Wahooze on the Trail: Dominoes set to Fall

I’ll admit this is the first time I've really intently followed the development of a class so I might be jumping the gun a little bit here, but I think we are primed for an avalanche of commitments. There are a few recent developments that will lead to this, and I will try and put them in motion for you.

Domino 1: Brendan Marshall, QB Good Counsel

                This appears to be more and more imminent with each passing day. While the Hoos were initially reluctant to take Marshall due to the presence of the “Big Three” quarterbacks in Virginia, it appears as though those trepidations are now gone. The recent commitments of Christian Hackenberg to Penn State and Ryan Burns to Stanford, and the assumed massive lead Virginia Tech has for Bucky Hodges, makes Brendan Marshall now the most attractive QB to the Hoos, and rightfully so. Marshall leads the offense of what is without question the best school in the DC area. He is also no slouch himself. Getting a commitment from him is not a settle by any means. At 6-5 210 he has the prototypical size to be a legit college QB. Marshall could be seen as overrated because he plays on an exceptionally talented team, but in reality this could be a great benefit to his development. A player that plays on that high of a level should, in theory, have a much easier time adjusting to big time college football. Also his ability to spread the ball out to a bunch of talented receivers in high school will help him spread the ball around to our talented receivers. Marshall will be here Wednesday to meet with the coaches, expect his verbal commitment then.

Domino 2: Zack Jones, WR Oscar Smith

                I think this is pretty much a done deal too, but Jones may be hesitant to be the first one on board just because it’s expected for him to be. Being the kid brother of a program's star player makes it easy for people to assume that you will be there from day one and making the decision based only on his presence on the team, and that might rub Zack the wrong way. I'll try to explain this using this odd analogy: My younger brother refuses to order the same thing as me at a restaurant because he doesn’t want people to think he does everything I do. I think that is the same type of situation. Having a big time commit commit before him makes it appear that Jones has made his decision separate from his brother and had the time to think about where he truly wants to go. I think this comes down pretty soon after Marshall commits.

Domino 3 and 4: Smoke Mizzell, RB Bayside; Tim Harris, DB Varina

                Mizzell and Harris I feel are in sort of the same boat as Zack Jones, only they are much higher rated recruits, which makes their commitments a little more noticeable. Both players are perceived as heavy Virginia leans and again that assumption that they are going to UVA regardless might be holding them back. They also may enjoy being recruited by big time programs and not want it to end so soon. That being said I think once UVA gets the ball rolling they will jump on board pretty quickly.

Ripples: Andre Levrone, CJ Jones, Marcel Ngachie, Dorian O’Daniel, Darien Carr

                Other than Kendall Fuller these are the remaining Good Counsel prospects on the board. The commitment of Marshall helps especially with Andre Levrone who is a receiver. I find it hard to imagine that having Marshall will do nothing but help the Hoos. If Levrone also comes on board it could open the floodgates with lesser know players like DB CJ Jones, ATH Marcel Ngachie, LB Darien Carr. If all those players come on board it could also help out with Dorian O’Daniel, a 4 star linebacker and outstanding prospect. While all this could help with 5 star prospect Kendall Fuller, I doubt the kid is going anywhere but Virginia Tech.

The dominoes could start falling Wednesday, and if they do they could fall fast. This class could shape up and gain momentum very quickly. This is a great opportunity for the Hoos to improve on the strong foundation they built last year, and the sooner we start picking up big time commits, the more we can get. This could snowball to add players like Parker Osterloh, Mike McGlinchey, Micah Kiser, and Henry Poggi, all players with tremendous upside who could make this class great. Let’s get to work!