College Football Recruiting: Concord 3* DB Lu-Magia Hearns announces commitment to California
Hometown Hero!
Lu-Magia Hearns, a 5-11, 175 lb defensive back at De La Salle, has committed to the California Golden Bears. Hearns picked the Bears over offers from Cal Poly, Columbia, Georgetown, Florida Atlantic, and Sacramento State.
The Bearsā recruiting staff offered Hearns yesterday, August 5th, and he was ready to pull the trigger today.
Hearns attends the NorCal powerhouse school De La Salle.
His father, Lu Hearns, was a star at Pittsburg during the 1990s.
Hearns played wide receiver and defensive back at De La Salle, but reports state that defensive back coach Marcel Yates wants Hearns to play the nickel role, most recently occupied by former Bear Traveon Beck.
Hearns is the Bearsā 16th commit of the 2021 class and the fourth defensive back (joining Hunter Barth, Fatuvalu Iosefa, and Kaleb Higgins).
Watch his Hudl highlight reel here.
Welcome to Berkeley, Lu-Magia! GO BEARS!
Lu Magia Hearns
De La Salle HS, Concord CA
slot WR & DB
No star consensus. Low 3-star (80) on 247. Likely to be 2-3 star consensus because of how the star system works
Lu Magia Hearns is an interesting below-the-radar recruit. Before Cal, FAU was the only FBS offer he had.
He was present at Cal's Junior Day hosted back in January. He fits the mold of Cal, which is to go to more successful high-school programs and recruit some of the best players on the team who can academically make it at Berkeley. Few high school FB programs are more successful than DLS.
But he is small. Junior HS he was 5'10" 160 lbs, which means that he could have been even smaller. Esteemed contributor Fire Starkey reported that he was a late developer, but you can still see in the recent videos that he is still short and small. But he fits the mold of Traveon Beck and a few other guys from the Takers who were high school scrubs whose main attributes were hearts bigger than lions and a burning drive to be competitive despite what they looked like as highschool juniors.
And then there are his stats. As a sophomore, he had 46 yards on 2 rushes and 280 yards on 14 receptions with 3 TD. As a junior, he had 439 yards on 29 receptions (15/ypc) with 2 TDs. Not very impressive, so what gives? First, De La Salle was very run heavy with a QB that was a sub 0.600 completion rate. Lu lead the Spartans with catches and second in yards and TDs. DLS does not report defensive stats.
And then there's speed. Lu ran an 11.93 in the 100m in March 2019, which is not very fast for a high school sprinter, let alone a P5 recruit. But he was a sophomore. For reference, Jahvid Best - a real burner ran 10.88 as a high school sophomore, before running 10.39 the next season. A lot can happen in two years of growing.
So let's go to the tape. http://www.hudl.com/v/2Bk8W5
His tiny size is readily apparent on his tape. About half the reel is offense as a slot receiver, half defense as a DB. I ignored the highlights where he sprang free due to play-action, but it was the screens were exciting. He had very good field presence to where the holes were and showed VERY good balance to gain extra yards. Not fast enough to consistently pull away, but agile. The defensive highlights were a weird mix of him making great plays and him getting beat but having favorable outcomes. From what I can tell, very good DB skills, but he gave up a lot of disadvantage due to his size and will almost certainly be a nickel. But he certainly punched way about his literal weight and height as he seemed to have little extra dynamic efforts, little flairs, little tricks he would pull out of his sleeve to be competitive. You could just feel people holding their breath because they're waiting for something special.
And that specialness was rewarded because he was 2nd team all state by Max Preps.
I also wanted to see how he fared against top opponents, so I looked at the DLS/Bosco highlights, a game that the Spartans got torched 49-29. https://www.hudl.com/video/2/17022/5df7a56bb018970eb089554e
It appears that Hearns got beat on the first score, but otherwise was pretty solid.
Then we look at the game vs. St. Thomas Aquinas.
First of all, Jeebus Effing Tapdancing Christ... Aquinas had MONSTERS across the entire team. They absolutely overwhelmed DLS with size and power - but not because of Hearns. Seriously, their O-line is from left to right 6-6/305 (3* Boston College), 6-6/305 (4* FSU-lean), 6-3/285 (3* AF), 6-5/305 (3* LSU), 6-6/305 (4* LSU). Can you imagine having a high school football team so blessed in personnel that your BACKUP O-line are all over 6-3" 285 and two are 3 stars and getting scholarships at Pitt and FIU.
https://www.hudl.com/video/2/22383/5d7a873c02bc93159cdf1cbc
For sure, he's a dark horse, but who am I to question what GA started and Marcel Yates has taken forward.
Welcome Lu-Magia! His addition moves CAL to #30 in the 2021 Recruiting Rankings on 247. If we sign Derek Wilkins on Sunday we will move to 22nd if others ahead of us don't change. Go Bears!!