Film breakdown: Grimsley WR Alex Taylor has big play ability at 6

HighSchoolOT football analyst T.J. Thorpe breaks down the game film of Grimsley High School four-star wide receiver Alex Taylor, who he says has strength and the ability to change direction with good size at 6-foot-2.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to high school ot, I'm Nick Stevens along with high school OT football analyst. TJ Thorpe, everybody here is very excited. Football season is back. Uh, and TJ, we, we have a, uh, one of our best players in the state of North Carolina, uh preparing to make his college commitment. Alex Taylor, a four-star wide receiver at Grimsley height school. He was a state runner up last season, one of 2000 yard receivers for the Worley and he is about ready to tell us where he's going to school. Somebody's getting a really good receiver as a former receiver yourself or I don't know if you're ever a former receiver, retired receiver, something like that. I, I don't think you ever stop being a receiver. Um I just don't, I just don't put on pads anymore, so we, we can't, have you heard? Uh, well, tell us what you see in Alex Taylor, what makes him special? Well, first off, I'm not getting hurt with no high schoolers. That's the first thing. Um, shout out to Kevin Reddit. Oh man. All right. Um Alex Alex Taylor, let's see. Um, I, I don't see why any school wouldn't want him, uh, as a receiver. Uh, he's one of the guys you sent me his tape and I can honestly say I, I didn't need to look at it. There was no reason to, I saw everything I needed to see. Calling games on, sat on Fridays and I mean, you, you, you know how I felt about Grimsley's team in general. Um, but as y'all can see here, I mean, this, this guy is a high point nightmare and then you get your offer because you turn normal plays into touchdowns. As you can see here, this is, this is a poorly thrown ball, not so much when you know who your receiver is. And, and I mean, uh, you, you just see time and time again. He has a different nose for the football. His ball skills are, are ridiculous. I, I, I would compare his ball skills to an early like AJ green type of guy where you can just kind of throw it up to him. Uh, he'll make you right. You know, he's, he has some polishing to do right here as you can see on that slant, but bare bones, he steps on the guy's toes, he gets all the way to five yards. He finishes, you know, going towards through the catch, not fading away, you know, little things that obviously he's been coached well, but again, another slant step on his toes, five yards. Now go finish you know, you see, two defenders split that could have been a tackle, a catch for 5, 10 yards. Here we are, you know, first and goal. Um, right here again, you know, it's a simple, you know, switch release and then he has enough. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. See now if he was under 6 ft, he would have had to score that. But when you're 62, you know, we can just throw it back to you again. But little again, little plays, little short possession catches are turning into big plays at 62 though. It gives him some other advantages. Um I mean, at 62, you have a lot of room for air, a lot of room I did not have. Um And, and I've just just look at him right here, look at the strength and then he can change direction, make people miss, you know, I think that hold on one second. I heard something calling me. Oh man. Oh so yeah, as I was saying, I, I know that he's making a decision soon. I don't know where he's going. Um But I do know that the University of North Carolina lost Antoine Green to the NFL. And this guy right here looks a lot like AAA younger version of Antoine Green. 62 stretches the field, high points, the ball and then, you know, I, I just think that he looks good and white and blue I don't, I don't know, I don't know, it's just me but, but, but yeah, in case y'all were wondering, um, it's just a little piece of beauty, you know, whatever. So, so he is, uh, he is ranked the number three player in North Carolina by 27 sports. The number 6, 26 wide receiver in the nation is he number three as well for, for Grimsley, is he number three on the jersey? I think, I think he is. Ok. Go ahead. Continue number 1 54 nationally overall. So he's one of the top 200 players, uh, in the nation again, a four star player according to 24 24 7 sports. Uh, he's got a whole bunch of offers, I believe the latest, uh, information that we have from him is that he's narrowed his list of five schools that he will be picking between. Uh, my guess is he already knows which one he's picking, but I would assume I would assume he does, you know, I don't know which one. I don't know him personally. Um, but he's probably gonna be one of your TJ Thorpe show people. I would, I would assume so. I would assume so. I like going to Grimsley, his, his, his five schools that he's down to are NC State, Penn State, uh, Virginia Tech Clemson, uh UN C, um, I think if you look at the Crystal Balls that are out there on the recruiting websites, most people kind of think that he's leaning towards committing to the tar heels. Um If that were to be the case, how do you see him fitting in, in that system? As I said, um, Antoine Green, I think that, well, from what we've seen at UN C, you know, lost a lot of firepower on the edge. Um Big playmakers, Josh Downs again, Antoine Green, another one. I think just looking at it bare bones, you have some of the, as you mentioned TJ Thorpe show Christian Hamilton's there, you know, so you have some dynamic guys who can inside and out and, you know, get them the ball in space, let them do what they do. Uh But in terms of stretching the field, Drake May is a guy who has a big arm who can make a lot of big time throws as we've all seen. Um and having someone who can go up and make you right as a quarterback is, is huge, especially at the next level guys who can, you know, come down with the 50 50 ball, um that pays dividends. Um And then again, just being 62 at what may be 16, 17 years old, he's gonna grow a little bit more and once he feels out, grows a little bit more, I wouldn't be shocked if you see him on Fridays or Saturdays, Fridays, Thursdays, even in the Sundays. Um you know, anywhere around 6 to £220 guy. Um, and he's at 1 75 right now that I for sure know he's gonna play football this season at £190. I'm willing to bet that with anybody else. And, and the biggest thing they, I mean, just listening to his schools, you know, I'm a Carolina guy. I've, you know, over the summer I've spent some time in, in Raleigh. Um, and the another great staff, you know, another good school where he can develop, uh, you know, they have a good track record of developing players so he can develop there. They lost, you know, there they lost a good, you know, few guys to the transfer portal that were big targets. Um, and, and I think that that's something that he could also come in and fill there and then just, you know, and, you know, just showing you that I know what I'm talking about here guys. Uh, Marcus Haggins, Penn State coach. You didn't think I knew that. Well, funny thing is he was my coach at U VA. Funny, this is why we see how that happens, right. Funny how that happened. So I know he had, that is a, that might be the best coach I've ever had as a receiver, uh, Marcus Haggins and he was at U VA last year. Now, he's at Penn State, you know, so Penn State being in his running does not shock me. I cannot understand the V tech thing and I'm not going to, I'm a Virginia guy. So, whatever Clemson, we all know their track record. They put out receivers just as much as, as Ohio State it seems like in LSU. So I think that there's, you know, great, great opportunities everywhere. Um Hopefully he makes the right decision. Um I will let you, you know, I won't say what's the right decision, but hopefully he makes the right decision for him. Well, uh, just real quick before we get done talking here, uh, last season caught 65 passes just over 1000 yards, 12 touchdowns led the team in receptions and receiving touchdowns. Uh, again, one of 2, 1000 yard receivers on Grimsley's state runnerup team. He was on a high school team, Allstate team selection last season. Uh, and he also plays basketball. He averaged 7.7 0.6 0.7 rebounds, 4.4 assists per game for, for Grimsley's basketball team last season and TJ, just one last point here for you. Uh, we have you and I have been around talking to, uh, several college programs over the last several months, um, specifically about recruiting and one of the things that they all have in common is they talk about the importance of these multi sport athletes and how they look for the multi sport athletes because of all the signs of, you know, just general athleticism and the different things that you, that you learn and, and develop in different sports. Uh, how big a deal do you think that is for a guy like Alex Taylor? Um, well, Alex Taylor with those basketball numbers, I'm, I'm gonna give him buckets. So there's that. Um, but I think in all honesty, in all seriousness, I just spoke to a camp yesterday. Um, and that was my main point. I spoke to these, the, the college coaches and they all want multi sport athletes. And the reason being is these, these traits and characteristics and moves and cuts and going up and high pointing the ball. You can't tell me that a guy who averages seven rebounds or six, almost 10 rebounds a game isn't gonna go up and have high point, high point, a jump ball on the field. He's not far from a double, double. Exactly. You know what I mean? So, so at that point, I don't see how people can, you know, think for one minute that only one sport matters because again, if I'm looking at it and when I, even when I play, it keeps you in condition year round, you play multiple sports, you, you're getting coached by different people, you're learning how to be coach, you're learning how to work as a team with other people, other teammates outside of what your norm is. But again, you're fine tuning these skills. So hand eye coordination, if you're a receiver, you're catching passes in basketball, you play baseball I mean, it's even more hand eye coordination. Um, you know, in terms of releases, if you look at a lot of these new age coaches and releases for receivers, it's a lot of basketball drills. It's a lot of crossing over, it's a lot of change of direction because that is what you're doing at the line of scrimmage and releases. You know, the same thing. I was telling one kid, uh, when you think of a basketball player on defense, a lot of guys, when they force you left, force you left. So what do they do? They put their, their top foot up, their left foot up as a defender and they try to force you to your left problem is if you are in attack mode as a receiver or, you know, anything about getting a DB to flip his hips, ideally as a basketball player, I wanna attack the top foot immediately make the defender switch directions because at that point he's dead. Right. So all of these little, you know, things, kick keys, tips, points, all of those things are things that translate from sport to sport. And then the biggest piece is these coaches want to see that you have a competitive drive that's unmatched. Somebody who doesn't care if it's uno or if it's baseball or if it's football or if it's, you know, power walking, if you wanna go out and compete with the best of the best all the time. That's in your DNA. That's somebody that they want in their locker room. So if you're sitting at home thinking, hey, I'm just gonna be the best football player. Hey, that's cool. But understand if I'm looking at your tape and I look and see, you only play football, you better be polished as all get out. Like, you better be the best football player I've seen because that's what I would assume if you're not playing basketball every day of the week, you're playing football, you're practicing football, you're doing something with your sport. So everybody get out and get active. I mean, jeez, uh, no one, no one's ever offered me a scholarship because of my unit skills though. I will say that, I mean, is ability guys and, and, and emotional control I think goes go hand in hand in college if you ever ever gotten a, a draw for thrown on you when you have UNO, that takes a lot of emotional, uh, oh man. All right. Well, TJ Thorpe, a dual sport athlete himself also football and basketball, right? And a UNO and UNO. Ok, so a great sport athlete in high school. Uh, we appreciate it and good luck, of course to Alex Taylor, no matter where he commits a four star wide receiver at a Grimsley high school. Somebody's getting a talented one, later today for TJ Thorp. I'm Nick Stevens. Thanks for watching. Let's go, Alex. Let's go, Alex