RCS St. Louis: What to watch

The ninth stop of the Rivals Camp Series Presented by Under Armour will take place on Sunday in the St. Louis area, at O'Fallon High School. Here are some of the storylines we'll be tracking.

1. Depth at DB

Gentry Bonds

Arguably the deepest position group headed to St. Louis this weekend is defensive back, which is led by a trio of four-stars from Tennessee in Memphis Whitehaven's Donte' Vaughn, LaVergne 2017 athlete Maleik Gray and Murfreesboro Riverdale 2017 cornerback Gentry Bonds.

The strength of the position, however, is in its depth and a total of 10 three-stars will be joining Vaughn, Gray and Bonds at the position, including Northwestern commit Roderick Campbell, Notre Dame commit Julian Love, Kentucky commit Davonte Robinson and Louisville commit Rodjay Burns.

The group is particular deep at safety, with uncommitted prospects such as Olathe (Kan.) North's Isaiah Simmons and Palatine (Ill.) Fremd's Kenney Lyke among the notable names. Lyke and Simmons both check in taller than 6-foot-2 and bring great range to the position, which will be useful against a group of tall and powerful wide receivers that will include DeKaylin Metcalf, the No. 23 player in the 2016 class.

2. Protecting home turf

Toks Akinribade

When the Rivals Camps last made a stop at O'Fallon High, one of the Panthers' own took home a position MVP award. Then four-star defensive end DeWayne Hendrix - who recently made news with a transfer from Tennessee to Pittsburgh - beat out a deep group of defensive linemen to keep one of the position awards at home.

Another O'Fallon four-star has a chance to do that again this weekend.

Rivals250 running back Kentrail Moran, an Illinois commit, certainly will not be keen on another running back coming to his home stadium and taking position MVP honors, so we are expecting a big performance from the class of 2016's No. 208 player. Moran has the skill set to excel in a camp setting, though he will face plenty of competition for the award.

Among the more highly ranked prospects who will be challenging Moran is Memphis four-star 2017 running back Cordarrian Richardson. He will also get plenty of competition from Brownsburg, Ind., three-star Toks Akinribade, who has had an outstanding off-season that includes running a 4.3 range 40-yard dash at a combine in February.

3. Phenom freshmen

Justin Oden

While the class of 2018 is not even finished with the freshman year of high school, college coaches looking to get ahead are already making offers to prospects in that class. Several 2018 prospects with offers from Power Five schools will be in St. Louis this weekend for the Rivals Camp.

Probably the most well-known of the 2018 prospects who will be camping on Sunday is Memphis (Tenn.) Harding Academy offensive lineman Will Lawrence. The 6-foot-4, 280-pound Lawrence has an offer list that has surpassed two dozen schools, including some of the biggest in the country.

Other 2018 prospects with offers headed to St. Louis on Sunday include Columbia (Tenn.) Spring Hill athlete Justin Oden, Lebanon (Tenn.) Friendship Academy safety Mike Jones Jr., Chicago (Ill.) Mt. Carmel athlete Houston Griffith and Louisville (Ky.) DuPont Manual cornerback Jairus Brents.

4. Defensive line variety

Defensive line is another deep position group headed to St. Louis this weekend, and the reason is a collection of big, run-stuffing defensive tackles. Three-star Mike Panasiuk is headed down from the Chicago area to compete and the 6-foot-4, 275-pounder will be joined up front by fellow three-stars Derek Dorsey, a Louisville commit from Kentucky, 6-foot-3, 280-pound Jeremy Darvin from Nashville, 6-foot, 327-pound Michael Perry of Memphis and class of 2017 three-star Ben Hutch, also of Nashville.

There will be a collection of athletic, pass-rushing defensive ends lining up on Sunday as well, headlined by Wichita (Kan.) East's Xavier Kelly - one of the hottest prospects on the recruiting trail this spring - and 6-foot-5, 210-pound Omaha (Neb.) South's Noah Fant. Hazelwood (Mo.) West three-star James Jennette is a sleeper to watch, as he has the athleticism and quickness that should show well in this setting.

5. Rivals100 2017 Watch List is represented

Isaiah Robertson

Four prospects who were listed in the Rivals100 to Watch for the class of 2017 in the winter will be in O'Fallon on Sunday. Gray, the four-star athlete from Tennessee, is part of that deep defensive back group, but he will be going against a pair of Rivals100 prospects from that 2017 class in Naperville (Ill.) Neuqua Valley's Isaiah Robertson and East St. Louis, Ill., standout Jeff Thomas.

A fourth Rivals100 member from that 2017 class will be putting the ball in the air on Sunday, and that is Brownsburg, Ind., quarterback Hunter Johnson. The 6-foot-2, 187-pound Johnson has already had a strong off-season at several 7-on-7 tournaments and camps. He holds an extensive offer list of 16 schools at this early stage of the recruiting process.

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