Por JEFF CLEMETSON | Mensajero de La Mesa<\/p>\n
Despite being denied a chance to don a Scotties jersey this year and lead Helix Charter in a championship season, quarterback Tyler Buchner is still having a fantastic 2020.<\/p>\n
In August, Buchner made the Sports Illustrated All-American team, coming in at No. 55 of the magazine\u2019s top 99 high school players in the country. The senior has already committed to play for Notre Dame and is on track to complete his high school curriculum this year and be moved to South Bend, Indiana and start training with the Fighting Irish in January 2021.<\/p>\n
The early departure for Buchner means that if pandemic rules loosen enough for high schools in California to have a season in the spring, Helix will be taking the field without its star quarterback who as a junior completed 267 of 402 passes for 4,474 yards, 53 touchdowns and only six interceptions. He also rushed 128 times for 1,610 yards and 28 more scores.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it’s bitter sweet,\u201d said Helix head football coach Robbie Owens. \u201cI\u2019ve loved the opportunity to work with him and I still hold these minute hopes that something happens that he decides he wants to stay, but in my heart I think I know he\u2019s most likely going to go. I think on paper we have one of the best Helix teams that I\u2019ve had since I\u2019ve been here. Losing Tyler, obviously, is a big hit to that. He\u2019s a tremendous talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Owens describes Buchner as having all the attributes of a great quarterback: 6 feet 2 inches tall, 200 pounds, rifle arm and he is quick on his feet. Buchner is also a smart student with over a 4.0 GPA and has great leadership skills, attitude and work ethic on and off the field, Owens said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis future is very bright,\u201d he added. \u201cHe\u2019s in that top echelon of guys that have ever come out of San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n
Missed season, missed opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n Although Buchner\u2019s future is set in stone with his scholarship to Notre Dame and a future playing Division 1 football at a top-tier university, the postponed \u2014 and possibly cancelled \u2014 season has still had some negatives for him.<\/p>\n \u201cTyler is one of the top players in the country, but if you look at his resume as a quarterback, he still has very limited experience as a quarterback,\u201d Owens said, pointing out that Buchner played wide receiver as a freshman and was injured his sophomore year.<\/p>\n The lack of a senior year to follow up his phenomenal junior year is the \u201conly thing questionable on his resume,\u201d according to John Garcia, director of football recruiting for Sports Illustrated.<\/p>\n For Buchner, that means missing the chance at a higher ranking on the SI All-American team or 247Sports list. But for high school players on the cusp of scholarship potential, the missed season means missed opportunities.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look at all the kids that are out there preparing themselves for the next level because they\u2019re going to have scholarship opportunities and to play, they are missing out on this valuable time and ability to improve their craft in whatever position they have,\u201d Owens said.<\/p>\n Garcia agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s definitely going to be some casualties, recruiting casualties, from this pandemic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n At Helix, some of those casualties could be players such as wide receiver Clay Petry, offensive lineman Shawn Martinez, defensive end Blaze Zito, free safety Domonick Schoop and linebacker Jerry Riggins.<\/p>\n Coach Owens pointed to Riggins, a senior, as an example of a player who could possibly miss out on scholarship opportunities from large schools.<\/p>\n Owens said Riggins is \u201cas good a football player I\u2019ve ever coached. He\u2019s a kid who would have offers.<\/p>\n \u201cI have coaches who called me last week to say, \u2018We really like Jerry, but we really want to see him in person.\u2019 He should already have those offers.\u201d<\/p>\n Normally, Helix attracts recruiters from around 90% of Division 1 schools to visit in the spring and start scoping players, Owens said.<\/p>\n \u201cColleges are under stricter guidelines, so this is a dead period for them. They haven\u2019t been able to come out since COVID started,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Compounding the issue for players vying for scholarships are new NCAA rules that allow college seniors to play an extra year. Coaches will have a new set of roster management decisions to make because they may not have to fill as many positions.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil the NCAA completely adjusts the scholarship numbers and things like that, it could create a little more hesitation in recruiting this 2021 class,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n Although players like Riggins \u2014 those on the cusp in the minds of recruiters \u2014 might fall through the cracks because of a lack of in-person evaluations by Division 1 schools, smaller and local schools could reap the benefits. Recruiters from places like Ohio or Georgia that normally come to poach talent from California aren\u2019t flying and that leaves players with options closer to home, Garcia said. Owens said even a school like USC might skip over players they normally would take and leave SDSU reaping the talent.<\/p>\n Of course, players might still end up at bigger schools by transferring.<\/p>\n \u201cThe transfer portal is going to be as busy as ever in the next 18 months,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cSome of those schools that are preparing to play now, Big 10 and 12, we\u2019ve seen a lot of movement just in the last few weeks so I can imagine once it turns over to 2021, you\u2019re going to see a lot more of that once you see this group of kids enroll and begin their college career.\u201d<\/p>\n Technology bridges opportunity disadvantage<\/strong><\/p>\n Using the transfer portal might help get players and schools closer to what might have been in a non-pandemic recruiting season, but it does little to stop some of the inequities faced by players right now.<\/p>\n One of those main inequities is the fact that some states have decided to move ahead with in-person schooling and also allow team sports to continue play. For the players on the cusp in those states, they still have the opportunity to play in front of recruiters or at least still send in game film from this year.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think the states that are playing do have an advantage … because they are playing games, so teams are getting an opportunity to rank [their] guys,\u201d Owens said. \u201c[Hypothetically,] there\u2019s a linebacker in Texas who will rank higher than Jerry Riggins just because he could play. That\u2019s just the truth of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Faced with not playing in front of recruiters or even being able to share game film, players in states like California that have postponed football have reverted to creative ways to market themselves to schools.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the prospects\u2019 perspective, you got to rely on technology. That\u2019s all that\u2019s sort of left. If you\u2019re not in a state that\u2019s playing, you still want to try to showcase that ability any way you can,\u201d Garcia said, adding that he\u2019s seen videos of football players playing other sports to show off their athleticism, even a kid who sent a video of him pulling a truck to highlight his strength. However, there are limits to this kind of video marketing.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it could be good news for smaller colleges that have to use these kinds of resources on a normal basis, but for a kid with those Power 5, D1 dreams, it\u2019s just the hardest its ever been in this era,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n Owens is even more skeptical of recruitment by video.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only way you get better at football is you play football,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can go out there and practice and you can do seven on seven and have your private coach \u2013 you can do all those things \u2013 but football is that one sport that you can\u2019t mimic. There\u2019s kids that are filming their drills, sending them out, tweeting them out and doing all that, but it\u2019s not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, getting in front of recruiters virtually is better than not at all. And for players who are depending on a scholarship to help pay for school but are now faced with less opportunity to play in front of coaches, there are additional options like junior college football or post-graduate football programs.<\/p>\n Bottom line, Garcia said: \u201cIf you\u2019re good enough, somebody will find you.\u201d<\/p>\n