Over the last three weeks, the NFL network has been showing the Elite 11 process from last summer on Tuesday night’s and Florida Gators quarterback commit Matt Corral has been featured on the show.
On Tuesday night, Corral had a small feature about himself on the show and received rave reviews from several big names associated with the Elite 11.
President of the Elite 11 event Brian Stumpf who has been with the event since 2000 raved about Corral’s arm talent that he showed this past summer in California and Oregon.
“He’s an intense competitor with probably a top 2-3 arm,” Stumpf said. “He has confidence in that arm and in that ability to make a play. He might have the strongest arm we’ve had in this camp since Matthew Stafford.”
Head coach of the Elite 11 Trent Dilfer is tasked every year with watching hundreds of film of quarterbacks, plus he has had the opportunity to be around some of the best quarterbacks to play the game the last 20 years.
Dilfer who watched a lot of tape of Corral had instant flashbacks of another quarterback who will be a future NFL Hall of Famer.
“You watch the tape and I thought Brett Favre type playmaker,” Dilfer said. “It’s splash reel after splash reel watching his tape.”
The praise for Corral from these guys who watched him through the camp process is one thing but having his high school and former New York Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce praise him says a lot.
Pierce who has only coached Corral for this year and has been with the quarterback since March and praised his ability to really focus in and get the job done.
“The future is as bright as Matt Corral wants it to be,” Pierce said. “With his mind, when he’s focused and he’s dialed in, he’s one of the best.”
Having a big arm and being a guy who can make all the plays is one thing but the quarterback position needs a guy who can be a leader.
Corral has received that praise from people already because of his ability to recruit players but former NFL quarterback Jerrod Johnson also noticed those skills in Oregon this summer.
“His demeanor is very confident and very direct,” Johnson said. “He definitely commands a situation. He wasn’t afraid of any throw.”
If Corral continues down the path he’s traveling now, Pierce believes you will the quarterback’s name a lot on Sundays.
“He can be a guy in 10 years that we’re talking about at the highest level,” Pierce said.
Florida is desperately looking for help at the position and need all of the things mentioned above but Corral isn’t worrying about the pressure.
“I think it’s time to just go have fun and ball out,” Corral said.