Future Stars Game – AL Pops Class of 2027 Headliners Part 2
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Some of the very best athletes from North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia took the field for the annual Future Stars Game event last month. It’s been a crazy ride looking at the athletes in the class of 2028…
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Continue ReadingSome of the very best athletes from North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia took the field for the annual Future Stars Game event last month. It’s been a crazy ride looking at the athletes in the class of 2028 and 2029 that stood out during the event, but we’re finally at the main event with the class of 2027. These athletes will be off to high school in a few short weeks and this class put an emphatic exclamation point on their pre-high school football career’s at this game. Complete with verbal scholarship offers, several one-score games and the emergence of some guys that will absolutely be playing on Saturday’s in four years–once again the Future Stars Game has solidified itself as a can’t-miss event every June. Yesterday, we looked at Part 1 of the standouts. Today, we’ll look at Part 2.
Harvey took reps at left guard during practice but also played left tackle during the game against Florida. He has really good feet for a 2027 offensive lineman that stands in the 6-foot-1 to 6-foot-3 range (depending on where you look) and weighs right around 265 pounds. Has hit the camp scene hard this summer, already visiting Auburn, Alabama, UCF and others. I feel he has FBS ability on the interior offensive line, if he can tack on a few more inches
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A really good-looking running back prospect at 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds. He’s thick enough to absorb the beating between the tackles, but also has the quickness to bounce runs outside. Sumpter Jr. is a well-balanced back that can stay on the field in most situations. His speed is good, but he could pick it up a bit and take his game to the next level. Loved his drive to compete and wanted the ball on every play. He’s a workhorse.
Smith Jr. is a Pennsylvania native, but played for the South Carolina Future Stars during the event. After earning top performer honors at our PRZ Next camp in New Jersey this winter, Smith Jr. has exploded onto the recruiting scene. He has been invited for camps and visits to Pitt, Penn State, Maryland, Syracuse and others this spring/summer. Every bit of 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, he was easily the biggest receiver on the field. Don’t be surprised if this “ATH” ends up as a defensive end before it’s all said and done.
Jackson was a late addition to the North Carolina Future Stars team, by way of Savannah, Ga. At 5-foot-6 and 160 pounds he brought a bit of a power run game to the field and punched the ball forward with taxing runs here and there. Doesn’t have the elite speed or size, but ran the ball hard between the tackles and helped keep the defense honest by having to account for the inside run attack.
As one of his teammates said to me after Eli Harris made a big hit in practice, “See, that’s one boy you don’t gotta worry about being ready to go. He’s always ready to play.” I couldn’t agree with that more. Harris was selected to the Georgia Future Stars for the second year in a row and he’s a kid that should see offers start to roll in pretty quickly in the next couple months. He’s up to 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds and was noticeably leaner from a year ago. Selected captain two years in a row, and undoubtedly a leader. Has already camped at Auburn and Georgia. Get very, very familiar.
Thornton was undoubtedly the tone-setter on the defensive side of the ball for the Florida Future Stars eighth-grade team. Each state, even each team, practices differently during the Future Stars Game week–but this team got after it full tilt from the jump. Thornton was an extremely active middle linebacker who used his mixture of power and speed to make a number of big hits during inside run drills. Some kids are just built differently mentally and physically, and that’s Thornton. Really bright future.
Like Rasheen Jackson above, Marlon Knight was another late addition to the North Carolina Future Stars team, and also hails from Savannah, Georgia. Knight immediately caught my eye at one of the last practices because of his size and length–about 6-foot-2 and 175 pounds. Watching him move around I thought he would make a splash as a wide receiver or even at tight end. However, when the games came around, he made a number of plays as an edge defender. He’s not quite there yet, but there’s a lot of physical tools to work with. With continued development, I can easily see him playing on Saturday’s in four years.
Right now the only thing holding Rowe back from being one of the most elite cornerback’s in the state of Georgia for the class of 2027 is his lack of size–everything else checks out for him. Right now he’s just 5-foot-4 and 140 pounds, but he does everything he can to make up for it with his play. Started off a little slow during practices, but he played out of his mind come the actual games. During the game against Florida, I was exchanging DM’s with his older brother Tyler (a cornerback at Georgia Tech) and told him that his brother had some nice PBU’s and he told me he had heard that from a few other people as well.
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Watched him during wide receiver drills during practice and he did a good job, but something about him screamed defensive player. I then watched him take a few reps on the scout team defense against the first offense and Cason lit it up at safety. After talking to one of the coaches I learned he was a little reluctant to go to the defensive side of the ball because he’s always played wideout–but he’s a natural in the secondary. Physical, fast, covers a ton of ground. Has advanced instincts of whether to go for the ball or the man, that looks natural. At 5-foot-10 and 150 pounds with good muscle, he’s going to be a fun one to watch develop.
Sticking with the theme of out-of-state players participating for the Carolina teams, Thompson is a prospect that the South Carolina Future Stars welcomed with open arms to their team. Thompson is in interesting prospect right now because he’s somewhere in between a strong safety and outside linebacker, in my opinion. He reads, reacts and drops well enough as an outside ‘backer but doesn’t have the desired power. He’s also built more like a safety right now, but doesn’t have the necessary speed yet. He’s going to be a wait-and-see type of prospect, but if nothing else, he’s a sure-tackler.
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There’s a lot of positive things to say about the skill set that Lavoris Lucas brings to the table, chief among them is his versatility. During practice he caught my eye as a wide receiver because of his quickness and ability to get north and south, in short fashion. This makes more sense when I watched his eighth-grade film and saw he’s naturally a running back. However, come game time, the North Carolina Future Star made the biggest splash as a defensive back. Despite giving up a lot of size, at around 5-foot-5 and 145 pounds, his quickness made up for it.