Not only is there top tier talent but there is depth, one college coach told a Houston area coach that there are 41 Division one quarterbacks in Texas this season. Our count is close to that, of course that number does not include the 1-AA quarterbacks in the state. So depth and top tier talent is the hallmark of this quarterbacks class.
In the early recruiting two of the top four are committed already in Russell Shepard from Cy Ridge, committed to LSU, and Garrett Gilbert from Lake Travis who committed to Texas. With the number nine quarterback in the state committed to TCU in Casey Pachall, and another quarterback/athlete committed to Miami (Fla) in A.J. Highsmith, the spots for the quarterbacks are filling up.
In the past few months what everyone thought was going to happen, the rest of the quarterbacks committing, did not. The reason is that the next three cornerstone quarterbacks are still looking at multiple schools. In this article we will look at the Big Three uncommitted quarterbacks and what are their possibilities and give our opinion on what might happen.
THE BIG THREE UNCOMMITTED
3. Cody Green (Dayton)- 6'4 220 4.70-
The Leaders- Texas A&M and Nebraska
In the race- Boston College, Kansas State, Purdue and Mississippi State
Dark horses- Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas Tech and Houston
Type of quarterback- Drop back passer who can run
Green is a dream player, tall, strong armed, smart, leadership skills, can make all the throws and can burn the other team running the ball if needed. Right now two teams are the leaders with Texas A&M and Nebraska getting the biggest interest from Cody. Green wants to visit his other favorites during the summer before making a decision. He will be an early grad and will enroll in January.
If you look at his teams they are mostly relatively close with Boston College and Purdue being the outliers. A&M is in state, while Nebraska, KSU and Mississippi State relatively close. From our conversations with Cody he would like to stay decently close to home, he is very close to his mom so that could be a factor on where he goes.
Another big factor is that he wants to major in Agricultural Science which favors Texas A&M, Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Mississippi State. The teams in the state of Texas are going to be a major factor here with all the in state teams offering except for Texas.
Practically every team in the state is trying their best to get into the ball game for Green. One of the hometown schools, The University of Houston, is trying to get in the game with a full court press on Green and them using all the cards in their deck to try to get his interest. Like the other teams recruiting him they think he is a difference maker and are looking to make him the face of their recrutiing class. He is such a good athlete that he has several offers as a wide receiver.
Best guess right now is A&M is the favorite at this point followed by Nebraska. with him visiting several schools in the summer plus several schools going all out for him things could change. However, the sooner the decision the better for the front runner.
13. Ryan Mossakowski (Frisco Centennial)- 6'4 203 4.80
The Leaders- wide open
In the Race- Texas A&M, Alabama, Auburn, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebarska and a whole bunch more
Type of quarterback- Pocket passer in the spread offense
Favorite- of the three is the one that is truly wide open with no real favorite established.
Of the three big name uncommitted quarterbacks that we talk about in this article, Mossakowski is the one truly wide open quarterback. Trying to figure out which way he might go is tough to do because he has been very carefull not to show his hand.
Like Green he is another player that rates high on the character scale, he is tall, has a good arm, has a lot of smarts and can make any pass you want. He is still growing into his skill set so he has room to get better. He has a huge list of schools he wants to visit and based on all conversations he won't be ready for a decision till after the football season.
He is visiting a lot of camps and different colleges this summer so there is no decision coming soon.
31. Jacob Karam (Friendswood)- 6'2 202 4.60
The Leaders- Houston, Missouri, Arizona
In the Race- Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Utah and Rice
Darkhorse- Rice
Type of quarterback- passing quarterback
Like the other two, he rates high on the character scale and is someone you can build a passing based offense around. Mossakowski and Karam come from pass first offenses so the learning curve would be shorter with them on adapting to the same type of offense. He is a very sharp passer and makes good reads in the pocket. He is not as adept a runner as Cody Green but is more developed as a passer. Right now of the three he is probably the most advanced and most ready to step into a college program and start in a heavy passing offense.
As for the schools of choice he is more in-line with Cody Green in that he would like to stay relatively close to home. Unlike Green his college favorites pretty much reflect that accross the board. The one outlier would be Utah while Green had a couple of outliers.
Jacob has great grades also as you can see from his offers from Rice and Stanford. For a timeline he is looking at committing by the end of the summer. He has told us that he is looking for a program that is up and coming, how comfortable he feels with the staff and being close to home. Most of the teams on his list fill this bill thus the possibilities for him are numerous. He did define a clear top three when we talked to him and that was Houston, Missouri and Arizona.
If he had to make a decision right now my feeling is that the University of Houston would be the choice. Karam likes Coach Sumlin and his staff and feels that UH is definately going to make some noise soon. Of course the usual caveats, he still has schools to visit and what is true today can change tomorrow in recruiting.
ANALYSIS: Now to the meat of this article. These three have put a hold on the recruitment of quarterbacks in the rest of the state. With in-state schools such as Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas Tech, Rice, and Houston all hoping to land one of the big three and out-of-state schools such as Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Kansas State, and so on also in the chase. Basically you have all of the schools recruiting Texas heavily trying to land one of the big three uncommitted and putting on hold the chase for other quarterback prospects. Thus guys like Drew Allen (Alamo Heights) and Bryce Petty (Midlothian) have a shocking low number of offers.
If and when one of the big three drop look for Allen and Petty to pick up considerable action from those schools who missed out on that player who committed. If Cody Green or Jacob Karam pick an in-state school then it could start a serious run on quarterbacks, however a Mossakowski commit would not since he is not really leaning one way or another and is looking a lot to out of state teams.
Now where it gets interesting is if Karam and Green decide to go out of state, the in-state schools are going to have to go after the next guys on the board which benefits Allen, Petty and Kolby Gray. The real run on quarterbacks could start if both Karam and Green decide at in-state schools. That would mean that offers go out to the next guys but the number of schools with available quarterback slots are diminished. Thus if a quarterback wanted to stay in state they had better jump at the offer or they will have no choice but to choose an out of state school.
This season is a real boon to the image of the state of Texas as makers of quarterbacks. Coaching legends who started the 7 on 7's such as Les Koenning, Dick Olin, Mike Sneed, Tim Teykl, Don Byrd, Wayne Hooks, Bob Shipley and Scott Smith, to name some, created the push to develop quarterbacks in the state and it has paid off. One division one school feels that there are 41 division one quarterbacks in Texas and we feel there are a similar number of d1 quarterbacks. That number is astounding for one state to produce that type of quarterback crop plus the number of high tier quarterbacks as this class has.