Previously: Last year's profiles. S Quinten Johnson, S Daxton Hill, CB DJ Turner II, CB Jalen Perry, LB Joey Velazquez, LB Anthony Solomon, LB Charles Thomas, DE David Ojabo, DE Gabe Newburg, DE Mike Morris.

Johns Creek, GA – 6'4", 285
		24/7	4*, #47 overall #4 DT, #8 GA
		Rivals	5*, #15 overall #2 DT, #3 GA
		ESPN	4*, #48 overall #5 DT, #9 GA
		Composite	5*, #31 overall #4 TD, #7 GA
		Other Suitors	UGA, ND, OSU, Bama, Stanford, Clemson
		YMRMFSPA	Ryan Glasgow
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello post from Ace.
Notes	Twitter. Dad was 7x Pro Bowler as OL.
Film
Junior year:

There is a certain genre of football player that Michigan has to get unless frickin' Stanford swoops in, and Chris Hinton is in the dead center of this category. He is the son of Northwestern alums, one of whom happened to be a seven-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman. His younger brother, a five star OL in the 2020 class, is headed to… Stanford.

Hinton evaded Palo Alto, and for that Michigan is grateful. Because he's as close to a plug-and-play defensive tackle as you're going to get, and Michigan desperately needs immediate reinforcements at DT. He came off the board very early but that did not dissuade national powers from poking around for most of the cycle. Alabama was poking at him in April. Georgia was talking about flipping him in late October, just a few weeks before the early signing period.

He had a similar status on the recruiting sites after emerging as a major prospect very early in his career. The son of the seven-time Pro Bowl OL went right to starting as a freshman at Greater Atlanta Christian, and once he did a couple of camps the sites stuck him way high up their lists.

There was a blip. Hinton suffered drops on both 24/7 and Rivals largely because he was being evaluated at the wrong position. When he first emerged on the scene he was a 265-pound rising junior filed as a defensive end. By the end of his senior year he was 285, clearly headed for the interior, and still being evaluated as a guy who needs to provide edge rush:

 

…isn’t an elite pass rusher as a defensive end and doesn’t have the quickness needed to be a five-star. He’s solid against the run but needs work on his first step.

He slipped about 50 spots on both sites. Since guys who drop often don't drop enough this was a concern.

A Game Formerly Known As Army appearance provided a platform via which to re-establish his creds on the interior. Hinton did so emphatically:

…dominated during one-on-ones … unstoppable against any offensive lineman that wanted to test him. No one had a chance. …moved inside to play defensive tackle and simply was either more powerful or more athletic, winning almost every rep and making it clear he should be back in the five-star discussion. … special ability and a great frame. He’s been a complete nightmare for offensive linemen and not one of them has stopped him yet.

Hinton spent the entire camp playing three tech and both sites that say things were more than impressed.

[After THE JUMP: also not a flake so hell yeah]

The above is Rivals. 24/7:

…playing defensive tackle this week and has thrived. … has the moves to be an effective pass rusher and won the majority of his reps again today … consistent motor

The national site put him in their top ten performers from a combined practice; he was one of four DL to draw a mention as his "use of his hands and quickness at the snap were striking." Rivals noted that his "slightly above-average burst as an edge rusher suddenly translated to elite quickness for a defensive tackle." Is that the tea? Someone tell me if that's the tea. Nevermind I can tell this slang is about to be outdated.

Afterwards Rivals said he was the guy who boosted his stock more than any other player because "absolutely dominated" and "has great size and moves well." They moved him back into their top 20. 24/7 also reversed their previous drop, noting that he did not participate in any camps after his early Michigan commit. As far as drops go "wrong position and no camps" is a good drop, especially when reversed. ("This guy is the same size he was two years ago" is a bad drop, in contrast.)

When the dust settled on final revisions Hinton was a five-star prospect at a position of desperate need. /self high-five

So Hinton is a defensive tackle. The variety of defensive tackle he is was not discussed above, but there are various takes that do. His coach:

"twitchy, explosive and powerful; it’s a great combination. He’s got big, strong and quick hands. …gets in the backfield and makes a mess. His takeoff off the ball is phenomenal."

A little more:

"…outstanding feet, outstanding eye-hand coordination… Sometimes you get big ol' guys that are not very coordinated, but he is big, strong, powerful and so athletic. One of most impressive things I saw, we do a deadlift, a trap-bar deadlift where you have sort of a hexagonal bar and to stand up with 500 pounds is impressive, but I can't describe to you how fast he stood up with 500 pounds five straight times. I don't know if I can stand up out of a chair that fast, so it's just strength, explosion, those kinds of things, but he's also a very technical player."

24/7's profile take:

Wide, thick build with a developed lower body. Plays with a high effort level and shows ability to make plays in backside pursuit. Can take on and beat double teams. Smart player who shows anticipation and instincts. Has advanced hands and does an outstanding job with technique at the point of attack.

His coach in the all star game, who happens to be Mike Dwumfour's former high school coach:

"powerful with that big lower body. He’s very quick off the ball.…really fires those hands and works the outside effectively. He’s a tremendous pass rusher from the interior. … I feel like I’m coaching Mike Dwumfour."

Trieu:

…can really bend …plays with good leverage and pad level … When he needs to re-direct and pursue a ball carrier, he can absolutely do it. He is a fluid kid for such a big body and his lateral agility is excellent. foot-speed [is] good, especially considering his size.

Nick Baumgardner:

…never out of the play. He's constantly running to the football and making plays from the backside. …appears to understand the concept of eating space and changing the numbers for the offense in the run game. …smart football player … capable of handling more than one assignment.

Other takes include a "big and powerful" guy who is a "true technician when it comes to his body control and hand placement"; "explosive first step … great pad level and has active hands."; "strong and twitchy player that went pretty much unblocked all afternoon… burst off the ball was really impressive."

As befits the son of an NFL pro-bowler, Hinton gets universal praise for his advanced technique. There's a call-out for his pad level, and repeated mentions that his hands are quick and heavy. His motor comes up a lot. So does his burst, but if we're projecting a high school guy to be a Mo Hurst level disruptor I need this quote and specifically this quote:

“I think probably the first indication to me was my defensive coordinator Al Fornaro said, ‘You’ve got to see this guy come off the ball.’ I looked and went yay."

That was said about Hurst and was not said about Hinton; also Hinton is headed towards a size at which it's difficult to be the first-step-attached-to-a-body that Hurst was and is. Steve Lorenz recently reported Hinton is already up to 295.

This sounds like a nose tackle who's got range, is impossible to reach, can rush a bit, and occasionally forces a pitch on a speed option, just like our YMRMFSPA.

For what it's worth there were a ton of This Guy is A Better OL takes. The all star game largely dispelled those, and even if they hadn't the state of Michigan's roster demands Hinton play DT immediately. Meanwhile Michigan's OTs are set for the year and probably the next three if Jalen Mayfield and Andrew Stueber both hit like it seems like they might. If Chris Hinton ever sees an offensive snap, even in practice, it'll be a massive upset. 

One concern folks might have about a defensive tackle out of the south coming to Michigan is that he's a flake. These concerns are spurred by recent experiences with Jordan Elliott, who committed to Baylor and Houston before briefly landing on Michigan and eventually signing with Texas, and Aubrey Solomon, whose byzantine recruitment warranted a ten-step breakdown that led his recruiting post. Elliott lasted a little over a year in Austin before transferring; Solomon lasted two in Ann Arbor before inexplicably transferring away from a guaranteed bucket of snaps.

Hinton is deeply unlikely to flake. The shape of his recruitment was an early commitment followed by no drama other than that which subscription sites were able to generate when he accompanied his brother on a visit to Georgia. He reacted to his early ranking on ESPN, which was a bit lower than the other sites, thusly:

ATTN: All prospects--this is called maturity, perspective, respect & willingness to handle coaching. A top 100 player in ESPNJr300. pic.twitter.com/gucc5brt9a

— Tom Luginbill (@TomLuginbill) August 15, 2017

The coach quotes about him off the field are top-grade even for coach quotes:

And then, leaving football in it a little bit, what is he like away from the field as a kid, a teammate, a student-athlete?

Yeah, it's easy to say this every time you call on a player and say he's this and that or whatever... but this kid's unbelievable. He's just an unbelievable young man. He may be the most mature 16-year old I've ever been around whether that's talking to adults, whether it's the way he can just communicate with you and understand what's going on, the way he does a great job of pushing teammates in a way that he cares for them and calls them up to be the best all those kinds of things. He's just really, really special.

Also:

"…every kid, every kid on our team — the last guy on the roster is the last guy on the roster — every kid on the team has a relationship with Chris Hinton. He goes out of his way to encourage everyone, to pat people on the back, to get outside of himself and be a good teammate. He really just cares a lot about other people."

Also just look at that picture! Dude is 40. Delano Hill just got deposed from his spot atop the list of old-ass-lookin' recruits.

The only downside of Hinton's unflappability is that the same appears to apply his brother. If he doesn't end up being a high-end starter for Michigan it won't be because he's somewhere else.

Why Ryan Glasgow? Glasgow is the best combination of violent hands, technical ability, plus quickness, and sheer cussedness in recent Michigan history. Glasgow obviously had no recruiting profile coming out of high school as a walk-on, but the two guys have similar frames—Glasgow hit the NFL draft at 6'3", 302—and Hinton projects as the kind of weeble-wobble interior OL who is a bear as a run defender. Like Glasgow his explosion should be plenty good enough to get to the passer in college but maybe not the holy crap Mo Hurst level. Oblig NFL scout for Glasgow:

Willing fighter in trenches and refuses to give blockers a snap off. …power in his upper body and uses a powerful club move along with a pull-and-shuck technique to get rid of blockers. Technician as interior run defender. Plays with wide base and good balance. Shows feel for double teams and braces quickly against them. … strength to force his way past redirect blocks. … Lacks pass-rush talent and skill set. Needs more violence and activity from his hands as a rusher. Unlikely to be on the field on third downs as a pro.

That projection may have been pessimistic as Glasgow was more or less splitting snaps down the middle in year two and had some excellent PFF grades before tearing his ACL.

Other guys considered were Alan Branch—explosive, huge-strong, but too big—and Willie Henry—explosive, huge-strong, too likely to get catapulted out of the play.

Guru Reliability: Moderate-plus. The all star game appearance bounced the sites back up in this category but the persistent mis-rank of a guy clearly headed for DT gives pause.

Variance: Minimal. NFL dad who went to Northwestern. Already college size, more or less. Outside of Dax Hill the most obvious multi-year contributor in the class. Ton of experience: four injury-free years as a starter at a major Atlanta high school.

Ceiling: Very high. Top 50 player across the board who made a slight transition to DT and whooped up on the rest of the best CFB prospects in the land.

General Excitement Level: Very high. Great combination of high floor and high ceiling. Ceiling is not Dax Hill or Rashan Gary-level, but that's the only quibble.

Projection: Is already on the two deep even if he's not already on the two-deep, if you get my drift. Michigan has three veteran DTs in Dwumfour, Jeter, and Kemp plus positional vagabond Phil Paea. They're going to need to find a rotation piece and maybe two between Paea, Mazi Smith, and Hinton. This space's money is on Hinton.

Michigan should return their entire DT corps in 2020 unless Mike Dwumfour blows up, so Hinton will once again be a rotation piece as a sophomore. It's a clear path to starting for a couple years as an underclassman. Another advantage of Hinton's dad being who he is: Michigan's more likely to hold onto Chris if he's projected as a mid-or-late round pick after year three.