Well, I under ranked Daeshon Hall, there’s no doubt about it and it just goes to show that there’s no substitute for seeing some up close.
Before I give you my thoughts on his abilities, I’ll go into his recruitment a bit.
Hall is originally from positively beautiful Seattle and lived there during some formative high school years and his father still lives there. It’s natural for a young man to want to live with his father, and I sympathize with Hall because my dad lives in Seattle as well.
There is some speculation that Hall wants to move back to Seattle but everyone I’ve talked to about that – including Hall – refute that.
Nevertheless, recruiting bulldog Tosh Lupoi formerly of the Cal Bears and now with the Washington Huskies is not someone you want to cross blades with. Lupoi has flipped many a recruit without the emotional ace in the hole of having a recruit’s father in his backyard.
Hall’s comments to me and others are that he’s firm to Texas and will not take any visits.
Funny that on the same day I watched Lancaster I also stopped by Mansfield and talked to head coach Jeff Hulme. You may remember Hulme being repeatedly thrown under the bus for “allowing” Hassan Ridgeway to visit Texas A&M.
Hulme’s comments to me were that of surprise that UT didn’t pull Ridge’s scholarship.
I told him just how Jimmy Johnson cut star players more slack than special teamers, Mack likely governed with a more understanding stance regarding Ridgeway.
What Mack understood of course is that Ridgeway was a must have and one of the top players in a fantastic class.
I told Coach Hulme that we at Inside Texas think Ridgeway is in the same class as Malcom Brown and Johnathan Gray and while he agreed with that assessment he was a bit surprised that others saw it that way.
In short, Ridgeway caught a break because he was irreplaceable.
Hassan Ridgeway meet Daeshon Hall, Daeshon Hall, this is Hassan Ridgeway.
Until yesterday I viewed Hall as an upside type of player with a high ceiling and a low floor. I thought of him as the boom or bust type. Now I see him as boom or ka-BOOM.
I missed to a degree on Cedric Reed, as I was somewhat unimpressed with him when I saw him live. I watched him with a former college coach and that coach and I were in agreement.
Reed in the limited time I’ve seen him looks to factor in much earlier than I ever thought he would.
Having used Reed and his similar build and style of play as a barometer for watching Daeshon Hall, there’s no question that Hall has a higher upside than Reed. That’s coming from an honest to goodness Ced Reed convert.
Much of the consternation regarding Hall was his “lanky” frame. It’s not so much lanky as it is evolving. I expected to see a small forward playing football but instead I saw kid on his way to 250 lbs much quicker than I realized. I believe he’ll one day carry and ideal 265.
That’s the first thing I noticed to me that was the most important question because I already liked his football acumen and natural proclivity for staying low despite his height.
During the scrimmage he was in the backfield the whole time. He pursued laterally well which was one thing I did like about Ced Reed. He did lose his jock once in the backfield but that’s only because Nick Harvey is the type that makes one lose his jock (That kid is a must get for 2014 and the coaches from pretty nice schools already realized he was out of their league).
While Hall uses excellent bend and flexibility to play low, he does take advantage of his length especially when it comes to keeping blockers off of him. This is one thing I noticed about him early on and what really stood out to me when it came to refuting the basketball player in pads argument.
To me he’s in the same class as Alex Okafor when Oak came out of high school. One guy I talked to yesterday tells me he’s better at the same age.
If Hall has the work ethic to expedite his strength and frame growths he’ll be special. If he lollygags and takes it easy, he’ll be good.
Texas MUST hold on to him, even if it takes lax governing from Macktavius.
