SI All-American Candidate Athan Kaliakmanis Highlights and Evaluation

Athan Kaliakmanis is a quarterback prospect from Antioch Community High School in Antioch, Ill. Kaliakmanis is an SI All-American candidate.

Prospect: QB Athan Kaliakmanis 
Status: SI All-American Candidate
Vitals: 6-foot-3, 188 pounds
School: Antioch (Ill.) Antioch Community
Committed to: Minnesota  
Projected Position: Quarterback

Frame: Tall, high-cut and angular frame. Wound tight in upper-body with narrow midsection and some definition through calves.

Athleticism: Right-handed passer who shows quick feet in setup and when resetting to throw. Works inside the pocket with good lower-half balance and agility. Flashes a burst when eluding rush and can maneuver out of traffic to get to the edges. Surprising agility and cutting ability for a long-limbed athlete. Lowers pad level and sinks hips to cut and elude defenders as a runner.

Instincts: Good awareness to feel backside pocket pressure. Excels when moved off his mark and forced to create in reactionary phase. Willing to climb and continue locating targets playside. Can pitch with a tight and quick delivery. Fair to manipulate ball speeds, yet uses arm strength to attack defenses at all levels. See-it-and-throw-it type of passer who is accurate to clear paths and outside the hashes.

Polish: Operates heavily from the shotgun. Offense appears to use mostly half-field read concepts. Must continue refining footwork in drops. Needs to protect the ball with two hands consistently around traffic inside the pocket. Arm strength and competitiveness compensate for still-improving mental processing and throwing anticipation.

Bottom Line: Competitive, athletic and scrappy, Kaliakmanis is a quarterback with good release quickness and arm strength. He will leave some easy throws on the field here and there, and he also needs to continue developing better timing and playing within structure. However, he is a playmaker who is at his best off-script and has enough elusiveness and speed to be used on quarterback-designed runs. Once he improves his throwing anticipation and mental processing, Kaliakmanis has the physical tools to potentially challenge for a starting role.