USF badly needed a quarterback for their 2013 recruiting class, and it looks like they may have already taken care of that pressing need as Asiantii Woulard from Winter Park High School has verbally committed to the Bulls, according to Josh Newberg of Bulls 247.
Woulard had offers from Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and UCF, plus interest from several other schools. He was teammates at Winter Park with receiver D'Vario Montgomery, who is part of USF's 2012 recruiting class. Woulard is listed as a dual-threat quarterback, measuring in at 6'4" and 200 pounds. His only star rating so far comes from 247, which gave him three stars.
A few thoughts here:
- It's not totally unheard of for quarterbacks to commit this early. A lot of prospects realize that teams rarely take more than one QB in a recruiting class, and if they really want to be there, then they need to reserve their spot before someone else does. 247 has Woulard as the #12 dual-threat QB prospect in 2013, and I'm sure some other schools will keep coming after him, but this sounds pretty secure. (There are some other useful articles behind the 247 paywall on this topic.)
- What does this mean for the offense after B.J. Daniels leaves? I was convinced that once Daniels moved on, Skip Holtz would want to move back towards a more "conventional" offense with the quarterback under center and not running very much. Since Woulard was apparently USF's #1 quarterback target, does landing him change his thinking any? Winter Park runs a spread offense, but when you watch Woulard's YouTube highlight video (see below), he looks like a hybrid of Daniels and E.J. Manuel -- he has Manuel's size and throwing ability, but he's not under center much and he's not as fast as Daniels (or maybe Manuel either). It will be a long time before the question about USF's offensive style is answered, but it should be an interesting one to think about.
- Is USF going to consider another quarterback, even if Woulard sticks? Probably depends on how much Matt Floyd progresses throughout the spring and summer. He has to be the backup this year to have any chance of competing for the starting job later. And if the word "Eveld" is still second on the depth chart by September, I wouldn't be surprised if the Bulls go back to their long list of QB offers in the 2013 class and try to bring in another one.
Here's the Woulard highlight reel.
asiantii woulard #2 QB winter park high (via moffettqb)