Rivals QB Challenge Finals: Top performers
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Although he lost the tiebreaker to Allen, Brice came through with several
clutch throws in "Q-B-C," and forced Allen to raise his game. It does not always
look pretty when Brice throws -- his ball doesn't hold a spiral on most throws
--
but the end result is a very accurate football. He hit a pocket on three of the
final five stations, besting all other competitors in that round. One of the
final stations he did not hit, however, was the deep fade where he threw some of
his best passes. Brice's ball turns over perfectly and he made that throw with
proper trajectory.
3
QB
Sean Clifford (2017)
Cincinnati (Ohio) St. Xavier
Clifford was the leader after the first round, but did not finish as well as he
started and finished just outside the tie-breaker for the top spot. Throughout
the first round Clifford threw the ball with authority and carried himself with
a lot of confidence. The weight of being the leader looked to weigh heavy on
Clifford in the second round, though, and he was not throwing with the same
confidence as he did early on. Throughout the weekend Clifford showed
why he is a four-star prospect and has seen his offer list take off this spring.
4
QB
Fort Wayne (Ind.) Carroll
An argument can be made that, from beginning to end, Smith put together the most
consistently impressive performance at the Rivals Quarterback
Challenge Finals. What hurt him, however, was that while he
threw very few poor passes on the day, the 6-foot-3, 188-pound passer did not
make enough perfect passes that hit the pocket and scored additional points.
In fact, two passes that he did hit perfectly in the decision tree were taken
away due to not throwing to the proper target or double-hitching on his passes.
Smith threw the best-looking ball on the day, though, and had a very strong
showing.
5
QB
Sevier County, Tenn.
We noted after Saturday's event that Wallace had a chance to challenge for the
top spot if he had a consistent day and that is exactly what happened. The
Vanderbilt commit started off the event throwing a beautiful deep ball
in the fade throw and rolled through the first three stations before producing a
ball that was not well thrown. He slowed through the middle of the event before
rebounding toward the end. Outside of the deep ball, Wallace's next best showing
was in the hitch route where he hit the pocket on two out of three throws.
6
QB
Columbia (Tenn.) Spring Hill
Oden wins the comeback award after rebounding from a poor showing in the
preliminaries on Saturday and putting together a very solid effort on Sunday.
The 6-foot-5, 175-pound Louisville commit is a dual-threat quarterback
whose value is increased when he is able to run around and make plays with his
legs, but he snaps the ball of with good velocity. When he is in-sync -- like he
was Sunday -- Oden can move the ball around the field. His arm motion is long
and that leads to the inconsistency that creeps up, but nothing in his mechanics
is unfixable and Oden appears to have a bright future.
7
QB
Connor Neville (2017)
Wilsonville, Ore.
Neville was a popular pick among the analysts heading into the finals to come
out as the overall winner, but he never was able to build momentum. The
6-foot-1, 186-pound Neville's forte is the deep ball and when he did not hit the
pocket in that station during the first throw of the day he seemed to have
trouble bouncing back. One of the best parts about Neville's game is that his
motion is compact and easily repeatable. That produced a very accurate football
and one of the reasons he was considered a top contender, but Sunday was just
not his best performance.
8
QB
Bel Air (Md.) John Carroll
Rawlings' point total was pretty respectable at day's end, but he interspersed
some really good throws with a host of very average passes. It takes a little
while for Rawlings to get the ball out of his hand and he has a lot of moving
parts in his motion. His strength is the short to intermediate routes where he
is able to throttle back and throw a very catchable ball at the proper speed.
Rawlings also shows very good discipline and coachability. When the coach told
them to look off the safety on a seam throw, Rawlings did it to perfection while
others made little effort.
9
QB
Tate Martell (2017)
Las Vegas (Nev.) Bishop Gorman
Martell finished on a high note by throwing 65 yards to take the long pass title
in the final throw of the day. Despite being just 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds,
Martell can absolutely rifle the football. That was his undoing on Sunday,
though, as he was overthrowing the football and lost accuracy as a result. His
ball was not spinning as well as it was Saturday either and he just had a rough
all-around day from an accuracy standpoint. Not surprisingly, his strength was
in throwing the deep fade where he got the ball there easily.
10
QB
Houston (Texas) Reagan
There were highs and lows on the day for Johnson, and his final point total
reflected that inconsistency. The 6-foot, 202-pound rising senior needs a lot of
footwork development and he usually ends up with body parts moving in several
different directions, which affects both velocity and accuracy. There were
several stations during the day, however, when he put it all together and in
those instances showed the ability that won him the Dallas stop of the
Rivals
Quarterback Challenge.
11
QB
Braxton Burmeister (2017)
La Jolla (Calif.) Country Day
Similar to Johnson, Burmeister tends to have his feet and arm moving in
different directions and that led to an up and down day. There were certain
stations that he excelled in, though, and one was the deep ball. The 6-foot,
211-pounder's deep ball travels well and turns over perfectly. He did not hit
the deep fade target, but was always in the proper vicinity. Due to his
over-the-top throwing motion, Burmeister tends to underthrow the short and
intermediate passes where he is forced to throttle back.
12
QB
Danny Clark (2017)
Akron (Ohio) Hoban
The strength of Clark's game is his big arm, which can be at odds with throwing
an accurate football. At 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, Clark is a big-framed
quarterback and he has easy power. What he does not have at this stage -- and he
is just a rising junior -- is the ability to put the ball where he wants it with
consistency. He started off throwing the football all over the yard, but to his
credit rebounded toward the end of the first round and carried that over to the
second round, throwing several sets of passes that were on-target.
13
QB
Shon Mitchell (2017)
Chesapeake (Va.) Oscar Smith
When Mitchell was on he was right up there with the best throwers on the day.
The issue Sunday was his misses were really bad and he had more
negative point throws than any other passer on the day. The 5-foot-11, 181-pound
rising junior threw the ball with much better velocity on Sunday than he did on
Saturday and he had several impressive throws on the day. The inability to avoid
the big mistake, however, plagued him from start to finish and he was noticeably
frustrated as the day wore on.
14
QB
Gardena (Calif.) Junipero Serra
Tate apparently injured a finger on his throwing hand sometime before Sunday's
event and the effect on his performance was noticeable. He could not put any velocity on the
football opted out of the long toss throw at the end. His accuracy was also
affected, though he was still able to spin the ball well as he showed during
Saturday's preliminaries. The Arizona commit is listed as an athlete
and has the ability to play other positions, but whether he can succeed as a
college quarterback was a question we were not able to answer based solely on
Sunday's performance.
Josh Helmholdt
Midwest Recruiting Analyst
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