Scouting Report

To: Billy Dean

From: Ingram Yates

Subject: QB Analysis

Hey Billy,

Here is that analysis that you asked for, comparing those two kids at quarterback.  Let me know what you think!

Grayson Hemsley:

Billy, I cannot express enough how much I want this kid to be our next quarterback.  He’s the full package.  Where he’s lacking in braun he makes up for with brains and then some, he’s got the intangibles of a winner, and most of all, he comes from good people.  Full disclosure there, his dad Clyde and I went to St. Anthony’s together back in the day, (and if he has half the arm of his old man we are in for a treat) but I’ll obviously set that aside from my professional opinion.  

Starting with the numbers:

Height: 6’4

Weight: 240 

40 Yard Dash: 4.8 sec

GPA: 2.3

ACT: 34

Pass Yards / Touchdowns: 3400 / 35

Rush Yards / Touchdowns:  1365 / 10

2020 Season Outlook:

In his senior season at my alma mater St. Anthony’s, Grayson lit the Mississippi football world on fire.  The numbers speak for themselves, but I’ll throw in my two cents anyways.  He always made the right read, quick with all of his decisions, and that was reflected with his 3400+ yards passing and amazing THIRTY FIVE touchdowns.  Additionally, he’s deceptively quick for someone like him, racking up over 1000 yards rushing with 10 more trips to the end zone.  Not built like a speedster, but effective nonetheless.  He led the St. Anthony Rebels to the Mississippi state championship, and won it on our home field.  

What impressed me even more about the kid was what happened off the field this year, and I’d like to give two examples.

1. Immediately after leading the Rebels to the state championship, they named the kid Homecoming King (an award that I won myself back in ‘86) on the spot at midfield!  If this doesn’t tell you that he’s a natural born leader, I don’t know what will, and clearly all of his classmates see it as well.  The qualities of a Saint Anthony’s Homecoming King will transfer nicely to the quarterback position.  Fearless.  Ready for the spotlight.  Always exuding confidence (and having seen the Homecoming Queen I don’t blame the kid for being confident ;-) ). A true alpha.  A will to win.  I can go on and on.  Don’t overlook this when making your final decision.

2. Apparently, Saint Anthony’s was on track to have some kneelers this year.  They’re bussing some boys in from another town for the sole purpose to play on the football team, and they had decided that they were going to take some pre-game rituals from their old school and bring them to the Rebels.  Grayson saw the irony here, and called them out for their hypocrisy.  To claim that a nation that allows some poor kids from the wrong side of the tracks the chance to attend an elite institution such as Saint Anthony’s for FREE just because of a sport is in any way oppressive is ridiculous, and Grayson quickly put an end to this.  He gave the coach an ultimatum, saying if they kneel, he won’t play.  That’s exactly the kind of leader I want on my team.  This ultimately forced the coach to ban kneeling all together, and save Saint Anthony’s from a potential disgraceful showing.  Not only will Grayson end up on the right side of history here, but it shows immense character, leadership, and poise at such a young age.  He’s exactly what we want as the face of our team, and as a leader in the locker room.  

Professional Comparison:

On the field: Tom Brady

As I’ve said before, the kid is a natural born leader.  Some people just have “IT.”  It’s difficult to describe what “IT” is, but you either have it, or you don’t.  IT cannot be taught, and IT cannot be given, nor can it be taken away.  Tom Brady has that extra gear, that competitive drive, and will to win.  When the Patriots need a big play, when they need someone to come up clutch, Tom is there, ready for the moment.  He never looks shaken, never rattled, and in those moments he’s just at another level than everybody else.  I see a lot of the same in Grayson.  Whenever his team was put in a bad spot (which wasn’t very often thanks to his stellar play), Grayson would come through.  While a lot of that has to do with his football ability, even more of that can be accounted for by his unparalleled leadership.  He has the uncanny ability to stay calm, cool, and collected even under the brightest of lights.  I’ve never once seen him lose his head, or shrink in the moment.  He lives for the big stage, and that level of confidence is contagious.  When he shines, his team shines with him.

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Off the field: Pat Tillman

Grayson resembles a patriot off the field as well, and I’m not talking about the ones from New England this time.  Pat Tillman, my personal favorite athlete to ever take the field, shares a shocking amount of similarities to Grayson.  As you know, Pat put his NFL career on pause in the aftermath of September 11th, in order to fight alongside our nation’s best.  As you also know, Pat made the single largest sacrifice a man can make for his country when he lost his life at the hands of an Afghan on April 22, 2004.  He was only 27 years old.  Pat is a leader and a role model in every sense of the word.  The willingness to sacrifice for your loved ones, for your brothers in the military, for your fellow American, is admirable beyond belief… Grayson posses many similar attributes, and I’d like to bring it back to his stance on the kneelers.  He too was willing to make a great personal sacrifice in order to do what he knew was right for the community, for the country - he was willing to give up football.  While I’m not going to sit here and say that Grayson losing football is anywhere close to the same thing as Pat’s tragic death, but football is a huge part of Grayson’s existence.  Football is his favorite thing in the world, football is his ticket to a free education, and if things turn out right, football may just be how he provides for his family over the next 15-20 years.  And he was willing to throw football out the door, like that.  He was willing to quit the team, and put his future in jeopardy, to stand up for what he believed in.  To do what he knows is right.  To fight for people like Pat, and to fight against the kneelers, actively spitting on Pat’s legacy.  Grayson is willing to sacrifice for this great nation, to sacrifice for the greater good of America, and for the greater good of the world.  That is the type of person I want my quarterback to be away from the field of play.  Again, just as he carries himself in a certain manner on the field, he carries himself similarly off of it as well.  And again, the team sees the leader, and they will follow...

Other Notes:

The last thing that I’ll touch on for now is your concern about his academics.  I know that there were reports about his blowing off school work, and that led to potential misconceptions about his character.  After looking into it, I can tell you it was nothing more than exactly that: unfounded misconceptions.  From my experiences at Saint Anthony’s, I can tell you first hand that the coursework is no walk in the park.  Due to its prestigious reputation, Saint Anthony’s really pours the work onto their students, and plenty of students who aren’t as academically gifted can unfortunately fall through the cracks.  Grayson certainly took his work seriously, including finishing his senior year with near perfect attendance (which is more than I can say for his counterpart, but more on that later), and his GPA was simply a product of a poor academic system that only favors the academically gifted.  

Additionally, I’d like to point you towards his ACT score.  34 is well above average, and unlike with the ridiculous Saint Anthony’s curriculum, with everyone finally put on a level playing field and the best tutors money could buy, he knocked it out of the park.  There’s no reason to think that our athletic advisors here couldn’t help him to do the same.  

Lastly, I know that there was a scandal coming out of Saint Anthony’s Grayson’s junior year with regards to phony test scores.  I can put that to rest right now in Grayson’s case.  Grayson Sr. and I met last week to play the back nine of Oak Ridge down in the Ozarks, and he gave me his word that Grayson Jr. took no part in that outrageous behavior.  Call me old school, but a man’s word is all the proof I need... 

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Damian Wallace:

In terms of the other prospect Damian, he could have a really bright future.  A lot of raw talent already, he can be sculpted into quite the quarterback with the proper tutelage.  That being said, I have some question marks about his brains, in terms of football and beyond.  He makes some questionable decisions as the quarterback on the field, and has a potential lack of motivation and dedication to the team off of it (as I will explain more later).  I definitely think the kid could pan out, but I don’t think he’s worth the underlying risk...

With his numbers:

Height: 6’0

Weight: 212 

40 Yard Dash: 5.2 sec

GPA: 3.3

ACT: 27

Pass Yards / Touchdowns: 4100 / 44

Rush Yards / Touchdowns:  862 / 6

2020 Season Outlook:

Don’t get me wrong, Damian is an excellent football player.  I’d like to make that clear.  He has a bright future ahead of him, and could be a QB1 at most programs in the nation.  Blessed with unbelievable physical prowess from the man in the sky, his size, strength, and speed alone are enough to propel anyone to success on the field.  He had moderate success throwing the ball, passing for over four thousand yards and 44 touchdowns.  Additionally, he had even more success on the ground, racking up an impressive 862 yards rushing with an additional 6 touchdowns rushing.  While I do have some concerns as to if he was the brain of a QB in terms of reading defenses as a passer, those concerns fly out the window as a runner.  When he takes off down field with the ball in his hand, it’s truly a sight for sore eyes.  At that point, it really all goes back to primal instinct, and it looks like he doesn’t think, he just runs.  That instinct, paired with his god given natural strength and speed, makes him almost impossible to stop as a runner.  He’s a true threat as a ball carrier.

This being said, I’d now like to go back to my concerns about his ability to read a defense.  Simply put, I question whether or not Damian has the mental fortitude to be our quarterback.  As you know well, our playbook is complex, with so much of the gameplan relying on the quarterback’s decision making.  They need to think on the fly, often change up the play right before the ball is snapped, and make key decisions with the ball in their hands.  Our playbook, more than most, relies on someone who truly understands football.  Someone who is a student of the game.  Based on what I’ve seen, I don’t think that Damian can necessarily handle it.  In high school, his playbook was rudimentary, to say the least.  It wasn’t all that complex of a system, because simply put, it wasn’t all that competitive of a program.  Their head coach (who doubled as a math teacher and gym coach as well) created and called all the plays, and that was about it in terms of offense.  Compare that to Grayson at Saint Anthony’s, and it’s night and day…  He had a complete team of full time coaches behind him, handing down all of their vast knowledge of the game.  Our head coach is a former NFL quarterback, who now coaches the Rebels full time.  We have an offensive coordinator who used to coach at the college level, and two more assistants who did the same.  This combination of elite football minds was able to piece together a college level playbook, and Grayson absolutely mastered it.  All of their knowledge was imparted on this young man.  He knows how to handle complex routes, trick plays, audibles, and everything in between.  This couldn’t be more different than Damian’s high school experience.  He had a glorified math teacher coaching at the helm, and while I like calculus as much as the next guy, I don’t know how helpful that will be to our team.  His exposure to a college style offense is essentially nonexistent, and if he really cared about playing for a program such as ours at the college level, he would have found another school to play for, to prepare him for this next step.  He did not, and therefor I don’t think he’s mentally ready to play under our complex system.       

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Professional Comparison:

On the Field: Michael Vick

In Michael Vick’s prime, he may have been the most electric person to ever grace a football field.  He didn’t think, he just played.  He saw where he wanted the ball to go, and it got there, one way or another.  He could use his sheer arm strength and force the ball in where most others could not, or he could use his unbelievable speed to simply run past the defense.  It wasn’t the most intellectual style of play, but boy was it fun to watch.  He made it look easy, and it worked.  I think that Damian can do a lot of the same.  He’s raw, but he’s got potential.  Just like Vick, he isn’t a natural quarterback.  He throws funny, his hands are too small, his legs are too short, and with questionable decision making it can often seem that his brain is too small as well if you know what I mean.  But, all that aside, he still manages to make plays, time and time again.  I’ll give it to him, he can make something out of nothing, better than just about anybody that I’ve ever seen, Grayson included.  He’s got instinct.  He knows where defenders are and how to warp his body to get around them, to get the ball where he wants it to go.  It’s almost like he’s got Peter Parker’s Spider Senses, maybe that’s why they are releasing the new game with the kid who looks like him!

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Off the Field: Michael Vick

As I’m sure you also know, Michael Vick was just as notable for his off field antics as he was for his on field performance.  Ultimately spending 21 months behind bars because he liked to watch dogs kill one another, Vick was a major detriment to his team, and his presence did more harm than good.  It was so upsetting, seeing all of that talent go to waste, but I’d be lying telling you that I was surprised.  I could see he was trouble from a mile away, prancing around his sidelines in his durag and chains and all.  I’d like to caution, I can see Damian going down a potentially similar path.  For starters, he dresses the same: baggy shorts, sideways ballcaps with the brim too straight, and always with the newest pair of “Michael Jordans.”  He talks the same too, with half of his post game interviews coming across like they are in another language.  Most of all, his background concerns me.  Vick was born out of wedlock to two teenage parents, and that clearly had an incredible impact on how he was raised, and who he became.  As I’ll get into later, while I don’t know the details, I have questions about Damian’s life at home, and I view it as a major red flag.  We don’t want our quarterback to also want to be a rapper, or a gang banger, or a dog fighter, or the like.  We want him to be our quarterback, 100% of the time.  I cannot look you in the eye and say Damian will be just that.

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Other notes:

Something crucial that I’d like to point out here is that Damian has had a tendency to miss (and potentially flat out skip) some classes and practices these last few years.  Now, I had a source tell me that it was because he had to pick his little brother up from school, but I personally think that’s a load of crap…  I mean, in my four years at Saint Anthony’s, not ONCE DID I EVER hear of any of my teammates, and probably honestly classmates as a whole, need to leave school early to pick up a sibling. Not even once!  

Missing practice for Derby Day? Sure.

The first afternoon of golf season?  Understandable.

To beat the Friday afternoon traffic down to the Ozarks?  Maybe a couple of times.

But to pick up your little brother? That’s what The Help was for!  

And, hypothetically speaking, let’s say they did have to leave, they’d always make it back in time for practice.  A Rebel quarterback (like Grayson) would never even DREAM of missing a practice because of something so unnecessary.  This really brings up some concerns of character.  Not only is the kid undedicated and a flake, he’s probably also a liar, fabricating a “feel good story” about why he blew off practice.  And, if he isn’t making this up, that’s almost worse.  If I had to guess, this means that he doesn’t have a strong father figure, either in jail, on drugs, or not there at all.  Is that what we want out of our quarterback?  I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I didn’t have my old man, and it’d be even worse for my little guy... What would he do without me?  We’ve seen what a lack of a father has done to some of them in the past, I mean, look at what happened to OJ… This story, to me, raised a lot of red flags.   

Final Comparison:

Billy, I’ve tried my hardest to stay objective and unbiased up to this point, as any experiences professional would do, but now that it’s time to make my final decision on the matter, I’m going to let my opinion show…  I think that Grayson should be our next quarterback.  

To me, he checks all the boxes, both on and off the field.  Where Damian may have a slight edge in physical prowess, Grayson more than makes up for with his superior decision making, intellect, and general fortitude as a leader.  Your quarterback is someone who your team is supposed to look up to, a figurehead to lead by example.  Let me ask you, do we want a team full of Alpha Male, red blooded American Homecoming Kings, or a team full of flaky, irresponsible animals, who can’t go to practice because they need to “pick up their brother.”  

The choice seems clear, Grayson is the way to go.

Assuming you agree, we can bypass all the formal recruiting mumbo jumbo.  I’ve already set up a dinner with Graysons Junior and Senior later this week at the club, I will tell them in person, then and there.  

Can’t wait to hear your final decision, I know you will make the right choice.