Future Blue Originals: Belleville vs. Brighton

 

[Nasternak]

Intrepid MGoVideographer David Nasternak braved the congestion of US-23 on a Thursday night to make the trip north to Brighton for the Bulldogs’ game against Belleville. What at first was on the schedule because it fit with the rest of the players David was going to see took on some intrigue as Brighton quarterback Will Jontz had a breakout performance that put him on the radar of a number of teams around the Big Ten, in turn giving us an intriguing litmus test for Belleville’s two Michigan commits.

Those commits: 2019 DT Tyrece Woods and 2020 CB Andre Seldon. Both impressed the Michigan staff enough at camps this summer to leave with scholarship offers. Woods, whose second-highest crystal ball percentage was Cincinnati at 17%, took two months to commit and had a handful of other offers from MAC schools and Fresno State. Betting against Don Brown and Greg Mattison seems like a surefire way to seal your fate, but there offer list indicates he might be raw. Seldon picked up a number of MAC offers this spring and had taken unofficial visits to Florida State, Penn State, and Michigan State, but he decided to jump on Michigan’s offer, committing just days after he camped in Ann Arbor. Both prospects clearly showed that they have traits the staff feels will fit their system well, but both also come with questions. Does Woods’ on-field performance seem to fall in line with the buzz around his camp drill performance? Is he more of a strongside end or a 3-technique? Is Seldon, at 5’8” or 5’9”, too small for the Big Ten? Is he even done growing? Let’s turn to the tape for answers (err, except to that last question, which I think we would need x-rays to figure out).

Tyrece Woods and Andre Seldon Every-Snap Film

[After THE JUMP: film, analysis, and long-term options]

Scouting

2019 DL Tyrece Woods

Woods (#7, towel tucked into the back of his pants in the film above) has sashimi-like technique; he will improve a ton just getting his hands and feet in sync when engaging offensive linemen. Woods has a tendency to stop moving his feet once he makes first contact. Belleville had him function as a stand-up end the majority of the time, and he’s not particularly well-suited to that role; he isn’t slow but doesn’t possess the speed to turn the corner and get to the QB with regularity. He also had a tendency to get out of his run lane as part of his attempt to get around the edge. There’s an example of this at 1:30, where there’s a big run-lane bust that seems to be the result of lining up wide and not knowing to get inside the blocker. Woods’ pad level was consistently high when coming off the edge, as standing to begin with did him no favors in terms of leverage; he was actually significantly more disruptive at 2:49 when starting with a hand in the dirt. Woods showed very good on-field awareness, tracking runs even after being engaged by an offensive lineman and showing at 2:32 and 3:48 that he can make tackles even without having fully escaped contact.

A fair summary of Woods’ night begins at 4:42 and 5:00. He gets off the ball quickly and diagnoses the play well, but something goes awry at the point of attack in the first play: Woods gets his pads up and stops his feet, accidentally letting the back slip away. He shoots a gap the second play and devours the running back on a play that would be a TFL if not for a really good last-second pull by Jontz. This two-play sequence also shows an ability to get off the ball quicker when in a three-point stance than when asked to stand up because Woods was looking inside as opposed to looking to get around a tackle. Due to this and his frame, I think he has more of a future on the interior of the line than as an end.

2020 CB Andre Seldon

People are going to talk about Seldon’s height until he’s enrolled. Then they’ll talk about it in camp. Then they’ll talk about it when he sees his first bit of playing time. They’ll continue to talk about it, probably forever. That’s fine. He wasn’t directly tested on an arm punt or a red-zone fade, but he was with his man on almost every step of every route. In a world where we just saw that 6’2” safeties can be leapt over by 5’10” wide receivers, I’ll take a guy with great footwork and extremely fluid hips any day. The play at 2:06 (Seldon is #2 and usually lined up at the bottom of the screen) nicely encapsulates Seldon’s ability to stick with his man and create an advantageous position for himself. Seldon maintains the inside leverage he has before the play once the ball is snapped, sticking a foot in the ground and getting his arm out as he turns to aid in moving the receiver toward the sideline. He then sees the receiver slow for a possible inside break and is preparing to flip his hips when he sees the move is just a stutter step, pushes off his right foot and stays a step ahead of the receiver through the end of the play.

Seldon is also very physical. He sets the tone for the night from the first defensive snap of the reel (00:17), in which he takes advantage of a run, getting his hands on the receiver and twisting him. He also pops a receiver he’s ostensibly blocking just because at 2:33. Seldon is adept at some of the more subtly physical elements of cornerbacking as well, getting his hands on a receiver as the receiver is getting into his route and removing them just before it might seem like he’s interfering (see 5:41 and 5:46). He has the speed to eventually excel at trap coverage (which I know if more about reading run, but look at how quickly he closes down and sticks the receiver at 2:25), but he needs to improve the angles he takes in the open field; there were a few times that he went the wrong way in the open field when Brighton’s QB got to the third level.

Summary

Woods

Woods’ technique is about as raw as I’ve evaluated in the last three years. He has a tendency to stop moving his feet once he reaches an offensive lineman; technique-wise, he didn’t display anything in this game that can’t be fixed with time and coaching. His broad-shouldered 6’2”, 255-pound frame appears built to add weight without issue, and I see him putting on 30 pounds and finding a home at 3-technique. He also read the run game much better and knifed into interior gaps when shaded on a tackle, whereas lining up as a rush end baited him into running straight ahead and losing gap integrity. Woods also exhibited pad-level issues throughout the game that were mitigated the few snaps he fired upward after putting a hand in the dirt.

A Steve Wiltfong article published when Woods committed notes his physical upside: 4.2 shuttle, 500-pound squats, 225-pound bench 26 times. There’s also a quote in the article from Jermain Crowell, Woods’ current head coach, lauding his work ethic. Michigan is getting a guy with the frame and strength to play on the inside; his speed is a bonus. He will need some time to develop his hand- and footwork, and a redshirt seems certain).

Seldon

Seldon is extremely physical. His hand placement is excellent; he never got himself into a position where he could have been called for pass interference or holding but still managed to regularly disrupt receivers’ routes. Seldon has good footwork and fluid hips, as shown by his ability to maintain presnap leverage and change directions quickly. He has good short-area quickness, which could allow him to eventually excel in trap coverage if he can improve the angles he takes on open-field runners. He plays much bigger than he is. Though we admittedly did not see him tested on a jump ball in this game, his physicality and ability to shadow a receiver’s every move should make him a viable Big Ten corner.