On Texas Football: Rankings discussion with Charles Power
In the most recent episode of On Texas Football, Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton sat down with Charles Power, On3’s director of scouting and rankings, to discuss the performances of players in the Longhorns’ recent signing class in a pair of prep all-star showcases.
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Power was on hand for both the Under Armour All-American Game in Orlando on Tuesday and the All-American Bowl in San Antonio on Saturday as well as the practices and drills running up to each game, which evaluators believe is more important than the games themselves.
Power and Burton discussed Jelani McDonald, an athlete from Waco Connally, who committed to Texas during the All-American Bowl on Saturday. McDonald is a three-sport star and has the frame to be an impact player at linebacker.
“We’ve been high on McDonald for a while dating back to really kind of just going through the rankings,” Power explained. “We might have moved him up in the summer and I’m just kind of circling back on his really unique athletic background and getting measurables on him. He’s a guy who has really only continued to rise and I think he’ll keep going up after getting to see him in person.”
Power said that there was a bit of a buzz about McDonald. After watching him play, Power believes McDonald has safety cover skills, potentially even cornerback cover skills right now. McDonald was a quarterback in high school as well as Region II Player of the Year in basketball and won the Class 4A triple jump at the state track meet.
“McDonald’s in the middle of basketball season and he comes out you know, after dribbling around the basketball court,” Power said. “He goes out there kind of you know probably not in football condition after not playing in several weeks, if not a month, and he is covering top receivers as a corner guy with a linebacker frame. So that just kind of shows you how unique he is from an athletic and just coordination perspective.”
Power also raved about Derek Williams from New Iberia (La.) Westgate and compared him with McDonald.
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“Williams has a very big frame,” Power said. “He has that cover ability as well. I think he’s more likely to play as a cover safety – that’s his skill set right now. Williams has a big frame and he can put on considerable weight.
“McDonald and Williams have multiple tracks for where they can play – both are kind of ‘Swiss Army-knife’ types because of their versatility,” Power added. “It’s really interesting, but I think if you’re Texas, you’d be excited. You bring these guys in, get them in your weight program, see how they develop. I think at the minimum you have two really good players who I think will be consistently considerable contributors who give them a lot of versatility in defending different personnel groupings and different players.”
Burton and Power also spoke about three other Texas linebacker signees – Anthony Hill, of Denton Ryan, S’Maje Burrell of Fort Worth North Crowley and Tausili Akana of Hawai’i via Lehi (Utah) Skyridge.
Check out the entire video for more info on the linebackers as well as other participants in the respective All-American games.
