Phil Elmassian is a former college coach with a lot of stops under his belt - he was a Defensive Coordinator at Va Tech, Boston College, LSU, and West Va. He was a position coach at UVa, Syracuse, Nebraska, Purdue. In other words, he's been around.
Elmassian was on a local talk show here in Virginia yesterday. He had taken a Virginia Top 25 list put out by Doug Doughty, and he looked at on-line film of each of those 25 kids. Three of our signees were on the list (parentheses shows where Doughty ranked them) ... Sulaiman Kamara (14), Tra Redd (22), and LaRonde Liverpool (24). Interestingly to me, two that I hear our coaches are really excited about (Basham and Dortch) did not make Doughty's Top 25, so Elmassian didn't evaluate them. (Doughty had Basham at 35 and Dortch at 49.)
He reranked Doughty's list, and Elmassian places Redd at #10 in the state, Liverpool at #12, and Kamara at #17. He was effusive in his praise of each of them as well as his praise of Coach Clawson.
Here are a couple of comments ...
Redd ... "one of my favorite guys" ... "not a good tackler, a great tackler, a finisher" ...good stride length ... could be a receiver, d-back, or kick returner ... if he's intelligent and hard-working, could start as a freshman.
Liverpool ... says if he can put on 35 or 40 pounds, could be a standout defensive tackle ... says the extra weight should not change the 4.8/4.9 speed and would make him a "perfect" d-tackle (4.8/4.9 speed is unremarkable for a lb, he said, but would be terrific for a dt)... said "I love to recruit kids like this."
Kamara ... "I like this kid" ... called him "good, solid" and said "his motor is ridiculous - he comes off the bus running" ... says he is short-armed and without a lot of growth potential but is very physical.
Elmassian was on a local talk show here in Virginia yesterday. He had taken a Virginia Top 25 list put out by Doug Doughty, and he looked at on-line film of each of those 25 kids. Three of our signees were on the list (parentheses shows where Doughty ranked them) ... Sulaiman Kamara (14), Tra Redd (22), and LaRonde Liverpool (24). Interestingly to me, two that I hear our coaches are really excited about (Basham and Dortch) did not make Doughty's Top 25, so Elmassian didn't evaluate them. (Doughty had Basham at 35 and Dortch at 49.)
He reranked Doughty's list, and Elmassian places Redd at #10 in the state, Liverpool at #12, and Kamara at #17. He was effusive in his praise of each of them as well as his praise of Coach Clawson.
Here are a couple of comments ...
Redd ... "one of my favorite guys" ... "not a good tackler, a great tackler, a finisher" ...good stride length ... could be a receiver, d-back, or kick returner ... if he's intelligent and hard-working, could start as a freshman.
Liverpool ... says if he can put on 35 or 40 pounds, could be a standout defensive tackle ... says the extra weight should not change the 4.8/4.9 speed and would make him a "perfect" d-tackle (4.8/4.9 speed is unremarkable for a lb, he said, but would be terrific for a dt)... said "I love to recruit kids like this."
Kamara ... "I like this kid" ... called him "good, solid" and said "his motor is ridiculous - he comes off the bus running" ... says he is short-armed and without a lot of growth potential but is very physical.
