the slot but I think that's where he'd get a chance at Stanford).
RE: Class of 2025 - msqueri - 04-22-2024
Four dimensional analysis on Vaccarello:
Services: On3 industry ranking NR, 247 composite #963 (#88 LB), On3 NR, 247 #47 LB, Rivals 5.5 grade (same grade as Omar Staples, Benjamin Hudson, Ricky Miezan, Caleb Kelly, Loa Kaufusi, Gabe Reid, Jarek Lancaster, Geoff Meinken, Nick Macaluso, Clinton Snyder), ESPN NR
Offers: Stanford, Boston College, Syracuse, Maryland, Connecticut, Utah, Buffalo, Toledo, Bowling Green, Akron, Miami of Ohio
Production: As a junior against middling competition (literally the dead median strength of schedule among all Stanford recruits in the historical data set), Vaccarello self-reportedly made first team all-state and had 111 tackles, 29 tackles for loss, 13 sacks, and 4 pass breakups. As a sophomore against very bad competition (bottom 15 percent of Stanford recruits), Vaccarello self-reportedly made honorable mention all-conference and had 85 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 9 sacks, 3 pass breakups, and a fumble recovery. The Maxpreps stats for are not very well-reported for either year (partial for sophomore year, practically useless for junior year) so I can't do the normal validation and comparisons I would want to, but the reported stats fill up the stat sheet.
Highlights: Vaccarello's Hudl page starts off poorly organized, at least for the sophomore year portion, but that ended up not frustrating me at all. The season highlights are nicely labeled, especially the junior highlights. The sophomore highlights show him exclusively as a stand-up OLB, usually coming forward to rush the passer or defend the run but occasionally staying back to fill up a passing lane or spy on somebody. Not really anything in coverage per se other than one play jumping a route to break up a pass when he was taking up one of those passing lanes. He doesn't strike me in the sophomore highlights as strong at the point of attack but he makes plays in a few different ways and was productive against a low level of competition. He really didn't play a single good team or major prospect his sophomore year so I won't analyze further.
The junior highlights still show him as a stand-up OLB but this time with more diversity and certainly more dominance. There is pass rush, run defense, more of the batted balls, and just lots of disruption generally. It's almost in man among boys territory in the volume of disruptive plays. The reason that the junior season strength of schedule was significantly better is that his team made a championship run, falling just short. The bulk of the schedule was identical in (very low) quality to the year before, so beware watching the full season highlights and think he's doing it over elevated competition in general. But the highlights are beautifully organized and labeled, not hiding anything, enabling viewers to quite easily assess which competition is good competition. In fact, the junior highlights are in essentially exact order of strength of opposition. You can basically view the first half of those highlights as good competition and the second half as bad competition. The first 4-5 minutes in particular are notable tests, as I will get into below. I was initially disappointed Vaccarello did not post an individual game highlight of the one instance of elite competition, losing to undefeated Imhotep Charter in the state championship, but his season highlights start with a minute and twenty five seconds of highlights from that game (Imhotep Charter is the black uniform with white accents and red helmet, not to be confused with another black uniform team I explain below as among the most interesting clips to watch). On offense he had a 23 yard reception that was all yards after the catch and on the game he had eight tackles, a tackle for loss, and a sack. Looking at the season highlights I located the sack, which came unmolested as left tackle incoming Indiana OL Zafir Stewart blocked inside and Vaccarello darted to take down incoming Army player (given their offense I don't know if he's a QB or RB or what) Mikal Davis. At the end of those highlights there's a play in run defense going up against Stewart in which Vaccarello acquits himself nicely. In that state championship game Vaccarello doesn't come out looking too bad on the clips for 2025 4-star RB Jabree Wallace-Coleman, who did dart past a Vaccarello arm tackle but not necessarily a positioning where one should have expected Vaccarello to make the play outside the extraordinary. The biggest home run didn't have anything to do with our guy, and the second biggest run was not our guy's fault and he ran across the field to eventually make the tackle. Vaccarello had a tackle for loss on Wallace-Coleman, so really that came out looking pretty solid. In general that minute and 25 seconds to start the junior highlights shows a lot of competitive plays against one of the top 75 teams in America. Against Pine-Richland, Vaccarello had, among other plays on the tape, a tackle for loss he claims was against incoming Wisconsin OL Ryan Cory (though Cory was pulling from the opposite side of the line and the two didn't touch each other), a sack speed rushing right past incoming Navy OL James Cardinali, a tackle for loss against Cory where this time Cory again came pulling from the other side of the line but fully plowed his shoulder into Vaccarello, who fought through it to be part of the gang tackle (this may have been my favorite play....if I had concerns from the sophomore highlights of Vaccarello banging, this play is a nice rejoinder, coupled with the run defense play against Zafir Stewart I mentioned above), multiple hurries against Cardinali, and also had a receiving touchdown. Neither Cory nor Cardinali posted highlights from the game. The playoff game against Cathedral Prep was particularly interested because it was a showdown with incoming Pitt OL Jiavani Cooley. Cooley didn't post clips from the game but Vaccarello posted plenty, including a tackle of loss of the QB coming around Cooley's side (though Cooley blocked inside so it wasn't a real matchup), a great highlight of Vaccarello doing a kind of stutter step/swim move to get on Cooley's inside and then backside chase the fleeing QB across the field until the eventual sack, three more tackles for loss against Cooley (two again being inside moves, one a hop past the slower big guy and the other a spin move, and then setting and getting around the edge on an outside run), and a pass defended batting a ball after dropping in coverage. The clips against Cooley are worth checking out - Cathedral Prep is the team in all black with a bit of orange on the helmet and Cooley is the right tackle #50. Cooley was the composite #1137 player in the country, so somewhat fringe for ACC, but this was domination.
It's hard for me not to be a sucker for big production. Being a football prospect is about playing football and this guy is really good at it, at least at the high school level. I'm really troubled by the offers and especially that he's camped and visited at so many decent programs without getting offers, and don't think we can just dismiss that. A lot of people have watched him without being convinced. But these are nice highlights. And I especially like the overriding thing that comes through - he is productive no matter who he is playing against. I came into this exercise expecting that once he played Pine-Richland, Cathedral Prep, and especially Imhotep Charter he would go relatively quiet. That is very common at all levels of football, for somebody to be least productive against the best opponents. Nope. He kind of did the same thing every game, affecting the game in pass rush and run defense and making more than a handful of tackles. I am bummed we don't have full Maxpreps stats to enable a game log but if we did I bet we might see 10+ games with a sack. This high level of production is what I always want to see in linebackers. None of these are an exact comparison but there are shades of Thomas Keiser (the last time we got a player from this league), Chase Thomas, and Clinton Snyder, and I would be thrilled to get anything approaching any of those guys. We once had defensive coaches who could get a lot out of tweeners, if that is what is suppressing the offers and recruiting service acclaim, and hopefully we can again.
RE: Class of 2025 - BostonCard - 04-25-2024
https://x.com/stanfordrivals/status/1783706166151032945?s=46
RE: Class of 2025 - Jamesy - 04-25-2024
(04-25-2024, 10:14 PM)BostonCard Wrote: https://x.com/stanfordrivals/status/1783706166151032945?s=46A 0-star recruit?
RE: Class of 2025 - BobK - 04-26-2024
3 star
RE: Class of 2025 - JohnR34231 - 04-26-2024
247 Sports hasn't ranked him yet. His offers are mostly from Ivy League schools and Service Academies, but he does have an offer from BC and Duke.