Music City Mayhem: Top 5 Standouts from 14U

<p>The Music City Mayhem 7v7 tournament kicked off on Saturday, and there was plenty of good young football talent participating in the 14U classification to create a very high-level and competitive atmosphere around the first day of the event.</p>   <p>Several players stood out and will be intriguing to watch for a second day in a single elimination style playoff bracket, but these five young prospects flashed a large amount of potential already this weekend and made themselves hard to ignore from the jump.</p>   <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">2030 QB [player_tooltip player_id='1051781' first='Caleb' last='Johnson'] (NPA Dream Team)</h2>   <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1051781' first='Caleb' last='Johnson'] has long been an exciting young quarterback prospect in the mid-state and getting the opportunity to see him compete in-person for the first time certainly did not disappoint, eventually having to quit mentioning every high-level pass because I was becoming repetitive.</p>   <p>He is a consistent high-level playmaker that can break apart secondaries with his play recognition, anticipation and arm talent. He has the arm to make all the throws over the middle of the field and his ability to hit his targets as they became open led to the NPA Dream Team offense dismantling opposing defenses.</p>   <p>Johnson is an exciting young prospect inside Tennessee that has the skillset that changes the dynamism of an offense and that was on full display loud and clear on Saturday morning.</p>   <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">2030 TE [player_tooltip player_id='2147935' first='Karrson' last='Wimley'] (NPA Black)</h2>   <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2147935' first='Karrson' last='Wimley'] was an intriguing receiving threat on my radar with a large catch radius, but he blew my expectations out the water, showing up with a strong frame and natural movement ability that made him impossible to cover.</p>   <p>He has a wide, strong frame while standing around 6'2-6'3 with an explosive vertical jumping ability that made him the best red-zone threat in the entire classification and will be something that can immediately translate to the high school level.</p>   <p>While he might be big, strong and a plus vertical athlete, he is so much more than just that. He was snapping off hitch routes as well as anyone and my immediate thought was 'this is just unfair.' He has a well-rounded skillset for his age and is someone that the Tennessee high school football scene needs to know <em>right now</em>.</p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/shaynep_media/status/2032856739494658493?s=20 </div></figure>   <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">2030 DB [player_tooltip player_id='2091895' first='Juice' last='Sims'] (TN Brigade)</h2>   <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2091895' first='Juice' last='Sims'] was a young prospect I had heard about in Chattanooga, but had yet to see any highlights of him to this point, so he was someone I looked forward to watching and he was another prospect that was far better than I could have anticipated.</p>   <p>He has good size for his age with the athleticism to play the position and match the receivers lined up across from him. He showed flashes of being excellent in the half-turn already, showcasing an ability to mirror receiving threats while working downfield.</p>   <p>I should clarify that is if a receiver could even get downfield against him, as Sims is very physical and can run people off the line of scrimmage from the second the play starts. The best part about it is that he is physical without being grabby which shows in the fact that he does not get penalized. He is a very exciting young defensive back that should add <em>another</em> exciting prospect for the future at Tyner.</p>   <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">2030 QB [player_tooltip player_id='2112089' first='Marshall' last='Manning'] (TN Brigade)</h2>   <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2112089' first='Marshall' last='Manning'] has the pressure to perform at every single thing he does and he handles it as well as any young athlete possibly could, shining throughout the day while focusing on translatable attributes and leading his team's offense throughout the day.</p>   <p>With his father Peyton Manning being the offensive coordinator, Marshall has developed a nice rhythm with good mechanics in the offense, going through the dropback process with excellent footwork and throwing open receivers. </p>   <p>The velocity, anticipation and location were all impressive for a young signal caller today and once his receivers adjusted, the offense was hard to stop for any opposing defenses. Manning is being developed for the long haul and he showed that he is starting to breakthrough in his development on Saturday.</p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/shaynep_media/status/2032858955316130057?s=20 </div></figure>   <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">2030 WR/DB [player_tooltip player_id='2145695' first='Kyler' last='Harper'] (TN Vultures)</h2>   <p>The best thing about covering this age group is that you discover new prospects to put on your radar and receiver/defensive back [player_tooltip player_id='2145695' first='Kyler' last='Harper'] is the prospect that showed up early and caught my attention on Saturday.</p>   <p>He has a good frame for his age with a strong combination of long speed and ball skills. That made him dangerous on both sides of the ball throughout the day and was a versatile weapon that the TN Vultures team could move around the formation.</p>   <p>He will be a player I will make it a point to watch during the playoff bracket on Sunday morning, but the young core that Brentwood Academy has coming up to replace this loaded 2027 class on their team has the ability to maintain the recent success and keep the program rising back to their previous ranks amongst the state.</p>

The Music City Mayhem 7v7 tournament kicked off on Saturday, and there was plenty of good young football talent participating in the 14U classification to create a very high-level and competitive atmosphere around the first day of the event.