Andre Givens aka the black Sam Mcguffie
http://www.scoutingohio.com/index.php/view-profile.html?task=userProfil…
Pretty impressive film with some Sam Mcguffie-esque hurdles. He has an offer from M and I've heard he is friends with Fitz. I think he makes the perfect lightning to Stephen Hopkinds Thunder and also shows some nice hands catching the ball out of the backfield.
gone once he gets into the open field.
The goods: 95% of the time it is one cut and he gets north and south. Speed looks decent, cant really judge by the opponents in the video. Explodes through the hole in the line, meaning he needs little room. Vision was good in finding holes. Caught ball with hands and got up field.
The eh: Doesnt seem to have great balance or be very elusive. First tackle usually brings him down. Can this be fixed w/ strength training/balance work? Some maybe, but alot of it is mental and natural talent. A little on the small side but hes only a junior so might put on some weight.
so......... Seems to be a solid 3 star player. I really like his mentality of one cut and explode upfield. Kind of nervous as at the next level hes not going to have that much of a speed advantage and doesnt seem to be very elusive so can be the target of some big hits. Dont really expect him to get alot of y.a.c., but seems like a decent player.
don't buy the "not very elusive" line at all. Hips are so fluid and acceleration so great that the dude doesn't need to make a thousand cuts. The kid is plenty elusive.
He is a patient/bounce off tackles runner when dealing with the "front 8" making it easier for him to "step on it" when the time is right. Fail to understand your knock on balance.
Whoever gives this guy a three-star or less, lay off the crystal meth please.
Get this kid in Maize and Blue!!
how many times does the kid bounce off of tacklers or avoid the first tackle after contact? Maybe 2 or 3 runs? Another minor thing is technique while getting/securing the ball, but that can be worked on/fixed at the college level.
Yes, he seems to be pretty fast, but judging by the 5'4 white kids trying to close ground on him, i wouldnt call him a major burner yet. And we'll see what star rating he ends up at the end :)
If RR wants the kid, I want him in maize and blue. RR knows wat kind of players he needs and will get them. Just throwing my unbiased 2c in.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:39 PM ^
I agree with both of you guys on certain points. I never played Fball in school so I don't know how to watch the technique and the hips and say what the kid is doing but I will say this, my impression (as amature as it may be) was that he was not very elusive and not very tough. I saw a lot of times when he went down on first contact, I also saw as blew by DB after DB and the ground between them just kept growing. Perhaps they were just slow DBs but I tend to not think so I think it is more like he is pretty fast. I would be very curious to know how fast he is in the 40. Does anyone out there have any info on that?
He's listed at a 4.48, FWIW.
That guy is FAST.
That guy is really fast.
Denard Robinson is fast! I think we need a Denard is fast thread! Cmon!
the very first run, if he's 5'10 how tall is that safety trying to catch him 5'4? that guy was a midget
but yea he is wicked fast
Did you hear D-Rob is fast?
no Lightning-thunder references to RB duets. Too Musburger, and way over used.
what about "shake and bake" then?
April 24th, 2009 at 11:30 PM ^
And these are my son's, Walker and Texas Ranger...
the one punt in the video may have been the worst I have ever seen
he's no D.Rob, but holy crap - dude is bookin'
him and denard can be two lightnings....no thunder
Dude is fast. Does he play in the same division that Fitz did? That would at least sort of explain the speed disparity on tape.
I'm looking forward to the first kid referred to as the "black Tyler Hansbrough."
BTW, this kid looks incredibly fast. That third run was scary. While I know standard procedure is to cry FAKE!!!!! when you read about his 40 time, I'm not sure anyone will say that unless it is something like 4.1.
I also like The Sims-esque "ScoutingOhio" icon that pops above his head.
he plays with and against some big dudes. he looks no more than 5'6". The acceleration is quite noticeable, that's for sure.
Dude is fast, and I like the fact that he gets all of his runs on zone read plays right up the middle. He can run through contact too.
ESPN says MSU is leading right now- we aren't even in the top 5.
I trust ESPN recruiting about as far as I can throw it.
About how far do you think you can throw ESPN recruiting?
Don't change the subject.
the only one i can see is that he likes to pop it to the outside too much.
though he is fast...... DRob fast?
anybody?
The joke has already been told 100 times. Do we really need 101?
This guy doesn't remind me of Mac in the least. He is a lot more of a north/south runner, has better acceleration, is quicker, faster, and looks bigger than Mac. He seems to get more speed out of less effort.
As for the hurdling, his coach should tell him to stop it. All this does is risk injury. Besides, it doesn't work in college, anyway. You end up getting flipped and the landing can really, really hurt.
I would rather see MSU get him than OSU; he could be a load if he had a line like OSU's to run behind. At MSU, he will have to work a lot harder for his stats.
April 25th, 2009 at 10:15 AM ^
Quicker and faster than McGuffie? You are aware that McGuffie was the #10 back in the country, a 4-star recruit, and had 3,000+ yards against very good Texas competition, right? McGuffie had almost twice as many yards as a junior than Givens did.
McGuffie wasn't great at Michigan because he couldn't break tackles and he got concussed. "Quick" and "fast" are two attributes McGuffie has in spades.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:27 PM ^
Impressive film. Maybe it's me, but it almost looked like they sped up the film when he was running. I mean, he literally smoked some of the guys in those highlights.
I was also thinking the film wasn't in real time...
April 24th, 2009 at 11:45 PM ^
The kid hits top speed in about 2 steps, that can be hard to defend when you get going htat fast, hope he's Blue
"I saw a lot of times when he went down on first contact"
I don't know that the video proves that he's going to be a huge success at the next level, but if you're trying to assert that arm tackles were frequently bringing him down, you guys need your eyes checked. He ran through first contact repeatedly, and continued with guys hanging on him for a number of times after that. If a defender has good technique, has a good angle, and a minimal level of talent, the fact that he can bring a runner down does not mean that the RB isn't "tough" or that he goes down frequently on first contact. Jesus.
I thought you knew that all FBS prospects have to be able to break six tackles before they're allowed to go down. If they're ever tackled on first contact, that means they should be downgraded to Division III.
Well I think most people will agree that being a powerful runner is usually a good thing.
be a D3 player. Like I said he has good speed and the explosive one cut mentality. I still think in the end he'll end up being a 3 star sort at a major college and not higher because he very rarely breaks first contact from a front 7 defender in the highlight film. Some of this is his O-line is doing a good job of giving him holes to hit and he doesnt miss them. You can watch the film and see that besides 2-4 plays, he breaks very few arm tackles and doesnt have that "Wow" factor that the ranking services, fairly or unfairly, give out stars for.
I thought he had a decent wow factor. He was breaking a bunch of arm tackles. In fact, I didn't see an arm tackle bring him down. He looked pretty damn quick to me. Pretty elusive. Always made this first guy miss.
He doesn't run over people, but neither does Jeremy Gallon. Or Teric Jones. He's the type of running back who makes people miss and outruns people.
Still, the first half of his Scouting Ohio film is him breaking arm tackles and outrunning people. Then when they run out of TDs to show, they show other good runs.
I watched the film and stopped counting how many arm tackles he broke. "Two to four" is WAY too low of a count...
I agree that he doesn't have the "wow" factor of a Lache Seastrunk, but he still looks pretty good.
His running style actually reminds me of Manningham's route running style a few years ago. No ridiculous sideways moves, but a very solid and elusive one/two step move while going full speed.
Yeah, he's always moving forward, which is good. That's one thing that I've liked about Rodriguez's offense when he was at WVU and here at Michigan - his running backs get the ball and get upfield. They don't waste much time trying to find a hole or running laterally.
Dancing is fine, if you're off the football field. This guy looks good though, fluid hips and great burst. The comparison to Manningham's route running was a very apt comparison. However, do we have room for this guy with Hopkins and Drake already signed, and pursuing Austin White? Unless Drake is a slot, in which case, 3RBs makes sense to me.
I really think Drake will be a slot, and Austin White could play slot receiver as well. I don't think getting Givens would preclude us from taking White as well.
(Full disclosure: I'm not a fan of White, so I wouldn't mind running out of spots for RBs and slot receivers before he commits.)