Cal football recruiting top target: Jalil Tucker
Who are the Bears looking at in-state?
At the moment, the in-state California offers have been sparse. With the state’s 2020-21 football high school season starting up, there should be more movement on that front.
But there seem to be four clear targets that the Bears are looking to land commitments from in these early stages. We’ll be doing a weekly rundown of the top national prospects Cal is going after, starting in the home state!
San Diego (Ca.) athlete Jalil Tucker (Hudl sophomore highlights, tape from this year)
247Composite Ranking: 139th in the nation, 11th best athlete, 11th best California prospect
Tucker is one of the most coveted talents on the West Coast, and already holds nine Pac-12 offers. Tucker is primarily being recruited as a defensive back because of his ranginess, lending well to the safety position, but he’s more than capable of playing as either a cornerback or wide receiver. Tucker was very high on Oregon a year ago, but with two former Oregon assistants in Keith Heyward and Tre Watson now at Cal, could the Bears make some movement here? An Ohio State offer could also end things, as Tucker cites the Buckeyes as his dream school.
Here’s SGBear with the scouting report:
Jalil is raw, uncut speed.
Jalil’s self-declared 4.26 40-yard and 10.3 100 yard times aren’t official, so it’s hard to know how fast he really runs. However, he ran 100 meter times on freshman track that were as fast as Jahvid Best as a freshman and faster than Reggie Bush. He’s fast enough to be talking about potential for elite speed. My eyeballs tell me he’s really fast.
His high-school coaches leveraged his strength, so the first half of his sophomore highlight tape is vertical routes against soft coverage with the occasional bubble screen. As a result, he racked up a ridiculous 26 YPC as a sophomore and scored nearly every third ball he caught. He’s got good height (6’1”), but is less of a leaper than someone who is super athletic to fight when the ball is near. He gets his eyes, body, and hands in position to catch a ball – even if it is thrown offline. This was punctuated by recent 7-on-7 tape that had him making difficult catches. He would make the perfect complement to a c/o 2022 QB with a cannon-arm who can throw a ball hard/far enough for someone this fast - Justyn Martin.
His defensive tape is also very impressive. He has very fluid hips, which allows him to transition back into coverage to blanket his receiver. And while he didn’t play safety, I certainly think he has the potential to be an NFL caliber safety due to his speed and athleticism a la Ashtyn Davis.
Prediction: Ohio State if they offer, ASU/Oregon/Washington if they don’t. Cal a dark horse if we make some noise this season.
Nice write-up Avi & SG, ty.
Sounds like he would be a great pick-up and an impact player for the Bears. Can't coach speed.