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, DT Chris Hinton, DT Mazi Smith, OL Jack Stewart, OL Nolan Rumler, OL Zach Carpenter.

Paw Paw, MI – 6'5", 277
		24/7	4*, #161 overall #8 OG, #5 MI
		Rivals	4*, 5.8 rating #28 OT, #10 MI
		ESPN	3*, 79 rating #41 OT, #12 MI
		Composite	4*, #266 overall #16 OG, #7 MI
		Other Suitors	MSU, IU, Neb, Minn, Iowa, USC
		YMRMFSPA	Jalen Mayfield
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello post from Ace. Future Blue Originals from Adam and Dave.
Notes	Twitter.
Film
Junior year: Senior:

Karsen Barnhart is a guy Greg Frey would have jumped on if he was still in Ann Arbor. He's the 2019 version of Jalen Mayfield, a relatively obscure lineman from West Michigan who shows up at a couple camps, shows he's big and highly mobile, and Blows Up. Both Barnhart and Mayfield fielded Michigan offers and saw their 24/7 rankings shoot up in the immediate aftermath; both committed in short order. This comparison has already been made because it is so obvious. Allen Trieu:

A year ago, we bumped Jalen Mayfield in the summer at those same camps and we loved that he was a basketball player and he played with an intensity and nastiness that made opponents hate him. As I watched the opposing sidelines and fans take issue with Barnhart burying a couple guys on kickoffs, it reminded me of Mayfield.

And just like Mayfield, Barnhart's Rivals ranking remained stubbornly low until late in the cycle and ESPN did nothing. This is a situation where the 24/7 ranking is more likely to be accurate than the composite. 24/7 moved him up almost 100 spots in their final set of rankings; I can't tell you how unusual that is for a small-school Michigan prospect who didn't attend an all-star game. Says something, that.

[After THE JUMP: "like Mayfield" is deployed a few more times]

Like Mayfield, Barnhart arrives at Michigan listed at 6'5" and 20-30 pounds short of a reasonable playing weight, and just like Mayfield he's shot up improbably fast. 24/7 had a couple encouraging updates on Barnhart; the May one asserted he'd reached 293 pounds, and the July one had him cracking the 300 pound mark at 305.

Your author is a bit dubious about those numbers but he's probably closer to them than you might expect. Both guys played basketball for the duration of their high school careers, and it's not uncommon for prospects coming off senior basketball campaigns to hunker down and get largehuge in a hurry once they focus on football. That was a good sign for Mayfield and is hopefully a good sign for Barnhart.

Also—sorry—like Mayfield, Barnhart is a radically athletic large person who isn't a slam dunk left tackle solely because of his height and reach. Trieu's summary:

…excellent strength … moves around the field quickly and with better coordination than most prospects his size … excellent intensity and motor… tackle first, but could move … high-end athletic gifts and excellent intangibles.

Upon his commitment Trieu asserted he was a "fantastic" athlete whose "ability to run up and down the basketball court" as a major factor in his pre-camp-breakout suite of mid-tier P5 offers. Baumgardner:

Strength, athleticism and gets low with ease … checks every box, the latter two at an above average level. … arms are long enough, his punch is solid and he finishes every block he makes. … ability to move at his size is what catches your eye. … in the mold of Ryan Hayes … athlete playing offensive line. … plenty of [technique] work to do.

 This coach quote leapt out to me as an extremely encouraging one:

"He also plays basketball and he’s got these great big hands and they are soft and he catches everything. Watching him in the summertime at 7-on-7 workouts he even excelled in that setting. He’s like a vacuum cleaner with the ball in the air. …from his hips down to his feet he has tremendous skills … strength wise in his upper body he can improve."

While Michigan isn't going to ask Barnhart to catch redzone fades, the kind of body control that lends itself to spearing balls out of the air will help Barnhart stay balanced in pass sets and redirect when the unexpected happens.

That ability likely helped him in the camp settings where he earned his Michigan offer despite several factors working against him. 24/7's camp reports are in fact a little mystified he was as good as he showed:

…[played] basketball all winter, played in a high school offense that, as a junior, did not throw the ball a ton, and he actually played tight end … was able to, not only compete, but excel at the Nike and Under Armour events … further along than expected.

A version of that with some more detail:

…athletic kid who can move his feet and mirror quicker defenders. Even smaller edge rushers had very little success trying to speed rush him. … still learning technique … competitiveness and natural quickness and bend allow him to win right now.

They also said he "bends well and has great feet" after a UA camp. The ability to go from a wing-T and basketball to beating up on some dudes…

…won the majority of his reps in 1-on-1s… wide body that moved well … could match power with power and also had the quickness to take on outside pass rushers. … able to garner wins against the likes of [Stephen] Herron and four-star defensive end Michael Fletcher.

…in no time flat is also extremely encouraging. Multi-sport prospects are good to have because the diversity of movements they make usually makes them more fluid, and because they have a runway to quick improvement once they focus on one thing. Barnhart fits the mold—see the impressive-even-if-dubious gains cited above. Lorenz thinks that he's neck-and-neck with Trente Jones as far as upside goes.

It should be noted that while Barnhart played TE last year he is an OL first and foremost. TE is a glorified OL in the offensive system Paw Paw runs, and until his junior year he was a starting guard. The move outside was designed to crush West Michigan OLBs, and worked exactly like you'd hope…

…a pancake machine this year … devastating drive blocker [at TE] because he can bend and get leverage, runs his feet, and finishes blocks. … lines up way outside at times. To see a kid who will play offensive line in college essentially line up as a split end is something to see. … athletic qualities that are rare … heavy-handed and plays every snap hard from when it was 0-0 to when his team was down 41-0.

…and it also allowed him to display his ability in open space. His coach:

"…he's quick off the ball. ….not only has the ability to get into someone and move them physically, but he’s the kind of athlete that can really get downfield to the second and third levels and get on a player in the open field. He’s great at maintaining and sustaining blocks in those situations."

Despite Barnhart's evident mobility there was a lot of disagreement about where he'll end up. Some of that may be due to Barnhart improving to the point where scouts think he can hack it at tackle despite lacking that Taylor Lewan frame, but doubts about his ability on the outside persisted into his senior season. This is from an in-person scout from Allen Trieu:

… likely a guard … athletic enough and handles edge rushers well enough though that tackle would not be impossible.

Camp reports were consistently wishy-washy. "Still has a chance to be a tackle" at 6'4"; "best offensive tackle at the event … from a frame standpoint projects better inside."

Adam was perhaps the most bullish about Barnhart playing outside:

…hands don’t come off the opponent once he locks on. … We talked to Barnhart’s basketball coach at halftime and he told us that the football coaches who visited in the winter were really impressed with Barnhart’s low-post moves. He then raved about Barnhart’s unexpected grace for someone his size.

…seems to be a true 6’5” … might be better suited to start off working at tackle … great hands, regularly locking in under the pads of an opposing lineman … footwork is good … will need to continue to get stronger (he lost a couple of reps to the 6’3”, 270-pound end), but not at the expense of the athleticism and explosiveness that should allow him to shuffle and set and keep pace with the speedy edge rushers of the Big Ten.

Helmholdt did think he was "probably a right tackle" thanks to his "really good combination of size, strength and athleticism." FWIW, Lorenz asserted Michigan was recruiting him for the interior in April of last year; in May Barnhart said Michigan told him he'd be a tackle. Upshot: he probably tops out as a B+ pass protector and will be a tackle if there aren't a couple of A-level guys.

Why Jalen Mayfield? The comparison is too obvious to skip even if Mayfield hasn't developed into a finished product yet. Athletic, undersized West Michigan prospects who played basketball and had camp blow-ups that saw Michigan swoop in and pluck the recruit in question away from lesser Big Ten schools.

Guys who have actually played in a similar boat include Mason Cole—obviously—and, perhaps more modestly, Jon Runyan Jr. Runyan Jr had some of the best testing numbers on the line when Michigan posted spring combine results a couple years ago and was also the kind of 250 pound high schooler who Greg Frey would be all about. Runyan's listed at 6'5" on the roster now, but… nah. Steve Schilling and Ben Bredeson are the kind of mobile, coordinated guard Barnhart might be as an interior OL.

Guru Reliability: Moderate. Reasonable amount of scouting for a small-school kid, including some camps. Big spread.

Variance: Moderate-minus. Looks like weight isn't going to be a problem, so the main issues here are competition level and the possibility Barnhart a tweener who's not as much of a tackle as a couple of classmates and not as much of an ass-kicker on the interior as a couple others.

Ceiling: High-plus. Barnhart isn't 6'7" but he appears to have everything else you could want. A fairly likely outcome is that 4-5 years from now he's an NFL prospect who people are projecting inside because he's too short to continue at tackle.

General Excitement Level: High-plus. Love former basketball players who shoot up to 300 pounds as soon as they stop playing; exact kind of prospect whose ESPN ranking should be ignored; height does appear to put a cap on his ceiling.

Projection: Is OL who played tight end in a wing-T, redshirt. Same deal in year two as the other guys: lots of interior opportunity, tackle likely spoken for. Barnhart does have experience at guard but the combination of his team's offense and its opponents means he'll probably be behind the two ultra-experienced guys from Ohio powers (Rumler and Carpenter) early on.

In year three he'll have a much better shot of pushing through the competition, and by the time he's a redshirt junior it seems likely he'll be a starter if he's not struck down by injury.