Middletown Middies ATH Zach Edwards Commits to Cincinnati

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Zach Edwards
Position	ATH
Height - Weight	6'1" 175 lbs
Hometown	Middletown, OH
High School	Middletown
247 Sports	*** - 82
Rivals	*** - 5.5
ESPN	** - 74
Scout	**

Zach Edwards joins fellow Middie E.J. Junior as the second verbal to Cincinnati who will grayshirt next season. The fact that these Middletown players opted to sit out a season and accept a scholarship in 2013 with Cincinnati as opposed to accepted scholarships beginning in 2012 with other schools shows how Coach Jones and crew have made inroads in the local high school programs. Middletown’s new head coach actually worked on Coach Jones’ staff for a few months. He obviously believes that going to the University of Cincinnati, even though they have to sit out a year, rather than go to Miami (Oh), Bowling Green, and Akron in Edwards’ case. That’s something you don’t hear much about very often from the local high school football coaches and quite frankly it’s a breath of fresh air.

Overview

 

Edwards played primarily wide receiver in high school but new Middies coach Troy Everhart tried him out at safety in his senior season. Unfortunately I have yet to find any highlights from him senior campaign and until I do, this footage of Edwards’ sophomore year will have to do. I’ll just have to be a little creative with the evaluation. The first thing that stands out to me is his flat out speed. That’s important for a safety as he has to cover a LOT of ground especially in single-safety looks when the one man covering deep and quarterbacks will look to throw deep as the cornerbacks will undoubtedly be in man-to-man coverage. Edwards’ speed will allow him to track down receivers sideline-to-sideline. The converted safety also has good size for his position standing 6’1″ with pretty long arms. It should allow him to match-up well physically with wide receivers. Finally the fact that he played wide receiver for so long should allow him to get in the minds of pass-catchers he is defending and should have a leg up in the mental aspect of the position.

Outlook

Troy Everhart played him as a safety and he will play the same position with the Bearcats. Although he may have to take a redshirt in his ‘freshman’ year in 2013. The Bearcats have loads of safeties coming in for the 2012 class and the majority of them will be ahead of Edwards considering guys like Marcus Foster may play as true freshman. I think Edwards has all of the physical tools to compete at Cincinnati but he will have to jump a few guys on the depth chart to earn that playing time.

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