SI All-American Tape Doesn't Lie: Prentice Will Bring Elite Skills to UW
For a week now, Owen Prentice has been trumpeted over and over by overeager University of Washington football fans and local recruiting analysts as a nonpareil offensive lineman, hype that typically accompanies each commitment.
There's an emotional involvement brought out by this side of college football that's hard for some to resist.
Every player is superhuman. Projected to lead the Huskies to the promised land. Deemed as the best of the best.
It's that way for every school. Recruiting is like an online dating service. They're all beautiful people.
In the case of Prentice, who hails from Seattle's O'Dea High School, this commitment coronation appears somewhat deserved for this important reason — it's also coming from an independent national source.
Sports Illustrated All-American.
In the accompanying video, SI's John Garcia and Edwin Weathersby II dissect the games of Ohio State commit Donovan Jackson and the UW's Prentice, whose evaluations can be accessed through the links. They're No. 2 and 10, respectively, on Sports Illustrated All-American's breakdown of the country's top schoolboy interior offensive linemen.
They have no stake in the player. They highly recommend him from what they see from his taped highlights.
"We just felt that Prentice's run-blocking ability, with his consistency, was pretty hard to match in this class," Garcia said.
The 6-foot-4, 285-pound Prentice projects as a guard on either side of the ball or at center.
The SI analysts note how easily Prentice gets out and pulls and traps, and plays with a welcome ferocity.
"On tape, he's very nasty at the point and makes opponents feel him," Weathersby said.
It's a second opinion that seems to verify what everyone else has been saying.
What's left is for Prentice to match it.
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