Cade McNamara became the first Notre Dame commit of the 2019 cycle when he announced for the Irish today. The 6’1″, 186-pound Nevadan camped at Notre Dame last month; he clearly made a big impression on the staff, as his performance earned an offer. Brian Polian ran point on McNamara’s recruitment, presumably in part because Tom Rees isn’t allowed to leave campus while he’s technically a GA, but McNamara and Rees have connected as well.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247 Sports — 3 star (no rating), NR
Rivals — 3 star (5.7 rating), NR
Scout — 3Â star, NR
ESPN — 3 star (no rating), NR
247 Composite — 3 star (no rating), NR
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame, Cade McNamara also holds offers from Hawaii, Nevada, San Diego State, and Wisconsin. That’s the full list as of today.
I tend to trust the staff on evaluations, especially when they’ve seen a kid in person, but this is the most extreme case of ranking/cohort and staff interest mismatch that I can remember. McNamara put up monster numbers as a sophomore – 3,577 yards (16.4 per attempt), 46 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and 5 more scores on the ground. If he can build on that performance as a junior, he should be able to improve his profile substantially and justify the staff’s evaluation in the process.
Highlights
Whoa. I’m not saying he’s a five-star or anything, and this doesn’t show what full-game all-22 film would, but if you watch his sophomore year highlights year you get the sense that the only reason his offer list is so small is that more programs haven’t seen him yet. McNamara looks really smooth delivering the ball downfield, often flinging it 30 or 40 yards with what looks like a flick of the wrist. I also love how he stands in even when he knows he’s going to get hit – very impressive toughness, especially for a sophomore. He completed just over 58% of his passes last season, which isn’t great, but almost every play on here shows a perfect throw; I’d be curious to know if he’s a little inconsistent, or if his receivers hurt him a few times, or if maybe he played a game in a hurricane or something. Ahem.
Anyway… Something that was conspicuous by its absence was the designed run; McNamara moves the pocket well enough, but it doesn’t look like he’ll threaten Deshone Kizer’s records. I’m not entirely sure, but I think his arm slot moves around a bit too – he’s definitely side arm on a number of throws, three-quarters on some others, might be overhand on some others. That might be fine as long as it doesn’t affect his consistency, but possibly something to work on at the next level. Nonetheless, after you see the 10th throw that he drops into the breadbasket from 30 yards, you can understand why the Notre Dame staff likes this kid.
Impact
Cade McNamara is pretty much guaranteed to redshirt. Brandon Wimbush could still be in place in 2019 as his fifth year kicks off – maybe not tremendously likely, but possible. Even if he moves on, Ian Book, Avery Davis, and Phil Jurkovec will all be on campus with time under their belts already by the time McNamara arrives. The most likely scenario is that McNamara will sit for at least two seasons before getting his shot, which will give him ample time to develop his game.
Welcome to the Irish family, Cade!
He’s got a QB name at least. Almost sounds like they went out and recruited Max Power or something.
Good pickup and a nice release. It’s always nice to get a QB on the board early in the class, too, to build around.
You mention his nice release. Now I nothing NOTHING, about QB mechanics, but it seems like his release is low. A fairly compact windup (which I believe is good), then it looks like he releases the ball from almost right at his shoulder, rather than up by his helmet.
I am assuming that I am either A. seeing it wrong, or B. that is how you want a release to look. Would you mind giving a quick like 3 things to look for in a QB’s release? Larz’s breakdowns of Kizer’s mechanics were great, but they were frame by frame shots, so harder to translate to watching HS kids’ film.
My reading of mostly this site, and also some Tom Brady analysis (which is tough to use to judge HS kids), makes me think an average fan can look for a few things in mechanics. Set feet, weight balance and throwing off front foot, not dropping the arm in the wind-up, and release from the box above the shoulder. Are those even accurate? Any nuance, or additional points to look for? Thanks.
As to the results, daaaaaaaaamn. Almost every ball is a perfectly placed AND a difficult throw over/around/between defenders. This kid must be inconsistent to have only completed 58% of his passes. There are not a lot of short throws on there. Wonder if he tends to chuck it straight into the ground on 5 yd passes, which seems to be not super rare.
The finer points are better addressed by Larz, Burgs, or Downinthebend, for sure, but I’ll take a stab based on what amateur knowledge I have. I think you hit on some really key basics. Does he step into the throw? Does he transfer weight correctly? Does he keep the ball above his elbow throughout the motion? Does he keep his base under him in the pocket?
As far as where he releases from, I don’t think it’s necessarily a huge problem; I think Philip Rivers is a sidearm or three-quarters guy, maybe a couple of other current QB’s too. From what I gather it’s not preferable but if the guy is delivering the ball where it needs to be consistently it’s not really worth fixing. Maybe a shorter guy runs a risk of having more passes tipped at the line, so in that sense it could be something to address for McNamara. Then again maybe he’ll grow 3 or 4 inches over the next couple of years and nobody will care.
Something to keep in mind with the highlight film too is that there are, say, 30 throws on there (didn’t count, just an arbitrary number) out of the nearly 400 passes he threw last season. That’s why Hudl film might get a staff interested in a kid, but it won’t get him an offer. Maybe every other deep ball is off the mark and we’re just seeing the phenomenal throws. Given that we’re looking at sophomore film I’m 110% sure he’s inconsistent, but you can see that at least the tools are there. Very interested to track this kid’s progression over the next couple of seasons.
Great to know. Thanks.
I’ll echo that I, too, am no scout or coach but the biggest thing that jumped out to me as an explanation to why more schools aren’t offering him…does he ever stay still? It seems like on every snap as soon as it’s coming to him he’s already running around with it. From what Larz and others have written on QB scouting, I think that’s a real big red flag. Footwork seems very immature and I’m worried about him relying too much on throwing on the run. That kind of stuff works well in small HS games but bigtime CFB…concerns me
Savvy move. The next coach can reevaluate in a year to see if he’s still a low 3-star or not.
Jeez, guys, it was a joke! Tough crowd.
So you don’t think Bob Stoops will reevaluate his 3-stars next year?
I think John Harbaugh is an honorable enough guy to keep BK’s offer alive.
Gruden would love having a chance to coach THIS GUY.
I think you have a fan club. 🙂
We definitely don’t struggle with attracting QB’s. We’ll see how his senior film looks. He makes some incredible throws.
Anyone else read this and think that Future HC Rees had been grounded by Coach Kelly?
“Tom Rees isn’t allowed to leave campus”