South Carolina Football Recruting: QB Braxton Burmeister could visit Columbia

After seemingly being snatched up by Arizona, four-star Quarterback Braxton Burmeister has decommitted from Arizona and has reopened his recruitment. Burmeister sizes up at 6'1 and weighs 210 pounds, decent size for a mobile quarterback, and is coming off of a sensational season at La Jolla Country Day school in California. Ranked eighth among dual threat quarterbacks by 24/7 Sports, Burmeister originally committed to the University of Arizona but on March 11th officially announced his decision to not honor his commitment to the Wildcats.

Having already snatched up a four-star QB up in highly sought after prospect Brandon Mcllwain, Burmeister would more than likely be brought in to compete with him a future starting job. Signing Mcllwain should have no direct effect on South Carolina's recruitment of Burmeister as the Gamecocks were one of the many interested teams, and there's no such thing as having too much talent around, especially at the quarterback position.

With his recruitment opening back up, South Carolina is one of the many schools who are now actively looking at making a run at signing Burmeister. Illinois, Indiana, San Diego State, and Utah top a list of suitors who expressed the most interested in Burmeister. Almost all of the major college offers came following Burmeister's November 12th commitment to Arizona. The Gamecocks threw their hat into the ring on February 24th when they officially made an offer.

The first thing that immediately stands out when assessing the film is Burmeister's ability to run. But, it's more than just the ability to get out into the open field. Burmeister is incredible at reading defenses and making timely cuts. As a runner, he will consistently make sharp cuts down field and run through open holes. He's also no slouch in the weight room, in several highlights Burmeister runs straight through defenders, throwing them to the ground with one simple drop of the shoulder.

Throwing the ball, Burmeister has a strong and accurate arm. He can fire balls as deep as 50 to 60 yards downfield at ease while fitting the ball into extremely tight windows right into a receivers' hands.  The one thing he must work on is his ability to create on the run. Burmeister is solid at making throws on the run, his ability to extend plays is something that every school is looking for in a dual threat QB.

But Burmeister's one elite strength is his ability to throw the ball downfield. In his sensational sophomore season highlight tape, Burmeister unleashes his cannon nailing receivers in stride from over 50 yards away. Another amazing showcase of Burmeister's arm strength is this trick throw video where Burmeister chucks a football from in the stands all the way to the 50-yard line. That's an impressive of a display of arm strength in an out of game situation, the accuracy and strength it took to make that throw is unbelievable.

Burmeister had a spectacular junior campaign, accounting for 51 total touchdowns, 31 of them coming through the air while the other 20 were scored via the ground game. Burmeister enters his senior year in 2016, which will be his final year under center marking the end of his four year run as the starting QB at La Jolla Country Day.

Operating mainly out of the shotgun, Burmeister is the perfect quarterback to command an up-tempo, spread-style offense. His high school experience in an up-tempo shotgun offense will only help him no matter where he goes to college, and since Will Muschamp has made expressed interest in having an athletic QB run his offense, Burmeister may be one player the Gamecocks take a long hard look at.