Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Rantavious Wooten

One last note on the class of '09...

Sure the signing day drama of Marlon Brown was exciting. Tracking Orson Charles' deliberations was thrilling. But looking back on this year's class of Dawgs, I'm just as excited about a smaller framed receiver out of Glades Central, FL.

The recruitment of Rantavious Wooten was exceptionally quiet, uncomfortably so in fact. Little to nothing was heard from the Belle Glades, FL prospect at all. 

In between jotting down entries for my NSD Journal Feb 4th, I spent a lot of time around Butts-Mehre watching videos of the signees after the signatures were dry. And as I watched the clips of this prospect I could see why CMRs staff suffered through the silence patiently.

This kid Wooten should be a difference maker sooner rather than later. 

Some notes before you watch the video. This is a lengthy one, but worth the time when you can spare it. It won't take long for you to start to smile as I'm sure Bobo has for many months in waiting for this playmaker's signature. Every clip is YouTube worthy. I'll give you a few highlights that highlight Wooten's ability in the secondary and his technique in the open field. 

At the 4:2o mark you see a ball that Wooten makes an impressive adjustment to. He aggressively reacts to a slight underthrow and outplays a defender that has better size. You'll see another great mid-air adjustment about 7:15 in.

Half the footage features Wooten from the shotgun where he played plenty of snaps (can you say WildDawg? Better get familiar with it...). You'll get plenty of chances to see his decision making on the run and elusiveness, not to mention his speed and all out sick skills. His best run may be :30 in. And if you skip forward, make sure you stop at about the 6:15 mark...

Wooten the ball carrier...he may go, he may go!


Wooten may not be able to create his own space like the 
other receivers in this class, but can obviously be quite 
harmful on screens, kick returns and as both a runner and 
receiver out of the backfield.



RANTAVIOUS WOOTEN
WR, 5-10, 158
Belle Glades, Fla., Glades Central HS

RANTAVIOUS WOOTEN...Born: September 26, 1989...High School:  Glades Central... PrepStar All-America Team....SuperPrep All-Dixie team....Orlando Sentinel Class AAA First Team... Palm Beach Post All-Area First Team...2008 Rivals.com #7 Wide Receiver in Florida and #34 overall, #29 WR nationally...2008 Scout.com four-star prospect, #31 overall prospect in Florida, #75 in the South, and #20 WR nationally...as a senior recorded 33 catches for 927 yards and 14 touchdowns...as a junior in 2007 had 25 receptions for 456 yards and three touchdowns...also had 55 carries for 446 yards and seven more scores...High School Coach: Jessie Hester


CMR On Rantavious Wooten...
“Rantavious is a guy who is very explosive. He’s not the biggest guy in the world, but he’s super quick and had great hands. He is very tough. He played quarterback a bunch and has tremendous maturity as a player. I’m sure we’ll do our best to get him in position to make a bunch of plays for us.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to see RW getting some press. He is by far the least talked about recruit and could very well be the best. There was a lot of hype when he de-committed from LSU and commited with us.

Bernie said...

I get the feeling that even CMR and staff had little communication with him, at least nothing to the extent that there usually is nowadays.

So, he's the least talked about because evidently he (and/or his coach) wanted it that way.