California’s quarterback class for 2015 is one of the best ever, with St. John Bosco’s Josh Rosen and Ventura St. Bonaventure’s Ricky Town both battling for No. 1 rankings for the entire country.
Rosen would be higher on our charts simply because he’s done more at the high school level so far. Yes, he played on a loaded team last season but when you see how he fared against a De La Salle of Concord defense that we’ve seen for 30 years it was impressive. We also saw Town last season in person in an actual game (the best way to evaluate any recruit) as well and his size, strength, accuracy, etc. to shine at the next level is obvious.
Folsom’s Jake Browning could end prep career with nearly 16,000 yards and 200 TD passes. Photo: James K. Leash/SportStars.
Those two are clearly on top of the state as quarterback recruits, which brings us to the record-breaking Jake Browning of Folsom. As many know, he already has more than 10,000 yards as a prep QB and is going to destroy just about every record in our state record book.
Browning is not as big, not as athletic and not as strong as Rosen or Town, but keep in mind he’s also still growing into his frame. He could get much stronger and faster. He’s also extremely accurate.
On the Monday after the CIF state basketball finals, Browning committed to Washington. If there was any doubt that he is simply a system guy at Folsom, that commitment plus some of the other offers he got (including Alabama and Cal) should dispel that.
The other QB in the state who is generally ranked higher than Browning by Scout, Rivals, ESPN and 24/7 is Corona Santiago’s Blake Barnett. He has committed to Notre Dame and also was offered by other major colleges.
So after those four, who will be the state’s next top-ranked QB to pull the trigger on commitment? These things over the years do tend to follow a pattern like dominoes in which one player goes into one column (like the first four) and then the next ones on the list start to take their turn (now that they know where No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, etc. are headed).
From a productivity standpoint, Newhall Hart’s Brady White would be next on our list but Sheriron Jones from Rancho Verde of Moreno Valley and Travis Waller of Anaheim Servite are not far behind.
With USC, UCLA and Washington from the Pac-12 all now owning commitments from a top guy, White would seem to be down to choosing between Cal, Arizona and Arizona State although others also are on his list.
Jones and Waller also have offers from some of the same colleges as White so it’s unknown which one is ranked highest by a particular school. These three are all highly ranked and will all go someplace similar.
This also is still very early in the process. There is always someone who steps up during the actual season and makes a charge up the recruiting charts. That may not change opinions of the first five or six, but can result in a mid-major scramble.
This all doesn’t take into account coaching changes at the end of the 2014 season, either. Whether it’s a coach being let go for his team’s lack of success or a coach moving on to the NFL or higher-profile college, they do happen all the time and it has been known to shuffle around commitments.
2 Comments
Cal HC Sonny Dykes appeared committed to freshman Jared Goff last year no matter how much he struggled. Hard to see a young stud QB going there to sit for 2-3 years of 1-11 seasons. Is Stanford in play for any in-state guys?
Didn’t look like Stanford was in the mix for most of them. And if Cal goes 1-11 again, Sonny Dykes will have to go.