Simmons: Stock up for five 2019 prospects
SIMMONS: Who will strike next in Alabama-Auburn recruiting wars?
Rivals will be updating the class of 2019 rankings in the near future. After getting the opportunity to scout players in person at the Rivals 3 Stripe Camps presented by adidas, spring practices, school workouts and 7-on-7 tournaments, here are five players from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi that you can expect to make significant moves.
Many wondered who would emerge as the top 2019 QB in Georgia with guys like Jake Fromm and Davis Mills headlining the 2017 class, then Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields being the top two prospects nationally in the 2018 class.
One has started to make that move and it is Zach Calzada. The pro-style signal caller has one of the strongest arms in his region and he is off to a great start in 2018. He has added offer from Minnesota, NC State Northwestern, Pittsburgh and West Virginia over the past month and he will add more. Georgia and Penn State watched him throw this week and he is a quarterback you will hear a lot more about in the coming months.
Bryton Constantin is a linebacker who shined at the Rivals 3 Stripe Camp in Mobile and he was a pretty easy choice for the Linebacker MVP that day. When you watch his tape and put what he did in Mobile together, he is one that makes a strong case to move up the rankings.
Constantin recently committed to the Clemson Tigers and he looks to be a great fit in their defense. He plays well in space and he has great instincts on the second level.
Where will Christian Harris play? That is a very good question. Is he a wide receiver? Is he a linebacker? He played a lot of cornerback in 2017, but he won’t end up there on the next level.
What we know is, he is a very good football player. Harris loves to compete and he is physical between the lines. He is thought to be an Alabama lean, a school he has visited multiple times in 2018 with Georgia, LSU, Texas and Texas A&M among others very much in the mix.
A wide receiver that really helped his stock at the Rivals 3 stripe camp in Mobile is Jonathan Mingo of Brandon (Miss.). It was rainy, wet and definitely not ideal conditions for a skill position prospect, but he ran great routes, he displayed strong hands and he showed good quickness. Georgia and Notre Dame have offered recently and he holds over a dozen offers. Ole Miss, an in-state school is the leader at this time and he will likely make his decision by the start of his senior season.
George Pickens is a Rivals250 prospect, but the long receiver out of Hoover (Ala.) has out-played his ranking this spring. He is a nightmare match-up on the outside and when it comes to jump-balls — forget about it.
The Auburn commit is still planning to take visits, but he looks to be pretty solid to the Tigers. Florida State and Georgia are schools other than Auburn he has visited in 2018 and Michigan is a school he’s said that he would like to visit. The four-star talent is the No. 24 receiver in the country, but it is hard to see 23 better than him.
