[Nasternak/MGoBlog]

Apologies for skipping FBO last week, but there’s only so much time in a week and the hockey preview wasn’t going to write itself. (Someone on North Campus just read that sentence and scoffed; email me if you have robots that will help us divvy up our workload and dump some of it on automatons, Michigan Engineering students/professors.)

The night before the Wisconsin game was a miserably rainy one in southeastern Michigan, but that didn’t stop David and I from climbing on top of the Oak Park press box (with their permission, of course) to film 2017 commit Ja’Raymond Hall, 2018 target Marquan McCall, and 2019 QB D’wan Mathis. We ended up primarily scouting Hall, however, as McCall was injured and didn’t play and Mathis didn’t start (though he did rotate in fairly often, he fumbled early, got pulled, got put back in, and then got fewer and fewer snaps as the game went on).

Hall’s an interesting prospect. He was offered early in the process and his enthusiasm for Michigan was palpable; the first time I watched him was at the 2015 Sound Mind Sound Body camp, and he was decked out in Michigan gear. Take a look at his visit history and you can see that he’s long held a serious interest in the program, and has continued to stay connected after committing last December.

At one time he was a Top100 prospect on 247, but he tumbled more than 200 spots when 247 updated their rankings in July. He’s currently the #31 offensive tackle and ranked #312 nationally per the 247 composite; Hall is a four-star in the composite, but just a three-star to 247. Did we see what they must have seen? You’ll have to…

[Hit THE JUMP for Ja’Raymond Hall film and scouting report]

Highlight video

Worth noting that Hall is exclusively at LT in the film below:

Scouting Report

2017 OT Ja’Raymond Hall (M commit)

Hall spent most of the evening going against two guys, #33 and #45. One of them, #33, was a lanky, speedy DE who also played WR for Clarkston. The other, #45, was a more squat linebacker-type, and he and Hall developed a heck of a rapport by the end of the evening.

I don’t see anything in the film that indicates what exactly #45 did to Hall, but from 1:00 on, Hall did his best, most ferocious blocking against that poor guy. Apologies for the poncho we had covering the camera blowing over part of the lens—it was really windy as well—but watch how Hall takes the guy on, digs in, and dumps him five yards past the line of scrimmage. And that’s in pass protection, no less.

At 1:26, Hall pulls and finds #45, and all of a sudden it’s on. He subsequently wraps up #45 and tosses him back, almost getting him airborne in the process. The destruction continues at 2:31, as Hall drops a bit in pass-pro while simultaneously picking up #45 and flinging him into the turf. That’s followed by some extracurricular shoving and crushing, which he needs to watch in the future.

What Hall does against #45 provides a prism through which to view the rest of his blocking, and it doesn’t do him any favors. He clearly can finish a block, but there were times where he seemed to get to his guy and then slough off. This was particular evident in space, and more specifically when he was asked to pull; check 00:14, 2:23 and especially 2:48, where he gets to the guy he’s supposed to block on the pull but never gets his hands into him, allowing the guy to bounce off and make the tackle.

On the topic of space, Hall’s second-level blocking was a mixed bag. He’s able to get there, and he’s able to chip prior to doing so, but his targeting was iffy. At 00:33 he does a nice job getting ahead quickly and finding a LB to take on, but at 1:18 he never sees the scraping linebacker run past him.

This seems to be more of an issue with his vision while in motion as opposed to a broader problem like a lack of speed or agility or poor on-field awareness. His short-area quickness is fine; he shuffled well to handle a line slant at 00:08, and that foot speed was evident in pass protection throughout the night. As far as his on-field awareness is concerned, he makes a couple of heads-up plays involving linebackers at 00:42 and 00:52. In the first, he drives the DE back and into the LB, which creates space for the bubble screen. In the second, he seals the defensive tackle inside and then gets his hands on a charging linebacker.

Hall was very good in pass protection, very good at kicking guys out, very good at down-blocking, and not so great targeting the second level or pulling. The one stone (or maybe boulder) left unturned is his run blocking. As with most high school D-I prospects, this was his strong suit since he’s just more powerful than the guys across from him; for example, at 2:39 he pancakes a blitzer and makes it look easy. As far as technique is concerned (and this is also true for pass-pro), I thought he reset his hands well when he got too far outside a guy. He needs to keep his feet moving; he can stalemate high school competition when his feet stop by virtue of being bigger, but when he keeps them churning he’s able to drive guys back.