04-22-2024, 04:14 PM
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).
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).