The guys over at SBNation Recruiting are knocking out their scouting reports, and yesterday they unveiled their rundown of UW's 2015 verbal commit at QB: Jake Browning. You can check out the full story here, and his hudl highlight reel is embedded above.
There are some good things
His compact throwing motion allows him to more easily adjust arm angles when under duress, and do so without sacrificing accuracy.
His game is more reliant on accuracy and timing, as opposed to a power thrower who leans primarily on arm strength to drive the ball through passing lanes.
He displays poise under duress and the ability to create outside of the construct of the offense. He’s almost better when he deviates from structure.
Browning displays savvy as well when looking downfield. He’s very good at using his eyes and shoulder feints to move the safety and free up the deep middle.
Some not so good (but fixable) things
He shows a tendency to shuffle his feet at the top of his drop. Also, he doesn’t always execute a clean weight transfer, even when the functional space is available. He makes his share of throws off his back foot, not allowing the ball to zip cleanly through the air on deep balls.
And some Chris Petersen (also good) things
His hallmarks as a passer are his anticipation, touch and location.
It certainly sounds like the Huskies will be getting not only a top flight quarterback at the Pac-12 level, but also a quarterback whose skill set fits perfectly what Chris Petersen has outlined as what he wants at that position.
Adam Jude also dropped yesterday that Browning would be enrolling in January. In terms of on the field, this won't have much impact on anything. At that point in time UW will -- barring something strange happening -- have a starting QB returning who has at least two more years of eligibility. Browning won't be expected to compete to be a starter early in his career so the spring practice, while always nice for an incoming freshman to get under his belt, shouldn't do anything other than give Browning a head start on the playbook and acclimating to college life.
However, when a player comes in mid-year, it allows the coaches to get creative with scholarship math. The Huskies signed 24 players in last year's class, so they can "roll" his scholarship back into that class and not have him count against the 2015 numbers. Is this important? It would allow the staff the luxury to sign one more player in the 2015 class if they choose to do so. At this moment the Huskies have 17 scholarship seniors so it doesn't look like the incoming class will be able to be bigger than 25, but that can change in a heartbeat. With the combination of natural attrition every program sees on an annual basis, the extra handful of players who tend to leave a program within the first couple of seasons after a coaching change, and the number of Husky underclassmen who could declare for the next NFL draft it's entirely possible that the Husky coaches will use that scholarship that Browning's early enrollment will allow them to. Even if they don't, it's never bad to have extra flexibility.