College Football Recruiting: Washington 3* OT William Reed announces commitment to California
謝謝 Angus
William Reed, a 6-5, 265 lb offensive tackle from Sammamish, Washington, has committed to California. Reed picked the Bears over offers from Michigan, Colorado, Duke, Michigan State, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and others.
Reed is a consensus 3* recruit. In a scouting report, national recruiting editor Brandon Huffman pointed out Reed’s athleticism and intelligence but noted that Reed needs to add strength.
Reed is the Bears’ tenth recruit of the 2021 class. He joins Bastian Swinney, from Minnesota, as incoming recruits for Coach Angus McClure’s #gOLdenbears. The more big boys in the trenches, the better.
Reed attends Eastside Catholic, where current Cal freshman DJ Rogers played. Last fall, Reed was the single non-senior starter on Eastside Catholic’s offensive line.
Reed also is a part of Ford Sports Performance, a Washington-based athletic center that produced Rogers and fellow Bear Justin Baker.
In his personal life, Reed has learned to speak Mandarin Chinese.
Watch his highlight reel on Hudl here.
Welcome to Berkeley, William! 金熊加油！
William Reed
c/o 2021
6-6” 265 lbs
Offensive Tackle
Eastside Catholic, Sammamish WA
Reed is an offensive tackle who plays for Washington high school FB powerhouse Eastside Catholic. EC has an absolutely loaded roster. Reed started as a junior at “only” 265 pounds beat out three other seniors who were over 300 pounds – so he’s doing something right. He also claims that he’s never given up a sack.
He’s a low 3-star recruit with 26 offers with 11 of those coming from P5 programs. A lot of the Ivies and other academic-focused schools offered him given his 3.8 GPA and 6 years of taking Mandarin. In other words, he’s a Cal type man. Let’s go to his tape:
https://www.hudl.com/video/3/11217784/5d8968f70428dc1214da3bd1
Key strengths are that he appears to be a legit 6’6” and the 265 is good body weight. He has a ton of upside with his body frame to add another 30-40 pounds of good weight and a bunch more quickness/explosiveness. His best weapon is his hand game. I would not be surprised if he has martial arts experience, because there were several highlights of him neutralizing his opponents through judo-like slaps/locks/twist/pushes. And it wasn’t the same tricks – a nice variety of tricks and counters. And decent upper body flexibility to attack opponent’s shoulders/momentum with twists. And there’s a little bit of nastiness in his game that I like. I think he’s got a ton of upside.
His challenges are that he was a high school junior still growing into a 6’6” frame, so he’s still developing in overall strength, needs improvement to his footwork, and conditioning issues. Conditioning may also be the root of why his set-up gets sloppy and becomes very easy to read what the next play is going to be. Likewise, he can be explosive, but seems to take plays off to power up. Sometimes he reaches rather than run to an opponent. S&C can fix a bunch of his issues.
He is a project player that you put on the scout team for 2 years to get 3 productive years out of him. But first, he still has his senior year ahead of him – if it ever gets played.
I also looked at the highlight tape of his teammate Jernias Tafia to see how he looked when it wasn’t his highlight reel. It didn’t change my mind, but reinforced my initial thought on his the strengths/weaknesses.
https://www.hudl.com/profile/8586157/Jernias-Tafia
Look… let’s be real. Cal has had several years of really great offensive line recruits who look better on tape and look good with the eyeball test… but tended to underperformed because of a mental mistakes. I, for one, welcome a clearly smart young man onto the team perchance for the online to turn the corner by having a lineman who can make fewer mistakes that blow up plays. Slow footwork can be fixed through training; slow minds cannot.
Welcome to Cal, William.
Putting that size on. Let’s go 💪🏾