QB Recruiting - Kevin Doyle Update / Tidbits

Submitted by uofmfan_13 on

I live in the Washington, DC area and wanted to share update / tidbit on class of 2018 QB recruit Kevin Doyle.  I know there has been a lot of doom and gloom here about the state of current QB and O-line play, but I think this news is encouraging and I think QBs that Harbaugh and staff have recruited will eventually pan out like we all want them to. 

Anyway, on my way into work, I had 106.7 THE FAN on and the Sports Junkies, a group of 4 regular hosts from the area, were on.  All of these guys went to DeMatha High School, a powerhouse prep school you might have heard of - massive NBA and, to lesser extent, college football pipeline school.  They almost always field competitive football teams on par with Good Counsel high school (Stefon Diggs, Blake Countess, etc).   The hosts of this morning show are, as expected, massive homers and super proud supporters of DeMatha athletics.    

Anyway, one of the hosts attended the DeMatha-St. John's game this past Saturday and, for what it is worth, said that "Kevin Doyle is the best high school QB he's ever watched live".  The host said he was tall, athletic, saw the entire field well and "could make all the throws".  Noted that he's going to Michigan and that he thinks he'll be a very good QB at the next level.  Host said he "wished he was at DeMatha right now".   

St. John's is the favorite to win the WCAC (private school division) in the DC-area this year.  You might remember Kevin Hogan and his pretty good career at Stanford?  Kevin Doyle is coming from that same competition level (Hogan attended a rival school in DC).    

Washington Post credits him with 266 yards in the air, 2 TDs, 1 INT and 22 of 33 passing. 

Washington Post article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/highschools/all-access-with-demat…)

The Victors

October 25th, 2017 at 2:23 PM ^

This is great to hear and QB recruiting is always a concern and crucial, but at this point, I'm much more concerned about OL recruiting.

I'm confident we can get a good QB out of Peters and/or McCaffrey.  Harbaugh and staff have done ok on OL recruiting so far, but not great.  And the style of offense we run needs a "great" OL.  We need both talent and numbers.  Losing Emil Ekiyor hurts a ton, and maybe I'm just overlooking, but I can't really think of any top OL we are in on for the 2018 class?  Hayes and Mayfield are important commits with high upside, but they both seem to be projects that will take time to develop.

KC Wolve

October 25th, 2017 at 2:47 PM ^

Disagree at QB. I want more. Peters can’t get a garbage time snap in a year where the starter was bad and got hurt and the backup has been worse. Who knows about DM??? Hopefully he is the real deal. O line is very important obviously but a stud QB helps make up for it. The more QBs the better at this point.

WolverineMac

October 25th, 2017 at 5:38 PM ^

For the last two years. Our quarterback is hurt and we have freshman receivers. See the difference?

Don't get me wrong I'm not happy but there is a clear gap in some people's memory. Our OL has been awful for a while. Harbaugh hid it for two years, missed some things, missed out on others, and ultimately we don't have the experience in other positions to hide it this year.

KC Wolve

October 25th, 2017 at 3:44 PM ^

No it isn’t. He isn’t a HS freshman that was forced to play and is thrown to the wolves. The kid is a redshirt college Freshman that was one of the top QBs in the country in high school. He is in his second year on a college scholarship to play football at Michigan!!! I don’t understand why people think him playing behind a poor line will just crush the kid and not be worth it. If he can’t handle it, he should probably consider another option. He is more than likely never going to have a line that will always keep him from getting hit. I’m not bagging on him and have no idea if he will be good or not, but the excuses people give for him not playing are ridiculous.

KC Wolve

October 25th, 2017 at 4:24 PM ^

I debated even responding to this nonsense. So next year, if the O line is bad, should Harbaugh put in Malzone so none of the better QBs get hurt? Playing meaningful games in front of big crowds is definitely “something to gain”. WS got hurt playing football. This can happen to any player on any play. Not playing a QB because he might get hurt is ridiculous. There may be several reasons he isn’t playing but I would bet a lot of $$$ that isn’t one of them.

Jasper

October 25th, 2017 at 2:30 PM ^

Good news on Doyle.

Whenever I see DeMatha, I'm reminded of how they and Santa Ana Mater Dei seemed to have an unofficial agreement with the people who chose the McDonald's All-American basketball teams. There were many years where each school had at least one player on the team.

 

Maizerage11

October 25th, 2017 at 2:45 PM ^

I think the worst part about losing is that I do not look forward to the MGoContent.  Normally I am so pumped to learn about what we did the past week, what worked, and what didnt.  But instead Brian produces less content, and the content he produces just depresses me.  Hopefully this gets fun again soon.

philidor's legacy

October 25th, 2017 at 2:53 PM ^

Our other recruit is Joe Milton. He is 6'5 225 and plays for Orlando Olympia HS. He has played QB in 26 games over 3 years:  Passing stats: 3516 yards; (135 avg per game) 46% completion; 31 TDs; 19 ints. Rushing: 166 carries; 274 yards; 9 TDs

michgoblue

October 25th, 2017 at 3:22 PM ^

I know that high school numbers are always off (lower completion percentages, etc.) but 46% completion seems low.  Also, 166 caries for a total of 274?  For a guy who is regarded as fairly athletic, that just seems off.  There is no way they are running a guy 166 times over 3 seasons if he is running for under 2 ypc.  

Gr1mlock

October 25th, 2017 at 3:36 PM ^

Presumably that number is not sack adjusted.  Seems plausible he could be behind a leaky line and getting blasted in the backfield which would depress the numbers some (and we all know how depressing a leaky offensive line is).  Don't know if that's the case for sure, haven't watched any games of his, but seems like a reasonable explanation for an otherwise anomalous statistic.

NJblue2

October 25th, 2017 at 3:55 PM ^

I don't think he's that athletic, he seems mobile enough to escape the pocket and maybe break a 10 yard run the same way O'Korn does. So it's possible those carries are him just escaping the pocket and getting a yard or two to avoid the sack. Also maybe getting sacked does affect those numbers, but he's not Deshaun Watson out there either.

CHUKA

October 25th, 2017 at 3:16 PM ^

The kid looks great already. At first I saw his junior film and wasn't impressed. But, then I saw an article talking about how Harbaugh offered him after watching him play against De La Salle on ESPN, so I decided to watch the game. The kid was insanely accurate, had a powerful arm (his arm strength was also ranked in the 99th percentile at the opening) but was also able to manage to put touch on the deep balls. This may sound crazy but I wouldn't be surprised to see him start his second year on campus (I'd say first but people say Harbaugh always redshirts QBs). If he went to St. John's all throughout high school he could've been a borderline 5 star. I recommend anyone to watch this game, or at least part of it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=WXm7PzD4ws4

Kevin13

October 25th, 2017 at 4:04 PM ^

have our next top QB's on the roster and in the pipeline and we will start seeing the level of play we all want out of the QB position by next year.  I still think it would be good to get the younger guys a little run this year to have them more prepared for next year, but I am excited about how good our QB position should become in the next few years.

eddiek

October 25th, 2017 at 7:53 PM ^

I was friends with 2 of them in high school and played soccer together at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt. Met one of the guys from DeMatha that’s their friend and also on the Sports Junkies. Can’t imagine they’re football experts but if they’re excited about Doyle, that’s probably better than the alternative. Obviously, trust in Harbaugh.