College Football Recruiting: Carmichael 3* TE Keleki Latu announces commitment to California
The 18th commit of the 2021 class
Keleki Latu, a 6-6, 205 lb tight end from Carmichael, California, has committed to the California Golden Bears. Latu committed to the Bears over offers from USC, Oregon, Utah, Arizona State, and Nebraska.
Latu is a relative newcomer to the game of football. He is a consensus 3* recruit, and the 247Sports Composite rates him the 82nd tight end in the nation.
He was unable to attend offseason camps over the past couple years due to his participation in spring rugby.
Many of Latu’s Jesuit highlights depict Latu playing as an outside linebacker, but the Bears’ recruiting staff wants Latu to play tight end.
Cal fans, what traits for a tight end do you notice in Latu’s play? What side of the ball do you project he ends up dominating?
Watch his Hudl highlights here.
Welcome to Berkeley, Keleki! GO BEARS!
IMHO, he is a project player.
He was a 6'-3" 155 lb endomorph as a sophomore on the JV team, who grew to 6'6" 205 as a junior on the varsity team. Even though he packed on FIFTY pounds in one year, he was still a beanpole. He now is listed as 6'7" on his team's roster (which, I'm not inclined to believe). So let's say he's 6'6" with an unknown weight.
He will apparently play TE given that Tui and Musgrave are the ones who recruited him.
First, let's talk about the positives. You can't coach 6'6" or however tall he is now. Long arms and legs. Good first step and good motor.
But let's talk about the challenges. First, he has played only a single season of varsity ball, playing as a two way player as OLB and TE for only four games. Out of those 4 games, he had a single catch for 4 yards, so 0.25 catches per game and 4 YPC.
Let's look at his Hudl tape. For the life of me, I do not know why he put the very first play on his highlight reel. He goes out for a pass, looks over his shoulder, and then he stops just as he is thrown the ball. The pass shows up where he should have been and it is intercepted. But from the reaction of everyone on the sideline, it appears he steals the ball back for a fumble recovery. So good results on generally bad execution.
The next play is a block where he uses his long arms. The third play is a 10-yard go-route where he uses his height to catch a pass that otherwise might not be doable if he wasn't 6'-6", and is immediately tackled. The rest of his tape is him as DE. He played okay at DE, getting 19 tackles of which 6.5 were TFL in the 4 games reported. A bunch of his tackles from playing against a RPO offense that left him as the unguarded DE that you key off of deciding whether to pass or run. That 4.8 tackle/game average was second best on the team.
But, look, he's a high school kid who's growing into a new height and the strength, weight, and coordination has yet to catch up. A big old baby giraffe who's physically well behind the rest of his recruiting class to Cal. But speed, strength, hands, route running, and athleticism will perhaps develop later given how much energy his body has put into growing taller.
He clearly got tons of potential being that tall. He's got his senior year in the Spring (maybe), plus years of S&C to see if he can put the weight on. We certainly need a blocking TE and he has a giant frame on which to hang meat. Let's plant this seed and see if it blossoms into something special. A meat blossom.
What a wonderful opportunity! Welcome to Cal, Keleki!
Can't teach 6'6" !!!!