Cal Football Commit Report: OG Poutasi Poutasi

The commitment of OG Poutasi Poutasi out of Las Vegas, NV was a memorable one for a few reasons. First off, Poutasi was the first commit of the Justin Wilcox era. Poutasi was also one of the two offensive lineman commits for the 2017 Cal football recruiting class, which is huge because Cal will need to to rebuild depth on the offensive line as many of our starters and their backups graduate. And it demonstrated to us the recruiting abilities of Coach Greatwood and Coach Tuiasosopo.

All great reasons to happy, but let me tell you that those are not the only reasons that Cal fans should be excited about the commitment of Poutasi. Our coaches found a good one in Poutasi.

For starters, Poutasi has good size, weighing in at 6’4”, 280 lbs. Moreover, Poutasi plays with physicality, constantly moving the line of scrimmage and putting opposing players on their backs. He plays hard and with attitude, getting after opposing defenders. Poutasi also shows his strength throughout the film as he is able to lock onto opponents before finishing them. It certainly helps that he plays with a natural knee bend that allows him to get low and play at a good pad level. And though Poutasi is certainly not the most fleet of foot, he shows enough speed to get to the second level and the necessary balance and vision to lay down a block on opposing defenders downfield.

We see that when Poutasi drops back into pass coverage as a tackle he has the ability to mirror opposing players. But on occasion, we see where a lack of lateral quickness catches up to him and he has to rely on his strength to compensate. Luckily this should be less of an issue when he slides inside to play guard at Cal.

Like most offensive line recruits, Poutasi will need to work on his flexibility, strength and quickness in order to adjust to the college level. But Poutasi already has the toughness and the attitude, and with the guidance of Coach Greatwood, Poutasi should be able to develop into a more than capable offensive lineman for Cal.