Part 1: Ace covered the WRs and DBs, i.e. the fun part. His writeup is here.
2017 OL commit JaRaymond Hall [Eric Upchurch]
Last Friday a group of us attended Sound Mind Sound Body at Wayne State University. Their main football field had the QBs, WRs, and DBs, and Ace & Adam covered that. Two practice fields were then occupied by OL/DL and RBs/LBs respectively, so while watching one I couldn't watch the other. I spent most of my time trying to scout the linemen. Actually, because the roster sheets were organized alphabetically by first name instead of number, I spent most of my time scanning random numbers to figure out who a certain player was that caught my eye.
Eventually I settled for watching whoever Drevno and Mattison were talking to.
A few notes/observations:
- Luigi Vilain was scheduled to appear but didn't make it. Some of his teammates were on hand. As Ace mentioned Antwuan Johnson was dinged up early so we didn't get to scout him. I thought 2017 Cass Tech OL target Jordan Reid would be there—he was on the roster—but I couldn't find him.
- The SMSB staff are great.
- With lineman drills no pads is a major advantage for defensive linemen, especially for quick little guys. The most successful blocks were often borderline holds, unless a lineman put a guy in the dirt, whereupon everybody clapped.
- I learned a lot about why people who cover a lot of camps fall into the same vague observations. Unless you've been at this for way way longer than I have, the most apparent thing is how some guys look like amazing athletes and the rest look like your larger friends from high school. If you're there to scout just one guy in a group you'll spend most of your time marveling at how physically different he is while he's standing in line. Beyond that you can see foot speed and who got yelled at by coaches, who invariably coached "pad level" and "footwork."
- If you haven't gathered by now these observations are going to be of dubious value to you.
- Don Brown is a very INTENSE man.
OT COMMIT JARAYMOND HALLOFFENSIVE LINE:
Hall needed no shuffling through pages to identify; every time he took a rep the chatter died down as coaches and players paid attention. Drevno was giving Hall a lot of coaching between reps and ultimately had him doing a few things during drills that other linemen weren't, like keeping his hands nearly touching like in prayer while doing the shuffle. JaRaymond was taller than all but the one really really big kid.
Hall is super light on his feet and built on the lean side; Jason Spriggs was the comparison I made in my mind, and not just because I had just come from melting into a fanboy upon meeting Kevin Wilson.
The size thing was kind of an issue against bigger DL the few times he caught one, but he was credited by the coach running the drill (a Penn State grad assistant, who was Harbaugh-level into it all day) for using his space. Contrary to just about every other OL, the skinny unpadded little DEs couldn't rush by him. He just took 'em wide.
If I was creating an NCAA player I'd go heavy on the acceleration, lighter on the brute stuff. Also if I could edit hand size I'd put them way up there. Most players wore gloves but Hall didn't. I think he could curl his fingers over mine. I am running out of usefulness obviously so I'll move on.
[After the LEAP: Seth tries to scout more things that pro football coaches get wrong most of the time. Got that grain of salt? Okay then HIT THE JUMP]
DETROIT EAST OG TYRONE SAMPSON
This is an interesting guy because he really didn't do anything in drills that was extraordinary (good or bad), and he's not particularly large; he's about the size of the linemen I knew in high school. But if there was a Harbaugh Guy™ out there it was him. He apparently has been all over; he tracked down the Maryland guy and mentioned he'd been on a visit there just recently (the Maryland coach kinda lost attention and the flow of moving people separated them before they talked). He was also vocal with the other kids there and made a point of introducing himself to every coach.
CASS TECH OL KELVIN ATEMAN
No Michigan offer but Drevno was talking to him a bit and Michigan State was watching him closely. He created two "oooh" moments in the one-on-one drill by burying smallish DEs. The first he just wrecked and rode into the circle of onlookers. The second he followed on a wide rush until the DE lost his balance.
INDIANA COMMIT CALEB JONES
He is hard to miss, as 6'9/320 dudes tend to be. Caleb had an ankle injury so he just mirrored other players in the head to head drills. He looked very stiff but, uh, ankle injury. Also he is 6'9".
DEARBORN OT MUSTAFA KHALEEFAH
He is not the 6'6" he was listed at, unless Hall is 6'8". But the 3-star with all-MAC offers was working the hardest of any OL and improved every rep (I'm quoting what the PSU coach said to him that I overheard; I couldn't tell). Dantonio and a lineman he brought that I couldn't recognize were talking to Khaleefah for a bit. Khaleefah steps very heavy; I mention it because he was right behind Hall in line so I could calibrate them against each other. When Mustafa's feet hit the ground you think he's going to leave an imprint; when Hall's feet touch you wonder if they'd sink into water.
DEFENSIVE LINE:
2017 IOWA NT COMMIT JUAN HARRIS
They did not put the famous 6'4"/368-pound dude on the roster, causing the assembled scouty people to get momentarily bummed. But he showed. First of all the guy was probably more like 320-330. Second, he is awesome. I was expecting, you know, a planetary tackle who just does Big McLargeHuge things. Juan could move, and has super long arms he was using to regularly swat away the pedestrian OL he went against. He easily had the most attention of any kid on the linemen field. Mattison didn't talk to him, but I gathered from the number of coaches he did talk to that his Iowa commitment isn't locked in.
In the one-on-one cone drill he was ridiculous—starting in the middle and going straight to the cone. He got clucked at for "pad level" so I guess that will be in his profile, but he had that explosive first step that makes DTs a real pain in the ass. After seeing his performance I really want Michigan to jump into this battle. Or at the very least I'd like him to stay out of the East.
There was a Big McLargeHuge NT there, Grosse Pointe South 2017 DT Horatio Williams, to provide a point of comparison.
Southfield DE Torey Barclay and Grosse Pointe North DE Dillon Webb were the other two DL who were a step above the rest of the guys taking reps. Warren Mott's Luis Arellano was fun to watch as a pesky little bastard who lined up for every rep like this was going to be the greatest rep in the history of 5'11 dudes. I barely got to see the 2018s so I wasn't able to get a feel for any of them.
LINEBACKERS BRIEFLY
I missed most of this while watching the line but Devin Bush Sr. and Coach Bam spent a long time talking to #286, which correlated with a QB/ATH from Detroit Country Day named Jalen Graham on the roster, but his jersey was gray for defense and this was during LB vs HB wheel route drills. Punt.
The other guy Bush spent time coaching was Memphis commit Aubrey Miller, who is pretty small but was excellent in coverage. I can't speak for the rest of his game since I only saw that one drill.
OTHER THINGS SEEN ON A HOT DAY
DEEP UNDER COVER SCOUTING A 2016 OPPONENTKEVIN WILSON FANBOY MOMENT
Yes, when I caught Wilson walking alone between groups I geeked. I am a spread zealot; no foolies. I told him how impressed I was with his offensive linemen especially Feeney and he agreed "Dan [Feeney]'s the better player," in reference to the Jason Spriggs/Hall comparison. Wilson also said they just need to get the defense clicking (duh) and when I asked how Zander Diamont is doing, Wilson said the JC transfer they're bringing in is "very interesting."
THINGS TO TELL YOUR 1999 MSU FRIEND/WHO'S "THE MAN"?
I spent a good 10 minutes kinda behind/between Mark Dantonio and Bobby Williams as they shared old gripes about "The Man"—I don't think he was on the rosters but I have fair idea whom they were talking about. The Man doesn't like excuses or derivations from the plan. The Man told Bobby he can "make the call" if he sees something and Dantonio was surprised by this. The Man seems like an important man.
THE COACHES ARE GENERALLY COOL AND COOL WITH EACH OTHER
Dantonio was smiling and joking around; this is his element as much as it is Harbaugh's, and it's a very different side of the guy we've been up against. There were only two coaches who stayed generally aloof from other coaches and players: Urban Meyer, and the guy with Urban Meyer. (Notre Dame DC who looks and acts exactly like Uncle Rico it's uncanny) Brian Van Gorder is a loud and scary man who did about 15 minutes of scouting and spent the rest of the time chatting it up with old friends (he went to Wayne State); spend more than 8 minutes with him and you're in danger of being sucked deep into the 1980s.
