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.

Clayton, OH – 6'5", 237
[247]		24/7	3*, #991 overall #63 WDE, #46 OH
		Rivals	3*, 5.6 rating NR WDE, #35 OH
		ESPN	3*, 79 rating #62 DE, #14 OH
		Composite	3*, #774 overall #51 WDE, #34 OH
		Other Suitors	MSU, Iowa
		YMRMFSPA	Craig Roh
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello post from Ace. Future Blue Originals from Adam and Dave.
Notes	Twitter.
Film
Single game vs Lima: FBO half game every-snap:

Go ahead, say something. Gabe Newburg lives in Dayton amongst a family of diehard Michigan fans. He's heard it all before. He is undoubtedly one of the least fazed people on Earth. The three-star ranked around 1000th thing doesn't even register.

Newburg didn't do the camp circuit much and spent chunks of his senior season either playing injured or sitting out, limiting his ability to stand out from the pack of random three stars he was in when he committed. There's not much out there on him except for a flurry of stuff immediately following his commitment and a couple of local-site forays to Dayton during his senior year. Dave made one of those forays, but had to settle for just one half of action from a hobbled Newburg. Adam's summary:

…impressive arm length, strength, and hand placement…consistently fires upward into offensive linemen and aims for the numbers. …footwork is an area for improvement …keeps his pads lower than the opposing offensive lineman with consistency, and he uses his hands and arm length to great effect. …rare high school defensive lineman who doesn’t  shoot up too quickly even once …has wrestled for years…

…strongside end …could be a difficult block for B1G offensive linemen if he takes his already-good technique and continues to add strength …didn’t see explosive athleticism that would nudge him in the direction of weakside end, although his injury may have played a part in that.

Sometimes guys get underrated because the points at which analysts see them in person are ones where they're at less than 100%:

"…he was playing injured this past year and looked a step slower, so it'll be interesting to see how he looks when he shows up at Michigan. On the high side you're hoping he has a Chase Winovich-type of career but I don't think he's shown that type of potential just yet."

And even when Newburg was healthy as a junior circumstances may have conspired against his ranking. Bill Greene mentioned that the game he was at in 2017 was on a "muddy, grass field that was borderline unplayable."

The analysts are more or less in agreement that Newburg is a middling prospect; if they've missed something the inability to get much of a read on him is why.

[After the JUMP: leverage monster, upside questioned]

Newburg may be a middling prospect but he's also a good bet to hit in some capacity. He goes above and beyond when it comes to high school wrestling. It's always good to hear that your defensive line prospect has spent a bunch of time exploring the mysteries of leverage; Newburg not only wrestled but is the son of a wrestling coach:

“His dad is a teacher here and the district head wrestling coach, so he’s wrestled for 13 years here at school and through that, has developed great balance, leverage and grip strength. All of that correlates to football very well, really nothing matches up better, especially at his position.”

That directly led to Adam's assertion above about his low pad level, something that gets echoed in other scouting reports.

Greene:

…high energy player that gives maximum effort …plays low with great leverage. …length and quick feet to get around offensive tackles …has the frame to add 25-pounds and keep his quickness.  …not a super athletic freak at all … might not be the upside or ceiling of a five-star recruit, the bust out rate is basically zero …leadership and work ethic could possibly set him up as a future captain one day. … I saw Chase Winovich play in high school and I think Gabe Newburg can be this type of player for the Wolverines.

Former Michigan DL Chris Hutchinson got drafted by Rivals to scout some of his son's competition:

"….really long, nice arms …sheds blockers quite well …weaves through traffic to find the ball …pretty good straight ahead speed. …Even though he does have a long build I don’t think he maximizes the length of his arms … [can] drive people better on tackles"

Josh Helmholdt:

"…good explosiveness….always seems to be on the go. …impressive watching him handle the point of attack looking thin like he does … looks pretty fast on tape …not slow or slow off the ball … Is he a smaller framed guy? We aren’t really sure yet. If he has trouble playing at over 250 pounds then that could be an issue. ….we haven’t seen him in person."

This fell into the "recruiting 2019" bin where folks are stretched thin. Helmholdt repeatedly mentioned that he was just going off tape; it doesn't look like there was any follow-up effort to see him in person. But the POA control thing he mentions does pop off the single-game FBO film we got. He will occasionally drive a guy a bit deep but mostly he pushes into the backfield and is then alert for the moment to shed and tackle. That projects well to anchor.

Touch The Banner had a different take on Newburg's size that seems to be addressed by a big leap, and comes at his scouting with a WDE assumption:

…very reminiscent of Chase Winovich, in my opinion. The number one thing that stands out about him is his motor. He makes plays out in the flat, he chases plays down from behind, and sometimes he beats offensive linemen with tenacity. He has a variety of pass rush moves, including a nifty-footed spin move. He also uses leverage pretty well and does a good job when necessary of gator rolling guys to the ground. I’m not sure if he has a wrestling background, but it looks like it.

On the negative side, Newburg is a little limited athletically. I think he would be helped with his get-off by improving his stance.

Newburg does make plays downfield and at the sideline like Winovich; I don't think he's going to be able to be a feature pass rusher.

Newburg enrolled early; he got a brief mention in the Harbaugh press conference where he ran down almost literally everyone on the roster and no other talk. His listing on the roster (6'5", 237) does dispel some of the concerns about how big he actually is. There's not a lot of pressure to list a DE at an aspirational height, like there might be for a left tackle or 5'8" cornerback. Also that 237 is the continuation of a prodigious weight spike:

“(Michigan is) fine with my weight now. They know when I’m up there for that first month or two that my body will change dramatically. With my frame, I’m able to put on a lot of weight/muscle mass and still be able to move. Last year, I was playing around 200-pounds and this year I was playing at 230-pounds."

He certainly looks like he could add another 30 or 40 pounds without much issue. His DL coach certainly though so even after he'd made that jump:

"Going to the University of Michigan and I know they will, he’s going to put some weight on,” Brands said. “I know the University of Michigan and I’m a Michigan fan, so I’m sure Coach Harbaugh and the rest of them will put the weight on him."

Also in the high floor department: Newburg is an excellent student.

"… already has his 16 core courses completed as a junior, and is on schedule to graduate early next winter if Michigan wants or needs him to. Heck, he’s only had one ‘B’ his whole high school career, and that was in advanced geometry in 10th grade, a difficult class that most sophomores aren’t even taking."

Add in the wrestling stuff and Newburg's as good a bet as anyone in the class not named Dax Hill to see the field despite the low ranking. Upside is the question.

Etc.: Urban Meyer, weirdo:

“[Meyer] said he was very close on an offer with me. He kept talking about how much he liked me, even though I’m a Michigan fan. We’d talk and then he’d look at his assistants and say, ‘I like this kid.’ He said that a few times.”

All head coaches are weirdos.

Why Craig Roh? Roh came to Michigan as a highly touted weakside end but didn't quite pan out. After a brief, disastrous spell as a 3-3-5 linebacker Roh eventually bulked up into a ~280 pound strongside end. Roh was never dynamic but he was hard to knock off his feet and rarely made mistakes. He was also in that high-academic gym-rat bin that made him an extremely good bet to be a contributor even if he didn't quite live up to the hype.

Another guy in that bin was Matt Godin. Godin was heavier and ended up playing DT, which Newburg probably won't. But he was a useful rotation piece as an upperclassman. That's about Newburg's floor, injury notwithstanding.

Winovich got mentioned a couple times above; personally I don't see it. Winovich came to Michigan as a 215-pound linebacker who I compared to then-SAM Jake Ryan. He left it as a 6'3" 256-pound weakside end. Newburg's going to be 256 pounds by the end of his redshirt season. They have some similar traits. I don't think Newburg's a weakside end.

Guru Reliability: Moderate. Not a lot of disagreement but circumstances might have conspired to not give Newburg a fair shot.

Variance: Low-plus. High academic kid who has Leverage, The Dad. Some possibility he ends up a tweener.

Ceiling: Moderate. Reasonable ceiling appears to be the Roh/RVB tier of plus college starter who isn't of interest to the NFL.

General Excitement Level: Moderate. Newburg isn't super exciting but a year after Michigan took two wild swings at a guy who'd played football for one year (Taylor Upshaw) and a German moguls skier (Julius Welschof) it makes a ton of sense to grab a high floor SDE.

Projection: Redshirt. Likely blocked in year two by Paye and Hutchinson.

Year three will be the first real opportunity for Newburg. There are a lot of moving parts before we see how much competition he has: is Vilain viable? Is Hutchinson a potential WDE? Have one or both of Upshaw and Welschof moved to DT? Is Ojabo breathing fire, and if so is it on the correct team?

The bad news version of that for Newburg is a 280-290 pound Hutchinson at anchor and someone emerging into a solid backup while one of Ojabo or Vilain busts out on the weakside. This space predicts both of the wild swings do move to DT and Newburg is the backup anchor as a redshirt sophomore before a starting run as an upperclassman.