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Nation's top prospect is ... a center? Posted: Friday June 06, 2003 6:08 PM
Signing Day 2003 came and went, but there was no rest for the weary. With the advent of the Internet, recruiting is a year-round job and everyone jumps right back on the saddle to start the evaluation process all over again. It’s now June and time to start putting together all the prospect rankings after countless hours of film watching, Nike Training Camps from coast to coast, and spring practice. TheInsiders.com will wait until later this month to release our initial rankings, but the consensus with our team thus far is that Jeff Byers, from Fort Collins (Colo.) Loveland High School, could very well be the top prospect in the land. The amazing part is that Byers is an offensive lineman. Yes, he does play tackle but his best position is center. I think it’s safe to say that there never has been a center prospect as the nation’s No. 1 prospect -- at least not in football. Usually, it’s any position but offensive line that represents the No. 1 prospect. This season, there are super prospects at other positions, such as Anthony Morelli (QB), Adrian Peterson (RB), and Randy Estes (S), to just name a few. But it looks like our preseason No. 1 player could be a center from Colorado. Not only are we in agreement as a recruiting team, but coaches from coast to coast have been raving about Byers. Two different assistant coaches from top college football programs in the Southeast called Byers the best OL prospect they've seen. One West Coast coach said, “We have never, ever recruited a player this good as a coaching staff before. He is the best player we have ever seen at the high school level.” That’s high praise for Byers and the same thing many of us feel at TheInsiders.com. So what makes him so good? First of all, he could play on either side of the ball. Byers is also a dominant defensive tackle who could be an outstanding defensive player in college. But make no mistake, his future is on the offensive line. He is versatile enough to play any position on the line. For his high school team, he mainly plays center but also gets some time at tackle. Byers has very good size (6-foot-4, 270 pounds) and runs exceptionally well. He claims to run a 4.8 40-yard dash but he actually looks faster than that on film. Byers is a dominant drive blocker who drives the defender consistently 5-10 yards off the ball on every play. Byers pulls about 20 percent of the time and he is at his best blocking on the move. You even see him pancake block multiple defenders on a single play. As good a run blocker as he is, Byers is equally dominating in pass protection. From his center position he actually can execute a double read. This means after the ball is snapped, he instantly reads the middle linebacker. If the middle linebacker is not coming, Byers will slide over to the tackle position and pick up the pass protection there. I have never seen a high school center do that. As you can imagine, Byers is very advanced in blocking schemes and technique for a high school player. Part of that is due to coaching and the other part of that is Byers’s amazing athletic ability, smarts (3.96 GPA and 25 ACT) and instincts. Jeff Byers has a great future in front of him. He has scholarship offers from coast to coast and currently wide open with the recruiting process. He is considering such teams as Colorado, USC, UCLA, Tennessee, Miami, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas State, Texas and Stanford. Already he has taken unofficial visits to Stanford, Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Colorado State, USC, UCLA, and later this month will visit Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State. Barring a major injury, there is no telling just how far he can go and just how good he can become. It’s just noteworthy that an offensive lineman looks to be the nation’s top prospect and player and this one is a center. A center. Think about that. "It just makes me think that I still have a lot to prove this year to uphold that kind of status," Byers told TheInsiders.com. "I feel very honored to be regarded that way." More Recruiting Hot News from TheInsiders.com
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