Student Sports Elite 11 Day Three

Today's workout saw the usual suspects, Ben Olson, Trent Edwards and Tyler Palko all have huge days again but the biggest jump up was made by Texan Vincent Young. Young has shown more improvement from day 1 to day 3 than any other quarterback at the camp.

Young is starting to come into his own not just as a quarterback, but how he interacts with the other 11 signal callers. The first day and a half of the camp, Young probably didn't say more than 10 words to anybody. He just kind of kept to himself and went about his own business.

Even during the workouts when the other quarterbacks would horse around with each other and knock the ball out of each others arms, Young never cracked a smile or joined in on the razzing.

That changed last night when after an hour of film study and more chalk talk, the players watched each others highlite tapes. Young's tape wowed the other players and soon everyone was commenting to him about how good he was, how strong his arm was, how fast he was, etc.

At this morning's workout, there was a dramatic difference in how much more comfortable Young looked on the field. He was relaxed and brimming with confidence. Physically, Young has as much upside as anyone, but as he starts to add more to the package in terms of getting his mechanics down and being able to read defenses better, the skys the limit.

Young wasn't the only quarterback showing huge improvements. Troy Smith, Gavin Dickey and Matt Gutierrez also had very good workouts. Smith threw the ball great and has a very good understanding of the game. He's a quick decision maker, reads things very well and then has the arm to make all the throws.

Dickey is definitely in the upper half of the quarterbacks. It's not just his feet from an athletic standpoint but how he uses them. Dickey is able to set and throw very quickly and on balance and the ball just explodes out of his arm. He's been well coached at Lincoln and has put aside any talk that he's an athlete, not a quarterback. He's been making great progress and will continue to get better since his work ethic and desire to be the best is so high.

Gutierrez threw the ball with more zip on his passes than the previous workouts. He's still short arming some of his passes so he doesn't put so much whip on his wrist, but his arm strength is coming back and so is his accuracy.

Justin Zwick also made nice strides and threw the ball better this morning than in the previous two workouts. He was obviously motivated by his brother Jared who came out to Southern California with him and took part in some of the drills today. Jared played quarterback at Yooungstown State the past four years for Jim Tressel, the new Ohio State head coach and the coach Justin will be playing for two years from now.

Drew Stanton continues to show big time courage but his ankle is very swollen and not allowing him to throw the ball like he's used to. The Harrison quarterback still made some great throws and has one of the most accurate arms of any of the campers. Stanton also put to rest any more talk of him transferring back to Lake Oswego (Ore.) for his senior year saying he's 100% for sure he's staying in Michigan. After returning from Michigan State's football camp last week, Stanton also seems to be favoring the Spartans over his other two favorites, Oregon and UCLA.

Drew Olson is Mr. Personality of the group. He's always good for a quick one liner and his sense of humor has kept all the quarterbacks on their toes. Like the other signal callers, Olson is improving in all facets and was especially impressive throwing on the run. The likeable Olson is very smart on the field, makes great decisions with ball and has that quick release needed for college ball.

Ryan O'Hara is really coming on strong and has amazed the other quarterbacks with how quick his feet are on a 6-6 frame. O'Hara needs to fill out as he's still very skinny, but his arm is explosive and he was easily the best of the group today during the chalk talks. One of the biggest benefits to the camp is not just the on the field work but the classroom work as well.

After a two hour workout, the quarterbacks head to the classroom to go over different types of coverages and what plays will work best to beat those coverages. The college counselors, Kurt Kittner (Illinois), David Carr (Fresno State), Carson Palmer (USC), Rohan Davey (LSU) and J.T O'Sullivan (UC Davis) will draw up a defense and then it's on the high school kids to try and figure what the defense is (man, two deep zone, three deep zone, etc) and how best to beat it.

Most of the time, the high school quarterbacks are paralyzed for obvious reasons. They're not used to seeing very complicated defenses and therefore don't know how to beat a coverage they've never seen. O'Hara was the one guy who was on the money all day today identifying what coverage was drawn up and then knew exactly how to beat it.

Anthony Martinez was throwing with a lot more velocity today as he was becoming more comfortable with what he was reading and therefore was able to just drop and throw rather than thinking too much. Martinez has a very live arm but showed his accuracy today to go with it. He's very athletic for a big quarterback and is one of the best two sport athletes in the country. Martinez has a 92 MPH fastball and participated in the Team One Showcase in Arizona a few weeks ago and will be back in Long Beach next week for the Area Code Games.

Before signing off, we have to mention the player with perhaps more upside than any other quarterbacks in the group. John David Booty from Evangel Christian (La.) will just be a sophomore next year, but his arm is as strong and accurate already as any of the quarterbacks including the college counselors.

Booty is one of four underclassmen acting as ball boys at the camp. Along with Booty, there's Tom Grady from Edison (Calif.), Jamarcus Russell Mobile (Ala.) . The ball boys actually are workers at the camp and their duties include filling up water and gatorade cups, carrying tables and bags and basically making sure everything is set up for the workouts.

The ball boys also get to workout and throw and Booty has been more than a little impressive. Fox Sports Analyst Tom Ramsey came by the workout today and immediately asked, 'who's that guy,' in reference to Booty. 'He has dynamite in that elbow,' Ramsey went on to say and everyone including the other quarterbacks agreed. It's not a stretch to say in two years, Booty could be the prospect in the country regardless of position.