Thursday, January 13, 2011

Recruiting breakdown AC Slater v Johnny Moxon

As National Signing Day approaches, once per week I will be breaking down two high school football players from Hollywood history for college teams out there looking to fill a need with perhaps one of these silver screen (or television screen) legends.

Today's breakdown will be the quarterback position. It would be too easy to go ON AND ON about West Canaan's Lance Harbor, the all-state gunslinger from Texas that EASILY could have been the greatest QB in Texas high school history, had his knee not been messed up by that fateful hit following Billy Bob's collapse due to post-concussion syndrome. He had a ride to Florida State (back when FSU was GOOD). One could also argue for Jason Street, but too bad he had the whole paralysed thing. He was set to field offers from Notre Dame and Texas. JD McCoy is too young for this breakdown and Matt Saracen frankly isn't good enough. The guy is 5'9 TOPS with a noodle arm.

So today's breakdown: West Canaan's Johnny Moxon vs Bayside's AC Slater.

Johnny Moxon is incredibly smart, having been accepted by Brown, but you have to question his experience (he only started three games in his prep career, though he did lead a comeback following Lance Harbor's injury), and his desire to play the game. He does have a rocket arm (he hit a line judge 60+ yards away with some velocity while seated) and an ability to improvise with his legs and when he cannot get the play call. His stats are not known but he did go 2-1 as a starter and ran in the winning score in his first action following Harbor's injury. He threw for two scores to complete a comeback win to win the district title in the season finale. QB'd the team to 66 points in a road victory but lost the next week, throwing several interceptions.

Positives: Smart; Gutsy (willing to change play into a trick play); can take off and run with the ball; Strong arm; Innovative (willing to offer new ideas/plays for the offense); strong presence in the locker room and in the huddle; great teamamte

Negatives: experience (only 3 career starts and didn't receive many reps in practice playing behind Harbor); size (6'0 tall, which means really 5'11?); doesn't take well to authority (led a revolt against the coach at halftime of a game); ignored playcalls and ran what he wanted; questionable desire towards football (didn't play in playoffs).

Grade: 3 Stars. Likely destination: Ivy Leagues (Starter) or Conference USA backup

AC Slater is quite the athlete, having played five total sports during his time at Bayside. In addition to football, Slater indulged in wrestling, basketball, track and apparently swimming (though I don't really remember that episode). Slater's real sport though was likely wrestling as Iowa offered him a scholarship while Stansbury (Stanford?) was really the only football offer to come his way. (He would go on to California University, though I don't believe he played football there) Slater was always hanging out with the football guys but it is not known if Bayside ever won a game other than the one game that Slater nearly missed as he was taking a test during the first half. His stats are unknown.

Positives: tremendous athletic ability (played five total sports); clearly fast (as he was on the track team); leadership (his fellow players seemed willing to run through a wall for him and his fellow classmates went crazy during pep rallies).

Negatives: grades (he missed the first half of that one game due to poor grades); size (I have seen Slater/Mario Lopez's height listed at 5'10 but that really means 5'8/5'9 and I saw one report that said 5'6. I mean Jessie was taller than he was...); commitment to football (would he rather wrestle at the next level?)

Grade: 2 Stars as a QB (3 Stars as ATH). Likely Destination: WAC (Fresno State maybe?)

1 comment:

unknown said...

Thank you for bringing some pop culture back into the blog Roomie.