Over the past year Jarren Williams has made quite the climb up the Rivals rankings, going from a three-star to one of the nation’s top 100 players. But on Monday, the Miami signee struggled to find his rhythm, making several errant passes and just having an overall inconsistent performance. Playing alongside five-star Georgia native Trevor Lawrence, Williams has every chance to show this week that he’s the best quarterback from the Peach State, but things didn’t get off to a great start.
There is no question Williams has a live arm and can fire it all over the field but on Day 1, the four-star Miami signee struggled with high throws and it didn’t get much better as the day went on. The Lawrenceville (Ga.) Central Gwinnett recruit was not missing receivers with overthrows that went uncaught but he was not hitting them in the numbers, either, and the ball sailed a few times more than the other quarterbacks. That might be a little nitpicky but all the quarterbacks were solid in an indoor setting. Williams did show nice accuracy throwing on the run but when he was standing in the pocket on numerous occasions the ball was not right on the money.
The East wide receiver corps isn’t the tallest but they are extremely explosive. The best of the group was clearly Miami signee Mark Pope. He isn’t too small, has a ton of pop in his plant foot and does a great job creating separation in his route-running with subtle shoulder and head fakes. Pope routinely made East defensive backs look slow and got them tripping over themselves.
The trio of Taron Vincent, Jayson Ademilola and Nesta Silvera gave offensive linemen fits throughout practice. All three did a good job getting penetration and chasing down plays from the backside. Vincent, an Ohio State signee, did a good job shedding blocks and got better as the practice went on. Ademilola, a future Notre Dame defensive lineman, was strong at the point of attack and made a lot of tackles in the middle of the field. Silvera, an unsigned Miami commit, played with a lot of energy and made a lot of plays on the edge.