Takeaways from the Rivals adizero Combine in Houston
HOUSTON - The sixth of 14 nationwide Rivals adizero Combine events took place Saturday at CE King High School, with about 1,500 athletes turning out to compete.
After all of the performances, several players earned a spot in Sunday’s Rivals 3 Stripe Camp Series presented by adidas event. Here’s the rundown of the players who earned their way into the camp.
The first combine invite of the day was Louisiana product Kyle Maxwell. The 2019 athlete holds offers from Memphis and Tulane, but Tennessee could be the next team interested after Tigers wide receivers coach David Johnson made the move to Knoxville to join the Volunteers staff. Maxwell said that he hopes that relationship will lead to his first SEC offer.
“Coach [Johnson] is the one that offered me and he’s out at Tennessee now,” Maxwell said. “He’s from Louisiana, he’s almost like a father figure. He knows what we go through in Louisiana, and I like how he talks to me and treats me. He treats me with respect.”
Otherwise, he said that he has been in contact with Kentucky, Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe, but has a good relationship with the Tulane staff and he has an open invitation to return to campus.
“Me and Coach (Wesley) Fritz are cool, he invited me out for visits and junior days,” he said. “I really don’t know when I can get out there again, but everything is good with them.”
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Houston-Strake Jesuit linebacker Jett Bush has a chance to continue making a strong impression this weekend after getting off to a strong start on Saturday. He earned an invitation after posting strong times and measurements at each event. He started his football career as a quarterback but switched to linebacker last season and totaled over 125 tackles and had six sacks. So far this spring, he’s taken junior day visits to Houston and North Texas.
“I was really impressed with both schools’ junior days,” he said. “Especially Houston; they have everything I want in the facilities and they really have something special going on there. North Texas also has something special, and I really like the coaches.”
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One of Houston’s most popular names early in the camp season has been Jermarques Bailey. After showing up on Saturday and looking more the part of a dominating lineman than most others at his position, he performed well in all the physical tests and punched his ticket for Sunday. In addition to Texas A&M and Penn showing interest in him this spring, he’s taken a recent visit to Baylor and is anticipating making more visits in the coming weeks.
“My old head coach, Coach (Joey) McGuire, he invited me to the first spring practice and it was good,” he said. “There was a lot of energy, a lot of work, and just looking around it was really great. I had a chance to talk to the head coach and the O-line coach, they showed me the new facilities and it was a great experience.”
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Katy-Tompkins 2020 running back George Benyeogor will make his return on Sunday after putting up scat-back numbers in a power-back’s frame. He missed most of his sophomore season with a separated shoulder in 2017, but is part of an exciting young core of players that is expected to lead the program to more positive results this fall. He recently took a visit to Arkansas, and said that he’s ready to see some more nearby options before the end of spring.
“It was fun. Their campus was nice, they have some good running backs and a good line,” he said. “I talked to one of the defensive coaches because he recruits our area and he said that he’ll be keeping track of me. Coming up, I’d like to focus on some of the in-state schools like Texas, (Texas) A&M, UNT and Texas State, because they’re so close and I can just stop in.”
The state of Louisiana was well-represented at the event, and Class of 2019 athlete Dajohn Richard earned his invite after clocking a 4.3 second 40-yard dash. The versatile athlete has offers from FCS programs Southeastern and Howard and was planning to stop by Houston while in the area. The Cougars are among the programs showing interest, along with Texas A&M. Richard has plans to attend several school camps during the spring and summer.
BEST OF THE REST
Other invites included: 2021 Houston Jersey Village cornerback Caleb Weaver, 2020 Missouri City (Texas) Thurgood Marshall WR Alontai Brewer, 2019 Manvel (Texas) guard Layden Robinson, 2019 Houston defensive tackle Thomathon Good, Houston linebacker Jamie Broussard, Houston wide receiver Trenton Waggoner, Houston quarterback Zack Daniel, Houston safety Myles Heard, Houston linebacker Ezrah Thibodeaux and Houston LB/DE Felix Etugbo.