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Congrats Riley! Recruit update

aquacat

aquacat

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Aug 7, 2013
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I always enjoy it when posters let us know how our recruits are wrapping up their high school careers. Riley Lees is a senior QB at libertyville HS who will be playing WR for NU next year. My cousin plays on the team and is good friends with Riley. Riley just led libertyville (a 7A school) over Stevenson (defending 8A state champion) 35-7 while at Stevenson for their homecoming. Riley took the first play from scrimmage 80 yards for a TD. Congrats Riley! I can't wait to see you in purple next year!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...fb-libertyville-stevenson-20150925-story.html
 
aquacat said:
I always enjoy it when posters let us know how our recruits are wrapping up their high school careers. Riley Lees is a senior QB at libertyville HS who will be playing WR for NU next year. My cousin plays on the team and is good friends with Riley. Riley just led libertyville (a 7A school) over Stevenson (defending 8A state champion) 35-7 while at Stevenson for their homecoming. Riley took the first play from scrimmage 80 yards for a TD. Congrats Riley! I can't wait to see you in purple next year!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...fb-libertyville-stevenson-20150925-story.html
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How good is your cousin?
 
He can't get here fast enough. Some of our most successful WRs were high school QBs: Ebert, Peterman, Brewer, D'Wayne...
 
aquacat said:
I always enjoy it when posters let us know how our recruits are wrapping up their high school careers. Riley Lees is a senior QB at libertyville HS who will be playing WR for NU next year. My cousin plays on the team and is good friends with Riley. Riley just led libertyville (a 7A school) over Stevenson (defending 8A state champion) 35-7 while at Stevenson for their homecoming. Riley took the first play from scrimmage 80 yards for a TD. Congrats Riley! I can't wait to see you in purple next year!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...fb-libertyville-stevenson-20150925-story.html
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That was a significant win against one of the best teams in the state. What was Rileys stats?
He may get to nu and start immediately. We have poor wide outs. How does he do it? Does he run track?
 
Larry Watts has the stats and some exciting comments on The Rock. Riley Lees could be the next Ebert, only faster.
 
shakes3858 said:
How good is your cousin?
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My cousin is the best receiver on the team. However, I don't think he will be playing at the next level. He is actually a better baseball player than he is football player. He said the Riley is the strongest, fastest player on their team. That's why he just blows by everyone. I'm sure Stevenson is missing their standout receiver from last season, Cameron Green (who my cousin also said was a complete stud in HS). I look forward to seeing what Cameron can do for NU on the college field.
 
I'm glad he's a Cat, but I'm not sure I see the same thing as everyone else. He does look like a man among boys, but all of these seem to be him hitting huge holes and then running away from everyone. Though he is running away from people, I don't know how fast Stevenson is. He doesn't look that fast, but that could be due to a deceptive and long stride. I don't see much shake and bake, not like we saw with Colter. I'm not sure I see the same wow that you see with tape of Roberts, Johnson, Anderson, Moten, in terms of bake and speed or the power and balance of Sutton.

His two passes looked more impressive (one thrown off his back foot on a run, the second on a rope with velocity) than anything I ever saw from Colter, though. Wonder if Colter could be a QB, why aren't we making him one at NU?
 
You answered your own question. He supposedly doesn't have the shake and bake to be a read option QB.
 
EvanstonCat said:
I'm glad he's a Cat, but I'm not sure I see the same thing as everyone else. He does look like a man among boys, but all of these seem to be him hitting huge holes and then running away from everyone. Though he is running away from people, I don't know how fast Stevenson is. He doesn't look that fast, but that could be due to a deceptive and long stride. I don't see much shake and bake, not like we saw with Colter. I'm not sure I see the same wow that you see with tape of Roberts, Johnson, Anderson, Moten, in terms of bake and speed or the power and balance of Sutton.

His two passes looked more impressive (one thrown off his back foot on a run, the second on a rope with velocity) than anything I ever saw from Colter, though. Wonder if Colter could be a QB, why aren't we making him one at NU?
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Because he's really REALLY fast. And a dynamic athlete.

Don't really understand the skepticism, but check out his Elk Grove tape if you want to see more dynamic athleticism. Riley is quite the athlete... but not a BCS-level QB. He just doesn't have the arm strength to drive the ball through windows at the increased game speed. Not like Colter really did, but at least he did pre-shoulder injury on (his very impressive) high school tape.
 
I agree he appears to be plenty athletic and faster than Ebert probably. Colter was an elite level shifty runner, similar to JJ. I don't know if Riley has that elite cutting and juking ability, maybe he does but don't see any tape on it. I'm not complaining at all, because he has all the tools to be a top receiver for NU.
 
DaCat said:
I agree he appears to be plenty athletic and faster than Ebert probably. Colter was an elite level shifty runner, similar to JJ. I don't know if Riley has that elite cutting and juking ability, maybe he does but don't see any tape on it. I'm not complaining at all, because he has all the tools to be a top receiver for NU.
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Faster than Ebert? really? I'd have to see some times for that. Ebert was pretty fast but looked a step slow because he had some chops.
 
Actually you are right about Ebert being very fast. He ran a 4.28 and 4.49 at Pro Day, for an official time of 4.38. I'd be happy if Riley as a true freshman is as fast as Ebert as a fifth year senior. Riley is listed as 4.46 on Hudl, so he may have a little way to go to catch Ebert.
 
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He's being recruited as a wide receiver, isn't he? He's listed as a ** wide receiver.
 
DaCat said:
Actually you are right about Ebert being very fast. He ran a 4.28 and 4.49 at Pro Day, for an official time of 4.38. I'd be happy if Riley as a true freshman is as fast as Ebert as a fifth year senior. Riley is listed as 4.46 on Hudl, so he may have a little way to go to catch Ebert.
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Lees was reportedly a 4.4 guy in NU's camp... before his sophomore year of high school.

He's fast.
 
DaCat said:
I agree he appears to be plenty athletic and faster than Ebert probably. Colter was an elite level shifty runner, similar to JJ. I don't know if Riley has that elite cutting and juking ability, maybe he does but don't see any tape on it. I'm not complaining at all, because he has all the tools to be a top receiver for NU.
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Ebert ran a 4.38 for the NFL pro day at NU...I have a hard time believing Riley is faster than that. I would love it if he is though, that's for sure.
 
DaCat said:
Actually you are right about Ebert being very fast. He ran a 4.28 and 4.49 at Pro Day, for an official time of 4.38. I'd be happy if Riley as a true freshman is as fast as Ebert as a fifth year senior. Riley is listed as 4.46 on Hudl, so he may have a little way to go to catch Ebert.
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There is no way that a 4.28 time for Ebert could be a legit time. Must have been aided or miss timed some how.You see the difference in times is more than .2 of a second. 4.38 is still fast though as we all know, but 4.2 guys are very RARE! Interesting though do you know that Kirk Gibson while at Michigan State ran a 4.17!!! A guy from the Patriots said he was the fastest white guy he had ever seen! GaultI think was a 4.17 guy and Stanley Floyd while at Georgia was 3.98 ! He was not a good football player, just fast. He was on the same 4X100 meter relay team as Walker and I saw them run in person, man were they fast!
 
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As long as Lees is about as fast as Ebert, I'll take that (would also be nice if he grew another inch - a 6-2 wideout w/ speed).
 
Can
DaCat said:
You answered your own question. He supposedly doesn't have the shake and bake to be a read option QB.
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Can somebody explain how a receiver with no shake and bake is supposed to get open at the next level?
 
Mr. Stupor said:
Can somebody explain how a receiver with no shake and bake is supposed to get open at the next level?
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He's plenty athletic to get open, just might need some time to refine route running after two years concentrating at QB.

Did you bother actually looking at any of the tape?
 
mybrotha said:
There is no way that a 4.28 time for Ebert could be a legit time. Must have been aided or miss timed some how.You see the difference in times is more than .2 of a second. 4.38 is still fast though as we all know, but 4.2 guys are very RARE! Interesting though do you know that Kirk Gibson while at Michigan State ran a 4.17!!! A guy from the Patriots said he was the fastest white guy he had ever seen! GaultI think was a 4.17 guy and Stanley Floyd while at Georgia was 3.98 ! He was not a good football player, just fast. He was on the same 4X100 meter relay team as Walker and I saw them run in person, man were they fast!
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I didn't know that about Gibson. He must have weighed at least 200 lbs, as he played linebacker for that team. Of course, by the time of his famous world series home run, where he's seen pumping his arms immediately after contact, he probably couldn't run and 8.4 40.
 
gocatsgo2003 said:
He's plenty athletic to get open, just might need some time to refine route running after two years concentrating at QB.

Did you bother actually looking at any of the tape?
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I did. It's hard to judge based on unknown relativity, namely the speed of the Stephenson players. We can assume . . . based on the Stephenson program, the players he outruns are in the secondary, etc. . . but . . .

By the way, I also viewed Colter's high school tape. What's amazing, in this day and age, is the grainy, 1970s era look about it. You can't judge anything about his arm strength or throwing posture from that film.
 
mybrotha said:
There is no way that a 4.28 time for Ebert could be a legit time. Must have been aided or miss timed some how.You see the difference in times is more than .2 of a second. 4.38 is still fast though as we all know, but 4.2 guys are very RARE! Interesting though do you know that Kirk Gibson while at Michigan State ran a 4.17!!! A guy from the Patriots said he was the fastest white guy he had ever seen! GaultI think was a 4.17 guy and Stanley Floyd while at Georgia was 3.98 ! He was not a good football player, just fast. He was on the same 4X100 meter relay team as Walker and I saw them run in person, man were they fast!
Click to expand...

In this age of laser-timed 40 yard dashes at NFL combines, a quick Google search shows that the fastest time since 1999 when electronic timing was first used is 4.24. Bo Jackson ran a 4.12 and 4.18 hand timed 40's in 1986. But there is a huge margin of error for hand-timed 40's.

The average times at the combine by position using electronic timing is interesting, with the fastest group being wide receivers and cornerbacks at 4.55, and running backs at 4.59.

So comparing 40 times is not always apples-to-apples. As long as Riley Lees is frickin fast, that's all that matters.
 
Mr. Stupor said:
Can


Can somebody explain how a receiver with no shake and bake is supposed to get open at the next level?
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How are we sure he has no shake and bake? All I see is him blasting thru the hole and outrunning everyone. What are we looking for, him to slow down, let the defenders catch up, juke them into knots and then take it to the house?
 
Purple Pile Driver said:
How are we sure he has no shake and bake? All I see is him blasting thru the hole and outrunning everyone. What are we looking for, him to slow down, let the defenders catch up, juke them into knots and then take it to the house?
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Or we can just watch the Lake Forest or Elk Grove tape and realize the entire premise is incorrect.
 
Hungry Jack said:
Lees strikes me as a clone of Tommy Fuessel, albeit a bit shorter (less tall) and probably faster. But the dynamism and athleticism strike me as very similar.
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I don't think he is as fast as Fuessel, but I do believe he has a bigger build.
 
Don't know what tapes some are watching. It sure looked as if he had some "shake and bake" to me. In fact, that's what I thought stood about some of his tapes.
 
You can't teach speed. So this kid has some great physical tools. Plus he's the star and leader of a team favored to win state so he has some good leadership qualities (I heard NU recruits a lot of HS team captains). However, to be a great receiver, running precise routes, timing and hands are more important but can be taught. Jerry rice wasn't the fastest guy on the field but he had those last three qualities.

I like how some posters complain that Riley lees "lacks" shake and bake while we have other posters complaining that Justin Jackson is all shake and bake without enough speed..
 
I don't know where you heard his team was "favored" to win state, but, their stock has certainly risen in recent weeks and they are now expected to be right in the mix.
 
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