2014 Recruiting: Brady Pallante

Previously: Last year's profiles, CB Brandon Watson, CB Jabrill Peppers, LB Jared Wangler, LB Chase Winovich, LB Noah Furbush, LB Michael Ferns.

Most Michigan fans were hoping that Brady Pallante wouldn't be in this class. That's no knock on Pallante, necessarily: it's just that Michigan was dreaming of a class with Malik McDowell and DaShawn Hand in it. Once the season progressed as shambolically as it did and both of those top-end stars drifted away from the unpleasant odor of tackles for loss wafting out of Ann Arbor, Michigan found itself with open scholarships and limited options.

Enter Pallante, who committed as a nearly-unheard of nose tackle out of Florida just after the previous year's signing day. The catch then is that Pallante was recruited as a grayshirt who would come in-mid-year (IE, six months from now) and be a part of the 2015 class. When recruiting ended with a thud, he was moved up.

So here he is, and we know… not much. Two-star guys who commit super early are not well-scouted as a rule, and Pallante is one of those even if he's gotten the three-star courtesy bump from a couple of sites. (It makes you wonder how deep ESPN's three star rankings go if the #270 guy in Florida gets one.)

What we do have makes him sound like mini-Mike Martin. Pallante is a penetrator who uses his relative lack of height to his advantage; like Martin (and Terrance Taylor), when not spending time on football he is tossing panicky high schoolers around en route to state championships as a heavyweight wrestler. This is in fact a comparison the coaches have made directly:

“The coaches up at Michigan said I remind them a lot of Mike Martin,” said Pallante. “Coach Hoke just sat down with me and said, ‘we’re looking for a guy who can replace Mike Martin at nose guard and a guy that works hard and is a tough kid’.”

Rob Renes, another small-but-annoying NT, also came up. And, you know, those guys have worked out. As Pallante says, wrestling is essentially DT practice:

"Wrestling has helped with everything, between balance, coordination, hands," he said. "When you're fighting to get inside control on the wrestling mat, it's the same thing when you're coming off the ball because at the snap you're trying to get inside the man across from you to gain the advantage.

"My footwork is better. Staying low. Learning how to use leverage. There are a lot of things that have transferred over from wrestling to football that have helped my game, and vice versa."

There are three actual scouting reports out there, from ESPN, 247's Clint Brewster, and Rivals's Tim Sullivan. All say he's small ("marginal size"; "undersized"; "undersized", respectively) and that this will be his main issue going forward. Weights for Pallante ranged from 245(!) to 280 on recruiting sites; we're going with Michigan's own listing on their signing day page, which is a relatively measly 255.

They differ in their evaluations of how promising he is as an interior disruptor, with ESPN tending towards the meh:

…adequate-to-good first-step quickness. While he's not a disruptive penetrating presence he is capable of getting off the ball quickly enough to consistently get good initial position and, at times, knock blockers back. Can fire out low and consistently gain physical leverage with his compact frame …. A bit limited as a pass rusher. …battles and gives good effort.

The other two guys may just be trying to be nice, but their evaluations are more hopeful. Brewster:

… undersized but very skilled defensive tackle. … very quick off the ball and has a number of moves in his arsenal to beat an offensive lineman. He has a brawlers mentality in the trenches and can stand his ground against the run. Pallante is athletic enough to get to the quarterback … He has the skill-set to win against much bigger opponents.

And Sullivan:

…opened things up for his teammates, enduring multiple blockers on most every play, and often enduring cut blocks … has a build that allows him to play with excellent leverage … Most impressive was Pallante's overall technique. He made excellent use of his hands to defeat various types of blocks, and combined hand technique with quickness to knife into the backfield repeatedly. He was disciplined in executing his assignments, holding the edge, and chasing down quarterbacks and running backs in the backfield. He arrived with violence each time.

A gradient on a theme. Pallante will go as far as his hands can take him. If that's the backfield, he'll see time. If that's still-in-front-of-this-double team, he won't.

One point in his favor: Michigan jumped on him so early after seeing him extensively at their summer camp the year before. Michigan has done well with random camp commits under Hoke. (Probably, anyway—they're mostly still to young to have a definitive answer there.)

Etc.: The twist: Magnus likes him better than other people.

Why mini-Mike Martin? Well, if the coaches are saying it I will too. Martin was obviously a much bigger recruit, and bigger dude in general. If Pallante works out it'll be as a version of Martin: get in the backfield over and over again so it doesn't matter if someone tries to double you because you've gone between them.

Guru Reliability: Low. Virtually unscouted by anyone except Sullivan.

Variance: Moderate. Size questions may prevent him from seeing the field; technique seems advanced.

Ceiling: Low. Needs 30 pounds to be the same weight as Jibreel Black was last year, when he was unable to hold up to doubles at all. If he is actually 280 now and can get to 300-ish, I'll revise that upward. In my head.

General Excitement Level: Low. Well… I mean… I don't like being super-negative here when these guys are all lottery tickets and may or may not work out. CMU OT goes #1 in NFL draft, etc. But Pallante seems to have a hard cap on his ability to hold up to doubles.

Projection: Redshirt, then probably another year of anonymity as Michigan returns all of their nose tackles next year. First opportunity to get in the rotation will be as a redshirt sophomore. He'll probably end up a guy behind the guy for the duration of his career, which is useful at NT.