Hope everyone's week is going well and your weekend comes quickly if not.
-- BC's camp season begins on June 18 and that's later than at a lot of schools. Nothing significant about that pro or con, really but it does mean there will be perhaps more of a slower start to the summer as we know it in terms of recruiting.
-- I'm told the staff is still banking on the camps as being valuable tools in helping to evaluate, set their board, arrange priorities/wants, and ultimately deciding on who's a take. Fortunately for BC this year they're off to a great start, so these camps should be extra valuable because they can just evaluate rather than make calculations on how they're going to fill out their class. The more commits they've got, the fewer they need, the less they have to err on the side of taking a kid who might be a stretch. That's not to say they've taken kids they don't like, but that's a judgment that every football staff in the country makes. For the camp season that's extra important for BC, a school that relies more heavily on in-person camp evals than many other schools.
-- Will BC definitely take another quarterback? My assumption has been yes, for sure. Recently I spoke with a source about the subject and the answer wasn't 100-percent clear but my impression was that it's still very likely they take another. But they'll leave themselves an 'out' with the possibility of taking just the one they have, if they don't feel good about any of their options.
My recent running assumption has been that New Hampshire's Drew McQuarrie is the most likely quarterback to fill the remaining spot. Admittedly, some of that was because BC was his first Power Five offer, he's a local kid, and it just seems on the surface that the dynamics would favor them. I'm told that it's indeed possible he could be the guy, but it's not a given. I think McQuarrie would (will?) end up at BC if the staff decides they have to have him. I think that would prove convincing for him and he seems to really like it a lot.
They'll probably want to see him in camp or continue to monitor his progression. He is not the most polished thrower they've offered but he's a really big kid who's a nice athlete for his size. Could he be at another position for BC? Outside chance, yes. But right now he's still a quarterback under consideration -- that's my read.
Again, that's an example of the way early commits help. If they didn't have a QB by now and they knew they might want/need two in this class, I think they'd have already pushed for this guy hard. With one in their back pocket, they're more inclined to recruit from a position of strength and take the slow road.
-- I asked a source recently about whether there have been recent visitors. I was told that recent commit Isaiah McDuffie was the biggest one. There have been (and are always/often) local kids who come up to visit, meet with the coach(es), see the facilities and learn more, but these informational and more informal visits are less publicized by us and generate less chatter, presumably because most of those guys visiting probably aren't offer guys. You have to keep an open door for anybody showing interest but there haven't been any other guys recently to visit who has an offer.
-- About that Bloomfield, Conn., 2017 linebacker they offered recently -- Dillon Harris. I haven't heard too much about him except that the BC staff is pretty familiar with the people at Bloomfield. And the more familiar you are with a high school staff, the more you trust what they're telling you about the kid, his background, personality and potential. So that's worth noting with this offer.
One other thing that was mentioned is that the staff is really going after Harris' teammate, receiver Russell Thompson. He's a '17 wide out with a BC offer and several others. I'd expect them to visit and maybe camp this summer.
-- Regarding camp visitors, I could press and get some early names of guys expected, but I don't like to put out a lot of stuff that's apt to change, and right now I think that will be best presented closer to the time of the camp when there's more accuracy and I can get a better feel for who's going to be watched most closely.
-- BC has two linebacker commitments, both recent, and I'm told that they'll "probably take one more" linebacker. Paul Theobald is an inside guy, probably a Mike, and I think I slipped up and said McDuffie was the likely Mike recently. So flip that, and I apologize. Something was lost in translation. It happens, but it shouldn't. I'll be better.
I'm told that BC will probably take an inside guy with that other linebacker spot. Most other schools would go outside, but that's more a schematic thing for BC.
-- What other positions will the staff target to fill out the class? Ideally another QB, another RB, a LB. We've been hammering those points. As far as other positions, you have to think they will look at receiver. They don't have that addressed yet in the class and that's always a spot of interest. I think they really want to get that right instead of just take someone, and camps will tell a lot with the speed guys. And I'm told they're always zeroing in on defensive backs. You never turn away good defensive linemen.
If that sounds vague and like almost anything's possible, good. That's exactly where things stand. They want pretty much an additional guy across the board at each position. And from my spot that's a good sign on one level -- it means they're not scrambling to address an expected crisis of depth on the horizon two years from now.
-- BC's camp season begins on June 18 and that's later than at a lot of schools. Nothing significant about that pro or con, really but it does mean there will be perhaps more of a slower start to the summer as we know it in terms of recruiting.
-- I'm told the staff is still banking on the camps as being valuable tools in helping to evaluate, set their board, arrange priorities/wants, and ultimately deciding on who's a take. Fortunately for BC this year they're off to a great start, so these camps should be extra valuable because they can just evaluate rather than make calculations on how they're going to fill out their class. The more commits they've got, the fewer they need, the less they have to err on the side of taking a kid who might be a stretch. That's not to say they've taken kids they don't like, but that's a judgment that every football staff in the country makes. For the camp season that's extra important for BC, a school that relies more heavily on in-person camp evals than many other schools.
-- Will BC definitely take another quarterback? My assumption has been yes, for sure. Recently I spoke with a source about the subject and the answer wasn't 100-percent clear but my impression was that it's still very likely they take another. But they'll leave themselves an 'out' with the possibility of taking just the one they have, if they don't feel good about any of their options.
My recent running assumption has been that New Hampshire's Drew McQuarrie is the most likely quarterback to fill the remaining spot. Admittedly, some of that was because BC was his first Power Five offer, he's a local kid, and it just seems on the surface that the dynamics would favor them. I'm told that it's indeed possible he could be the guy, but it's not a given. I think McQuarrie would (will?) end up at BC if the staff decides they have to have him. I think that would prove convincing for him and he seems to really like it a lot.
They'll probably want to see him in camp or continue to monitor his progression. He is not the most polished thrower they've offered but he's a really big kid who's a nice athlete for his size. Could he be at another position for BC? Outside chance, yes. But right now he's still a quarterback under consideration -- that's my read.
Again, that's an example of the way early commits help. If they didn't have a QB by now and they knew they might want/need two in this class, I think they'd have already pushed for this guy hard. With one in their back pocket, they're more inclined to recruit from a position of strength and take the slow road.
-- I asked a source recently about whether there have been recent visitors. I was told that recent commit Isaiah McDuffie was the biggest one. There have been (and are always/often) local kids who come up to visit, meet with the coach(es), see the facilities and learn more, but these informational and more informal visits are less publicized by us and generate less chatter, presumably because most of those guys visiting probably aren't offer guys. You have to keep an open door for anybody showing interest but there haven't been any other guys recently to visit who has an offer.
-- About that Bloomfield, Conn., 2017 linebacker they offered recently -- Dillon Harris. I haven't heard too much about him except that the BC staff is pretty familiar with the people at Bloomfield. And the more familiar you are with a high school staff, the more you trust what they're telling you about the kid, his background, personality and potential. So that's worth noting with this offer.
One other thing that was mentioned is that the staff is really going after Harris' teammate, receiver Russell Thompson. He's a '17 wide out with a BC offer and several others. I'd expect them to visit and maybe camp this summer.
-- Regarding camp visitors, I could press and get some early names of guys expected, but I don't like to put out a lot of stuff that's apt to change, and right now I think that will be best presented closer to the time of the camp when there's more accuracy and I can get a better feel for who's going to be watched most closely.
-- BC has two linebacker commitments, both recent, and I'm told that they'll "probably take one more" linebacker. Paul Theobald is an inside guy, probably a Mike, and I think I slipped up and said McDuffie was the likely Mike recently. So flip that, and I apologize. Something was lost in translation. It happens, but it shouldn't. I'll be better.
I'm told that BC will probably take an inside guy with that other linebacker spot. Most other schools would go outside, but that's more a schematic thing for BC.
-- What other positions will the staff target to fill out the class? Ideally another QB, another RB, a LB. We've been hammering those points. As far as other positions, you have to think they will look at receiver. They don't have that addressed yet in the class and that's always a spot of interest. I think they really want to get that right instead of just take someone, and camps will tell a lot with the speed guys. And I'm told they're always zeroing in on defensive backs. You never turn away good defensive linemen.
If that sounds vague and like almost anything's possible, good. That's exactly where things stand. They want pretty much an additional guy across the board at each position. And from my spot that's a good sign on one level -- it means they're not scrambling to address an expected crisis of depth on the horizon two years from now.
