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Golden Recruiting Wire: Evaluating Josh Rosen & Brady White

Cal has already started focusing on some big name targets including QBs Josh Rosen and Brady White.

By JahvidKnowsBest
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

I was overall pleasantly surprised with the quality of the recruiting class. Erik Brown is a high talent guy, along with Luke Rubenzer and Vic Enwere. I feel lucky that the class came together like it did considering our 1-11 season. I think this just goes to show that Cal will always be an attractive place for potential recruits, even if the team is going through a rough patch.

Today we're going to focus on two of next year's recruits: Josh Rosen and Brady White. Hopefully one of these guys will headline next year's class with a solid commitment early on in the process.

Josh Rosen, St. John Bosco, Bellflower, CA.

Prototypical prostyle quarterback. His frame is a lot like Goffs-6'4, around 205. Lengthy, a bit wiry, but will mature and grow into his body. The PAC-12 schools have been giving him attention early and often, and even Texas has thrown itself in the mix. Oh, and I forgot to mention, he's the no. 1 quarterback prospect in the land. A legitimate 5 star by almost all recruiting services--ESPN is only giving him 4 for some reason.

The good thing is, we're in the mix! He went on an unofficial to Berkeley extremely early in the recruiting process (May of last year), which definitely always a good sign. I'm hoping that we can continue to build our pipeline with Bosco, and hopefully Mr. Treggs can do some convincing on his end.


This is honestly one of the best collections of highlights I've ever seen. And I watch a ton of highlights tapes. Seriously, that's how I procrastinate, I don't have instagram. I actually got chills from watching the first couple minutes of this.

What stands out are a few things. Deep ball is probably the most impressive aspect. But not just in terms of arm strength. He's basically flicking his wrist, sending the ball 60 yards, but still managing to put enough touch and loft on it to give his receivers the chance run under it. His accuracy is exceptional. Receivers hardly ever have to break stride, let alone do much but just put their hands out. Granted a lot of these guys are pretty open, but he looks like he's able to get the ball in a tight window when he needs to. Skip to 2:21 for an example of this. That's a tight window fade throw, and he delivers perfectly.

2:41 is also beautiful. It's play we used to run in high school all the time against a one safety coverage. Two players run seems, the safety has to pick one, and the quarterback fires a bullet before the safety can get there. It's a tough timing play, and can potentially get your receiver pretty messed up if the timing is off. I know this because it's happened to me (someday I'll link my highlight tape on here).

The kid also had around 400 rushing yards. Not great speed, but enough to navigate the pocket successfully.3:40 are some pretty nice running plays. The kid is clearly tough to bring down. I wouldn't want to see him running around like this at the college level though. 3:53 is raw too.

Best of all is that the system he's currently running is not much different from ours. A bunch of play-action, as well as screen-action (faking the screen out in the flat). It definitely would be an easy adjustment for him to step into our program. Personally, I think that also gives us a slight edge over some pro-style schools-like Stanford and USC-in terms of recruiting him. I think Cal and UCLA would be a better fit in terms of offensive scheme.

Brady White, Hart, Santa Clarita, CA.

Not as highly decorated as Rosen, but an ESPN top 150 recruit that we would be lucky to get regardless. Smaller than Rosen, standing at 6'2, roughly around 195 lbs. We offered him only a few weeks ago.

I like how we're being proactive here and offering him early. As of now, we're only one of his three offers; a lot more will be coming in the next few weeks/months for this guy. Oregon seems to be very interested.


While White is slightly smaller in stature than Rosen, he makes up for that with his athletic ability and quickness. A strong athlete, White reminds me a bit of Rubenzer, with maybe a little less willingness to run--which is a good thing! Another thing to keep note on when you're watching is that White's team is good, but it's not the same kind of powerhouse as St. John Bosco is. Thus, White's receivers are a lot less open than Rosen's are! In short, his job was probably a bit more difficult.

As a result, White's forced to get the ball into some really tight windows. Check out the throw from 1:19. An incredible throw; a D1 starting quarterback throw. Same with 1:26. From the QBs vantage point, the receiver doesn't look open. He throws the ball deep enough into the end zone and far enough ahead of the DBs though that the throw pulls the receiver open. You hear Trent Dilfer always saying "throw your receiver open," that's what he means.

He also show some serious wheels/quicks at 0:56.

All in all, these are two great QB prospects, and we'd be lucky if we could snag either of them. I think both of there capabilities fits Dykes' offense well. I also think it's interesting that Dykes doesn't seem to be so much concerned with whether his QBs can run, or are pure prostyle like Goff. He seems to just want gamers who can compete and make his offense click. If the QB can run, like Rubenzer, then they'll put running plays in for him. It's a pretty cool, free flowing system, in my opinion.

We'll be sure to keep you update on the recruitment of these guys. It's going to get pretty wild in the coming months but the coaching staff has done a really solid job getting after these guys early and selling Cal as a solid option for them.

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