Previously: Last year’s profiles.

Ann Arbor, Michigan – 6'0"/170
[via Instagram]		Kornblue:	5*, #1 Kicker
		Kohl's	5*, #22 Kicker
		24/7:             3.03*	2*, 79, NR Ovr #8 K, #50 MI
		ESPN:             3.38*	3*, 75, #138 MW #11 K, #20 MI
		YMRMFSPA	Brendan Gibbons
		Other Suitors	none
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello.
Notes	Left-footed.
Film:
Kornblue Kicking event in 2020: Sequel. Senior highlight is just 47-yarder vs Pioneer and a game-winning prayer. 49-yarder at Army Bowl and 60-yarder in practice. 63-yarder. Hudl.

By convention we do these writeups in reverse order of the usual position lineup, but in this case it makes sense to start with the first guy in the class. While the rest of the 2023 class came together after Michigan started beating Ohio State, Samaha pledged in final days of the miserable streak that preceded it. When his classmates showed up to the Big House barbecue to get their first impressions of Ann Arbor, Samaha was manning the grill. He grew up at Michigan. He played for Huron. Michigan was his first offer, and given their prowess on special teams and Samaha's ties, nobody else bothered. He officially committed on Thanksgiving of 2021, but by that point it was perfunctory.

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Michigan and Only Michigan

Even for a kicker, there is a terrible lack of information on Samaha. The reason is that he was only ever interested in, and thus only of interest to, Michigan. He's a legacy and towny—father Waleed is a Michigan grad and until recently the basketball coach of Ann Arbor Huron—and has been attending Michigan camps since he was 4 years old. He trained with Michigan alum Brandon Kornblue, to the exclusion of other kicking gurus. He shot to the top of the kicking class when kicking off a tee at the embedded Kornblue camp in 2020.

Ratings and national rankings on the normal sites aren't helpful for kickers but their rankings might. Samaha is not ranked to On3 or Rivals, but the #8 kicker to 247, and #11 kicker to ESPN. He was the #1 kicker on 247's composite when he committed, but they only had a handful of guys at the time, and the Kornblue event was fresh.

The disagreement is sharper when you get to the sites that specialize in kickers. Kornblue still says #1, but the only other site to even have a ranking is Kohl's. He did move up three spots since last year, but their last written opinion on him says he needs to have a big summer of 2021. Prokicker does have Samaha in their database but…

…that too is biiiiit out of date. His Hudl page is a collection of weekly recaps with one field goal and a bunch of three-point shooting. Camp takes ceased after the 2021 edition of Kornblue's (at Ann Arbor Saline). At the Army Bowl Samaha kicked a 60-yarder (literally from the logo) off a tee in practice, and a 49-yarder during the game.

Is Kornblue too blue?

We have to ask since the Michigan alum's site has the guy who was born to go to Michigan his top kicker in the nation, while Chris Sailer Kicking and Prokicker don't include Samaha among the 100+ guys ranked, or even mention him. Typically those sites don't bother with guys who don't go to their camps. As for Kornblue, this is the third time he's put the guy committed to Michigan at #1. The other two were 2018's Jake Moody, and 2016's Quinn Nordin, however, so that doesn't really tell us anything.

Here are Kornblue's other #1s:

• 2010: Marvin Kloss, USF and Drew Basil, Ohio State
• 2011: Kyle Brindza, Notre Dame
• 2012: Ross Martin, Duke
• 2013: Harrison Butker, Georgia Tech
• 2014: Landon Scheer, FAU
• 2015: Eddie Pineiro, Florida
• 2016: Quinn Nordin, Michigan
• 2017: Spencer Evans, Purdue
• 2018: Jake Moody, Michigan
• 2019: Zack Sessa, Florida
• 2020: Jack Olson, Michigan State

Everyone there was a hit except the guy with a life-threatening injury and the guy who went to MSU.

Santana Guitar Solo 2.0

Unfortunately the takes on Samaha are all as stale as Ohio State's last Big Ten title. There wasn't much reason to, I guess, after blowing away the competition at Michigan's Fab 50 Camp on August 2, 2020. Coming out of that, Kornblue made him the youngest player to ever get a 5-star rating. Samaha was the camp champ for Kornblue again last spring.

For why, all we got was Samaha "has a smooth, natural swing."

The other camp performance we have is from Kohl's Spring Showcase in 2021. Again, the operative word was "smooth."

He was excellent on his field goals and ended up charting one of the best sessions out of all campers at the event. He scored 29 points and was smooth and focused under pressure.

Iceman

The "focused under pressure" part was a theme echoed by Harbaugh once he was allowed to say something.

“Super talented. … in this area, you know that everybody you know is going to be following your progress on a weekly, monthly, yearly basis. And I can tell you, that puts a lot of pressure on you. And there’s some people that are scared of that and some people that aren’t. And I really love that about Adam and Cole [Cabana]— that they’re not batting an eye.”

We're desperate for takes when we're using Samaha's own but his response to his AA Bowl questionnaire does give some confidence about his confidence.

Q: How do you handle the pressure of being a kicker?
A: That’s why I kick. I love the pressure. I love when all the attention is on me and I got to make a big kick to win a game. You know, I dreamed for those moments … It’s just zoning everything out and just focusing on one thing. Just keeping a consistent routine—and that’ll get the results done.

Can he do it without a tee?

The first thing mentioned by those still basing their takes on the 2020 Kornblue video is wanting to see how he does when it's a quarterback's finger instead. The 2021 Kohl's writeup said something about that too.

Samaha does need to continue to develop on field goals off the ground. His kick- offs are outstanding.

And Kornblue gave some generic talk about development.

“He still has some things has to work on and that will be the determining factor with anyone … that comes through the program that all have a lot of talent but it’s not enough. If he keeps improving and working, good things will continue to happen. But on that first impression, he was fantastic.

…but he was also talking about a 16-year-old.

Stats?

We do have some ground stats. MGoBlue reports as a senior Samaha was 11/14 with a school-record 49-yarder, and perfect on extra points. He was 34/34 on PATs as a junior, and 7/9 on field goals. 24/7 reports the two misses were from 53 and 56. Both mention he kicked 50/56 kickoffs for touchbacks in 2021.

Athlete

It's common among kicking prospects to mention that they're Not Just a Kicking Prospect; Samaha however is a legitimate Just-a-Shooter, as our own Alex Drain discovered.

This was mentioned when Samaha was selected for the All-American Bowl by bowl chairman Rich McGuinness:

He was described as all-American in character and all-American ability—a terrific athlete, athletic foot, smooth and a lot of great attitudes that kind of blew us away,” he said. “I know how hard he’s worked because word is he started at four years old. So on the other hand, I’m not surprised. I don’t find a lot of athletes starting that young.”

There's that word again.

Etc. Basketball: set a school record for threes (65 in 19 games). Army Bowl. 3.9 GPA.

Why Brendan Gibbons? Ungh, I'm not entirely comfortable with bringing Gibbons up either, but if we can stick to Gibbons on the field, it's a close comp. Like Gibbons, Samaha is a left-footed Kornblue-trained, Army All-American kicker whose high school range was a bit overstated because we were watching him kick from a tee. Gibbons also laid out a guy once, but Samaha's a legit lower D-I shooting guard. Michigan's other lefty I can think of was Mike Lantry, but Samaha isn't a 23-year-old Vietnam vet with a kid.

Guru Reliability: Extremely low. Only two out of four kicking sites seemed to care, one of them says he's the best in the country, and that site is the one with a built-in Michigan bias. Nobody outside of Michigan circles knows anything about him because he was always going to Michigan.

Variance: High. College kicker. Also even the sites say he needs a lot of development, or at least the two that have any take on him at all do.

Ceiling: High. The #1 kicker to Kornblue usually ends up in the NFL. Samaha's chief competition is a guy who's also handling punts for the first time (and kickoffs), so potential to be a four-year starter. The "Very High" and above categories are reserved for the Nordin types. Moody is sui generis.

General Excitement Level: Is kicker.

Projection: He is definitely going to be a kicker. In college. I'll even go so far as to say he'll be a college kicker. If you find meaning in that, oh you sweet child of the Pax Specialistica, that is not how #collegekickers goes.

The talk at the moment is all about Tommy Doman handling all three kicking jobs, but that's because Samaha isn't enrolled yet (I almost said "isn't on campus" but he's seldom not on campus). The program isn't going to anoint a true freshman for the kicking job before he's on the team, but looking at the roster, and Doman's line drive kicks before the spring game, I kind of think they'll have to anoint this one out of fall practice. From there, uh, Michigan has a better track record than most, and so does Kornblue. Samaha won't be as money as Moody, but he'll probably be competent from 40 yards and in, and capable of stretching that well out.