California gold mine for QBs

Every year colleges from coast-to-coast come to the Golden State to mine for football talent and turn into California gold. One position in particular has enamored California in the minds of college coaches is the all important quarterback position.

What does national champion Miami and national powers Florida State and Tennessee have in common?

All three teams have quarterbacks from the Golden State. Miami has had luck before from the Golden State Gino Torretta, Scott Covington, current starter Ken Dorsey and incoming freshman Marc Gullion all come from the Golden State. Dorsey and Gullion hail from the same program Orinda (Calif.) Miramonte.

Could lightning strike twice? Cane fans hope so.

Once again California has field generals that will attract college coaches in droves. Listed in alphabetical order are Dennis Dixon, Tommy Grady, Sam Kellar, Richard Kovalcheck, and Kyle Wright. All five of these talented signal callers will be highly recruited on national basis.

Let’s take a closer look these five fine players.

Dixon comes from San Leandro, Calif., and has made quite reputation for himself as a leader and a winner.

In 25 career games, Dennis has only lost two games and both losses were to Concord (Calif.) DeLaSalle. DeLaSalle hasn’t lost a football game in over 120 games.

For his career Dixon has completed 148 passes out of 242 attempts for 3,413 yards, 47 touchodwns and 13 interceptions. His career, Dennis has completed 61 percent of his passes. Dixon is hearing from UCLA, USC, Oregon State and Washington are recruiting him. Look for the list of schools recruiting Dixon rise in May.

Grady is from Huntington Beach (Calif.) Edison and he stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 215 pounds.

He may be built like a tight end but make no mistake about it. Grady is the real deal as a quarterback and he will be one of the nation’s number one quarterback prospects. Grady burst onto the scene when he lit up a very talented Long Beach (Calif.) Poly team with a 300 passing yard performance giving Poly all they could handle in the Section 1 CIF championship game.

For his junior season Grady threw for 2,750 yards, 33 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions. Grady’s touchdown to interception ratio proves that he is an excellent decision maker.

Grady is keeping his options open but UCLA, USC, Washington - heck the entire Pac 10 is recruiting him. LSU, Tennessee, Wisconsin and many more are in the hunt.

Keller plays for San Ramon (Calif.) San Ramon Valley and stands 6-foot-4, weighs 210 pounds. Keller is one of the premier quarterbacks on the west coast. Sam completed 178 passes out of 275 attempts for 2,650 yards and 28 touchdowns while completing 65 percent of his passes. Another impressive stat that Keller has is – he only threw four interceptions in his 275 attempts. Sam is very poised in the pocket, has good feet and pocket awareness.

He has already heard from just about everybody and Sam’s early list of eight includes, Stanford, Notre Dame, Michigan, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, USC, ASU and Kansas State.

Kovalcheck hails from San Diego (Calif.) St. Augustine and stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 212 pounds. Richard threw for 2,565 yards, with 30 touchdowns and only seven picks as a sophomore.

Kovalcheck only played seven games his junior season due to an injury. He was on his way to an outstanding season throwing for 1,922 yards, 21 touchdowns and four interceptions. On film evaluation, Kovalcheck can make all the throws with amazing touch and accuracy. Kovalcheck is an excellent technician. Richard is reportedly the No. 1 quarterback recruit for Colorado, Stanford, ASU, Texas A&M, Oregon and Washington.

Wright comes from Danville (Calif.) and plays for Monte Vista high school. He stands 6-foot-4 and weighs in at 195 pounds. Rivals have seen Wright on tape and Kyle is very polished and fundamentally sound.

His technique skills are highly developed and he has a sophisticated football mind. Wright also has an outstanding arm and very quick release, which makes him hard on defend.

Wright was super his junior season throwing for 3,010 yards, 29 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. UCLA and Stanford have offered with the entire Pac 10 also in hot pursuit. UCLA, Stanford, Miami, Tennessee and Washington are Wright’s early favorites.