Class of 2029 Future Stars Game Top Performers – Part 2
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After we looked at the class of 2029 Future Stars Game Top Performers – Part 1 yesterday, we continue the breakdown today with Part 2. As stated yesterday, every year the Future Stars Game provides an opportunity for athletes wrapping…
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Continue ReadingAfter we looked at the class of 2029 Future Stars Game Top Performers – Part 1 yesterday, we continue the breakdown today with Part 2. As stated yesterday, every year the Future Stars Game provides an opportunity for athletes wrapping up their sixth, seventh and eighth-grade school years to perform against some of the best. Athletes from North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia took part in a week of practice, life skills and two games. The class of 2029 seems far away, but this group will be seventh graders come the fall and with recruiting speeding up, college attention will begin for some of them in the next six-to-nine months. Part 3 coming over the next few days.
Going by the nickname “Big Country”, Jenkins did a really nice job for the North Carolina Future Stars. Primarily a tackle on both sides of the ball, he did a good job using his 6-foot, 250-pound size to hold up a much smaller South Carolina line. To put the final nail in the coffin in North Carolina’s win over South Carolina, he achieved every lineman’s dream and punched in a one-yard touchdown run too.
Highlights
On a team full of monsters, in an event full of goblins, Freeman was the biggest 2029 prospect in attendance out of the four teams. He’s on the roster at 6-foot-2 and 255 pounds–and I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. Like any young lineman with extraordinary size, there’s footwork and proper stance issues to address, but at his size he’s a prospect to know early. With more work and molding, he could be something pretty special.
Easily one of my favorite 2029 athletes of the week, Hawblitz did anything and everything his team asked of him. Put together well for an athlete at this level, he was all over the field at running back, linebacker and whatever else North Carolina needed. I mean that quite literally, as in the win over South Carolina he scored on an interception return from the safety position and threw a touchdown pass as a running back. Kid is the definition of an “ATH” right at this point/
Aaron Johnson Aaron Johnson 5’8″ | 165 lbs | LB GA was on a different level than the rest of the Georgia Future Stars sixth-grade team from the moment he arrived at the event. In my notes from practice I wrote down, “ Aaron Johnson Aaron Johnson 5’8″ | 165 lbs | LB GA /orange helmet/middle linebacker/best practice I’ve seen of anyone on the team”. Johnson followed that up by winning the Defensive MVP in Georgia’s 10-0 shutout over Florida in the championship game. Kid can absolutely fly and had to be in on double digit tackles. Phenomenal looking linebacker.
Despite making me feel old because I’ve officially made my first profile for the class of 2030, Da’Shaun Morris II Da’Shaun Morris II DB GA deserves it. A grade level younger than nearly every other athlete on the field, Morris II proved that he can play beyond his years. He came to our PRZ Next camp earlier this spring and was a top performer there and then did it again at Future Stars. From lockdown to coverage, to big hits and even a pick-6, he did it all at Safety. He’s going to be a good one.
Woods moves like a rubber band on the outside with elite agility and special speed at the wide receiver position. Had no problem taking a quick wide receiver screen and creating himself a bit, nor did he have an issue catching a slant and picking up big yards. He plays with that Florida speed that people often talk about and it was on display at the Future Stars Game.
He wasn’t anywhere in my notes from practice, nor was he in my notes from the first game day. However, in North Carolina’s victory over South Carolina on the second game day, if there was an overall MVP–it would have been Courchine. A pair of touchdown receptions and a beautiful interceptions helped propel NC to the win. Didn’t stick out physically at any time, but that’s why events like the Future Stars exist–a platform to line up and play.
If 2029 Florida running back BJ Anderson BJ Anderson RB FL was the lightning in the backfield, Flowers II was certainly the thunder of the duo. A thicker, shorter back he ran incredibly hard and was a load to bring down for the opposition between the tackles. A lot of his runs wouldn’t look like much if looking at the stat sheet (there isn’t one) but they took a toll because of his bruising style. Scored a touchdown against North Carolina on the first game day.
Sticking with the theme of the bigger, thicker counterparts at position for Florida– Jamal Freeman Jamal Freeman 5’5″ | 160 lbs | LB FL had a nice showing at the event. Virgil Lee III Virgil Lee III 5’5″ | 165 lbs | LB FL was clearly the headliner at the linebacker position, but the 5-foot-5, 160-pound Freeman made his presence known too. On both game days he was dishing out some big hits up in the box that you could hear from the press box.
Whitson plays football the way it’s supposed to be played: fast, aggressive and mean. Practiced against his fellow Georgia Future Stars as if there were no friends and then turned it up again on game day. Returned the opening kick off against South Carolina for a touchdown in the first game. More impressive to me, he had at least three pancakes blocking downfield against Florida in the championship game, in addition to an interception in the endzone. He’s going to have a future in football based on effort alone.