USC Football: Scouting 2024 Trojan Commit Safety Jarvis Boatwright
Clearwater (Clearwater, FL) safety Jarvis Boatwright committed to USC back in early June 2023. He is one of four defensive backs (two corners, two safeties) currently committed to the Trojans’ 2024 class. He elected to become a Trojan after considering offers from Florida State, Tennessee, UCF, Florida, and South Carolina to name a few.
He is one of two Floridians who will be making the cross-country move to Southern California, the other being Clearwater Academy (Clearwater, FL) offensive lineman Jason Zandamela (same city, different school).
So what makes Boatwright such a hot commodity? We broke down his Hudl film to answer this question for USC fans. Unfortunately tore his ACL his junior year, so there was no junior season film to review. Fortunately, he has a midseason (senior season) highlight tape, along with sophomore tape to watch.
Boatwright’s biggest strength is his ability to come up and make punishing tackles. Yes, he can be effective as a deep third/deep half safety. But, Boatwright’s eliteness comes from his ability to consistently come down into the box, break down, and stop the ball carrier in their tracks.
In addition to his elite tackling prowess, Boatwright is also very decisive and instinctual. He trusts his reads, can make a decision. then executes. This kind of ability to process what the offense is trying to do makes him an intriguing safety prospect. One of the most important mental strengths for safeties is their ability to process information in the form of reads. Boatwright can do that and showed such as a sophomore.
He’s got the size, physicality, and technique to be able tackle Division One ballcarriers. The one thing we wish we would’ve seen more was his athleticism while running backwards and how easily he can flip his hips to cover deep passes behind him. Look for Boatwright to take a year or two to develop before he earns significant burn at the safety position, but he should contribute on special teams in year one due to how sure of a tackler he is.
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