Midwest Spotlight: Five prospects in the headlines
The high school football season has already kicked off in some Midwest states, while others will take the field for their season openers this weekend. As we head into the 2017 prep schedule, here are five prospects from the region who will be in the spotlight.
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The Midwest’s only five-star in the 2018 class has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the Rivals100, but concerns about his weight and ability to move at nearly 350 pounds dropped him out of the top 10. We know that Carman is going to play with a competitive drive matched by few others, but does he have the discipline to stay in peak physical shape and keep pushing the upper boundaries of his talent ceiling? If he does, a run back toward the top of the class rankings could be in store. Carman is planning taking official visits to Florida State, Wisconsin, USC, Clemson and Ohio State.
Whereas one of the questions with Carman is where he fits in the five-star category, the question with Walker is whether he deserves to be in the five-star conversation. The longtime Oklahoma commit is a prospect we have debated for five-stars over the last several updates, and the answer to this point is we want to see those five-star flashes more consistently. This season, Walker has a chance to do just that. Will he show the dominance we expect from a five-star, or does he ride the roller coaster with performance peaks and valleys we have seen from him in the past?
The buzz on Harrison reached a crescendo this offseason when he posted ridiculous testing numbers at 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds that included a 4.6 40-yard dash. The measurables are unquestionable, and he starts off in the early top 10 for the 2019 class. Can Harrison translate all that talent to the football field, though? A player of his size and skill set should be dominating high school football fields as a junior. If he can do that this fall, he will get the bump to five-star status.
Whereas defensive line looks to be a position of strength in the Midwest for 2019, the talent pool at the quarterback position is low for the second straight year. Just one Midwest quarterback earned four-star status in the first Rivals 250, but Iowa native Max Duggan could make it two with a strong junior campaign. The 6-foot-2, 180-pounder starts on the cusp of four-star status with a 5.7 Rivals Rating and the No. 8 spot in the pro-style quarterback rankings. The 6-foot-2 listed height may be high, and he lacks ideal size for the position, but Duggan shows the moxie needed to have success at the college level.
When we first rated the 2018 class, McCall was on the cusp of five-star status. He has consistently dropped since, though, as his progression has failed to match expectations. Early in his prep career he played with an edge, but that edge has been absent in our more recent evaluations. The Kentucky commit needs to develop a sense of urgency and play with greater intensity because he has a freakish combination of strength and athleticism. This senior season is when McCall needs to pull it all together and make those big strides we expected from him based on early evaluations.
