I was hoping to write either a Future Blue Originals or Future Blue Derivatives for every commit in Michigan’s 2019 class. I had luck digging for film early in the year, with games so plentiful I created a Future FBD folder to hold everything; FBD subsequently became a weekly feature. A couple months later the well ran dry. Until, of course, Mike Zordich reminded me to take another look. 

Zordich spoke to the media in the middle of April and was asked about early enrollee Jalen Perry. 

“Jalen? Young. I keep telling myself—hitting myself on the head because he should be at the prom, you know? He’s here with us now. He’s gifted, he’s got the skillset, but he’s still in high school. He’s got a little ways to go catching up, understanding the speed of the game, the technique that we use. Yeah, he’s a gifted athlete. In high school, you just go out and you can cover a guy most of the time. Here it’s not that way, and he’s just got to learn our way or man-on-man.”

Perry’s a four-star who finished the season ranked #200 overall in the composite and plays a position where Michigan has little depth, so you don’t have to rub your eyes too hard to have visions of him suiting up sooner than later. From that point of view Zordich’s quote is an excitement dampener. I read it as such and it prompted me to search for Dacula film again, and this time I was fortunate enough to find a full game from November. That game provides critical context for Zordich’s quote. In light of what he was asked to do in high school, it makes sense that his development might take a minute; he’s so much quicker than the competition that he can get away with reactive play. That, and he’s playing in a system where he consistently plays five or more yards off the receiver. Perry has a ton of potential, but it seems he’s going to have to start learning to press from scratch.

[A slightly altered format after THE JUMP]

Jalen Perry Every-Snap Film

Notebook

Perry wears #3 and is always lined up on the outside. Look for the guy with high white socks and white shoes.

00:00 Covers a lot of ground in run support.

00:25 I thought this was worth including because it shows how quickly he’s able to accelerate, which is obviously translatable to corner.

00:52 It’s starting to become clear that he’s fast enough he can get away with just watching the quarterback’s eyes and reacting.

1:25 He’s playing far enough off the receiver that he can use his speed to act like a safety when the ball gets out. Great for Dacula’s defense, but doesn’t do much for him in a Don Brown defense.

1:46 Starts to turn his hips out to turn and run with receiver while also keeping him between himself and the sideline; then the receiver breaks in, and you can see how quickly Perry’s able to flip his hips back around and in position to cover anything going over the middle

2:23 It seems like he might have made an impact on this play but who knows. Weather! Camera people! Chaos!

2:28 This one I can tell he definitely did have an impact on, so that’s, you know, good and essential to the post and whatnot. In all seriousness, you can see that he quickly erases the cushion he provides.

3:17 He does a nice job mirroring the receiver’s hips when he watches the receiver instead of the QB, though this is now a couple of times where he’s been unable to get off the receiver’s block.

4:20 Peering into the backfield pays off, as does being really very fast. That’s a nice tackle in a bit of traffic.

4:41 Another play where he reads the QB and closes fast with a spear. He has good field awareness and, though the video quality makes it hard to tell whether he’s wrapping up, seems to be in good position when hitting.

5:23 Another nice read and breakdown.

6:27 I included Perry’s one big play on offense because it’s mind-boggling that he was able to get past the 40. That’s almost half the field he gets on speed alone.

7:15 This time Perry’s able to slip the defender as he comes down to stop the run.

7:43 Not a surprise given what’s come before, but he’s a step ahead of the receiver the whole time he’s in frame the one time Valdosta’s run a fade against him

8:01 Initiates contact but loses the block

8:33 Bit of a shallow angle; the rest of his approaches make me think this is an anomaly

8:50 Gets beat by a step but it looks to me like he throws a little mid-route tug in exactly the right spot: far enough downfield that the ref isn’t likely to throw the flag, far enough from the ball arriving that it throws the receiver off but doesn’t look like blatant interference.

9:06 I left that in there because sometimes there were Coke ads that cut into plays, so if you’re wondering why there are some choppy spots in this film it’s thanks to the Coca-Cola Company.

9:25 Looks to me like Perry has outside leverage but really turns those hips in, and somewhere off frame he turns back and ends up draped all over the receiver. Let’s all take a second to appreciate David and his camerawork. Also, Perry’s long arms are a plus and aid the PBU here.

Summary

There’s a lot of like about Perry’s skill set, but there is likely to be a steep learning curve for him as he adjusts to college. If this game is indicative of his high school career, he’ll have to learn how to jam receivers off the line from scratch. He was playing man, but he’s going to have to learn the staff’s preferred technique and stop watching the backfield.

Perry’s got excellent length; when he gets his arms through a receiver’s, he’s going to get a PBU. His hips are very fluid and he pairs that with good speed, thanks to which he’s not likely to have issues staying with receivers downfield in college. In this game there were enough plays made or erased by virtue of him just being flat-out fast that it clear-cut plus. Perry is so fast that he’s able to get away with watching the quarterback’s eyes and reacting, and he’s playing far enough off receivers that he can do that and then simply erase the cushion off coverage provides with his speed. The few times Perry watched the receiver instead of the quarterback he was able to mirror their hips.

The one time Perry was beaten by a step he appeared to get his hands on the receiver at just the right time to throw off his concentration but not in an obvious enough way to draw a flag; he’ll utilize this playing press man, and having the timing of this technique down before he reaches campus is a definite plus.

Perry went out of his way to stay active in run support and generally took good angles, and he dropped his pads on contact. His field awareness was on display over and over, sometimes covering half the field when he read run and saw it going away from him. Between that, his arms and his fluidity, I think he could be moved to free safety if press-man technique eludes him and have success against the run, walking down and covering the slot, and breaking on deep balls.