Locals earn honors at recruiting camps
It was quite a productive stretch for several Orlando-area college football prospects this past weekend as Nike and adidas camps rolled through the state, and the players took advantage of the spotlight.
Wekiva’s and — no relation — showed all the talk about the Mustangs’ defense isn’t just hype as they wowed coaches at their respective camps. Tyler won defensive line MVP at Nike’s The Opening Miami Regional while Rian earned the linebacker MVP award at the Rivals/ adidas 3-Stripe Camp here in Orlando at Celebration High.
Also at Celebration on Sunday, Jones High’s
showed that even though the Tigers lost 32 seniors on last season’s 9-2 team, they’ll still be a force this season with Cutts, LB Jr., CB and DT leading the way. Tillman also had a good day Sunday.
Cutts was named the defensive line MVP at the Rivals/adidas 3-Stripe Camp.
Tyler Davis (6-foot-1, 265), one of the more humble high school players anyone will meet, said he was a bit surprised when he heard his name called as MVP at the Nike Miami event.
“It feels good and I feel blessed,” Davis said. “I was a little bit surprised, but … I really don’t care about all the recognition . ... As long as I know who I am and all of that, I don’t really care about all that outside stuff.”
Part of that outside stuff would be an invitation to Nike’s The Opening Finals at the Oregon headquarters in July, but Davis brushed that off as well. Six Miami performers were invited to the end of summer event, but Davis was not concerned his name was not on the list.
“I don’t care if they invite me or not. I got the MVP and if they don’t invite me, they don’t invite me,” said Davis, who could still be invited as the spring camp sessions continue across the country.
Nike will make final assessments after officials have seen the rest of the talent.
Davis actually seemed more excited that his teammate earned Rivals MVP honors.
Rian Davis, who played COMMENTARY his freshman season at Wekiva before moving to Texas for the past two years, returns for his senior season and he’s been impressive. Much is expected of the 6-foot-2, 233-pounder who can play either linebacker or defensive end.
Davis beat out some pretty talented linebackers Sunday, including local standouts Tillman and
of Mount Dora Christian, a 2019 Miami pledge.
“It feels good. These last couple of weeks, I wanted to be prepared for this camp, so I’ve just been grinding and putting in work,” Davis said.
So far he has 16 scholarship offers and said the ones that stick out so far are Louisville, Miami and Houston, which is where he played his sophomore and junior seasons of high school football at Clear Lake High.
Wekiva didn’t steal the whole show, however, and Cutts made sure Jones kept its momentum going from last season.
He was putting offensive linemen on their backs for much of the camp and he also worked out at linebacker during some portions.
“It felt great. Coming off the ball, attacking … I felt good about it,” Cutts said. “[The competition] was good, but it wasn’t good enough to stop me.”
One of the players Cutts didn’t push around quite so easily every time during reps Sunday was rising star
an offensive lineman at Hagerty who showed he’s coached by one of the best O-line mentors in the state in Huskies head coach
Lee (6-2, 287) had a bit of a coming out party for those in attendance who did not know him, but Ziglar has been singing his praises for nearly two seasons now and Lee did not disappoint Sunday. He held his own and was holding blocks to the end of each play. He also showed strength, technique and agile footwork.
What’s most impressive about Lee is that Hagerty runs a single-wing offensive attack, so there isn’t much opportunity for Lee to work on his pass-blocking skills, but he showed he was plenty adept at forming pocket protection as well.
“It was a little shaky at first, but I got used to pass blocking. … I felt like I did pretty good,” Lee said.
Other Orlando-area players who performed well at the Rivals event included: quarterbacks (Lake
(Oak Nona), Ridge), (Wekiva) and (Edgewater); tight end
(Apopka, 2020); receivers (Jones, 2020) and
(Lake Minneola); running backs
(Orange City University), who is currently only an eighthgrader at Deltona’s Heritage Middle School, and
(St. Cloud); offensive lineman
(Daytona Beach Mainland); defensive end
(Lake Minneola); and cornerbacks (Wekiva) and (Ocoee).