Army Bowl: Winners and losers

SAN ANTONIO — The U.S. Army All-American Bowl week provided an up-close look at a lot of the nation’s top high school players both on and off the field. After observing Media Day, four days of practice and Saturday’s game, where Clemson QB commit Hunter Johnson took home MVP honors during the East’s victory. Here is a look at the winners and losers from the week.

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The Crimson Tide only had two commits playing in this year’s game, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and running back Najee Harris, the no. 1 player in the country. By the end of the week, speculation was rampant that Harris may not be headed to Tuscaloosa after all, but as everyone found out on Sunday, he indeed stuck to his commitment. Harris may not have stole the show during the game the way he did at practice throughout the week, but there’s no reason to think from a talent perspective that he can’t be another plug-and-play star running back for the Tide. The buzz with the quarterbacks during the week wasn’t as great as some other position groups, but Tagovailoa just went about his business and had a steady week and worked well in limited time during the game.

The five-star quarterback didn’t participate for the East team after injuring his knee in the Georgia state championship game, but he likely won’t have to worry about that happening very much at Stanford. Five-star offensive tackle Walker Little was arguably the most dominant player at his position throughout the week, but the commitment of Foster Sarell during the game gives the Cardinal a pair of freshmen that could play right away and give Davis Mills stellar protection for years. Both tackles were strong in pass protection and are just mammoth bodies to push forward while run blocking. Wide receiver/tight end Colby Parkinson wasn’t one of the most talked-about players during the week, but was a consistent pass-catcher with a huge frame that should give Mills some added protection and a safety valve in the passing game down the road.

UCLA commit Jaelan Phillips was special during the week and into Saturday’s game, victimizing his own teammates during team scrimmages and flashing some impressive physical capabilities during one-on-one reps. Pockets were perpetually collapsed by Phillips and Jay Tufele, who was the most disruptive defensive tackle between both teams. Tufele’s partner on the interior, Marlon Tuipulotu, also had some impressive moments and the pair of Hunter Echols and Odua Isibor were pesky counterparts opposite to Phillips at defensive end during the week.

Coming off a 9-4 season, the Yellow Jackets enjoyed a good week in San Antoio. Georgia Tech kicker commit Justin Bulovas had one of the more impressive individual moments in the game with his 49-yard field goal in the third quarter. He likely would have made three during the game if it wasn’t for a dubious block in the fourth quarter when he was lined up for a 27-yard attempt. Tech fans also should be happy with the showing of linebacker Bruce Jordan-Swilling, who had four tackles in the game, and was a solid performer during the week of practice.

Huskers fans had high hopes to land at least two out of the trio of Darnay Holmes, Chuck Filiaga, and Jamire Calvin but struck out with all three. Calvin appeared the most likely of the three to choose Nebraska after praising the job head coach Mike Riley did offensively during his time in Corvallis, but in a surprise twist at the last moment chose the school Riley left behind rather than the one he moved on to. While many always expected Filiaga to commit to Michigan, Holmes had several fan bases buzzing about a possible commitment during the week, only to end up staying close to home after some last-minute discussions with his family.

TCU quarterback commit Shawn Robinson had a tough time during the week even just making simple throws consistently. As is traditionally the case during the week in San Antonio, there was some chill and gusts of wind to contend with, but Robinson’s passes often fluttered out of his hand on longer routes and were thrown into the turf on shorter routes. Occasionally he would rip off a pretty ball downfield, but even those ended in incompletions all too often as his vision and accuracy still isn’t where it needs to be at this point in his development. His struggles continued through the game with a couple of poor spots and between his passing and rushing totals finished with -5 net yards.

The reviews weren’t all bad for this bunch, but when Tedarrell Slaton has a better performance messing around at defensive tackle than at his actual position of offensive tackle, it’s time to call it a day. Although the consensus opinion is that Notre Dame commit Joshua Lugg had a good week, Josh Myers and Kendall Randolph struggled and the unit as a whole put quarterbacks Jake Fromm and Hunter Johnson in some troubling spots. Andrew Thomas and Netori Johnson had some positive moments, but the group’s full body of work was underwhelming.