Previously: Last year’s profiles, K Adam Samaha, K James Turner (Tr), S Brandyn Hillman, CB DJ Waller, CB Cameron Calhoun, CB Jyaire Hill, HSP/LB Jason Hewlett, LB Hayden Moore, LB Semaj Bridgeman, LB Ernest Hausmann (Tr), OLB Breeon Ishmail, DE Aymeric Koumba, DE Enow Etta, DE Josaiah Stewart (Tr), DT Brooks Bahr, DT Cameron Brandt, DT Trey Pierce, OT Evan Link, OT Myles Hinton (Tr), OT LaDarius Henderson (Tr), IOL Amir Herring

Cumming (South Forsyth), GA – 6'4"/295
		247: 6'3.5/282                            3.75*	3*, 89, NR overall #44 IOL, #42 GA
		On3: 6'4/282                            4.41*	4*, 93, #117 overall #10 IOL, #10 GA
		Rivals: 6'4/288                            3.56*	3*, 5.6, NR overall #35 OG, #83 GA
		ESPN: 6'4/280                            3.67*	3*, 78, #260 SE #32 OG, #57 GA
		Composite                4.07*/4.03*	4*, #286/#310 Ovr #14/#19 IOL, #4 MI
		MGoAverage                            3.98*	3.5*, #412/794 Ovr #47/82 OGs since '90
		YMRMFSPA	Little Onwenu
Other Suitors	Miami (YTM), PSU, Aub, GT
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello by Yours Truly
Notes	Ojabo friend. Shares bday w Semaj Morgan
Film:
Senior Highlights:Hudl. Playoff game (start at 31mins). EJ breakdown.

It may not be possible to find two prospects for the same (relative) position more opposite than the last writeup, Amir Herring, and Nathan Efobi. Herring is the short-armed, probably-going-to-play-center guy who started four years and went to multiple all-star games and camps. Efobi is a guard who may be on the edge of right tackle with long arms, huge upside, and no floor whatsoever. He's also shifted between 290 and 330 pounds then back again already. Michigan got in because Efobi's family is really close with the Ojabos. They had to pry him out of Auburn's class, then fight tooth and nail to hold of Miami (YTM). This despite a wrist injury that wiped out most of his senior year, then had him playing with a club.

Fortunately for this guy with two thumbs and a print deadline to meet for HTTV (pre-sale ends end of day tomorrow), that means there's not too much scouting to go on. Unfortunately for our scouting purposes that means the takes are all over the place. People watching just his junior tape saw a bunch of pancakes and a couple of impressive downblocks. People watching his junior tape saw a somewhat athletic but huge downblocker. He reshaped his body as a senior so some of those takes are outdated now. I watched his playoff game, which showed off the feet.

Rivals and ESPN moved him up slightly to hedge and 247 moved him way up in their final re-rank, while On3 planted their flag in the top-150 and stuck to it. Someone gets to be very wrong.

[After THE JUMP: The writeup is short, the arms are not.] 

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Ceiling/Freak Frame

The book on Efobi is the upside. Harbaugh:

Nathan is one of those athletes who’s a real athlete as an offensive lineman. Super high ceiling. Can play both sides of the ball. He rarely comes off the field

The measuring tape comes out a lot come out a lot at On3. One of their recruiting reporters said Efobi "has been compared to Olu Oluwatimi but with longer length." EJ Holland said the length is what excited Michigan.

A lot of schools were interested in him as a defensive lineman they saw the length, and that's one thing that really really stood out to Michigan. They saw this kid that they think can project to the interior of the offensive line and they saw the length and they really really fell in love with that.

His high school coach knew we would.

“I know that these college coaches, they love O-linemen with long arms so they keep their D-lineman off of them,” Morris said.

Touch the Banner, who was pretty down on Efobi, allowed he has a "a decent build with an athletic lower body and a thick upper body." The major dissenter is M&BR's Lucas Reimink, who was watching a different player.

Nathan Efobi projects as a IOL recruit who will likely play inside at the next level due to his lack of height, length, and marginal agility in addition to his good pad level.

I usually don't interject but…what?

Explosive athleticism

Al Borges took a look for TMI and had two first thoughts.

The first thing I noticed is he's a pretty good defensive lineman. … The first thing that occurred to me when I watched Nathan was explosiveness. He is explosive. Again, he's another quick first step guy. His feet are soft and he's quick out of his stance.

Borges liked how Efobi moved, called him a "better than average knee bender" (not as good as Evan Link), thought he'd be a good puller, and might have the feet for tackle. EJ Holland calls Efobi "extremely athletic with great feet." TTB still credited him with "decent athleticism." Efobi's own head coach was effusive:

He’s flexible, he can move, he’s quick. I mean, he is a very athletic offensive lineman.

Reimink agrees that Efobi "fires off the ball quickly in the run game and gets on the defenders toes in a surprisingly fast manner," and praises "solid overall athleticism" especially in the screen game, but was repeatedly critical of the agility.

…he has marginal agility, the quicker DT’s and DE’s at the next level will be able to beat him with quickness and well-timed hand usage.

South Forsyth offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Heath Hover may have an explanation for why the takes diverge here:

One thing we talked about is he needed to get quicker going into his junior year. From sophomore year to junior year, we told him to get bigger, put on some size, so he ended up gaining close to 30 to 40 pounds. He had a lot of weight gain, so he wasn’t as quick as he was used to so one of the big things this past off-season was to gain a step as far as quickness and speed. He focused on that a lot and he’s a step ahead now of where he was last year in his quickness.”

Like Sushi Your 6-Year-Old Tried to Put in the Toaster

The vibe you get from scouting repots on Efobi is the kid had never heard of football, learned it all wrong, and then got by with the length and feet. Borges:

He's not fundamentally perfect offensively, but what's interesting about him is he doesn't necessarily have to be [in high school]. He could put himself out of position to make a block, and have the recovery skills to still make the block. Some guys can't do that.

EJ Holland called him "very raw" both in the S&C department and the position:

…the ceiling is super high, but the floor is also very low. I would conservatively grade Efobi as a high three or low four. I need to watch more of his senior tape.

Touch the Banner has a coach's perspective, which is geared more toward what can you do now. He sees some big things to clean up.

Efobi plays a bit bowlegged and maintains too narrow of a base at most times. He crosses up his feet and gets off balance, playing with too much of a forward body lean. This problem also exists in pass protection, where quick lateral movements will catch him off guard. He needs to do a better job of sitting down and anchoring in his stance.

Overall, playing high and with a narrow base is something that can be difficult to correct. Sometimes athletes are just so comfortable holding their bodies in certain positions that it’s hard to change the way their brains are wired. Efobi has decent athleticism and good size, but his technique needs some work.

He gives him a 68. The bit about pad level was at odds with Reimink, but here at least Lukas agrees that pass protection footwork is a current weakness.

Road Grading

He's a Michigan recruit after all, so there's plenty of requisite talk about the people he splats. We may want to take them marginally more seriously because South Forsyth plays in a mighty league. Reimink:

He has really good pad level when engaging, in part because of his natural frame and in part because of good technique. He also has good physical strength so once he latches onto a defender, he is able to move them off the LOS with ease.

And Touch the Banner.

He handles down blocks well, latching onto defensive linemen and washing them down. Once he gets his momentum going in one direction, he can be a powerful blocker. He flashes quick feet at times, and he likes to finish blocks.

Efobi described his game to Brice Marich as "nasty with some celebrations." Celebrations in this context are pancakes. There are a lot of them on the film, though more impressive are the downblocks where he keeps churning and the guy keeps moving.

Smart

Actually "super smart" according to his HC Troy Morris

When you coach him, he just understands what you’re saying. He anticipates. He’s a leader up front. He would come off the field and communicate with you what’s happening out there, and we’ll talk to him about adjustments. He applies it instantly.

This also came out in Reimink's writeup:

He has good mental processing speed to diagnose stunts/blitzes and adjust accordingly. He has solid hand use in pass pro, as he knows when to stack and rip a guy to throw him off balance as well as when to just push them down if they bend too low to try and get around him.

Rankings Divergence

Efobi and Herring are excellent test cases for what how various sites do their rankings. Rivals has always believed in ranking players as they are at that moment, showing greater appreciation for a guy like Amir Herring who played four years for a major program, went to all the camps, then showed it against top competition at all-star games. Newest site On3 has placed its flag beyond even that of 247, the previous standard bearer for projecting measurements into NFL potential. On3 was the low outlier on Herring, and now they're a major one the other way with their love for Nathan Efobi. It will be interesting to see where they end up.

Etc. One of the younger members of the class (shares a May birthday with Semaj Morgan). Played soccer most of his life. Also throws shot put (placed 4th at Georgia's 7A meet with a 52-8.75) and was a sectional qualifier in discus. Played situational DT (4 tackles, 2 sacks). His mom and David Ojabo's mom were school friends. Father a Nigerian immigrant.

Was first team all-region in 6-7A as a junior and senior, and all-metro to the AJC. Efobi captained his team to the playoffs despite playing for the traditionally less stacked team in an absolutely brutal league—they drew Maxpreps' #10 team in the state Walton (Marietta) in the playoffs, and faced #15 Milton, #22 North Oconee, and #25 Lambert (Suwanee) during the regular season. Some of those games are online, if with too few frames per second.

Why Little Onwenu? I can't use Onwenu for any prospect who comes weighing less than 330 pounds, but Efobi got up there, and Onwenu had major size fluctuations in his career as well. Anyway that's what the Little is for.

Past that, a guard with freaky long arms and great athleticism for his size who still has some agility limitations from his size. Also played OL and DT against the best competition in his state (Michigan's PSL is so concentrated its output can match some Georgia 8A divisions) with a big projection and all kinds of development between then and when he could be deployed. Onwenu had to play as a true freshman and was playable as a true sophomore (but also lost his playing time to a true freshman Cesar Ruiz). Give Efobi a redshirt and you get the same 4-year progression. One of the things people forget about Onwenu is he was a great pass protector later in his career, both because of his intelligence, and because of that athletic/length combo. The high ceiling they talk about with Efobi is that dancing grape man.

Guru Reliability: Way way low. One site has him in their top-150 and can't even get the reporter who covers that team to agree they should be that high. Another seemed to get cold feet and reranked him a high 3-star very late. Two more left him a generic 3-star. Very little film from an injured senior season when his body shape was very different.

Variance: Lots. Has to reshape his body and develop big parts of his game. Low-level possibility he moves to nose tackle.

Ceiling: Very high. Little Onwenu.

Flight Risk Level: Medium. From a far off distant land (Atlanta) and main connection to Michigan is David Ojabo, a guy already in the pros. Is a developmental guard on a team about to bring in six linemen in the class behind him. Probably stays through his development.

General Excitement Level: High-minus. Baseline 5; +1 for that length, +1 for that burst, +1 for that athleticism, +1 for watch the playoff game from last year you'll see the dancing feet; –1 for has a long, long way to go, –1 for some of his habits have to be unlearned, +1 for we have Ben Herbert.

Projection: With Herring in the class I'm glad they took a shot on a high ceiling.

Of course he takes a redshirt, and another year before we're hearing anything from him, but what I said about Herring and the depth chart is possibly truer for Efobi. Zinter and Keegan are gone after this year, and Gio El-Hadi is the only certainty after, though Michigan has enough depth that an Atteberry or Anderson probably fills in the other spot through 2025.

So let's point at 2026 for the post El-Hadi generation At that point Efobi is a RS sophomore and has only his classmate Herring, who may be at center, and Connor Jones among extant options, and a big class of RS freshmen to compete with. Given what you can do in a year with linemen, Efobi has a pretty decent shot at earning a role then.