Michigan recently picked up a huge recruit*, both in terms of literal size, but also potential impact in OT Andrew Gentry. I put an asterisk on recruit because Gentry is a peculiar case, a 20-year-old who graduated HS in 2020 but has yet to step foot on a college campus due to his two-year Mormon mission. Since he signed his NLI back during his recruiting cycle, he's technically a "transfer" from the University of Virginia, but considering that he will arrive on campus in the summer of 2022 and will have four years of eligibility having logged no NCAA time previously, Gentry is, for all intents and purposes, a part of the 2022 Michigan recruiting class. 

 

GURU RATINGS 

Rivals: 6'8/305	ESPN: 6'8/310	247: 6'8/310	On3: 6'8/310	247 Comp
4*, 6, #68 OVR #8 OT, #1 CO	4*, 84, #78 OVR #12 OT, #1 CO	4*, 94, #147 OVR #11 OT, #2 CO	no ratings	4*, 0.9628, #88 OVR #8 OT, #1 CO
4.67	4.51	4.34	n/a	4.63

Bottom row is Seth's conversion to the five star scale. Links are to profiles

Important to remember those rankings are from the 2020 class, but Gentry was a consensus elite offensive tackle prospect before he left for his mission. On3 didn't exist back then so they don't have any rankings for him, but the other three sites were more or less in lockstep in their evaluation of Gentry. His listed size stands out most obviously, with a humongous frame that would seem to have the potential to grow into an Andrew Stueber-sized monstrosity. The difference of course being that Gentry is a more highly rated prospect than Stueber was. 

In fact, going through Seth's database, his average five-star scale score of 4.53 makes him one of the highest tackle prospects Michigan has ever landed in the scouting era. Only five names rank above him: Tony Pape, Jeff Backus, Dann O'Neill, Maurice Williams, and Cory Zirbel. Those are all rather ancient names in the scope of the scouting era, so if we refocus to the last decade, Gentry takes the top spot, narrowly ahead of last year's Giovanni El-Hadi, as well as Chris Fox, Erik Magnuson, and Trente Jones. The qualification being that Gentry boasts an extra two to four inches in height on all of them. He's a unique prospect. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: the time machine takes us back to the pre-COVID era]

 

SCOUTING 

Remember that all of this scouting is from 2019, but the summation of Gentry in HS was a player who was a gargantuan mauler of an offensive lineman, especially in run blocking. Blair Angulo of 247 gives us a solid overview of Gentry as a prospect from back then on his player profile page: 

Broad shouldered frame with thick lower half. Strong upper body at 310 pounds, with room to add some mass. Impressively agile for his size. Finishes blocks well. Repeatedly reaches the second level to open running lanes. Quick off the snap and maintains pad level through contact. Top-notch run blocker who seals his gaps. Room to improve as a pass blocker and with regard to his overall athleticism. Potential multi-year starter at Power Five level and NFL Draft Day 2 selection

A name who pretty quickly jumps out at me (and most people) in reading that and looking at the size component is Andrew Stueber. He didn't show up in the comp. section above because Gentry is a more highly rated recruit than Stueber was, but at 6'7, 338, Stueber is a decent mold for what Michigan could try to build Gentry into, considering that Angulo thinks he could still bulk up above 310.

Touch the Banner did a quick writeup of Gentry and gives us some insight on the schemes from Gentry's HS days: 

He certainly has the athleticism to be a plus pass blocker, but playing for a team that was largely run-oriented, he doesn’t have much experience with pro-style pass sets, playing with his hand off the ground, etc

That is something you see on tape to an extent. Gentry isn't doing a ton of pass blocking, and he's mostly sitting on the defensive linemen he's far bigger than. Any time you have a player of his size, athleticism is a question, but it is reassuring to know that he may have the chops to hang at tackle, even if it could take some time to build up to that. 

There really isn't much other scouting here to speak of, other than stuff we've already quoted. He was huge, decently athletic, murdered his opposition in the run game, and it may take time to turn him into a proper pass blocker. 

 

OFFERS 

This is where we can talk about Gentry's recruiting process. All of his offers date back from the 2020 cycle, because he has had next to no contact with any schools since he was away on his mission. Gentry spoke with Jim Harbaugh after he had decided to flip his destination school, upon hearing that Bronco Mendenhall was no longer the coach at Virginia, but that's basically it. There was no re-recruitment once Gentry decided to flip from Virginia. So for this section, we have to put on our Covid Is Not A Thing hats and travel back to the fall of 2019. 

Gentry received offers from seemingly every team under the sun, which is pretty typical for an elite OT prospect. The list on his 247 page appears to be a phonebook of P5 schools, including Alabama, Texas A&M, LSU, USC, Wisconsin, Clemson, Georgia, Miami, OSU, Nebraska, and Auburn. The four schools he was actually interested in (read: visited) were Michigan, BYU, Virginia, and Notre Dame. As you can probably tell from that list, religion, academics, and "culture" were pretty big factors in Gentry's recruitment. Being Mormon, BYU had the obvious appeal, as did Virginia due to its former head coach Bronco Mendenhall. Michigan and Notre Dame, while not having any Mormon ties, boasted the academic and cultural components that Gentry's parents were looking for. Gentry decided he didn't want to go to BYU ($) and opted for Virginia because of Mendenhall, something that shocked industry experts at the time. Michigan was the runner up, which is why he flipped to the Wolverines once Mendenhall stepped down. 

HIGH SCHOOL 

Andrew Gentry is from Littleton, CO, and played for Columbine High School (yes, that Columbine). Columbine is in division 5A (the highest one for the largest schools) and is a good program. This season they are 9-4 and ranked the 12th best HS football team in Colorado by MaxPreps. In Gentry's senior season of 2019-20, the team was 11-3 and finished 3rd in those rankings. Colorado isn't a gigantic breeding ground for high-end football talent, but within the confines of that state, Gentry was in one of the better programs.  

STATS 

Is an offensive lineman. 

FAKE 40 TIME 

I could not find a 40 time for Gentry (all Google searches for 40 times for Andrew Gentry inevitably lead to NFL Draft Combine results for Zach Gentry, apparently), but there are some other measurements on his Hudl page. Again, these are rather outdated, but he listed 300 bench, 520 squat, and 275 clean. These numbers are only so useful because it doesn't specify how many reps at that weight, but for a human as massive as Gentry, those are all definitely in the range of possibility. He's a big, big guy. Since they weren't officially tracked/verified, we have to still give it at least a couple FAKEs, but it seems plausible.   

VIDEO 

Here are Gentry's senior year highlights from Hudl: 

You can tell who he is without the indicator because he's the one who is way bigger than all the other players. And yes, he's the kind of kid who lists his SAT score on his highlight reel. 

EJ Holland got to see Gentry back in his HS days and shares one of the many humiliating demolitions of a defensive opponent that Gentry dished out at Columbine: 

2020 Michigan OL target Andrew Gentry (@a_gentry75) puts his man in the dirt #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/ITPh8w7WZj

— "EJ Holland" (@EJHollandOn3) October 5, 2019

ETC 

Served his LDS mission in Orem, Utah where he has been speaking Spanish as a part of his mission. Was going to do the mission in Argentina but it had to be rearranged due to COVID. Older brother JT plays football for BYU and also served on a mission. 

 

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

This is where we have to discuss the caveats regarding his recruitment. Gentry is still a terrific prospect, who Michigan was happy to take in a heartbeat, because the potential is as massive as his frame. However, we shouldn't act like if Gentry were currently being evaluated as a prospect, he would rank anywhere close to the top 100, as he did in 2020. Why? Well, he hasn't played football in two years and as a condition of the mission, has only been allowed to exercise for 30 minutes a day ($). That linked article quotes Gentry's father, who seems to have a pretty clear plan ready to help Gentry begin to get his body ready before he arrives in Ann Arbor, but it's going to be a process. It's best to consider Gentry a multi-year developmental piece, rather than a plug-and-play option. 

He is, after all, an offensive lineman. And the good news is that Michigan's depth at that position is very strong. He can slide in behind a mountain of bodies at OT next season, including, in some order, Ryan Hayes, Trente Jones, Karsen Barnhart, Jeffery Persi, Tristan Bounds, and Giovanni El-Hadi, in addition to classmates Connor Jones and Alessandro Lorenzetti. Michigan is in no rush to get Gentry on the field, and can afford to wait three or so years to get that payoff, because said payoff could be tremendous. The tools are there for Gentry to turn into an elite, run mauling offensive tackle in the mold of an Andrew Stueber. Given his skillset, there is definitely a chance that Gentry has to move to guard as a result of his size and perhaps not elite athleticism, but if he develops properly, there will be a spot on the field for him on a team coached by Jim Harbaugh. A picture perfect fit for the sort of running game that Harbaugh wants to run. 

 

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

In randomly adding Gentry, Michigan is in a very good spot with regards to offensive linemen. They now have three prospects they like in Jones, Lorenzetti, and Gentry, and the Wolverines weren't planning on taking a big OL class to begin with. Michigan will continue to pursue 5* OT Josh Conerly Jr., but he is much more of a cherry on top now after adding Gentry. If you get him, great. If you don't, no sense in crying over spilled milk.