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How good was Brock Vandagriff coming out of high school?
South Carolina coach Shane Beamer reminded media members this week that former Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley took Vandagriff over Caleb Williams, the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner and top pick in the last NFL draft.
“People forget that Brock Vandergriff was committed to Oklahoma before Caleb Williams; that’s who Lincoln chose. He watched them both, and he felt like Brock Vandergriff was a better quarterback at the time than Caleb,” Beamer said.
“And the only reason Caleb ended up at Oklahoma was because Brock decommitted and went to Georgia. So you know he’s a talented guy and he’s athletic. He showed that the other night when he took the ball and ran and they had some designed runs for him.”
Beamer was the associate head coach and tight ends coach at Oklahoma under Riley when Vandagriff picked the Sooners over Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. The five-star prospect later flipped to Georgia but never got a chance in his three years there before transferring to UK.
He completed 12 of 18 passes for 169 yards and three touchdowns with one interception in last week’s lightning-shortened win over Southern Mississippi. He also ran for 35 yards, including 34 yards in the first quarter.
“He’s a really good player,” Beamer said on the SEC Teleconference Wednesday. “I’m very familiar with him. When you’re the head coach, you’re very limited on how often you can go out recruiting, so I was the one who was going to see Brock about every week (at Oklahoma), so I know what kind of talent he is.
“He’s somebody that we got to account for keeping the ball and running, and then his arm talent speaks for itself as well. So, I thought he did a great job in game one and I know he’ll continue to get better throughout the season, just like our guys will.”
2 Responses
Brock threw a few long passes on the mark which is a rare treat for UK fans. Other than Levis, it’s been a while since UK had a WB who was capable of completing passes beyond 5 or at most 10 yards in the air. The past decade has usually been a QB who could not pass well and got very low QBR – it was less than a 20 QBR several years ago when a pretend QB ran the ball over and over late in the game and in OT instead of giving it to Snell – and of course UK lost that pivotal game at A&M.
Brock can pass with big time accuracy and can run with success to keep the D honest.
Brown dropped a pass in his hands which would have been another 25 yards, but for the most part, receivers showed they will get the job done to reveal how great Brock will be.
Well, it seems that Beamer knew much more about this QB than UK knows about him.