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A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside
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A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 12:16 PM

For those who don't know, this is JJ Arcega-Whiteside:
https://gostanford.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=13960

We didn't take him in 2015. Arcega plays the 9, or boundary spot - he's a huge 6'3", 225-pound guy - and we already had Shadell Bell on board. (This was a rare example of a "miss" from Jeff Scott, actually...Bell moved to TE and ultimately transferred out after making almost no contribution.) But the problem here was, we had a couple of packaged 5-stars on the hook, Deon Cain and Ray-Ray McCloud. We got 'em, and we were full, with 2 players (Bell and Cain) who projected at the same spot as Arcega-Whiteside.

So there was no spot for the 5.7, high-end-3-star-rated Dorman product per Rivals.com. Stanford swooped in from across the country and pounced, and he's now the leading receiver for arguably the best team in the Pac-12. He leads (by a mile, actually) the Cardinal with 37 catches for 632 yards (an impressive 17.1 yards per grab) with 9 TD's. That's through 7 games. If he replicates that over the second half of the season (assuming the Cardinal get the Pac-12 Championship game and a bowl game, which seems likely), that projects to a massive 74 grabs for 1264 and 18 TD's, which is Mike Williams-level production.

The NFL has noticed. Arcega-Whiteside has gotten at least one first-round projection from some draftniks (though most seem to regard him as a Day 2 or even Day 3 prospect owing to his lack of truly elite speed).

The dude can play, whatever.

This in turn begs the fascinating question: despite the fact that we unquestionably missed on Bell, if we play the "what if" game, would Whiteside have really excelled at Clemson? Well, maybe...but maybe not. Cain and McCloud were definitely often-frustrating players for us but they were explosive...Cain had a pair of massive game-changing catch-and-runs (against FSU in 2015 that broke the game, and another in 2016 in the national title game against Bama that sparked our comeback); those were pivotal, monster games for Clemson (you can argue two of the most important three games Clemson has ever played, actually) and we simply may not have won those games without Cain. And again...Whiteside was a pure 9 and wouldn't have beat out Williams...and while we didn't get quite as much out of Cain as we might have wanted, there's no question he's more electric and more dynamic, if not quite as adept at going up and getting it as Whiteside is.

And then there's the youngsters. Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross both are far more explosive and faster than Whiteside...and Diondre Overton - who may be our best pure Red Zone receiver - is even bigger. Would there have been room for Arcega-Whiteside at the boundary spot at Clemson, or would he have been crowded out by more physically talented players and never gotten the opportunity he now has at Stanford?

Possible. Perhaps even likely. There's only one football.

Stuff sometimes, it seems, works out like it's supposed to. But it's still fascinating that for all our recent success getting receivers out of the state in general and Dorman HS in particular, there might have been a first-rounder that got away...and it didn't even cause a hiccup in the NFL pipeline for Wide Receiver U.

That is what's called an "Uptown Problem", folks.

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Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 12:24 PM

I don't argue with any of your analysis...except I thought A-W was always headed out of state. Maybe I remember it wrong, but I seem to recall that he was one of those guys who never really wanted to stay in SC.

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Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 1:38 PM

CUGRAD90 said:

I don't argue with any of your analysis...except I thought A-W was always headed out of state. Maybe I remember it wrong, but I seem to recall that he was one of those guys who never really wanted to stay in SC.


My nephew was a team mate of his at Dorman and he would have loved to stay in state. Both Clemson and Uscjr passed on him just like Mason Rudolph.

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Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 1:38 PM [ in reply to Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside ]

CUGRAD90 said:

I don't argue with any of your analysis...except I thought A-W was always headed out of state. Maybe I remember it wrong, but I seem to recall that he was one of those guys who never really wanted to stay in SC.


My nephew was a team mate of his at Dorman and he would have loved to stay in state. Both Clemson and Uscjr passed on him just like Mason Rudolph.

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Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 1:38 PM [ in reply to Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside ]

CUGRAD90 said:

I don't argue with any of your analysis...except I thought A-W was always headed out of state. Maybe I remember it wrong, but I seem to recall that he was one of those guys who never really wanted to stay in SC.


My nephew was a team mate of his at Dorman and he would have loved to stay in state. Both Clemson and Uscjr passed on him just like Mason Rudolph.

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Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 1:38 PM [ in reply to Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside ]

CUGRAD90 said:

I don't argue with any of your analysis...except I thought A-W was always headed out of state. Maybe I remember it wrong, but I seem to recall that he was one of those guys who never really wanted to stay in SC.


My nephew was a team mate of his at Dorman and he would have loved to stay in state. Both Clemson and Uscjr passed on him just like Mason Rudolph.

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Dude is a stud. I think he'd be playing for us.***


Oct 19, 2018, 12:24 PM



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Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 12:27 PM

The hyphenation works better in Cali.

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His mom made sure he went to Stanford


Oct 19, 2018, 12:30 PM

No ifs ands or buts.

She and the wife worked together at the time.

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I'm not entirely sure Clemson ever offered...


Oct 19, 2018, 12:52 PM

Thinking back, his offer list included a lot of schools like Furman, App State, and Elon. He just didn't have a lot of Power 5 offers (maybe Georgia Tech and one or two others).

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Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.


Re: I'm not entirely sure Clemson ever offered...


Oct 19, 2018, 5:08 PM

Good friends with his family. His cousin that is the same age (more like a brother) is currently at Clemson. From my interaction with them, the family seems to have a pretty decent sized chip on their shoulder that neither in state school offered.

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Recruiting, as you know, is a numbers game...


Oct 19, 2018, 12:40 PM

You can't take them all so you have to pick and choose. Sometimes the coaches choose correctly. Other times...not so much as was the case with Bell. On that basis, in hindsight (which is 20/20), there will always be room for speculation about one who may have gotten away.

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Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.


Re: Recruiting, as you know, is a numbers game...


Oct 19, 2018, 1:07 PM

He's even a better kid than he is a football player. Comes from a great family. Michigan state also pushed hard for him.

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Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 1:46 PM

He deff has helped my yahoo fantasy team out lol. The kid is a baller but idk if we get Tee with him being here. Maybe so but who knows. Tee might not have seen early playing time like he did. I would agree it worked out best for both parties but I do believe he would have contributed for us for sure. Probably not like he has at Stanford tho.

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Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 1:51 PM

Really good-looking player. To me he looks like a TE lining up at WR. I'm sure he created mismatch problems all over the field. A Sunday player for sure.

Having Stanford as a 'fallback' is good living.

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Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 1:57 PM

He visited us as a sophomore and ever since then was all Stanford. I wouldn't say that would did our best trying to flip him but he committed a year in advance and I think his recruitment was over from there. Also watched the Stanford game last night and he was a MONSTER. Dude would carry people 5 yards every play it's like Ray Lewis catching a ball, he will be a 1st rounder I think.

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Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 2:03 PM

Great post .
I think a lot depends on where you're planted ... and I think Arcega-Whiteside found his best landing spot at the time .
We'll never know how it would've worked out for him in Clemson , but it is good to see a SC kid lighting it up on the west coast .

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DB23


Re: A dude not taken: JJ Arcega-Whiteside


Oct 19, 2018, 2:17 PM

Now we need some of those West Coast athletes to light it up on the East Coast, specifically at Clemson.

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