2016 Recruiting: Michael Dwumfour

Previously: Last year's profiles. S Josh Metellus, S Khaleke Hudson, CB David Long, CB Lavert Hill, LB Elysee Mbem-Bosse, LB Devin Bush Jr., LB Devin Gil, LB Josh Uche, DE Ron Johnson.

Michael Dwumfour is probably destined to be known as Rashan Gary’s sidekick for the duration of his career at Michigan. The two guys grew up together, played together their first couple years in high school, and remain good friends. Around the time of the UA game Sam Webb started dropping hints about a player down in Florida who Michigan might flip; said gentleman would supposedly lock Gary’s commitment down if the flip happened.

Because Sam is crafty like that he didn’t mention that the player in question wasn’t at the UA game but rather some other, obscure All-Star outing. This set off a wild goose chase that I certainly did not participate in. I was certainly not the cause of baseless threads about flipping Ole Miss five star Greg Little popping up months after the mystery man was revealed to be Dwumfour.

Anyway: despite a Penn State commitment and PSU’s outstanding success with lightly-recruited DTs over the past few years, Dwumfour may have to put up with a “Marsha Marsha Marsha” situation over the next few years. There are worse things.

Dwumfour doesn’t have a big time recruiting profile. Nobody offered him a fourth star or really anything close to it, and unlike a few guys already covered the ESPN scouting report more or less matches the ratings. They sum him up by saying that he “can contribute” to a Power 5 team “by at least offering quality depth to a rotation,” which is very much a meh three-star kind of destiny. The rest of the report is littered with caveats:

Possesses good bulk with thick base, but could have trouble adding any additional good mass without reworking body comp. … good playing strength and first-step quickness. … Demonstrates ability to come off ball with quick first step and good pad level and when he can win with quickness and leverage can hold ground. Flashes upper body strength to shed from blockers, but needs to continue to improve hand usage. … Can do a good job of attacking half-man and while he needs to refine usage can be very active with his hands. Displays adequate bull rush ability.

ESPN ranked Dwumfour higher than any other service by some distance. So of course there are more positive reports at the other sites, because sometimes the low end of the rankings is shruggie central.

Other reports focus on his proverbial get off. (No, guy in the comments who brings this up every time the term comes up, we aren’t doing “phrasing” anymore.) His 4.4 shuttle is impressive at Dwumfour’s size. The highlight film above features a lot of plays on which he shocks an OL and drives him back much like, yep, Maurice Hurst. His ability to bring the heat in just a step or two is a consistent theme of the more positive evaluations, including one from Don Brown himself:

Michael is very explosive, can separate on the double team and has good lateral movement.

Back when Brown was trying to get Dwumfour to BC they also focused on that first step:

"The day before I went up there they said they sat down and watched my film as a staff. My position coach specifically said he likes how I'm quick and explosive off the ball," he said.

Clint Brewster’s take is the most detailed on Dwumfour’s assets and future role:

I like how sudden he is off the ball for a player that’s around 300 pounds. He’s got the ability to shoot the gap between the center and the guard and penetrate the pocket. Dwumfour has the quickness to play the outside shade of the center or the inside shade of the guard and not just a nose-tackle. He’s got a really strong and well-built lower half that you like on an interior defensive tackle. He’s able to bull-rush offensive linemen or use the swim move to go around them.

Brewster actually named Dwumfour as a potential "instant impact" player when it came time to offer up Signing Day superlatives. That seems unlikely given the state of the defensive line and other reports about Dwumfour's to-date inconsistent motor, but it is an indicator that Brewster thinks he's an undervalued player.

So. Dwumfour isn't a zero-tech nose tackle who will occupy the sun and moon. He is the kind of gentleman who will shoot through a gap and blow up a run play in the backfield… or possibly a guy who will eat a double team and moonwalk backward when he doesn’t shoot that gap. Concerns about Dwumfour’s lack of gravitational pull pop up regularly. Scout has the ever-popular “size” as an an area for improvement:

… 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.

Lack of height is not actually a problem for interior DL. Lack of weight stemming from a lack of height is, and Dwumfour has had to add a bunch of it over the last couple years. Per Scout's Brian Dohn he was a 240-pound kid a couple years ago; he got to 280 or so without losing his quickness. That's a good sign for the last 20 or 30.

Other aspects of his game are not scouted consistently. He has good pad level, or he plays a little high. He's raw or he has excellent technique for a high school player. His hands are active and violent, or you’d “like to see him more assaulting.” He has size concerns or he “has the build to be a 300+ pound guy.” He’s a penetrating guy with a quick first step…

…easily the most impressive player at the camp from any day in my opinion. He was legitimately unblockable and Pitt offered on the spot.

…or he’s just trying to keep his linebackers clean:

“He’s not going to be an ‘every-play, go out and make a play’ guy. A successful play might be holding offensive linemen up to keep his linebackers clean. His responsibility may be to collapse the pocket so another guy can make the play. Success won’t always be making the tackle, but opening things up for another player.”

I’m not sure how much credence to lend Rivals’s Adam Friedman here since he talks about Dwumfour transitioning from DE to the interior. The Hudl film above is about 98% Dwumfour as a three-tech. Dwumfour is 6’2”, 280+. Nobody thinks he’s a candidate for any type of DE spot except apparently Rivals, which ranked him as an SDE. As a result the “Rivals analyst discusses prospect” article wastes a bunch of time engaging that positional designation, and concludes that he will have to move to DT. Which he has already moved to.

Anyway. A lot of the scouting reports seem tossed off or amateurish—Rutgers people are involved in the latter—and it's hard to get a solid read. His highlight tape is impressive, but short and tends towards filler at the end. Friedman refers to him as a "project" and I think that's accurate. When asked to scout himself a year ago, Dwumfour noted his athleticism and said he had to work on his stamina. Another year in the weight room, another year to refine his ability as a somewhat undersized interior DL, and then we'll see if the set of defensive coaches that went after him is a better indicator than the rankings.

Because the best argument in Dwumfour's favor is the set of defensive coaches who wanted him. Boston College was an early contender; Dwumfour initially decided between Pitt and Penn State. That's Don Brown, Pat Narduzzi, PSU's outstanding DL coach Sean Spencer, and Don Brown again—not bad.

Etc.:Cool hair and salty twitter header.

Why Maurice Hurst? Hurst is almost exactly the same size as Dwumfour even deep into his college career—listed at 282 on his bio still, though I assume that will go up by fall camp—and was also regarded as a quick first step in human form. Hurst was higher regarded by the recruiting sites as a 3/4-star tweener, and his scouting reports were more consistently effusive about his ability to teleport into the backfield.

Some of Hurst’s limitations were exposed late in the year when opponents could double him without worrying about Glasgow: if successfully doubled he got blown off the ball. Dwumfour could have similar issues. If he does find himself at 300 or more after a couple years in the weight room, a couple of Michigan’s recent rangy NTs are also possible comparisons. If he scrapes the ceiling of his potential he could be in the same vein as a Glasgow or a Mike Martin. Neither are bighuge NT types; both hold up to doubles just fine and get through gaps with regularity.

Guru Reliability: Low-plus. Healthy player on a team that featured Kareem Walker and was thus well-scouted. However, in the generic three star bin and there are a lot of evaluations in the shruggie zone. Very little consensus on him in the scouting reports.

Variance: High. Could top out at around his current weight given his height, and that might not be enough to be a contributor. Could end up another penetrating interior DL like Glasgow or Hurst.

Ceiling: Moderate. Doesn’t seem to have the same first step as Hurst. If so would probably end up a rotation player only.

General Excitement Level: Moderate. Dwumfour seems a little underrated given his offer sheet, but not outrageously so. 

Projection: Redshirt. Michigan loses a bunch from the DL after this year: Glasgow, Wormley, Charlton, and Godin all exit, leaving just Hurst and Mone amongst the veterans. Dwumfour is likely to move into the two-deep even as a redshirt freshman. He’ll have to wait another year for a realistic shot at a starting job, at which point that fight will be between Dwumfour and a bunch of second-year players from the 2017 class. Your guess is as good as mine since those players are yet to be determined.