I have heard a lot of chatter about Sam Holcomb (QB for Brother Rice) so I watched film on some of his games vs Loyola and Mt Carmel, and I have to say with 100% certainty that he is the best QB prospect I have ever seen in the last 30 years! He has such maturity and poise, great pocket presence and movement within the pocket, and his timing and accuracy is fantastic. He is a true duel threat QB and great at both throwing and when he needs to run he runs hard! I have never seen a freshman ever play that well, plus he is leading a top 3 team in the state and that comes with a lot of pressure! Hopefully he stays at Brother Rice for all 4 years and we get the privlidge to watch and enjoy him play. Hopefully he does not transfer to a national team (ex: IMG) and stays in Illinois! He has the be the best Freshman QB in the nation and will absolutely get offers from every Power 5 team! Hoepfully Illinois can develop and train more Freshman QB's like Sam in the future, very excited to follow his career at Brother Rice, college, and NFL!
Sam Holcomb - best QB prospect I've ever seen
- Thread starter AwGabJazz
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With NIL deals being what they are and CCL students now being allowed to leave after Christmas (if credits achieved) I think top teams won't have to fear losing National talent to IMG anymore unless they play for a bad team.
What big names have left for IMG? JJ McCarthy for this senior year who claims it was because of Covid, very possible it was.
Carnell Tate after his freshman year at Marist, spent 3 years at IMG. He left on the Covid flyer too but guessing for 3 years he was going to go anyways. He lived in a rough area of Chicago, his Mom was shot and killed a couple years ago in a fly by shooting in that neighborhood so him getting out of the neighborhood was his best bet.
MC had two.....Houston Griffith in 2015 and Verdis Brown in 2016. When they left Griffith had an offer to ND and Brown had an offer to U of I. They both ended up at those respective schools. But leaving then was for playing at a National Level against top opponents weekly to see where they stand outside of Illinois. Griffith had a good career at ND until Kyle Hamilton came in and got his spot and being Kyle Hamilton is was rightfully so. Griffith played in some packages. He is now the DB coach at U of I, his Dad Howard's Alma Mater. Brown struggled with grades and being bounced between OL and DL and never materialized. Finished at Campbell University I believe.
I think Holcomb stays. Unless he really hates school, IMG is an on line Oasis. But he will have plenty of offers and NIL thrown at him so might as well stay and have a normal HS life. I do believe since he re-classified he can skip his senior year if he has the credits to get a diploma. I'm not sure this re-classifying is all new to me
What big names have left for IMG? JJ McCarthy for this senior year who claims it was because of Covid, very possible it was.
Carnell Tate after his freshman year at Marist, spent 3 years at IMG. He left on the Covid flyer too but guessing for 3 years he was going to go anyways. He lived in a rough area of Chicago, his Mom was shot and killed a couple years ago in a fly by shooting in that neighborhood so him getting out of the neighborhood was his best bet.
MC had two.....Houston Griffith in 2015 and Verdis Brown in 2016. When they left Griffith had an offer to ND and Brown had an offer to U of I. They both ended up at those respective schools. But leaving then was for playing at a National Level against top opponents weekly to see where they stand outside of Illinois. Griffith had a good career at ND until Kyle Hamilton came in and got his spot and being Kyle Hamilton is was rightfully so. Griffith played in some packages. He is now the DB coach at U of I, his Dad Howard's Alma Mater. Brown struggled with grades and being bounced between OL and DL and never materialized. Finished at Campbell University I believe.
I think Holcomb stays. Unless he really hates school, IMG is an on line Oasis. But he will have plenty of offers and NIL thrown at him so might as well stay and have a normal HS life. I do believe since he re-classified he can skip his senior year if he has the credits to get a diploma. I'm not sure this re-classifying is all new to me
I won’t outright say you are completely over exaggerating but it’s important to keep in mind that Illinois is having an amazing few years with Trae Taylor, Izzy Abrams, and Jake Nawrot. If you go by 24/7 sports Illinois has produced the #1 qb (Taylor) and #2 qb in the nation (Abrams) for the class of 2027. I don’t think Illinois has ever had qbs ranked that high and I would say both have first round NFL draft potential. Jonas Williams also is no slouch and can’t wait to see him play next year.
We will see where Sam ends up but I can see him also being a top 10/top 5 qb recruit. He doesn’t have the pure arm talent right now of those 3 but he is a freshman. It would be nice if Illinois could ever land one of these kids
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Verdis Brown was one of the scariest guys I’ve ever seen on the field. Unfortunate he played when MC was in a bit of a down year. I remember when they played Montini and Montini won in a last second thriller. Montini was driving to win the game and they put him in on D to rush the qb and the only reason he didn’t get a sack was because he tripped. No one could block him. That’s a guy that I thought would for sure go big time.
You make some good points, and I would agree that Jonas Williams, Trae Taylor, Izzy, and even Jake Nawrot are all great QB's and I am proud to say they were homegrown in Illinois. But none of them as Freshman from what I remember were as good as Holcomb! Sam is a High School freshman and I would argue is just as good now as the four QB's we just mentioned. Again, all great QB's, just my humble opinion
I think Jonas and Trae both played freshman year but I may be wrong on that. Izzy started sophomore year. I think it’s hard to say because Sam doesn’t play in an offense that lets him show his deep ball talent as often and I haven’t seen the same caliber of throws but not saying he can’t make them. It will be fun to see his talent play out. I hope he gets better and better every year. He looks the most physically developed of all of them.
That fact that you’re making that claim after only seeing him on film is….total BS.
Jonas tore it up as a freshman at B-Brook.
Holcomb is going to be a great QB and we may very well see him play on Sundays. This is going to come worse then I intend it too but he's not your ordinary Freshman. Yes he re-classified but that's not the reason. He's been trained since he could probably walk to be a QB. His Dad is a personal QB trainer, he owns his own QB training facility. He was JJ McCarthys personal QB coach (How did Naz miss out on him?). Again nothing wrong with any of this, he's very fortunate to have this type of training readily available and it seems to be paying off, but he is light years more advanced then any Freshman in the State.....ever! JJ didn't even start on Varsity until his Sophomore year.
Respectfully disagree. I am not available on Friday nights so I watch and evaluate players from film. I have just as much data (if not more) to make that claim by watching film and plays multiple times then from being at the games. Again, just my opinion saying that as a Freshman he is the best I have ever seen, as you know things can change but based on what I have seen, he is absolutely the best QB prospect I've seen in my 30 years of being around HS football!
I did not know that he reclassified, I assumed he was a true freshman. Even if he did and is supposed to be a sophomore, his skills and performance speak for themselves and he would be a top 3 Quarterback in the state of Illinois right now. I did know that his Dad is a QB coach and that clearly is an advantage for him, but he still clearly has the mental capacity and athletiscism and measurables (height, weight, speed, etc.) to be a great QB! If he didn't have those things even with the best training in the world it wouldn't matter. If he can graduate in 3 years from HS I think it makes sense to go to college a year early as he has the skills right now to be a Power 5 QB!
If you are going to compare him to JJ, understand that he was older starting his first game as a freshman than JJ was starting his first game as a sophomore.
He may be the next prospect to come out of IL but I see two things potentially working against him.
1. He is physically a man. I saw him up close last year when my son played him he is very nice kid by the way but he is already physically mature. I’m not sure how much growth and strength he can add on, typically with high school kids this isn’t the case.
2. He has been coached for so long I don’t know how much improvement he can get in skill development, typically kids don’t start scratching the surface until high school but he is way ahead of the curve.
He is obviously a great player but it’s really tough to tell if he is near his ceiling or if he will blow right by the two points I brought up.
1. He is physically a man. I saw him up close last year when my son played him he is very nice kid by the way but he is already physically mature. I’m not sure how much growth and strength he can add on, typically with high school kids this isn’t the case.
2. He has been coached for so long I don’t know how much improvement he can get in skill development, typically kids don’t start scratching the surface until high school but he is way ahead of the curve.
He is obviously a great player but it’s really tough to tell if he is near his ceiling or if he will blow right by the two points I brought up.
If you have ever coached freshman football you have seen kids that show up with facial hair and dominate only to improve minimally over 4 years. Physically he looks stronger then some of the other top prospects already who are Seniors.
Sam has been destined for this and so much more. You have to remember he was featured on ESPN about parents starting too early with kids. His dad was my QB in semi-pro and is one of the best QB trainers around. I suggest any parent of a QB to check out Next Level QB training.
Completely correct assessment. It’s hard to tell what his ceiling is because guys like Trae and Izzy were physically leaner and had to develop and made significant strides. It’s hard to know if Sam can get much better like those two could. And can he close the gap in arm talent? Watch his film and watch film from Trae and Izzy and there is still a massive gap. This is normal but the question is if he can close that gap. In my opinion he has the highest floor but the lowest ceiling of either of those guys.
He projects to be a good quarterback for a power 4 program but let’s see how he develops. Just seems a bit hyperbolic to say he is the best qb prospect you've seen in 30 years when we have 2 top 3 qb’s in the entire nation as Illinois products this year. He has time to get there and I think junior year we can start to make statements but I’m not going to say that after he went 8 of 15 for 150 yards even if it is against MC.
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Having coached jr high QB’s through seniors in college….I’ll say it again, CMON MAN.
You must be an amazing coach if you never had a player plateau.
What film are you watching? Have you ever seen Sam throw? I would bet a lot of money he is leaps and bounds ahead of where either of them were when they were 15, and is right there with them now.
You are delusional but I will forgive it because I too enjoy getting caught up in hype.
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To be fair, their soph tapes looked better than I anticipated. I overstated the comparison, but the point remains there is no issue in arm talent.
It may not show on Hudl yet as he has played better competition without the aid of power 4 WR’s.
I do agree with your point about him not yet being the best prospect with the talent you named out of IL. Just saying there is no arm talent gap
It may not show on Hudl yet as he has played better competition without the aid of power 4 WR’s.
I do agree with your point about him not yet being the best prospect with the talent you named out of IL. Just saying there is no arm talent gap
That’s fair. I just haven’t seen it yet bc he tends to not throw the ball as much. Maybe 10-15 times a game. I just don’t like crowning a freshman as a top prospect that hasn’t been seen in 30 years because it tends to do more harm than good. I don’t doubt he will be a top 10 qb. I was just pointing out that we have had some pretty darn good one’s with rocket arms and I think Sam is a very different player with his own strengths and weaknesses.
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