Scout’s Eye: Evaluating Colorado’s Most Overlooked Talent

With as many players that are covered each year, a handful still sift through the cracks. On the national scale, Colorado is seen as a “fly-over” state and even the highly recruited CO players fly under the radar nationally undeservingly. Today's article will dive into the hidden gems of our great box state, and highlight their talents.    Bell is a very athletic safety. The 5'11 165-pound athlete also returns kicks and punts for Eaglecrest. So far the senior has 61 total tackles (28 solo, 33 assisted), 7 TFL, 1 sack, 1 QB pressure, 2 INT, 8 PD, 1 FF, and 2 FR with a total of 436 return yardage on 9 returns both punt and kick. Bell has very good athletic ability due to elite acceleration, very good speed, change of direction, jumping, and balance. He has good read and reaction speed. Fluid hips, very good closing quickness in coverage. Bell balances between playing in the box or in the zone. Good tackler. In man coverage, he stays stride for stride with receiver. Bell's change direction instantly making him a weapon on returns.     Spano has been putting Colorado on notice with his lockdown corner ability. The 5'10 166-pound corner has been thrown at 25 times this year, only allowing 5 receptions and 48 yards this season. Mind you, he's doing this with a fractured wrist as well and hasn't missed any playing time. He has 22 total tackles (16 solo, 6 assisted), 1 TFL, and 9 PD. Very good athletic ability due to very good speed, change of direction, acceleration, and jumping. Very good at jamming the receiver at the line of scrimmage. Very good back pedal. Very good in man coverage. He stays stride for stride with the receiver, or will use his very good closing quickness. Fluid hips. Very good at timing with swatting the ball down. Spano is also a corner that tackles and you can see he takes pride in it on film. Spano's film thoroughly impressed me, and this junior is putting himself in conversation with the top defensive backs in Colorado.     Posey measures in at 5'8 160-pounds, and is a very shifty running back. He has 125 carries for 789 yards with 6 touchdowns, and 13 receptions for 73 yards. Posey has good athletic ability due to very good speed, change of direction, good acceleration, and balance. He has a good quick start. Posey is more of a weaver than a power back. He is shifty and elusive making defenders miss with his very good juke move and dynamic cuts. He has good vision. Very good outside running. He is also a weapon coming out of the backfield due to his good catching. Keep an eye on him.     Dattilo has been killing it as the co-kicker for Cherry Creek. The 6'1 180-pound junior has 18 kickoffs, 15 TBs for 1167 yards with his longest being 77 yards. In the PAT game, he is 17/18. Dattilo has very good kick power. He launches the ball downfield with ease. Very good leg control. Very good time from snap to kick. He stays calm under pressure and makes the kick. Very good kick accuracy as well. On kickoffs, he has very good hang time, and consistently kicks it in the back of the endzone. With only 3 of his kicks getting returned on the year. He's an exciting young prospect that will continue developing into a top Colorado kicker.     Jones has been making an impact on both sides of the ball. The 6'0 180-pound athlete has 22 receptions for 316 yards and 4 touchdowns, with 45 total tackles (22 solo, 23 assisted), 1 TFL, 3 INT, and 4 PD. Jones has good athletic ability due to very good acceleration, speed, good change of direction and jumping. On the defensive side, he runs with a head full of steam like a heat seeking missile. Very good reactionary speed. Very good in run support and very good tackling. He's one of the first players to create contact with the running back, and he's a deep safety. Wow. Good strength and a hard hitter. Jones is also good at jamming the wide receiver at the line of scrimmage. He's a versatile safety, and I love how he plays defense.

With as many players that are covered each year, a handful still sift through the cracks. On the national scale, Colorado is seen as a “fly-over” state and even the highly recruited CO players fly under the radar nationally undeservingly. Today's article will dive into the hidden gems of our great box state, and highlight their talents.