Hello: Michael Dwumfour

Blessed to be Committed to the UofM pic.twitter.com/H4oelVMY5K

— Michael DwumFour (@mike_dwumfour) January 25, 2016

On the same day he announced his decommitment from Penn State, three-star Wayne (NJ) DePaul Catholic DT Michael Dwumfour committed to Michigan, a move many expected after Dwumfour's recent official visit.

Dwumfour is the 25th commit in the 2016 class and the third at defensive tackle, joining Jordan Elliott and Rashad Weaver, both of whom are decent bets to end up elsewhere by NSD. Dwumfour is high school teammates with RB commit Kareem Walker and close friends with #1 overall recruit Rashan Gary; he's the fifth New Jersey native to join the class, and it's highly unlikely he'll be the last.

GURU RATINGS

Dwumfour is a nondescript three-star across the board, and unlike Michigan's two other recent pickups, his offer list mostly fits that profile as well.

All four sites list his size in the same range: 6'2" (6'1.5" on Scout) and 282-286 pounds; his commitment article on Scout lists him at 6'2", 295. He's got the build of a true nose tackle and will easily get above 300 pounds.

[Hit THE JUMP for the informative portion.]

SCOUTING

I'll start with Scout's free evaluation, which seemingly contradicts itself within the span of a couple sentences:

Evaluation

Dwumfour disengages well and he is quick with his hands. He has explosion, but has a tendency to stand up quickly before accelerating forward. Once he explodes forward at the snap, he will become even more effective. Dwumfour has good strength and he plays with a low center of gravity, and he keeps his pad level low. He changes direction well and can make plays in space. At 6-foot-1, some schools make be hesitant to offer. -- Brian Dohn

Strengths

• Body Control and Balance

• Change of Direction

• Hand Quickness

Areas to Improve

• Backside Pursuit

• Size

So does he have low pad level or does he bolt upright at the snap? That depends on the play, it appears. Here's a January writeup from Rutgers247, when they ranked Dwumfour 30th among in-state prospects following his senior season:

At 6'2" 265 pounds, Dwumfour has a powerful lower body that allows him to eat up multiple blockers and still maintain gap control. He also possesses a fairly impressive first step that allows him to be a dynamic pass rusher. However, the problem with Dwumfour is that he possesses an inconsistent motor and disappeared for long stretches of games this past season. In addition, there were times when he was easily handled by elite high school offensive linemen. One major issue with Dwumfour is that he does not play with consistent pad level. However, the physical gifts are present for Dwumfour and with good coaching he could become a good defensive tackle in the Big Ten.

Inconsistent pad level would explain the inconsistent evaluation; that profile also hints at why Dwumfour isn't a highly ranked guy but caught the attention of Michigan anyway—he's got plenty of untapped potential. Michigan's coaches were able to see that first-hand during their satellite camp tour, and 247's Steve Lorenz says Dwumfour has similar traits to a couple recent standouts on the Wolverine D-line:

Dwumfour was attached at Jim Harbaugh's hip during the Easton, PA satellite camp this summer and nearly garnered an offer from the staff at the camp. Instead, they held and maintained contact throughout the recruitment.

The comparisons to Willie Henry and Mo Hurst are apt. He's another defensive lineman whose main asset is explosiveness off the line. This is another guy who fits Don Brown's mold.

Many will point to Rashan Gary as the primary reason Dwumfour became a big target late in the process, and it'd be facetious to claim it didn't play a part, but this is truly a player the staff has had their eyes on since at least June if not longer.

Dwumfour has an impressive shuttle time for a nose tackle, something noted by Lions247 in the wake of his summer commitment to Penn State:

The three-star commit is definitely an explosive player, proven by his mid-4.4 camp shuttle time. Dwumfour does have a tendency to play a little high, and you’d like to see him more assaulting with his hands. He wins most of his battles with the combination of his size advantage and that aforementioned explosiveness, but he’ll need to have more violent hand usage to disengage to succeed at the next level. As previously mentioned, Dwumfour has the build to be a 300+ pound guy, and has the flexibility of being a one or three technique. The trick with him getting bigger is to balance his growth in relation to his explosiveness, given that it’s his calling card.

That quick first step also stood out to Scout's Brian Dohn, who put forth this more detailed evaluation in January:

Dwumfour's best position is at nose guard. He has the size and strength to handle the double teams, is tough and will play through pain (he did during a scrimmage in which he played on both sides of the ball despite a groin injury) and he plays with a good pad level. Dwumfour has strong legs and he knows how to use leverage.

He worked on and improved his hand speed to keep, and he knows how to use his power to disengage from the block. Dwumfour also gets up the field quickly and he covers ground in his first five steps well. He also does a nice job of moving laterally, and he understands gap integrity. 

Also, Dwumfour continually added the right kind of weight as he transformed his body. It took two years, but he plays weighing 280-285 pounds, and he has not lost his quickness, nor his tenacity.

He added that Dwumfour is a "tremendous person who is a great teammate," as well.

ESPN isn't as concerned with Dwumfour's motor as Rutgers247, and despite his relatively low ranking they can see him as a contributor at this level:

Like many big men can be little more consistent but gives effort with good range aided by good angles in pursuit though displays more average ability to close. Physical in play and willing to battle to get job done. A solid wrap-up tackler.

Dwumfour is an active defender with some good physical tools. Needs to continue to develop physically and improve technically, but can be a productive presence in the trenches. Prospect that could see plenty of interest from Group of 5 programs, but we feel can contribute at the Power-5 level by at least offering quality depth to a rotation.

Dwumfour has the physical tools you want in a nose tackle; his development on the technical side of things will ultimately determine his impact.

OFFERS

Dwumfour holds offers from Army, Boston College (notable for the Don Brown factor), Florida Atlantic, Iowa, Penn State, Rutgers, Temple, Wake Forest, and West Virginia.

HIGH SCHOOL

DePaul Catholic has quite a bit of talent in the 2016 class alone; along with Dwumfour and Walker, they have three-star Nebraska DE commit Quayshon Alexander, three-star Michigan State OL commit Thiyo Lukusa (a Traverse City transplant), and three-star Virginia WR commit Hasise Dubois. While they don't have a 2017 prospect on the radar yet, this is a school worth forging a connection with.

STATS

From The Wolverine:

Dwumfour was first-team All-State across all divisions according to NJ.com. He recorded 55 tackles, including an eye-popping 21 for loss with seven sacks.

Impressive production for an interior lineman.

FAKE 40 TIME

Dwumfour's Scout profile lists a verified 4.89 40, while his Hudl page lists a SPARQ-verified time of 5.01, the second of which gets zero FAKEs. I'm not sure where the first number originated but either way he can move quite well for a player his size.

VIDEO

Senior highlights:

Junior highlights and single-game reels can be found on his Hudl page.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

With the considerable talent returning on Michigan's defensive line, including a potentially great two-man rotation of Ryan Glasgow and Bryan Mone at nose tackle, Dwumfour should take a redshirt year to bulk up and refine his technique. With Glasgow graduating following the 2016 season, Dwumfour will get a chance to play in the rotation behind Mone as a redshirt freshman and work his way to a bigger role from there. Michigan's current roster makeup gives him a clear path to the starting NT job by his redshirt junior year as long as he develops.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Michigan is up to 25 commits, though Nate Johnson's and Jordan Elliott's status is tenuous, a couple more current commits aren't expected to wind up in the class, and we know of one player who was informed from the outset that a grayshirt is a strong possibility. With this class potentially going to 30 players, that leaves the potential for somewhere in the neighborhood of ten more commits. Once again, I'll slightly modify the previous Hello post:

Top remaining targets include DT Rashan Gary, ATH Jordan Fuller, CB Lavert Hill, DT Boss Tagaloa, TE Devin Asiasi, WDE Connor Murphy, S Khaleke Hudson, TE Chase Allen, WR Eddie McDoom, WR Donald Stewart, WR/DB Pie Young, and K Quinn Nordin. It looks very likely DT commit Jordan Elliott ends up at Texas, and with other attrition still expected, Michigan could have as many as 9-10 spots to fill to wrap up the class.

Dwumfour's commitment has the added benefit of potentially locking up Rashan Gary, who was already looking pretty locked up. Here's the Scout video in which Gary calls Dwumfour "my boy" approximately 300 times. Dwumfour told Scout he's going to recruit Gary and Donald Stewart, and while he's not pressuring either prospect, he's good friends with both of them:

"Obviously, Rashan is my best friend and Donald is a good friend of mine," Dwumfour said. "I going to try and recruit them, but I know how stressful this thing is. I was just in their shoes not too long ago, so I'm not going to put any pressure on them. Whatever they feel is best for them is where they should go. They shouldn't be forced to go somewhere."

Michigan is in very good shape for both of them. The Wolverines could land as many as eight New Jersey prospects if they manage to take the momentum away from Ohio State in Jordan Fuller's recruitment.