Welcome Aboard: Juwan Caesar

First off, big, big thanks to Bud from Tomahawk Nation for making me aware of this video and providing some insight into Caesar later on in this article.  Secondly, if you haven't heard, Miami wide receiver Juwan Caesar committed to Michigan State yesterday, making him the 3rd wide receiver and 19th commitment to the 2011 recruiting class.  As always, here are the recruiting rankings: 

RIVALS: 3 stars, 5.7 Rivals Rating, #67 Wide Receiver

SCOUT: 3 stars, #78 Wide Receiver

ESPN: 4 stars, 79 Grade, #36 Wide Receiver

Caesar's main offers were from Illinois, Minnesota, South Florida, and West Virginia.  Caesar's recruitment had been heating up recently though, as Bud from Tomahawk Nation told me:

There are so many kids in SoFla that it is impossible to find them all, particularly if they keep changing schools...Miami is going to offer him if they have not already, so you may have to hold them off for the next 11 days.  He's definitely a game changer in the Big 10.

Take that for what it's worth, but the information seems pretty sound to me.  It also explains why Caesar went under the radar for so long, kind of like how Keshawn Martin did a few years back.  I wouldn't worry about Caesar decommiting:

(Recruiting) was getting a little bit stressful and I wanted to get it over," Caesar told SpartanMag.com. "I went through my check list of things that I am looking for in a school and Michigan State had everything on my list. I started thinking that it was going to be Michigan State a couple of weeks ago even before my official visit."

That sounds pretty solid.  Anything can happen, but if he was thinking he was going to commit to MSU before he took the visit, that's a pretty good sign he's going to stay. 

The recruiting sites seem pretty certain that his height is a genuine 6'4", but have his weight as low as 185 pounds and as high as 210 pounds.  His 40 speed is also given as 4.65; if I could I'd give this zero FAKES out of five, as his video shows him running away from cornerbacks.  This might be the first ever case of a recruiting site underestimating someone's speed.

I'm not quite sure if Caesar's going to see playing time early, but his coach seems to think so:

"He's an absolute gem of a guy," said Tim Wood, Caesar's high school coach at Coral Park. "He burst on the scene his senior year and has unreal potential. From what I understand he could be getting some seriously early playing time. He's a big kid and he runs extremely well and is as athletic of a receiver as there is in the country, I truly believe it."

He does have size that no other wideout on the team can claim right now, but I'd think Bennie Fowler is the team's fourth wide receiver at this point.  If someone gets injured, I can see Caesar getting into the two-deep.  The last Spartan receiver I can remember to have Caesar's size and ability was Matt Trannon, and Trannon ended up having the most receptions ever for a Spartan (until B.J. Cunningham breaks it this year - he's only 10 away from the top spot).  Granted half of those came off up bubble screens, but they still count.

With Caesar's commitment MSU, barring an insane development, is done at wide receiver for this class.  They've got 3-4 more scholarships to distribute, and I'd expect a couple of those to go to offensive linemen - the Spartans only have two committed for this class; unless they convert defensive linemen the OL class is going to be uncomfortably small this year.  There's still plenty of time between now and signing day on February 2nd, and at the rate the Spartans have been receiving commitments of late, they should be just fine.