The Baylor Bears landed a huge verbal commitment for their 2013 class in Fort Worth Southwest wide receiver Robbie Rhodes. Rhodes is a top-50 wide receiver according to Rivals and ESPN, and he chose Baylor over offers he had from TCU, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Alabama, Missouri and Texas.
It really came down to Baylor and Texas, but the decision to choose Baylor was because they were with Rhodes from the beginning while Texas came in late. The passing offense that Baylor uses was another reason why he chose Baylor, and that the coaching staff sees him being the next Kendall Wright. This is a huge get for Baylor to land Rhodes and possibly even bigger news is that they were able to out recruit Texas for a player.
Rhodes is also a track star who has bee clocked at under a 4.4 second 40-yard dash and he anchored the 4x200 relay to a gold medal at the Texas state high school championship this past spring.
Here is the scouting report on Rhodes:
At a little over 6-0 and 185 pounds, the measurables don't stand out with Rhodes, who is relatively similar to Ra'Shaad Samples or former Skyline receiver Mike Davis in his ability to quickly eat a defender's cushion to get open on deep passes, though Rhodes probably has better speed than either. Bottom line for defensive backs going against Rhodes -- there's so little evidence of him running any hitches, square ins, or squares outs, throws his quarterback likely isn't capable of making, so it would probably be worth getting into a backpedal quickly when he comes hard off the line of scrimmage.
The result, though, is that his highlights show little about how he performs as a route runner. Can he sink his hips to get in and out of his breaks or is he as raw in that regard as another recent Fort Worth product, current MIssouri Tiger and former Longhorn, Darius White?
Interestingly, Rhodes' highlights are filled with plays in which he both creates separation and makes plays in traffic. Seems impossible, right? Not with a quarterback who consistently underthrows the ball. As a result, there's ample evidence of Rhodes using his superior body control to find and adjust to the ball in the air, though he doesn't have the height and high-point ball skills of other prospects in the class like Whitehouse's Dylan Cantrell, a Texas Tech commit, or Oliver, the Texas pledge.
In terms of post-catch ability, there isn't a lot on film, other than a brief look at some impressive acceleration and the slightest evidence of some shiftiness and vision in traffic while working out of the Wildcat. Unfortunately, the longer highlights that are likely on Hudl are set on private for Rhodes.
Here are highlights from Rhodes junior season:
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