Speight to compete in Oakland Elite 11 camp
It appears Wilton will be competing in the Oakland, Ca Elite 11 regional competition. The article is paywalled but a brief overview. Speight has an effortless release, sound pocket presence and natural leadership skills as well. He was listed among those to watch out for.
I understand that recruiting sites need to make money but paywalling an article discussing Speight in the Elite 11? Scout seems to be notorious for paywalled information whereas Rivals at least will allow free reads for basic information such as this. Plus, he hasn't even competed yet.
/getoffmylawnoldmanrant
I definitely get what you're saying but then again, there are people that love this information and therefore there is a demand. I'm not saying it's right or wrong but demand drives money.
If your concern is the KIDS, well both are hounding therm. Many of the free sites are trying to make money too. They are just doing it without paid subscribers and paywalled articles.
I get what you're saying that these sites make money off of these kids, but at its core, its news gathering and reporting. There's a large audience of people out there that want to know what's going on with these recruits and what the latest news is. Much in the same way there's an audience in every town that wants to know what the latest news in the community is.
Both the recruiting services and your local news send reporters out to news worthy events, get quotes from notable people, and deliver that infomation to their audience and profit off the ads they sell built around there news reporting. The recruits don't get money in the same way the local gardener doens't get any money when he's interviewed about having the city's most kick ass garden.
And everybody in news distorts headlines. Its called a tease and it gets you to tune in or click on a link. "Is there something in your house that can kill you? Story at 11."
When interest in these recruits dries up (not happening any time soon) the sites will dry up too. But in the meantime, this is just how news works. Deal with it.
Yeah, I agree. If I'm a reporter of any kind, I'm making money off of the subjects I write about without paying them anything. How is the guy who reports on HS sports for the local newspaper any different from the guys at Rivals?
ESPN has a free video discussing Speight at the Elite 11.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9285242
Its a brief mention, but hey...its free. And there's highlights.
Getting Speight exposure will help with his ratings - and the experience he gets will be invaluable. Competition is always good!
As we have seen with others who have competed in these camps - even if they struggle a bit they get noticed. And with other camps on his slate, he will have plenty of time to learn from his flaws from this camp and take advantage to get better. Having only a few camps with a smaller body of work I think works against the recruits. If he can prove that he can grow and learn from these camps and get better against a larger sample size, he will be better off.
good
I think it's great when a recruit betters his "personal brand," and it makes him a better recruiter. I don't know how long it's going to be before the smaller schools in the NCAA decide that it's "unfair" when incoming commits recruit for their schools, and try to regulate it by outvoting the bigger schools, but for now, it's a big part of Michigan's recuiting.
Everybody wins. The services make money, the fans get the info they want, and kids get exposure to help better themselves.
I doubt that Speight is traveling across the country just for help with his ratings. Or even the experience really. I would bet the primary reason he's going is to get an invitation to the Elite 11 Finals and The Opening held at the end of June at Nike's headquarters. The only way to go is to compete in one of these events. And at those events, you do get a ton of experience and training.
Plus, for the recruits, that's a hell of a free trip and a lot of nice swag. I'm just surprised he didn't go to the Elite 11/NFTC that was held in his own backyard (Wash. DC) a few weeks ago. Maybe he just wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge.
double post
Football boner. If there was football porn, I'd watch.
Gives me an emotional erection of the oblong variety. Offseason counseling conducted by everything Mgoblog.
just watch the lingerie football league and never feel guilty about the resulting boners...
this is good because everyone wants Morris to get a redshirt, but he isn't the last fantastic qb that will come to AA. I live in VA, and I know coaches around the state, and Speight is legit, So is it the end of the world is Morris backs up for 2 years, and starts for 2? with Speight starting the 2 after that. and the next qb that comes gets his 2 years after that?
does anybody know, do you have to be invited to one of these Elite 11 camps or can you just show up?
Not sure about these regional competitions, but I know you have to get invited to the Elite 11 finals.
For example, Shane Morris preformed well at the Columbus Elite 11 and got an invite to the Elite 11 finals.
I know that we have all assumed for awhile (quite long when you consider he is still in a high school class right now!) that Shane Morris is THE FUTURE of the QB position in Ann Arbor. Although I very much hope that is the case the more I see & read about Speight makes it seem as though he could really push Morris or maybe...MAYBE...compete to take the starting job.
I think I agree that Speight could push Morris. Morris at this point is kind of a gunslinger, has all the arm strength in the world, but as the OP mentioned, Speight looks so effortless in his delivery and seems to have very good accuracy. Morris in the Under Armor game didn't really blow away alot of people, although he didn't play much his senior season which could have affected that performance.
Morris' ceiling is just so high because of that arm. He has some of the best arm strength of any QB prospect I've seen since Mallett. But he's raw. As you mentioned, he's a gunslinger, and tries to rocket everything it seems like. Consistancy is also an issue, as has been pointed out. Like in the UA game, he had some poor throws, but he also probably had the best throw of the game. Everybody forgets it because it ended up incomplete, but he threw a perfect ball on a long fade to Treadwell in the endzone. Treadwell was very well covered by Hargreaves (last year's best CB), but Morris put it high and away right in stride, so only Treadwell could get it. Treadwell went up, got both hands on it, and then lost it when Hargreaves got a hand on it asTreadwell was bringing it into his body. Treadwell holds onto that and Morris' stat line looks a lot better. Did anybody else even throw a TD in that game? Anyway, Morris' may not be sure thing, but if he can harness that potential and find consistancy, then he can be that proverbial 'special' talent.
Morris's senior year and Under Armour performance dampened a lot of excitement about him. I don't think we should overreact to those things, but they're a part of the "evaluation." The fact is that he didn't do so hot. On the flip side, he did well at The Opening last summer.
His performance at The Opening was pre mono too. His shaky play in his senior year and at the UA game were all after his body said "no mas." So hopefully, pre mono Shane is the real one.
Or you know, he's a 17/18 year old kid and they have up and down days.
It all depends on if Morris redshirts (which I still prefer) ....but Speight might get a year or two of starting in the end. I hope he sticks around by then.
Everybody's accuracy is "almost inhuman" in a highlight reel. I don't think I have ever seen a QB put an incpmplete pass on a highlight reel.
Remember all those highlights of Nik Stauskas missing all those shots before he got to college? It was right when I saw those highlights that I knew he would be a great shooter in college.
Not really. Different kids' hightlight videos emphasize different things. Shane didn't show off "inhuman" accuracy in his highlights, but instead showed off his arm strength. It's not like he had four minutes of hitting guys in stride.
Speight had lots and lots of throws where he fits a ball in perfectly. Most QBs don't have highlight videos like that because they'd have to show the same 7 perfect throws over and over again.
Okay, I just re-watched the first 2:15 of Shane's junior highlights, and - except for his runs/scrambles - the video highlights his accuracy. Deep balls are part of it, but so are throws to the sideline, throws to the back of the end zone, fitting the ball in between the safety/corner, etc.
The point is that a QB could complete 25% of 200 passes on the year, but if his highlight film shows just those 50 complete passes out there, someone could say, "Wow, this guy's really accurate."
I think his release is as quick as any I've seen in recent years, and if he combines this ability to fit a ball in a cereal box type opening, well ..........................
Here's a free article from 247 on the camp. They list the top five competitors, and Speight isn't one of them. However, they do give him a form of "honorable mention."