Wildcat Wizard: Western Beaver ATH Eric Blinn
by Wade Perry
Posted June 24, 2011 12:20 am
class of 2012, College Football Recruiting, Eric Blinn, Western Beaver football, Wildcat
FinestPreps has already profiled one of the more overlooked Division I-A football prospects from Western Beaver (Industry, Pa.) in Dustin Creel.
Creel is an outstanding receiver and is blessed with tremendous leaping ability and ball skills.
The Western Beaver standout has impressed in the summer 7-on-7 circuit with the W PA SWAG team and recently picked up a scholarship offer from the Toledo Rockets.
Creel is not the only stud on the Western Beaver football team.
This prospect we’re highlighting today is Creel’s partner in crime in Western Beaver’s highly successful Wildcat formation.
Who’s the man who reminds this writer of former Villanova wide receiver Matt Sczur?
Meet Western Beaver’s Eric Blinn.
The 6’1″, 184 pound athlete is one of the most dynamic playmakers in the 2012 recruiting class.
He returns kicks, returns punts, plays quarterback, wide receiver, and safety for the Golden Beavers.
He’s a wizard of the Wildcat formation–operating the formation with a high level of efficiency and success.
He truly makes it into an artform.
With Creel as the jet man, Blinn operates as the quarterback in the Wildcat for the Golden Beavers.
Blinn is blessed with remarkably good field vision and it shows in his highlight tape below.
Football players that run the Wildcat formation so well have a few different traits–field vision, patience, and the ability to follow their blocks extremely well.
Blinn has all three of those traits and he’s got the highlight tape and gaudy numbers to prove it.
He’s one of the most versatile playmakers in the state of Pennsylvania and plays much faster than his 4.7 40 yard dash time.
Need evidence of his blazing “field speed”? Let’s take a look.
The first play on his highlight tape–Blinn takes the snap, races towards the line of scrimmage, stops at the 33 yard line, makes a defender miss, then makes multiple more miss en route to his 35 yard touchdown run.
Then there’s another play at 1:24 into the highlight tape. He takes the snap from under center at his own 24 yard line. He then delivers a beautiful ball fake to the running back who drifts off to the left side.
Blinn rolls to his right and once he knifes through a few defenders at the 30 yard line, finds daylight, turns on the burners, and cruises 75 yards for the touchdown run. You can just hear Chris Berman saying in the background, “And they’re not…gonna…get…him.”
Need to watch him play receiver?
Check the second clip on his highlight tape–where Blinn runs a button hook route.
He stops at the 30 yard line, catches the football, immediately feels a defender closing in on him, so he spins to the outside, and races down the sideline before being knocked out of bounds around the 12 yard line.
As a receiver, he roasted opposing defensive backs for 18 catches and 259 yards (14.39 yards per catch) and one touchdown.
Need to watch him return kicks?
Check a few more plays into his tape–where he catches the football at the 10 yard line.
He races his way through a pack of red jerseys at the 37 yard line, finds open field, and he’s finally forced out of bounds at the opponents 24 yard line.
As a junior last year, he returned nine kicks for 225 yards (25 yards per return) for Western Beaver. His longest kick return was 65 yards.
Need to watch him play safety?
Check the play at 1:38 into his highlight tape when he stops at the 25 yard line, then leaps in the air for a jump ball with a receiver, snatching it out of the air for the interception.
After he picks off the pass, the receiver is on the ground and Blinn is instantly looking to make a play–he races all the way to his opponents’ 34 yard line before being knocked out of bounds.
As a safety last year, he racked up 44 tackles, snatched up two interceptions, had seven passes defended, and recovered one fumble.
Care to take a look at his outstanding field vision?
Well you can choose a number of plays but I say go to 2:05 into his tape.
Blinn takes the snap out of the shotgun at his own 48 yard line, races to the left on a sweep play where he’s lead by a slew of his own blockers.
He turns the corner, finds daylight, then completely stops at the 40 yard line, making a defender miss him completely.
He then races to the 32 yard line before he begins to slash to the inside of the field and he’s finally wrestled down by a defender at the 24.
Simply put, Blinn is blessed with the ability to make quick decisions while traveling at a high rate of speed.
That’s a trait you can’t coach–no question about it.
If you need any more evidence that he’s a dynamic runner in the open field–just take a look at his gaudy rushing stats.
Blinn shredded his opponents to the tune of 991 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on 124 attempts (7.99 yards per carry). His longest run for Western Beaver was 78 yards.
Not only can Blinn run as a quarterback–he even threw for over 100 yards last season and completed a touchdown pass for the Golden Beavers.
After watching his highlight tape–it’s clear to me that Blinn is currently one of the most overlooked prospects in the state of Pennyslvania for the 2012 recruiting class.
He’s oozing with versatility, can play a variety of different positions on the football field, and is one of the most dynamic playmakers you will find in the 2012 recruiting class.
He can catch, run, play quarterback, run the Wildcat, return kicks, return punts, play safety–the dynamic playmaker can simply do-it-all.
Blinn is blessed with an abundance of football traits that serve him well at various positions on the football field–field vision, field speed, patience, agility, leaping ability, and ball skills.
Too often coaches and scouts fall in love with measurables and stop watch numbers when the only thing that should really matter is “field speed”.
How does a prospect play when the pads are on, the chinstrap is buckled, and the bright Friday night lights are glowing?
It’s clear that Blinn is blessed with tremendous “field speed” and college coaches will regret it if they continue to overlook this ultra-versatile playmaker.
An exceptionally gifted athlete–Blinn also averaged 21.9 points per game for Western Beaver’s basketball team last season as well.
He’s receiving interest from a variety of Division III schools for basketball.
He currently doesn’t have any Division I-A scholarship offers for football but has received interest from schools such as Mercyhurst and Youngstown State.
As a junior–Blinn led his conference in all-purpose yardage–shredding his opponents to the tune of 1,773 all-purpose yards.
He led his conference in rushing yards and was named a third team all-state defensive back.
Blinn is currently playing safety for the W PA SWAG 7-on-7 team and will be participating in one of the biggest 7-on-7 events this summer (IMG Madden 7-on-7 Championships Presented by Under Armour). The event is slated for June 25th and June 26th in Bradenton, Florida and will showcase some of the nation’s premiere high school football talent.
Look for the recruitment process of this overlooked talent to heat up sometime in the future!
Wade Peery is the senior writer for FinestPreps.com. He can be reached by e-mail at wadepeery@yahoo.com.
Check out Eric Blinn’s junior highlight tape below!
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class of 2012, College Football Recruiting, Eric Blinn, Western Beaver football, Wildcat