Bama has many options in Super 11 commitment Blake Sims

Alabama commitment Blake Sims plays quarterback for Gainesville but is listed as the proverbial “athlete” by most of the recruiting services.

Friday night, the AJC Super 11 selection showed why.

On the Red Elephants’ third play from scrimmage, Sims shifted out to wide receiver and caught a short pass from running back Tyson Smith. After sidestepping an initial defender Sims turned it into a 71-yard touchdown reception. That was the first of two touchdown catches Sims hauled in from Smith during the 42-20 win over White County. He added another 77-yarder later.

Sims also showed off his skills under center by throwing three touchdown passes. His final numbers on the night: 88 yards passing, 148 yards receiving and 5 TDs accounted for.

No wonder nobody’s sure what to do with Sims in college. Rivals.com projects the 6-foot-183-pounder as a safety and rates him No. 29 in the country at that position.

“There’s a little bit of doubt about that,” Gainesville coach Bruce Miller said of Sims’ college position. “Alabama promised he could play quarterback and that’s what he wanted to do. But he could probably play most anywhere.”

As for the decision to line up Sims as a wideout Friday, Miller said they were “just trying to give them something to think about. Tyson Smith is a pretty good little athlete himself and we’ve been struggling a little at the X receiver. We’ve got some pretty good guys out there but we needed to show a little more speed out there and Blake was able to give us that.”

Stanford commitment Tai-ler [pronounced TIE-lur] Jones plays the Z receiver for Gainesville and caught his first TD of the season from Sims. He finished with 30 yards on the night and has 16 catches on the season.

Following are some other standout performances from some of the top college prospects in the city and state:

• Georgia commitment Da’Rick [pronounced duh-REEK] Rogers of Calhoun added  to his extensive highlight reel when he hurdled a Cartersville defender Knowshon Moreno-like during the Yellow jackets’ 38-10 victory. Otherwise it was a quiet night for the AJC Super 11 player with 5 catches for 69 yards and a touchdown.
• Loganville’s Storm Johnson, one of the top uncommitted backs in the state, had 230 yards rushing and four touchdowns Friday night. Another 82-yard TD run was called back. Johnson, a one-time LSU commitment, did not visit West Virginia as planned and is currently trying to arrange a Penn State visit.
• AJC Super 11 tailback Mack Brown had 93 yards on 13 rushes and scored three touchdowns in one half of work in M.L. King’s 39-0 win over McNair.
• Georgia Tech commitment Charles Perkins scored three touchdowns and had 146 yards rushing for Collins Hill in a narrow victory over Chattahoochee. Perkins leads all Gwinnett County rushers with 526 yards rushing, an average of 175.3 per game.
• North Gwinnett junior quarterback C.J. Uzomah completed 16-of-23 passes for 246 yards and three TDs and scored another touchdown on an eight-yard run in a 42-7 win over South Forsyth. Uzomah is one of the fastest up-and-comers in the state on the recruiting scene. Already he has offers from Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Clemson, Tennessee, Maryland, Mississippi State, Miami and Indiana.
• Lovett quarterback Jonathan Carkhuff, who is getting looks from Clemson, South Carolina and UAB, got the last laugh over Buford his senior season. After losing to the Wolves by the combined score of 112-0 the last two seasons, Carkhuff had 192 yards on 18-of-29 passing for two touchdowns and ran for another in the Lions’ 28-21 victory over Class AA’s No. 1-ranked team.
• Lincoln running back A.G. Middlebrooks, sidelined previously with a stress fracture in his leg, had 149 yards and two TDs in a 22-16 win over Hepzibah.
• Grayson’s Ean Pemberton had 148 yards rushing and 3 TDs in 2 1/2 quarters of work in a 44-0 win over Dacula. I covered that game Friday night and will bring you up to date on Pemberton’s recruitment and other Rams’ prospects this afternoon.