Cal Football 2019 Signee Profile and Scouting: OL McKade Mettauer

Profile

First off, McKade Mettauer probably has the coolest name in the incoming class. It is probably my favorite name of a Cal commit since Poutasi Poutasi. I’m sure we can find a fantastic nickname for him once he becomes an All-American level player.

Mettauer is a 6’4”, 287 pound offensive guard from The Woodlands High School in The Woodlands, Texas (what is it with this guy and awesome names?) . He is rated as a consensus 3-star recruit, and committed to Cal over plenty of other big schools around the nation including Nebraska, Houston, and Arizona. Cal was his third offer, offering him all the way back on January 22, 2018. Only Texas State and SMU beat Cal to the punch.

Athetically, Mettauer is pretty average. His 5.63 40-yard dash from 2018 is pretty poor, but straight-line speed doesn’t matter too much as an offensive lineman, other than maybe limiting his ability as a lead blocker. However, he makes up for his lack of speed with average to above-average agility, as he recorded a 4.70 shuttle time.

Scouting Report

Now onto the tape. I have to say this every time: there is only so much you can find out about a player from high school film. We only get to watch the highlights, and they are obviously playing against much lower competition, even though Mettauer played in Division 6A in Texas (the top division).

Even with that said, Mettauer’s film is very fun to watch. Honestly, it is about as fun as watching offensive line film can get. Pretty much every single play ends up with Mettauer’s guy on the ground. It is literally like you are watching The Blindside.

However, that strength and size advantage won’t carry over to the collegiate level. He may be strong, but he won’t dominate like this for Cal, unfortunately. What does stand out to me primarily is that it looks like he played left tackle for the majority of the time at The Woodlands, with a bit of guard play mixed in as well. This is despite him being listed as a guard as a recruit. This versatility will be extremely valuable. As you might be able to guess by versatility, he looks like he is both a decent pass and run blocker.

He does look a bit slow on tape, but it was honestly better than what I was expecting for his numbers. More importantly, this is a strong boy. I mentioned the pancakes, and even though they were mostly against smaller defenders, it was still very impressive. He also was a brick wall even when defenders got a running start against him.

My favorite thing about him is that he is always looking for contact and trying to deliver big hits. This is a guy who picks his assignment and finishes the block through the end of the play. That is not only fun to watch, but shows a great motor that could definitely make him a good player. However, this is also where my biggest worry lies with him. In the tape, he obviously dominated his defenders with his strength. I worry how he will adjust to playing against Divison 1 defenders. He seems to have solid fundamentals as a blocker, but it is still a concern that bigger, faster defenders will take advantage of him.

There are definitely red flags, but this guy has a lot of potential if Steve Greatwood can help develop him as a pure blocker. The combination of his versatility, strength, and motor could make him a great player as long as he isn’t overwhelmed by the increased competition. His aforementioned versatility should at the very least make him a valuable backup, but he has the potential to be a solid starter by the end of his Cal career if everything clicks.