For those of you that do follow recruiting, I’m sure you’ve already heard that Cal got a football commitment.  For those of you who don’t follow recruiting, then I’m telling you that Cal got a new football commitment.  Why should you care?  

Well, he was named Co-MVP of the Nike Camp in L.A. 

For those of you that don’t know about the Nike Camp in L.A., well, it’s like… a big deal.  Basically a bunch of really good high school kids converge on one location to run drills and compete against each other in front of scouts in hopes to get noticed and get scholarships.

So who is this stud Co-MVP stud?  Meet QB Allan Bridgford of Mission Viejo High School.  

Here’s his Scout and Rivals profile.   

What do you need to know about him?  Well, he’s a junior.  Meaning he still has to play his senior year in high school.  This is a significant point to point out.  Why?  Well, Tedford & Co.  are very selective when it comes to offering juniors in high school.  Usually JT & Co. like to wait until the recruit’s senior year to see how they fair before offering.  Only a select few elite recruits get offered as juniors.  The fact that Bridgford got a scholarship this early speaks volumes as to how highly regarded he must be by the Cal staff.  

Want evidence of his capabilities?  In Bridgford’s junior season he threw for 2500 yards, and 22 TDs on about 290 attempts.   In this Scout interview, Bridgford reported was throwing at an 80% completion percentage towards the end of his junior season.  For those of you who aren’t stat junkies, that’s a very very good completion percentage.  65% is considered par.  Anything above 70% is great. 

What’s also interesting about Bridgford is that he apparently told the Cal coaches they could stop recruiting QBs because he committed.  So this brings up the question, is Cal really only taking one QB in this recruiting class?  Remember, Cal recently had former Cal QB Kyle Reed transfer to San Jose State.  This leaves only 4 scholarship QBs on the roster come fall (Longshore, Riley, Mansion, Sweeney).  Tedford has publicly stated that he likes to recruit one QB every year.  So will he recruit another QB this year to replace the loss of Reed?  I wish I had an answer.  Things get pretty crowded when you have 5 scholarship QBs on roster (most of which are Elite 11 QBs) when only one can play in the game.  Only keeping 4 scholarship QBs should prevent too much of an overcrowding and somewhat minimize losses due to transfers.  So this question of whether Cal will recruit another QB is something to chew on between filing court motions or pencil pushing. 

Thoughts On Recruiting Videos
(videos available at Bridgford’s Rivals’ profile page - premium subscription required).

First:  The first thing that popped out to me in his videos was his composure in the pocket.  He looked relaxed.  Calm.  Poised.  He didn’t look rattled or have jittery feet. 

Second:  He appeared to have good footwork.  Lots of clean dropbacks without false steps.  Little to none wasted lower body motion. 

Third:  Good eyes.  Bridgford can be seen reading the field in many of his clips.  His head turns from one side of the field to the other as he goes through his progressions to find the open receiver. 

Fourth:  Bridgford has great accuracy.  Of course, I was seeing his highlight tape with all his best throws, but if he can consistently do what he does in these highlight videos I think we’ve got ourselves one incredibly accurate QB.  Ball after ball was neatly placed at chest height when they needed to be or up high for the WR to go get it. 

Fifth: Bridgford seems to have a very effortless throwing motion.  It almost seems slow although it’s probably not.  It’s just not the fastest motion but he sure does still get a decent amount of velocity on the ball despite the effortless looking throw.  I imagine if he did really put his arm into the throw if needed he could really throw a bullet but the videos really didn’t show much of that.  Clearly, from his videos he appears to be more of a touch passer.  His balls have a nice arcing trajectory - no Kyle Boller laser beams here.

Sixth: Nice mechanics.  Holds the ball well.  He does seem to have a bit of a 3/4ths release though.  It’s a little hard to tell in the videos.  It certainly doesn’t look to be quite a 100% overhand motion, but still efficient enough. 

Seventh:  Great timing.  Hits his WRs in stride. 

Eighth: decent speed.  He’s not going to beat out linebackers but he should be able to scramble for a few when the pocket breaks down.

Overall, he looks like a very very promising prospect and worthy of his Co-MVP L.A. Nike Camp title.  FYI, who did Bridgford Co-MVP with at the L.A. Nike Camp?  None other than #1 QB prospect Matt Barkley who is currently a Southern Cal commit (yeah, he’s so good he has his own Wiki page already).

Here’s a few more links to read and a good way to waste your employers’ time: 

ESPN: Barkley and Bridgford are the most talented QBs at the L.A. Nike camp;  

ESPN: Bridgford Scouting Report.