2012 Recruiting: Jarrod Wilson

Previously: S Jeremy Clark, S Allen Gant.

You may already be familiar with Jarrod Wilson from the spring game and practice videos. He's the guy a second late when a running back breaks past the line, the one who's diving at ankles and not quite making the tackle. That's fine. Wilson was suiting up for Akron Buchtel a few months ago and is still adapting to the speed of the college game. Once he accelerates his thinking he'll be on his feet, bringing people down.

What Michigan has in Wilson is a safety. Not a safety who's probably a linebacker, or a tight end, or a wide receiver, or a gibbering pile of meat that explodes into touchdown confetti whenever play action occurs. A safety. At 6'2", 190 pounds Wilson will fill out to 200 or 210 or maybe 220 and still be the rangy center-field type who can come down and cover a tight end or running back man-to-man. He will not end up at strongside linebacker. He is a safety. Michigan fans have a slight paranoia about this position group.

Don't listen to me, listen to everyone. The recruiting sites seemed to have huddled up on Wilson, agreed to rank him somewhere around the #15 safety in the country, and split up with a "no gibbering pile of touchdown meat" break. After dispersing, they all wrote the same things.

ESPN($):

Wilson should emerge as an upper-tier free safety prospect in 2012. …Possesses great size. Tall, well-built with good length and room to fill out. He flashes great range, particularly in deep coverage and good overall speed. Best attribute may be his reads and diagnosing skills. Rarely caught out of position, stays deep as the deepest and expertly splits twins set receivers. Consistently takes direct angles to the ball while keeping the pass in front of him. Times his break accurately and has the range to get over and on the top of deep routes.

The lone downside is a lack of explosive explosiveness. Everything else is there: frame, smarts, range. The scouting report goes on to praise his ability to keep leverage, cover a deep half, be a cover-one safety, etc. For a Michigan fan burned over and over again by alarming safety play, this is catnip. Seriously, if you have insider, just read it, then read it again, and then try really hard not to think about Isaiah Bell.

It's basically the same elsewhere. Trieu praises his closing speed, awareness, and hands, notes his quickness and flexibility are relative downsides, and speaks thusly:

Wilson is a rangy safety with a knack for making big plays. He has good closing speed, ball skills and anticipation. When the ball is in his hands, he's usually a threat to score or have a big return. He's not as good side to side as he is in a straight line.

Bucknuts' Duane Long:

If a college coach came to me and said he played eight in the box alot and needed a centerfielder right in the middle of the field I would suggest Jarrod Wilson. He is fast and very athletic. He reads the game and reacts to the ball as well as any safety in the class. The best cover safety in the class. The best safety in the class on the ball. He needs to be a better tackler. The good news is he is a willing tackler. Never shies away from contact.

Rivals site Ohio Varsity praises($) his "ideal size," "knack for being at the right place at the right time," and says his "reactions are blue chip caliber." Run support is just adequate, man-to-man is something to work on, etc. Bill Greene caught a game and came back saying the same bit about "covering a large area of the field." You get the idea.

FWIW, when he showed at the Best of the Midwest camp last year Josh Helmholdt thought he did okay($):

One of the biggest questions regarding Wilson's game coming into Sunday's event was whether the big safety could handle man-to-man coverage, and he answered that satisfactorily. Wilson flips his hips well and showed the speed necessary to stay with even the smaller receivers. He is still destined for safety in college, but his coverage skills should be no longer in doubt.

He's not a corner; he'll be able to cope unless the defense gets really mixed up.

One area in which his athleticism is not in doubt is getting off the ground. Multiple reports held that he is a Hemingway-esque leaper, with this the most evocative($):

Jarrod Wilson, a 4-star safety prospect from Buchtel High in Akron, Ohio, had his fellow campers buzzing when he leaped so high during the vertical-jump competition that his right hand passed over the top rung of the testing apparatus.

Wilson was credited with a 42-inch leap because the machine was set to record jumps up to 42 inches. After several minutes of discussion, D1 officials reset the apparatus to accommodate higher jumps. Wilson couldn't match his previous magic, however, posting a best of 41 inches on three subsequent jumps.

All that got Wilson every major Midwest offer save Ohio State—who went after some guys who showed at camp instead—plus various distant offers of varying impressiveness: UCLA, WVU, Stanford. (It's always nice to see a Stanford offer, since that means chances of not qualifying are zero.) So: Wilson, a large, rangy safety with an issue or two in run support who is not going in the first round of the draft because he is not an A+ athlete. I'll take two.

We have yet more data on Wilson since he showed up early. Forced into the two deep immediately thanks to Josh Furman's suspension, Wilson was the subject of more chatter than all topics not involving Joe Bolden or Devin Gardner at WR. Jordan Kovacs on his adjustment:

“He’s come in and picked up the defense really, really well. That’s one of the things he’s got the football smarts and as a defensive back you really need that,” Kovacs said. “Don’t get me wrong, there are things he needs to get cleaned up and improved on, but I’m definitely impressed with how much he’s progressed and how good of a ballplayer he is as a senior in high school. He has a lot more time here and I expect big things in the future.”

Kovacs went another step. When asked if he felt Wilson could play in the fall, he said he could see it.

Powers had said something similar($) earlier in the year:

"He's starting to be a student of the game," said Buchtel coach Ricky Powers. "He's coming to watch film and do all those things that need to be done to get him better. He's a smart kid anyway, so it wasn't hard.
"We taught him to understand offenses and what defenses he should be calling what looks they're going to show us and how he can counter those looks with the calls he makes. More classroom work than anything else. The kid has the physical ability to do anything." …

"He's just a smart kid," Powers said. "There's a reason why he's going to Michigan, and he's proven that."

While no one wants to see a freshman starting at safety ever again, Wilson may be able to step in as a sophomore and play beyond his years thanks to his well-oiled thinkin' organ. If pressed into duty this year things could be as un-disastrous as they were when Jamar Adams was.

Long term, there's this feeling. It's not like dread. It's kind of a feeling that you get when the sun's out and it's nice and breezy. No idea what it is, but not dread. Sort of like thinking something might work out in the future. No idea what it is.

Etc.: Smartphone video of his commitment. Not a hat dude. Had a sign. Michigan's hat dude drought continues. Rivals AMP feature on one of his games. Team got blown out 31-6, unfortunately. Won some sort of MVP at something called the "Offense-Defense Bowl." Postgame interview. Monster game to finish his high school career.

He's on the couch. It's quite a couch. It's got plastic all over it.

Magnus is… happy?

I am a huge fan of Wilson's abilities.  He has the size, speed, tackling ability, and ballhawking instincts that Michigan teams have been lacking for the last several years.  And, perhaps best of all, he's the elusive Michigan-recruited safety who actually looks like a safety and not a linebacker. 

Well all right then.

Why Jamar Adams? Adams gets dragged out a lot in YMRMFSPA because comparing incoming recruits to other Michigan safeties over the last decade is a good way to get on an enemies list, but in this case the comparison is pretty tight. Both guys are 6'2". Adams topped out around 215, which is where Wilson will probably end up. Adams was also a high character guy with the smarts not to get annihilated in coverage as a freshman.

While Adams was a generic three-star recruit he outperformed his recruiting ranking and had a quintessential mid-four-star career as a three-year starter who was second-team all conference twice. Adams also lacked the explosive explosivity that makes NFL teams drool, went undrafted, and kicked around NFL practice squads for a bit.

Wilson may have a little bit more upside, athleticism and range; we'll see. No one will be complaining if he's an atom-accurate replica of Adams.

Guru Reliability: High. They're in lockstep, Wilson was healthy, well-scouted, etc. Only some additional camp appearances or an All Star game thing would have helped.

Variance: Very low. Smart kid and good student not likely to have academic issues. Already on campus, picking up praise for his understanding of the defense. Projects to a spot he played in high school. Injury-free so far.

Ceiling: Moderate-plus. Seems like he has a B+/A- ceiling he's likely to reach.

General Excitement Level: After implementing a complex anti-jinx ritual I can say this: high. While Wilson seems to lack the outrageous athleticism that would pop him up into the Dymonte Thomas range, he's got everything else. He's taken the first step towards contributing by showing up and seeming to belong this spring and will be the #1 candidate to step into Jordan Kovacs's unerringly accurate shoes.

I have a lower threshold for "high" at safety than anywhere else, admittedly.

Projection: What it says above: someone's got to replace Jordan Kovacs next year and the bet here is that Wilson is the guy with Marvin Robinson the major threat. If Robinson wins run support will probably be the reason why. I am not putting much emphasis on the distinction between free and strong safety because my guess is that Michigan's safeties get a lot more interchangeable once Kovacs is gone and they don't have a weird player with elite skills and major issues all in one package.

Wilson probably will not redshirt as Michigan tries to get him prepped for major time as a sophomore. Michigan will deploy him on special teams and maybe use him to give the starting safeties a breather if they find themselves in games that aren't particularly hairy.