4.42 40 nice and 11 tds this year thru 4 games welcome to cal zach. thanks for the link mb. go bears

The 4.42 is hand-timed but I love this verbal. Hoffpauir is apparently a versatile athlete (e.g. baseball) and just a good, natural football player. Guys like that seem to make great safeties. I think Decoud and also John Boyett out of Napa, now starring with the Ducks, were in the same mold.

Quote:

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"I think we're going to be really good," said Hoffpauir. "I think Shaq Thompson's coming in, too, and I know our quarterback, Zach Kline. He's really good. There's lot of great young talent there and I know Coach Pendergast will continue to work with the defense and get them on point.

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Speculation on par with this board's knowledge or does he keep in touch with Shaq?

burritos;575083 said:

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Speculation on par with this board's knowledge or does he keep in touch with Shaq?

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Sounds like he's been talking to the other commits, all of whom are of the opinion that Shaq is a Bear. So it's speculation, but you've got to love the chemistry, enthusiasm and energy coming from this incoming class so far.

Still, I would put a 4.42 hand timed 40 as better than "adequate" for a 17 year old - which is what ESPN has on his profile.

Also, is it just me, or does his picture make him look a lot thicker than 6-0, 195?

drunkoski;575115 said:

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not sure that could easily mean a 4.7 electronic.

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That's Jerry Rice speed right?

My thoughts exactly, but even 4.7 is actually good enough for a safety. Heck, that's what Donte Hughes ran at the NFL combine, and he was a great college player.

calbear77x;575130 said:

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My thoughts exactly, but even 4.7 is actually good enough for a safety. Heck, that's what Donte Hughes ran at the NFL combine, and he was a great college player.

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this kid has it going on upstairs and on the field. He's fast enough now and will get a touch faster over the next 4 years, 4.7 or whatever he is today I could care less. With CP and Ambrose's eyes on him he must project well and clearly he is a solid decision maker...

I hear ya, but in the days of EA Sports everyone thinks you have to have 4.4 speed to make it. A good buddy of mine (great friend, big Cal supporter, but a complete idiot at times) always dogs any skill position player who cannot hit that time and I just find it ridiculous. It is far more important to be agile and have good hips and acceleration. I wouldn't mind him coming in with an electronic 4.7.

also very important is how fast they recognize and react to the play in front of them...fast guys can seem real slow if they can't read a play.

There is a standard for converting hand times to electronic in track. Something about rounding up to the nearest tenth then adding a tenth? That would make his hand-timed 4.42 a 4.6 if I am remembering it right.

Regardless, whether it's 4.42 or higher I agree the obsession with hundredths of a second is overblown and none of these times are in pads which make them even more questionable.

Anyway, more importantly: Welcome to Cal!
:gobears:

drunkoski;575115 said:

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not sure that could easily mean a 4.7 electronic.

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It could easily mean a 4.5 as well.

good lord, all this over 40 time????

he supposedly ran 4.92 at the under armour combine. time for more OMG, WTF???

http://combines.underarmour.com/football/athletes/10284


he looks fast enough on the football field to me and appears to have great instincts for the ball.

A guy who can read, anticipate and react with the best is often "faster" on the field and a better play-maker than someone with just a better 40 time. Really happy to have Zach as a Golden Bear!

Cal89;575273 said:

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A guy who can read, anticipate and react with the best is often "faster" on the field and a better play-maker than someone with just a better 40 time. Really happy to have Zach as a Golden Bear!

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Exactly....not dissimilar to our own Hardy Nickerson who doesn't have blazing speed at LB but when you watch his tape, he seems really dialed in and instinctive and once he gets to you (takes good angles) he wraps up big time

MoragaBear;575237 said:

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4.42 hand-timed is not 4.42 electronic but it's faster than most players run hand-timed so we know he's fast. He's an all-state safety with great numbers and strong offers, not some gutty little trooper with potential like he's starting to be made out to be.

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Does not have offers from top 20 schools other than Stanford. Under sized. Does not look fast on tape (not faster than the other guys on the field). With so many schools playing the spread, is he a good enough athlete? Of course I don't know, but is he less risky than a kicker?

Corners can been turned into safeties, so I would recruit fewer safeties. In fact, if it were me, I would recruit one less safety every year and give that scholarship to a kicker.

Sluggo

But it's not up to you.

Sluggo, you have your right to your opinion, but I disagree with almost everything you wrote.

sluggo_Cal;575293 said:

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Does not have offers from top 20 schools other than Stanford.
Sluggo

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Neither did Chris Conte, Cam Jordan, Mikey Mo(who's only other offer was San Diego St), and Verran Tucker. All of them in the NFL. So while watching a 6 minute youtube video and reading an offer list is one way to judge talent and potential, I say let's give our coaching staff who know we have a finite number of schollies some leeway.

drunkoski;575319 said:

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conte and jordan had plenty of interest.

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No top 20 schools as a criteria from sluggo.

Per Scout. Conte only got offers from Ucla/Cal
Jordan got offers from the zona schools, cal, hawaii, colorado, hawaii, nebraska(don't think they were a top 20 school then, could be wrong)

elpbear;575228 said:

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There is a standard for converting hand times to electronic in track. Something about rounding up to the nearest tenth then adding a tenth? That would make his hand-timed 4.42 a 4.6 if I am remembering it right.

Regardless, whether it's 4.42 or higher I agree the obsession with hundredths of a second is overblown and none of these times are in pads which make them even more questionable.

Anyway, more importantly: Welcome to Cal!
:gobears:

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All hand times should be rounded up to the nearest tenth of a second, period. A hand time should never be reported as 4.42 or 4.49. They are both 4.5. There is just too much variance in human reaction times to allow for hand times to be reported to the thousandth of a second (in the track world at least - football coaches apparently can care less about this maxim.) To convert a hand to electric for 200m or lower, you add .24 to convert to electronic. 400m & 800m has a different conversion of .14, presumably because they aren't crossing the finish line as fast so it's easier to get an accurate hand time. (I'm guessing here...) In any event, a hand time that is converted to electronic is still not valid for record setting, because they are so unreliable. You have local combine meets with the english teacher out there volunteering who is assigned a lane, and are asked to be accurate. Some dont realize or forget that you are supposed to start the timer on smoke instead of sound, and those athletes get a faster clock time than someone who finished ahead of them. Seriously, at hand timed track meets its a joke. A whole crew of timers are down there and they huddle up to figure out how to resolve the timing discrepancies based upon what who they saw cross in whatever order.

Now, 40 yard dash at the combine is also only half-electronic, so I don't know that the track conversion will be 100% accurate, since it's still a human who is reacting to the sight of the runner moving. 40 times are also faster than there respective times in a track meet (if a 40 yard race was run) because in track, you are reacting to the sound of a gun, whereas in 40 timing, you get set and run when you are comfortable, so the clock is reacting to your movement. Even if 40 times at the combine were 100% electric, they would still have an advantage over the 100m (or 55m/60m indoor) because it would account for the true time that it took to run the distance, as opposed to the time to cover the distance minus the time that it took for timer guy to react (since the clock isn't running...).

Appears to have a great nose for the ball...closes fast...and I love the way he purposefully punches and strips the ball out...to say nothing of his excitement level when he delivers the wood. Can't tell from watching a reel, but this kid seems to have the intangibles.

SRBear;575205 said:

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also very important is how fast they recognize and react to the play in front of them...fast guys can seem real slow if they can't read a play.

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what does it matter if your read or first decision is a split slow or wrong....sure, 4.4 speed Mays cover up alot of shortcomings if the situation isn't Taylored to your raw abiliities...

Let's put it this way, back to the original point. Zach got offers from 7 of the Pac 12 schools. He had plenty of quality interest.

By the way, is it just me or is this the worst tape ever? I don't mean the quality of the play by the players, but the actual video quality. On some shots it's so zoomed out and so blurry I could barely make out what was happening.

That said, from the closer-up stuff, I gotta say I like what I see.

drunkoski;575336 said:

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i followed conte pretty closely since i went to his HS and my impression was that he made it pretty clear he wasn't leaving california. i was actually pretty surprised when he saw so little playing time his soph and junior years (though that might have been homerism on my part).

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You know he's good. I know he's good. Now everyone knows he's good enough to be in the NFL. My point is that the offer list one receives out of high school is not the end all to determine one's potential. If SC knew he was going to be an NFL caliber corner, you'd think they'd offer?

I like Playmaking Safeties. We need 'em. He looks like one.

Congrats on choosing Cal...

:bravo

operbear;575309 said:

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But it's not up to you.

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Indeed. I am not delusional. All I am saying is that if one took a Moneyball perspective, it would make more sense to offer a valuable scholarship to a kicker than a safety who does not have great measurables. A top kicker is worth a win or two a year. How many safeties are worth that much? You could argue that the hit rate on safeties is higher, but I am not sure that is true.

Sluggo

Love this pick up. Just reading about him, he sounds like a tough, hard-nosed kid. We need more players like that.

MoragaBear;575555 said:

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Take a look at the measurables of the top twenty safeties. They're virtually all about the same. And this has nothing to do with offering a kicker. If they want to offer one, they have enough scholarships to do so.

The way this thread has evolved is exactly why I never recommend that recruits read message boards.

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MB, I think you're being overly sensitive to what's being said here. I think everyone is pretty happy about this commitment, and he sounds like a good player, a very good athlete, and a great kid.

But let's stay real about reported 40 times, shall we? Until a guy puts up a number at the NFL combine, I think it's fair to always take those with a grain of salt. I don't think anybody should be offended by that, even the Hoffpauir family, who I'm sure is very excited about Zach's future, as they should be.

Were the comments cynical? Yes, but they were not directed at the ability of the recruit to be successful on the field, rather at one measurable of debatable importance.

Welcome to The Center of the Universe, Zach!