Clay offered Jonny Lester earlier this week. Plays for NW Christian in Spokane. Very raw, with a ton of upside. TE/DE candidate.https://twitter.com/JonnyLester22?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author
Man among boys
- Thread starter TrumpCoug
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This is what it looks like when Bigfoot plays small high school football. Walks out of the forest, onto the field and bodies fly everywhere.
I need to see way more than a couple twitter highlights. Color me somewhat skeptical - Class B is a long way from doing it week in and week out against Gonzaga Prep, CV, Coeur d'Alene, etc.
Does the kid play basketball? Need to see how he moves and his footwork. Joe Dahl could get up and down the court, guard outside and makes moves in the post. Jake Rodgers was the same way (though not as athletic as Dahl).
There are a gazillion 6'5" 250 pound guys these days. Does he have the frame to add on an additional 50+ pounds? Or is he Danny Mattingly and maxxed out by shooting his wad bulking up in high school? The kid has had one of the best in the area as his trainer.
Does the kid play basketball? Need to see how he moves and his footwork. Joe Dahl could get up and down the court, guard outside and makes moves in the post. Jake Rodgers was the same way (though not as athletic as Dahl).
There are a gazillion 6'5" 250 pound guys these days. Does he have the frame to add on an additional 50+ pounds? Or is he Danny Mattingly and maxxed out by shooting his wad bulking up in high school? The kid has had one of the best in the area as his trainer.
Hmmmmm... after watching his Hudl clips I only saw a bull rush and nothing more. Zero technique. Now I know at that level with his size a bull rush is all you need. However if he's being recruited for D he's definitely a project.
Certainly has the size and frame. Pretty raw, imo.
Certainly has the size and frame. Pretty raw, imo.
There aren’t many DL that show up as frosh with an arsenal of pass rush moves. Those you have to teach. You are looking for physical play, redirection, velocity of movement and “want to.”
This kid does what a Pac 12 prospect should do on a small high school field. Watch him, then watch the slug that went to Utah. He moves so much better than that kid. He hits so much harder. He has so much more confidence on the field. He jumps off the screen. He has an impact in the game.
No way. He is so far away from a guy like Travis Long or Chris Mastin coming out of high school, it's not even funny both in terms of 'want to' and skill level. Those guys BLEW up the highlight reels vs. top level competition and brought it every down.
He's playing against guys who 'might' (heavy emphasis on 'might') make a JV team in the GSL or Inland Empire League.
He's playing against guys who 'might' (heavy emphasis on 'might') make a JV team in the GSL or Inland Empire League.
40 years ago in high school I was taught the bull, rip, swim, spin and head slap (legal then).
If coaches aren't teaching at least a couple of those to a kid like that these days... well, they aren't a very good coach.
Does he need any of those moves? Or does throwing guys out of the way work pretty well for him?
Your coach did everything he could for you. It didn’t help hahahahahahaha
Rien Long broke backboards while being able to run the court. Also did pretty good in the shot put (footwork).
To play in the PAC12? Yea, I'm thinking it would help.
So you're saying don't teach a kid when he's young proper technique that will help him at the next level? Gotcha. Sounds reasonable.
No. That’s not what Im saying. Im saying he is having success doing what he is doing. His coach could be teaching him those techniques. The kid may not be using them. The coach says “fuc$ it. He is tossing guys around.”
Looks like not using those techniques is getting him to the Pac 12. So your comment about next level is wrong.
Yea, you're right of course Biggs. I should have said to see the field in the PAC12.
Like I said in my original post, he's raw with a lot of physical upside but right now he's a one trick pony.
Yes, seriously. The player appears a little slow and uncoordinated at this point. It also looks like all the other players are 5-8 140. The roster has had several walk-on players with good size who have never seen the field.
And my point is that he clearly doesn’t have to be anything more than a one trick pony at this point. So crucifying the kid because he hasn’t shown the technique you require to see is ridiculous. It wouldn’t be the first time a coach taught technique repeatedly and the kid didn’t use it. And still was successful.
In fact, there are guys that steam roll college football with one move.
That’s impressive in a way similar to this:
Python
If wsu ever schedules Chewelah on the non-conference schedule he'd be a wrecking machine.
In all seriousness he does not look very athletic to these eyes.
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Ah yes, the good ol " if it doesn't come out of Biggs mouth, it holds no value or truth" argument. And, well, Biggs says it so it must be true.
It’s called a highlight reel for a reason. Kids sure as hell arent gonna put their colossal blunders on their highlight film.
Well all highlights we see are cherry picked. They don’t show highlights of wards picks.
People act like going against Prep or some other larger school means something . How many D 1 players has Spokane put out a year? 3? There was only one person who saw Pac 12 talent in Joe Dahl.
This kid has the frame. If I were a betting man he won’t play defense. And he does have the feet to play OT .
"Crucify"? Really Biggs? I simply pointed out that he's a project at this point who hasn't been taught much technique.
And Im pointing out that we have no idea what he was or wasn't taught. So to diminish him or his coaching because you haven't seen it translated to the field on his highlight feel may not be fair.
The athletes in Spokane these days are playing basketball - they aren't playing football at a B school. Anton Watson, Tanner and Jacob Groves , Liam Lloyd, Tanner Christianson just off the top of my head playing bball at the D1 level. All of them would have been excellent football players in high school except for Jacob since he weighed about 130 lbs. soaking wet.
10-12 years ago they were all playing football and basketball - Halliday, Mastin, Long, Dahl, Rodgers, Shaw, Karstetter, Dunn, Mattinglys. It was simple to see athleticism. Brett Rypien played both football and basketball until his junior year (played hockey instead for fun when he dropped basketball). That was about when kids started choosing one or the other sport.
If this kid isn't playing basketball at NWC at 6'5", he's not an athlete. He's a project at best.
We have sure been sending a lot of coaches to visit him for a PWO. He has an offer from Oregon State. I see a future OT. I don't think he runs well enough to be a TE. He'll gain weight fast in a Pac-12 weight program.
He has some technique as in a few of his highlights he was able to shed blockers easily to make a play on the ball. With is current size and the likelihood of adding more strength and size, I think DE will be a great position for him. He seems to have a nose for the ball.
Some good points here about how times have changed. In an age of specialization, maybe he was smart enough to realize he didn't have a real future as a putative 6'5" forward with moderate athleticism, but he had the size and body type to be a lineman and get scholarship money, and maybe more, down the line.
Look, I'm not saying the kid can't or won't make it. I'm saying that in six decades of watching local athletes try to come in from a little tiny school and compete at the 3A/4A level - it just doesn't happen. Let alone come in from a little tiny school and compete at the Pac 12 level...extremely rare. Couple on the girls side like Jennifer Stinson but statistically improbable - and she played every sport under the sun at Davenport.
James Darling is the only one who comes to mind - and the only reason he wasn't able to pull it off is because that was in the days when 'hardship' transfer actually meant something. And moving from Kettle Falls to Prep to play football wasn't considered a 'hardship'.
Casto pulled it off sort of going from Freeman to Ferris - but AAU is a way different beast than football and Freeman kids compete against Spokane kids all the time at very young grade levels. They usually get boat-raced but they've been on the floor with top level competition. Football at the B-level not even comparable.
Not even sure how to respond . Watson Tanner and Groves. Those are athletes and great bball players . But they don’t play football. That is like saying you are a helluva a catch and you don’t like men or women. Wtf do three hoopster have to do with this discussion.
Do you really believe Jake Locker showed much in three years starting for UW that warranted the 10th pick of the draft? Hundreds of players I can make that comment about .
One Pac 12 coach offered Dahl. One. One saw him as an OG.
Yes coaches project all the time . Take a peek at Musgrave at OSU and Otten at UW. They aren’t athletic TE’s. They are functional. I dare you to compare Lester’s athletic ability to say that of Hilburn. I bet Lester’s bench at a level B school is from the 1990’s. I would be surprised if their weight room isn’t the size of my dining room .
In one year they will have him at 280 without Millard type supplements .
He has plenty athleticism to play RT. Plenty. His arms are smaller than my 20 year older daughters. And I bet she squats as much as he does right now. Give him a winter in the weight room and he will look vastly different .
And why not give the guy a ride . Who are you expecting to get… some man from Florida who hasn’t committed yet.
Some of these small school kids get a rude awakening when they experience firsthand how much bigger, faster, stronger, quicker, physical and better the competition is. Wait till someone his size and a lot more athletic pops him. He’ll probably be ok but it’s going to be an eye opener for him nonetheless.
I was going to ask the same hoops question. In a school that size he is also playing hoops if he has any legit athleticism. You can tell a lot about a potential lineman by his footwork in basketball. He could be a definite find. If I could see some basketball footage it would answer some questions for me.
Tom Foley, his dad was a judge in Spokane.
Yet Foley got the boot from GU.
And Foley was not a dummy like Ted Kennedy who paid a kid to take his Spanish test at Harvard.
Maybe Foley was unvaxed?
Well, actually, it does happen. Not often, perhaps once or twice per decade, but it happens. In addition to James Darling, I'd have to add Matt Mullennix (Liberty-Spangle), Will Derting (Okanogan), Doug Wellsandt (Ritzville), Josh Parrish (Chewelah) and even that Fuskie Dave Browning (Liberty-Spangle again). I'm missing someone...I'm old and my memory is not that good...but there are more in what I'd consider the "modern" era (arbitrarily, post 1970).
