Bonjour (From The Future?): Benjamin St-Juste
Even by Jim Harbaugh standards, Michigan's latest commitment is an obscure one. TMI's Brice Marich broke the news this afternoon that Canadian CB Benjamin St-Juste, who camped at Michigan last week, has pledged to the Wolverines:
#Michigan has picked up a commitment from Montréal (QC) Cégep du Vieux cornerback Benjamin St-Juste (@BenjWolfpack24). Could be 2016 or 2017
— Brice Marich (@BriceMarich) June 23, 2015
St-Juste's enrollment situation is unclear at this point. If he comes in with the 2016 class, he'll be the 18th total commit and the second at cornerback, joining Antwaine Richardson. If he's in the 2017 class, he'll be their second commit, joining Brother Rice TE Carter Dunaway.
GURU RATINGS
| Scout | Rivals | ESPN | 247 | 247 Comp |
| NR CB | NR CB | NR CB | NR CB | NR CB |
St-Juste doesn't have a recruiting profile on any of the sites. His Hudl page lists him at 6'3", 170, which would be an intriguingly lanky frame for a corner. He looks pretty tall for the position on film, though I won't venture a guess as to how accurate that 6'3" figure is.
SCOUTING
Despite his complete lack of a recruiting profile, St-Juste has a couple evaluations out there, both from Michigan's "Exposure U" camp last week. Scout's Allen Trieu placed him 14th among the top performers, though St. Juste was so under-the-radar at the time that he didn't get his name right ($):
14. Benjamin St. John - 2016 CB, Old Montreal (Canada)
A big corner, he turned heads. There may not be room at the inn as far as Michigan's concern, but the staff showed him a lot of attention and he's a name to keep in mind depending on what happens with some other targets I think.
Apparently, there's room. The Wolverine's Tim Sullivan and Brandon Brown added a little bit more detail in their rundown of days two and three of the camp ($):
Montreal (Que.) CAL 2016 cornerback Benjamin St.-Juste is a tall, long-armed cornerback at about 6-3, but he still has the hips to turn and run with receivers - something that's less common in players his height. St.-Juste impressed the U-M position coaches, and had an extended opportunity to work out in front of both of Michigan's defensive backs coaches, and even headman Jim Harbaugh.
St.-Juste might be one of the top players in all the camp when it comes to approaching a Michigan offer.
His film, embedded at the top of this post, is unfortunately hard to follow—much of it is filmed in pore-o-vision. He looks to have decent athleticism and ball skills, and he plays with a physical edge. His technique, as you might expect, looks pretty raw.
OFFERS
Without a recruiting profile, it's unclear if St. Juste had other offers.
HIGH SCHOOL
Is in Canada.
STATS
Unavailable.
VIDEO
UPDATE: Thanks to @robphillips1979 for pointing out some recent camp footage of St-Juste on YouTube:
FAKE 40 TIME
None listed on his Hudl page.
PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE
I'll wait until we know when St-Juste will enroll before taking a guess. He looks like another guy with potential upside due to his size and athleticism who will take some serious molding before he's able to see the field.
UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS
Which class? We'll see.
and 247 has him in their top 100 and he's a high 3 star on composite. Had he had those rankings on the day of his commitment, people would have been fine with it.
St. Juste actually does have a recruiting profile on 247 though he isn't ranked. They also list him at 6'3''. They do not list any other offers. This guy is definitely an under the radar prospect, but certainly an intriguing one.
For those unfamiliar with the Quebec school system, a Cégep is a post-high school institution, sort of like a junior college. So he should be about 20 or 21 when he enrolls - but he should still have four years of eligibility. This was the case for Alain Kashama and Deitan Dubuc.
Very interesting...thanks for the info.
his hudl says he's only 16 for SR year, but for a different school. Unless that's a few years old, I'd guess he's probably 16 or 17 now and would only be a year ish older when enrolling at Michigan.
This is a prep year in Quebec prior to university attendance
I don't get this one. He just seems tall, but not very athletic or skilled. I wonder why he didn't transfer to an American school like some other Canadians I've heard about recently.
He could go to a prep school like he does now, but in America. His parents wouldn't have to move, and he can just stay at the school.
What if he doesn't want to do that?
Obviously, he was able to attract our coaching staff's eye, anyway.
A) We're not that lucky
2) We have smoke detectors
and D) He's headed to Main street in Harbaugh's United States of America
If memory serves Stribling was a completely under the radar guy we recruited after he camped with us. Also tall (no idea how their athleticism compares).
Stribling hasn't been a star or anything but I'm glad he's on the team. I'll take another one.
Eh, I'm not sure we want to fill up our team with Channing Stribling clones. I think Stribling was ahead of St-Juste by this point, too.
It's a bit difficult to really gain much info from his film, because he is so raw. He's a huge project. And like you, I'm not sold on high athleticism here. He may be fluid enough to play in tight spaces, but he didn't look to have the speed or burst to play much more than that. And even the "fluidness" has a lot of wasted movement and doesn't really get utilized.
This is a long body with some upside I guess, but he's a huge, huge project. A bigger project than Stribling was. And as you said in your breakdown, he doesn't really look like he has great top end speed and he doesn't consistently make plays on the ball; he waits for it to get to the receiver and gets PBUs against weaker competition. This is a stretch, maybe there is more there that the coaches saw on film, but it's going to take a long time to get whatever is there out of him with where he's at from a technique and athleticism standpoint.
It is clear that Harbaugh and his staff know what they're looking for though. They want long CBs that can press at the LOS and force the defense to go over the top. This kid has a long ways to go to be another Sherman, but Sherman doesn't have great top end speed and the system out in Seattle is similar to the one Durkin will be running in the way it's designed. We'll see if it works out, I'd like to see guys with a little more speed that can keep up with some of the receivers they are going against; I think there is a concern here that guys will be able to win over the top, and the limited athleticism limits the amount Michigan would be able to throw at an offense.
Definitley needs to get a lot stronger but I see the potential with him. Good ball skills, good hips and very long arms. Awful tackler and seems to be pretty soft physically, hopefully going up against top competition in practice will improve this. Overall I believe the coaches have a plan in place for him and he seems more of a situational passing downs player.
that Harbaugh has extreme confidence is his staff's ability to teach the game of football.
He's looking for guys with a certain set of tools. Once he sees those tools, he just assumes his staff will be able to teach them what they need to know to be good players. Obviously St-Juste has the right toolset.
Good stragegy? We'll have to see. But he's clearly looking for stuff that other people are not.
I'm not qualified to have an opinion on film, and some guys here don't think he's that great of an athlete apparently, but it does say in the post he has good hips. A 6'3" CB with fluid hips sounds like a pretty good starting point to me.
I can't tell if he has fluid hips or not, but if he really could turn his hips that well and be 6'3", I would think he would have at least 247 page before today.
Especially in Quebec.
Most moms aren't 6'3" either.
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We'll see what happens. People were incredibly excited about Hoke at one point too and he was a 2 star coach. Then they got restless when we weren't winning. The same thing will be said if we lose to Urban Meyer with our players.
We couldn't win with a 2-star coach and 4/5-star players. Let's see what happens with a 5-star coach and 2/3-star players.
Or 5 star coach with 4/5 star players, just a thought.
I predict that Ace will soon know "Hello" in 78 languages after Harbaugh starts bringing in recruits from all over the world.
But the question is why nobody else wants them.
All of the football schools recruit in Canada; it is certainly competition for athletes. Over the past decade Laval, Western Ontario and McMaster, for example, have dedicated significant resources on that end. While university football here does not occupy the same public attention as it might in the US it is still a big deal for alumni, alumni pride etc. Players in any varsity sport in Canada can earn scholarships for tuition and it is quite competitive, the recruiting.
The most elite players do tend to go to the US but not always depending on what they want to study in school.
http://www.canadafootballchat.com/2015-cis-football-commits/
Note that in Canada you can also, apparently, sign gigantic classes with no issues.
I did not see that.
He is correct. I meant most US Schools do not recruit Canada, because there just aren't enough big time prospects for teams like Florida State, Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, and USC to go up there and spend recruiting dollars regularly.
I am by no means saying that Canada does not have prospects good enough for big time college football. I am just saying that it's a lot tougher to get noticed up there unless you are willing to travel around to camps in the United States during your summers.
That's why this offer to a canadian (who otherwise does not have offers) does not really bother me, since Harbaugh and the staff saw this young man compete two days in a row.
It's the next Samoa for CFB recruitment. I hear they have untold billions of Biakabutuka's just standing around and apprenticing to become low-wage lumberjacks. That's a dangerous life, and we need to do something about it. As with Peru (where I visit in ten days), Jim is on it.
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you hosers!!
He got juked and recovered in time to make the play. He seemed to be in position to make the play a lot. Could be good.
He goes to the camp to learn and maybe get his name out. He does so well he gets extra time with the coaches and Harbaugh. He then gets camp MVP. Then, he gets an offer to go to Michigan. That has to be one of the bests week he's had. Probably on cloud 9 right now.
It sounds like he earned his offer. If nothing else, it's an inspiring story.
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