Zach Fondal (OL - Navarro JUCO)

Offensive tackle Zachary Fondal was one of the many Navarro athletes UTSA coaches were eyeballing on their trip up to Corsicana earlier this week. Evidently the coaching staff liked what they saw since Fondal is reporting an offer from UTSA on Twitter just one day after being visited. At 6'5", 290 lbs., Fondal has all of the key components of a successful Division I tackle: height, footwork, and a relentless motor on the field. With his long wingspan, Fondal is able to reach out and latch on to defenders while using his brute lower body strength to drive his opponent off the line of scrimmage-- definitely the kind of player that can bring energy to a ground attack. One thing that I love about Fondal's game is that he properly engages defensive linemen by attacking with his hands and face mask then driving through defenders while maintaining a power squat. I get pretty sick of seeing these huge offensive linemen lazily try to bench press their assigned defender out of the gap while standing straight up.

Besides his offer from UTSA, Fondal has also reported offers from USF, West Virginia, and Texas Tech. Zach will be visiting Baylor this weekend where I anticipate he will be offered. Listed as a December 2012 expected graduate, Fondal will be able to participate in spring drills wherever he ends up signing with. While UTSA is not as big of a name as the other programs interested in Fondal, there is a chance that UTSA offers scholarships to a multitude of his teammates which could possibly entice several of them to sign. Hey, it worked with Blinn last year! Speaking of Blinn,  Fondal is childhood friends with UTSA signee Maurice Pollard, for whatever it's worth.

Freshman highlights from Fondal can be found on his Hudl profile


Aside: Major Applewhite took a trip down to Crosby to check out Austin and Aston Walter. If Texas does offer either one of the twins, I think it will be late in the recruiting cycle and both would be offered as wide receivers. Texas isn't too fond of 5'7" running backs and certainly not 5'7" signal callers.

UTSA Recruiting Round Up 4/17/2012

Ton of recruiting news to catch up on so settle in nicely:

#7 Aston Walter -- Picture via Houston Chronicle

Learned of a new preferred walk on-- Javonte Collins is a 6'0, 185 free safety that excels against the run. Collins lacks just a little bit of size and explosiveness that could have led to a Division One scholarship but he does have great instincts when the ball's on the ground and is an exceptional open field tackler. With some work in the weight room and an increase in ball skills I could see Collins closely resembling departing free safety Mark Waters in both body type and style of play. Alternatively, I could definitely see Collins making the move to the "dog" position in the 4-2-5 defense. Similar to incumbent "dog" starter Nic Johnston, Collins moves well in open space and maintains outside leverage on running backs to push them back in towards the interior eight. He'd probably need to gain a couple of inches in height to fill that role though. Collins' measurables on his Hudl profile are pretty good: 4.56 40 yd dash, 51" 400 M, 35" vertical leap, 280 bench press, 415 squat.

UTSA took a trip out to Crosby High School earlier in the week to visit several of the school's impressive talents. Crosby should be one of that state's top 4A programs this year as they return five first team All-District 19 performers with several more players coming off second team All-District distinctions. Most eye-popping are a pair of twins, Austin and Aston Walter, both of the 2014 class. Austin, the young team's running back, finished his sophomore campaign with 1,387 yards and 16 touchdowns. Austin is an elusive runner with impressive break-away speed, terrific field vision, and good hands. Twin #2 Aston was named district Newcomer of the Year after completing passes for over 1,500 yards and 14 touchdowns, at a staggering 67% completion rate. In addition to his superb passing, Aston also racked up 854 yards and eight touchdowns with his feet. Aston excels as a spread option quarterback with his quick first step out of the read. In this blogger's most humble opinion, both of these twins are elite talents that should be offered immediately.

Continuing down the recruiting visit trail, UTSA coaches made a stop at Navarro Junior College today to take a look at the plethora of potential DI talent on the Bulldog's roster. At the peak of UTSA's interest is 6'5", 290 lb. offensive lineman Zach Fondal from Dobie High School. Zach recently took a trip out to Baylor and came away quite impressed. 6'2", 338 lb. defensive tackle Chris Cormier (Hasting HS) also drew interest, as well as 6'3", 230 lb. wide receiver Eddie Johnson (Midlothian HS). Needless to say, we'll be keeping an eye on Navarro this season.

Miscellaneous tidbits: John Tyler HS lost their coach Dereck Rush to Oak Ridge this evening. Oak Ridge must have made a gigantic offer since Rush will be moving from a contender for a state championship to a team that won just one game last year. UTSA is recruiting many players from John Tyler (Justice Liggins, Elliot Hart, De'Quate Woods, Darion Flowers) so it will be interesting to see what, if any, influence the coaching change will have on these players' recruiting process. Current Roadrunner Darrien Starling is a JTHS alum and maintains a good relationship with several of their current players.

JUCO Defensive Tackle Demetrius Campbell was visited by Lousiana Tech today but still has UTSA as his top choice.

I've got a couple more leads on recruits so sit tight.