Elite 11 QB Report!

[chamrocck]

Being in Orange County, CA I had the fortunate opportunity to check out the Elite 11 QB camp as I went down to all the practices last few days. Saw most of Day 1, just some of Day 2, most of Day 3, and all of Day 4. Great camp with the Elite QB’s as well as college counselors which included current college QB’s Chase Daniel (Missouri), Mark Sanchez (USC), Colt Brennan (Hawaii), Chad Henne (Michigan), and Nate Longshore (Cal). Joe Montana’s boys were out there as well!

 

I have seen some of the online reporting and for the most part agree with the assessment of who looks to be tops. The top 5 which appear a cut above the rest are Blaine Gabbert, E.J. Manuel, Landry Jones, Dayne Crist, and Andrew Luck. The next tier appears to be Nick Crissman, Mike Glennon, Jacory Harris, Star Jackson, and Kyle Parker. The two that stood out the least to me were Sean Renfree and John Wienke. All the kids are good but wanted to try to give some idea of what I saw.

 

My notes on each QB are as follows:

 

Blaine Gabbert (Nebraska) – obviously by posting on HuskerBoard, I wanted to focus most closely on Blaine. No doubt Blaine has a really strong arm and appeared the strongest of the Elite QB’s. Good release, good spiral, and his ball comes in fast because of his pure strength. He throws a very good deep ball. Looks like the best physical make-up for any of the Elite QB’s in terms of his size (he should not be easy to bring down!). He is a big kid and is NFL prototype QB. On Day 3, he ran a race against E.J. Manuel, Jacory Harris, and John Wienke. He won impressively but some were laughing that he might have false started (if his start was not false than it was perfect!). He is competitive but also seems to have great fun…on Day 1 he was competitively joking with E.J. Manuel and throughout it seemed as if he was enjoying it all and that the other Elite QB’s took a liking to him. Appears to be a natural leader. I felt he could have been better on the accuracy. At the end of the practices, the QB’s run to various stations making various throws (short and long) at targets. You can see some tiring as they have to run the entire field multiple times throughout. After all compete, they take the top scores for like a final round…winner of the final round is that day’s Golden Gun…and gets to wear a golden yellow jersey. I think Blaine only made it to the final round on Day 2. When he misses the target, nearly everytime he missed high sailing the throw over the target. He would miss the shorter targets too often when others started to be very consistent hitting the shorter targets. On the shorter targets he would gun it over the target. This will be an area where he will need to improve. Or could be the reason we are recruiting a 6’7” basketball player to play tight end!

 

E.J. Manuel (Florida State) – “fluid” is the word that comes to mind watching him. He looks like he is doing things effortlessly but you could tell in the accuracy drills at the end he could tire and lose arm strength. Very crisp spiral passes in the short game that he whips out into the flat. Excellent, quick release. Throws on the run very well. I did not think he had as good a deep ball as others.

 

Landry Jones (Oklahoma) – looked solid throughout. Really starting scorching the accuracy on days 3 and 4. His arm strength looked good as well. Very consistent. I expect Gabbert and Landry to battle it out in some future big games!

 

Dayne Crist (Notre Dame) – very technically sound QB and seems solid in most all the throws. He had good accuracy, good arm strength, and a good release. Crist may not have the strongest arm (Gabbert), best release (Manuel), or best accuracy (arguably Jones or Luck), but he may be most complete at this point and does very well in all categories.

 

Andrew Luck (Stanford) – has a nice touch on the ball and throws excellent fade routes. Accurate with most the passes. Throws a catchable ball nearly everytime. Could improve with his passing on the run but he may be the most accurate out of the pocket.

 

Nick Crissman (UCLA) – the more I saw of him, the more I liked him. Very consistent and accurate in the short game. Appeared to have good arm strength and looked comfortable throwing out of the pocket making good reads.

 

Mike Glennon (NC State) – he is so tall and lanky that you have to watch him a lot as he just looks different from the other passers. Has a strong arm with good deep throws. He is so tall with long arm that his ball comes down on a lot of receivers. Throws an accurate ball but not as consistent as others listed above. Good pocket passer.

 

Jacory Harris (Miami) – very quick on his feet and can throw on the run. Appeared very raw at first but became more consistent throughout the camp. Can make most of the passes but will need to improve his arm strength and get better bulk.

 

Star Jackson (Uncommitted) – first watching him on Day 1 he seemed overmatched by the other passers but then put it all together to score very well in the accuracy contest for Day 1. He does throw some very good balls but did struggle with consistency…got the feel that he could be a streaky passer so will want to become more consistent with his throws. Quick on his feet and agile. On Day 3 there was a photo shoot at the end and as the recruits were all having fun for the camera he yelled “Go Bama and Roll Tide!”…so I will scoop everyone else here first…I think he will go to Alabama! (He is only elite recruit to have not committed thus far).

 

Kyle Parker (Clemson) – appeared small compared to the others but you get the sense he is a gutty player and he gets the job done making the difficult throws. Strong arm for being smaller and he puts everything into his passes and throws good balls that come in to the receiver quickly. Not as natural a passer as some of the others but can scramble and throw well on the run.

 

Sean Renfree (Georgia Tech) – seemed to improve his passing throughout the camp but not as consistent as others. Also seemed slower on his feet. Arm strength was decent but his spirals need to be crisper.

 

John Wienke (Michigan) – only left hander at the camp just did not show as polished as others. Decent accuracy in short to mid range passing. Needs to improve his deeper throws.

[Washusker]

Good stuff - great job.

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

Excellent breakdown!

[BigWillie]

By your report, I understand why Gabbert considers himself a gunslinger. By him missing high on his targets, it sounds like he was overthrowing, trying to show off his arm more than anything.