Who is Blake Bortles?

By Chad Stapley
Chad Stapley

 Blake Bortles from UCF has typical NFL QB size and through three seasons at UCF he completed 66% of his passes. This most recent season he led his team to a victory of Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl and he almost led an early season upset of South Carolina before UCF lost by three points. Bortles seems to have a chip on his shoulder and that chip was put on his shoulder rightfully so by the recruiting nation back in 2010. Bortles was ranked as the 68th Best QB in 2010; the following is just some of the QB’s that were ranked ahead of Bortles, who did not receive any major D1 Offers besides UCF.

 

Rank                           Name                          What Happened Since 2010?

#2                    Jesse Scroggins                      Redshirt at USC (2010-2011)

                                                                        El Camino College (2012)

                                                                        UofA (2013 – Present)

#3                    Blake Bell                               Enrolled at OK (2010-2011)

                                                                        Backup QB (2011-2012)

                                                                        Partial Starter (2012-2013)

                                                                        Switched to TE for 2014

#4                    Robert Bolden                       Enrolled at Penn St (2010-2012)

                                                                        Transferred to LSU (2012 – Present)

                                                                        Currently 3rd/4th String at LSU

#5                    Devin Gardner                      Enrolled at Michigan (2010-2011)

                                                                        Starter at QB (2013-2014)

                                                                        Will be in a battle to be QB in 2014

#48                  Stephen Morris                      Miami (2010-2013)

                                                                        Starter (2012-2013)

                                                                        3rd-5th Round Draft Prospect

#59                  James Franklin                      Missouri (2010-2013)

                                                                        Starter 2011-2013

                                                                        4th-6th Round Draft Prospect

 

So how did the recruiting gurus get Bortles so mixed up? When you look back at this particular QB class there is an overwhelming feeling of recruiting busts all over the 2010 class, especially for the QB Position. Bortles has the ability to fit a wide variety of QB needy NFL teams; but I specifically like him in a Jaguars uniform. The Jaguars have some interesting prospects in place and have three impressive young guys at WR already on their roster; Denard Robinson, Ace Sanders, and Cecil Shorts are all budding stars just waiting on some decent QB play. Throw in the fact that they also have Justin Blackmon (granted he ever figures out how to stop breaking the rules) and the Jaguars have some nice players in place they just need a Franchise QB like Bortles who has much better accuracy then the likes of Blaine Gabbert & Chad Henne. Everything seems to fall in place perfectly for a Jaguars & Bortles love-like story. Bortles gets little to no attention coming out of high school in Oviedo, Florida. The University of Central Florida offer Bortles a scholarship, UCF is located in Orlando which is just about 20 miles away from his home town. Bortles becomes the starter at QB in his sophomore season at UCF and never relinquished the role. Now just four years removed from high school Bortles has the potential to go #1 overall in the 2014 NFL Draft; or will the Jacksonville Jaguars swoop in and keep the Florida Kid throwing footballs out of Jacksonville (AKA his backyard, Jacksonville is about 100 miles from his hometown) for the rest of the foreseeable future?