UA All-America Game: Winners and losers

RELATED: Ranking the QBs at the UA All-America Game

ORLANDO, Fla. – Under Armour All-America Week is official in the rearview, as a week of practice culminated with Thursday night’s 23-21 win for the Deion Sanders-coached Team Highlight in the nationally televised event. And while the final score is irrelevant to most, the week that was better for some than it was for others. Today Rivals.com takes a look at the winners and losers from the last few days in Orlando.

THREE-STAR RB MAURICE WASHINGTON

Washington, a three-star running back, tweeted out his displeasure with Rivals.com and his ranking the night before the game. The final sentence of the tweet read “I’ll just show y’all tomorrow.” And, well, Washington did just that. The uncommitted prospect scored two touchdowns in the first quarter of Thursday’s game and became the first player in the history of the event to score three times. He also returned a kickoff 63 yards to start the second half. Washington finished the night with 159 all-purpose yards and an MVP award. Point taken.

PENN STATE

Nittany Lions wide receiver signee Justin Shorter had one of the most impressive weeks of practice of any player on either roster. The 6-foot-4 prospect was impressive during every workout and seemed to get better as the cold, rainy weekly pushed forward. Meanwhile, fellow signee PJ Mustipher stood out all week and turned in a near-dominant Monday workout. Despite fumbling on the opening drive of the game, Ricky Slade also made his future college proud with his weeklong performance in practice. The in-game commitment of Jayson Oweh was also a nice bonus. Most things came up Penn State this week.

MIAMI

Hurricanes offensive line signee Delone Scaife continues to impressive. And despite the fact that he lacks ideal length, the results are impossible to debate. Scaife was solid all week, but was particularly impressive on day two, where he won nearly every one-on-one rep he took. Miami tight end signee Brevin Jordan also turned in a few noteworthy performances highlighted by a pair of circus catches that showcased his athleticism. Jordan, who had a game-high 71 receiving yards in Thursday’s game, has impressive size to go with incredibly sure hands.

OHIO STATE

Columbus-bound running back Brian Snead made as many catches as any running back during practices and his highlights included a one-handed grab on a ball thrown behind him. He turned in a decent performance in Thursday’s game, but when viewed as a whole his stay in Orlando was impressive. Offensive lineman Matt Jones shined at center this week after an uneven performance on day one gave way to an impressive run that saw him seemingly get better with each passing hour. Gameday wasn’t half bad for the Buckeye, either as commit Sevyn Banks recovered a fumble and the program landed a verbal commitment from Tyreke Smith, who announced in the first half.

THE QUARTERBACK POSITION

The issues facing the quarterbacks at the event were widespread. First off, the freezing and sometimes-wet weather wasn’t conducive to crisp passes or solid grips. Mistakes were prevalent. The headliner, Florida signee Emory Jones was spotty at best in workouts and went 1 for 3 in the game itself. Jones’ uneven week was a departure from the norm for the usually impressive signal caller and it certainly wasn’t just him that struggled. Stanford-bound Jack West never quite got in a rhythm and was maybe the most inconsistent of the group missing often in workouts and going 4-of-15 on gameday. Auburn-bound prospect Joey Gatewood took home game MVP honors and turned in the best performance of the bunch. That may not be saying much considering how the week went, but the fact that he was miles more consistent than his peers should be noted. The best in-game performance came from Gatewood had a solid week of practice and scored two touchdowns (one rushing and one passing) in the game.

TENNESSEE

Tennessee was represented by punter Paxton Brooks and athlete Alontae Taylor, who worked out at wide receiver. There’s good news and bad news about Taylor, as he was able to get open with regularity but dropped a number of said open looks. Taylor was by no means a liability for his team, but it certainly wasn’t his best week either. Tennessee’s place on this list is also aided by the fact that it lacked representation at the event, which usually houses a slew of players committed to or considering the Vols.

LSU

LSU was underrepresented in this year’s game and only had two players invited to attended. One of those players five-star wide receiver Terrace Marshall missed the game because of injury. The Tiger pledge that did show up, Cole Smith, struggled all week. He was overpowered relatively easily by elite prospects and didn’t move quickly enough to make up for his lack of size. Smith will need to add considerable size before being ready to produce at LSU.