Elite 11 Finals: Alabama commit Julian Sayin outperforms Dylan Raiola
LOS ANGELES - Julian Sayin is making a statement.
Sayin, an Alabama commit from Carlsbad High School, shined on the second night of the Elite 11 Finals, the nation's premier competition for rising high school senior quarterbacks. The competition is taking place at Redondo Union High School in Los Angeles.
Night two consisted of a Pro Day workout where each of the 20 Elite 11 quarterbacks made 20 throws to receivers from different areas on the field.
SBLive's Connor Morrissette charted every throw from every quarterback. He used a pass/fail method to judge each throw as either a "plus throw" or a "minus throw." Plus throws didn't have to be perfect, just balls that were well timed and gave the receiver a chance to make a play. Minus throws were mistakes.
Here's who caught our eye on Thursday night:
SBLive's QB breakdowns factor in on-field performance only. The Elite 11 will release their own rankings that may draw from activities done when media members weren't present.
BEST OVERALL QB
Julian Sayin
Alabama commit Julian Sayin earned MVP honors from the Elite 11 coaches and he was our MVP as well. Sayin was surgical during the Pro Day workout. His only mistake was a long pylon toss where he tried a jump throw that just missed the receiver, but looked beautiful in the air. That was Sayin's only minus throw on the night. Through two sessions, he's the favorite to win the overall Finals MVP.
I had two other QB's with 19 "plus throws" — Georgia commit Dylan Raiola and Ohio State commit Air Noland. Raiola was perfect on the night until he airmailed his final throw. He makes the QB position look easy and has been a top performer for two nights in a row now. After what I thought was somewhat of an inconsistent performance on the first night, Noland bounced back in a big way on Thursday. He had great zip on his passes and firmly put himself into the top tier of QB's.
OTHER NIGHT 2 TOP PERFORMERS
I had five quarterbacks with 18 plus throws: Texas Tech commit Will Hammond, Ole Miss commit Demond Williams, Utah commit Isaac Wilson, Notre Dame commit CJ Carr and the top uncommitted QB at the event, Elijah Brown.
The top wide receiver on Thursday night was 6-foot-5 Ball High School (Galveston, Texas) wideout Will Cianfrini. Cianfrini has some Group of Five offers, but expect him to get a lot more attention after the Elite 11. He showed off a very impressive vertical and had great hands. Cianfrini performed so well that one of the Elite 11 coaches put him on the phone with the UCLA staff during the event. Remember the name.
REMAINING PLUS/MINUS
Here's how the remaining quarterbacks fared.
Daniel Kaelin: 17/20 plus throws
DJ Lagway: 17/20
Danny O'Neil: 17/20
Ryan Puglisi: 17/20
Dante Reno: 17/20
Ethan Grunkemeyer: 16/20
Colin Hurley: 16/20
Michael Hawkins: 16/20
Hauss Hejny: 16/20
Trever Jackson: 15/20
Luke Kromenhoek: 15/20
Jadyn Davis: 14/20
