Previously: Last year's profiles. S Makari Paige, S RJ Moten, S Jordan Morant, CB Andre Seldon, CB Darion Green-Warren, CB Eamonn Dennis, VP William "Apache" Mohan, LB Nikhai Hill-Green.

Boston, MA – 6'1", 220
		24/7	4*, #236 overall #15 OLB, #2 MA
		Rivals	4*, #92 overall #8 OLB, #2 MA
		ESPN	4*, #208 overall #18 OLB, #1 MA
		Composite	4*, #151 overall #10 OLB, #1 MA
		Other Suitors	Stanford, Wisc, NW, MSU, Clemson, PSU, ND, TX
		YMRMFSPA	Cam McGrone
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello post from Seth. Future Blue Derivatives from Adam.
Notes	That's also what I'd look like in a Notre Dame jersey.
Film
Senior Year:

There are some recruits who pop up out of nowhere shortly before they commit. And then there are the long-haulers. Kalel Mullings is the latter. He's been a recruit for a long, long time. I mean:

"The common feedback I got was that I performed great, way beyond my age and that I am very coachable. They found it hard to believe I am 14 years old."

If I happen to be on any FBI monitoring lists, let me be clear this is a quote about a football player playing football. Thank you. Also if you're doing the math on how old freshmen are, yup:

“The other thing about him is he’s a full year younger than everyone in his class. He started for us every game as a freshman. We’re in a very good league and did that and was 13 years old most of the season.”

Mullings has the Caris LeVert thing going. Around these parts we are enthusiastic about guys who happen to be very young relative to their class because that's not a factor that recruiting rankings take into account much, if at all.

[After THE JUMP: finally healthy]

After that freshman year Michigan and Don Brown were first out of the gate with an offer. Mullings drew in a who's-who (Clemson, OSU, Notre Dame, PSU, etc.) over the course of the next few months but he's the kind of recruit who lists Vandy, visits Northwestern, and is widely regarded a Michigan-Stanford tussle. Mullings did glance outside high academic schools for a bit, but Don Brown was enough to overcome all comers.

Unfortunately, Mullings had been on the sideline as much or more than he'd been on the field after his breakout freshman year:

According to MacDonald, Mullings has dealt with shoulder injuries, including a dislocation that limited him to two-and-a-half games in each of the past two seasons.

That's caused him to fall in the recruiting rankings—247's profile scout of him mentions it–and it's left him short of where you'd expect a four-year starter would be, experience-wise. Touch The Banner:

… standout running back early in high school, but the kind that seemed too physical and stiff to stick on offense. … plays outside linebacker but doesn’t have a whole lot of nuance to his game. Mullings has a lot to learn about reading plays, using leverage, and winning battles with his hands. … a project.

That take was before Mullings had a healthy senior season, the proceeds of which you can see in the HUDL video embedded above. I'm not sure that take would move much.

Mullings plays in the hoity toity New England league where schools are called things like "Nobel & Greenough"  and "Roxbury Latin," and is thus afforded the opportunity to play almost literally every offensive skill position outside of quarterback. Mullings lined up as a flanker, slot receiver, wing tight end, fullback, and running back over the course of his senior year. He also returned kicks and punts. These forays into miscellaneous offense were not a gimmick. Mullings had a nine-catch, 158 yard game as a wide receiver. He ran for 509 yards and, er, received for 358.

Tape of him playing linebacker is maybe a third of what's going on and it's largely stuff where he holds the edge and then comes off to tackle a few yards downfield.

Watching it you get a sense why Mullings was a priority option for Wisconsin (Wisconsin!) at tailback. He churns his legs and requires a fishing village of overmatched Massachusetts Lilliputians to chop him down. Notre Dame also recruited him on offense:

… solid linebacker size … doesn’t have that elite length … at running back his size/frame grade is elite … elite power potential … nimble … moves really well for a 6-2, 220-pound running back. … ability to make back-to-back cuts and then get vertical. … don’t often see that kind of fluidity and cutting ability from a back that big. … quick second level cuts and shows impressive anticipation as a runner…. sets blocks up well and shows the ability to quickly plant and burst vertically.

"De'Veon Smith but fast" vibes.

So there was a lot of debate amongst scouts and, apparently, coaching staffs about where Mullings fit best. This plus the injuries resulted in a strange situation where one of the guys who's been on the radar longest in the 2020 class doesn't have much in the way of linebacker scouting. 24/7:

Solid frame and thick build … Already physically developed. Plays downhill. Good burst in first three steps. Can change direction … physical disengaging. Sifts through traffic to make tackles. Has good speed. … Adding flexibility so he can rotate shoulders important. Concern about being close to physically topped out.

The most extensive linebacker takes actually come from this site, when Adam took in one of Mullings's games that happened to be televised. Mullings ended up playing a viper-ish spot that saw him drop into coverage a lot:

… lot of raw athleticism … has a habit of flipping his hips one way and then flipping back the other when dropping into coverage, but it provided us an opportunity to see how smooth he is when changing directions; … can be trusted to carry a tight end downfield or pick up a back out of the backfield

… very quick, particularly for a guy who’s almost 230 pounds. He diagnosed run plays well and generally reacted appropriately to what he was seeing, often ducking blocks as he saw them coming. The biggest question I have is about timing  … exploded in a lot of directions … will do well to redshirt, but as a guy with size, speed, and instincts should be able to make an impact down the road .

We have some splits here between a savvy linebacker who's able to ID and pick through traffic and a zippy guy who's still learning to downshift at the right moments.

There is no split when it comes to Mullings's speed. He's fast. He's not Xavier Worthy, but he is also not 160 pounds. Both Mullings and his coach assert that he runs in the 4.6 range at somewhere between 225 and 230.. His athleticism is not in question despite a lack of combine numbers. Brian Dohn:

"… runs really well.  … physical kid who can run downhill. … [has] to show that he can do it in pass coverage.  …step up in competition is going to be enormous for him.  … all of the physical tools are there.”

Adam Friedman:

"… sees the field really well and does a good job anticipating. … similar to Devin Bush in that he’s not the tallest guy but he’s fast and athletic and has been around football just about his whole life. … not the quickest guy laterally right now … love to see him stay healthy … great football IQ and he’s in a good spot physically."

His coach:

"prototypical size … hands are enormous, which is an advantage playing linebacker. … runs really well, he’s a track guy, 100-meter dash guy, around 10.9, 11-flat. So for a big kid — he’s 225 pounds, 6-foot-2 — he runs really well. He runs to the ball. He’s a pretty aggressive kid."

Other takes include "very fast, smooth and extremely smart"; "speed to make plays all over the field and does a great job seeing the play develop";  "… very fluid hips … good with angles too. … probably not many guys in the country like that can run down and track running backs like he can." Mullings can go.

There are some concerns. Mullings did apparently do a number of camps but did not come up in any post-camp "hey, this guy" posts. It is possible that he was playing running back, and there are few worse environments to judge a hoss like Mullings than a pads-free camp. He got selected to the AA game even so. Again, there was very little about him coming out of that week. Almost the only mention of Mullings was when he ran back a blocked extra point in the game it self. 24/7 did have a brief snippet:

… impressed Simmons with his presence and leadership qualities. Mullings is physically ready to play at Michigan, a very sturdy 220 pounds packed on his 6-foot-1 frame. A high IQ guy that has the strength coveted at the position.

But that was it. This may be more due to the state of the industry than Mullings, but just last year there was a lot about Chris Hinton and Mazi Smith.

One thing that I don't think is worth worrying about is the idea that Mullings is "close to physically topped out." A guy who has played at 230 being close to topped out means he can be a 240 pound MLB, which is about bang on what you want. His coach mentions his huge hands and feet…

“… big, strong kid who will continue to grow. He has size 16 shoes … ”

…which are generally an indication that a person can and will get large. In other articles he's mentioned that he was up to 235 but they've actively tried to keep him from getting bigger:

"He’s playing at about 225, just trying keep his weight down relatively low. "

Combine that with the fact that he's a year younger than most people in his class and whatever size Mullings needs to be he's going to be. The fact that he hasn't gotten a lot bigger since he burst onto the scene as a freshman is mostly because he didn't need to.

Etc.: Probably not named after Superman you huge throbbing nerds. Big news for the Mock Rock team:

[Mullings is] a saxophone player and a member of his school's a cappella group, the Miltones

Come on. Do it. You know you want to.

Also here's his high school coach accidentally burning BC to the ground:

"He knew he wanted a school that combined big-time football with big-time academics. His mother is a Cornell grad and works for Cornell in development, so she fueled the whole thing. He was looking at Duke, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, schools like that that combine those two things, Boston College, because they were local."

Grimace dot emoji for real.

Why Cam McGrone? Mullings is another fast, punchy middle linebacker in the recent Bush/McGrone lineage. His lack of experience due to injury and a lot of time spent on offense means he's more likely to be in the McGrone bin (normal person experiencing growth over the years) instead of the Bush bin (instant savant superstar). He might even be a little behind McGrone in terms of readiness.

Ian Gold is a tight, albeit old, comparison. Gold was primarily a high school running back who became an ahead-of-his-time mobile linebacker after arriving at Michigan. In a similar vein, Mullings reminds me a lot of Michael Barrett. Barrett was a hoss of a high school quarterback who looked vastly underrated; he's moved to viper and looks like a squat 230-pound thumper there.

Guru Reliability: Moderate. Mullings has been around a long time but by the time he had a healthy senior season it seemed like no one was paying much attention. Camps might not have been informative. AA game drew little to no scouting.

Variance: Moderate-minus. Has to pick up the finer points of linebacking but has good reasons for not already being up on them and has the kind of recruit profile that leads you to believe he's got a high ceiling mentally. Injuries are some concern.

Ceiling: High. Extremely athletic at close to playing size. Offensive exploits demonstrate functional athleticism.

General Excitement Level: High. Don Brown Massachusetts recruits tend to work out even if they're who-dats like Kwity Paye. Combine "Don Brown is first to offer" with "also a national recruit" and "NW/Stanford/ND/Michigan battle" and that's a prospect to anticipate.

Projection: Michigan needs linebackers for the two deep out of this freshman class. Mullings will be a strong contender. Losing McGrone after his redshirt sophomore year is an unlikely but extant prospect so Michigan will want to blood a couple of young contenders. Mullings is likely to be one; ideally they'll be able to restrict his participation to four games—even easier in a 10(?) game regular season—and keep the redshirt on.

Mullings will be a prime contender for MLB as soon as there is an opening. I'd guess he and Charles Thomas are the starters after this Ross/McGrone pairing graduates or heads to the draft.