The third straight EDGE Hello, today we have the most diamond-in-the-rough-esque guy yet: French prospect Aymeric Koumba. His name was on no one's radar at the start of 2022, largely because he lives in France. Then he attended a camp down in Georgia a couple months back that Mike Elston happened to be at. Elston watched him, got ahold of the measurables, and a quick and tidy pursuit was on, even while many scouting services are struggling to figure out who the hell Koumba is. Going to be an interesting writeup today: 

 

GURU RATINGS

Rivals: 6'4/230	ESPN: n/a/n/a	247: 6'4/230	On3: 6'4/230	247 Comp
no rating	no rating	no rating	3*, 88, NR Ovr #51 EDGE, #NR NR	no rating
no rating	no rating	no rating	3.74	no rating

Riveting! Every site to offer a size measurement is giving the same thing, because they're all working off the same information. On3 is the only one to even attempt a grade at this point, and it may be a bit of time before the others give it a shot. How much Koumba will rise in the rankings between now and signing day will largely hinge on whether he goes to any more camps, and how much more film he puts out for scouts to be using. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Do you like French pterodactyls?]

 

SCOUTING 

Well, here we go. All the scouts that have given a shot at analyzing the tape are hedging mightily in their intros, so take this all with a grain of salt. What we do know about Koumba, the only true cold hard facts, are the mesurables from his appearance at the camp in Georgia in June. They are the following, via EJ Holland ($): 

Aymeric measured in at 6-foot-5, 230 pounds with a 7-foot-2 wingspan. He also ran a 4.7 40 and logged a 10’2 broad jump

The Ojabo comparison comes up approximately 75,321 times in profiles of Koumba, in no small part because that's what Elston and Harbaugh used to seduce Koumba into committing, but it is decently apt. Ojabo, as a recruit, was a 4.7 forty, measuring 6'5" and weighing 233 lbs. Pretty similar! The athletic, natural tools are comparable and that's likely what attracted Elston in the first place. Koumba's profile distilled right now is "Velma from Scooby Doo without her glasses squints at Koumba and sees Ojabo". 

But he has been playing football over in France, albeit against laughable competition (more on that later). What can we glean from the limited tape of that? The two most insightful perspectives are from Touch The Banner as well as Brandon Justice of Rivals. Both tried to analyze the tape and give a few takes and their central conclusion was (as expected) that Koumba is rawer than an uncooked steak when it comes to all aspects of football. There were some pleasant surprises, though. Magnus: 

However, what I expected to see from him is a near inability to use his hands, and he’s actually pretty good with his swipe move. Sometimes he uses a one-handed move but doesn’t incorporate his opposite hand to really create separation between himself and the blocker, but I think that can be improved with reps.

Justice agreed on the hands component and gave a bit more insight ($): 

However, he's not just powering through or running past linemen. He has a decent albeit inconsistent first step and uses his hands well

They disagreed on how much bend Koumba is showing at this time but both agreed that the athleticism plays on the field, with TTB liking Koumba's "good closing speed" and "change of direction". 

Now for the rougher parts. A major problem hindering Koumba right now is the lack of competition, relying on his physical gifts too much because they are all that's needed to whip Euro offensive linemen. TTB: 

He plays as a blindside pass rusher, and he’s better than everyone he faces. Still, he takes false steps coming out of his stance, sometimes loses momentum from being indecisive, and seems to slow up instead of going for kill shots. In general, he’s got a lot to learn. 

One thing to note about the issues regarding level of competition is Elston and Harbaugh have a much better idea of where Koumba's at against better competition from attending the Georgia camp. Koumba competed against much better prospects there in drills and they were able to what that looked like. Unfortunately, internet scouts are not able to see that, as the footage from the camp is unfortunately unavailable at this time. If Michigan is pursuing Koumba, they likely saw enough at that camp to believe he can hack it against tackles not named "François" in the future.  

Back to the rough stuff, Justice was not a major fan of Koumba's tackling ability at this point in time: 

As far as his tackling ability, he needs to finish and flatten. His motor is excellent, and he's always looking to make a play. But he needs to fine-tune how he finishes plays.

Justice and Magnus generally agreed about where Koumba is at in the macro, even if there were disagreements in the minutiae. He is a prospect that right now is way better than who he's playing and is not receiving the same type of coaching you'd get at a Mater Dei, for example. The technique needs to come a long way, as does knowledge of football, instincts, etc. 

TTB ties it all together: 

His film is actually kind of similar in some ways to the film on Collins Acheampong . . . from Acheampong’s freshman year. If you asked what year Koumba was on film, I would probably guess he was a high school sophomore. But since he’s a 2023 prospect, his film is the equivalent of a high school junior.. 

Acheampong is also a newcomer to football, which tells you how raw Koumba is right now. He's going to be behind developmentally coming from Europe as opposed to training for HS in the states like Acheampong. Even among rough guess lottery ticket EDGE prospects, Koumba is as lottery ticket(y) as it gets. 

OFFERS

A major list of heavy hitters here: Buffalo, UCONN, Vanderbilt, ECU, and Michigan. In other words, the only schools to have heard that he exists. Michigan was Johnny-on-the-spot in discovering Koumba and then pushed very hard to get him to commit before the secret got out. Barely a month passed between Elston stumbling upon Koumba and him committing, which included a visit in between. 

HIGH SCHOOL 

Koumba is currently playing for Pionniers de Touraine in France, which faces other French-based American Football teams. There are not many other details available that I was able to find on English language sites, so I'm pretty much grasping for straws here. You can see from the highlights (and can assume from intuition) that the level of play is not terribly high in this league. 

As an international prospect, Koumba was represented by PPI Recruits, which is an organization that trains and promotes players from overseas, helping them land college football scholarships. Brandon Collier is a head honcho there and has ties to both Harbaugh and Elston. In Harbaugh's case, Collier also represented Julius Welschof years ago, so the two got familiar with each other them and Elston has a relationship with Collier that goes back to his previous tenure in South Bend. The familiarity there helped tip the Wolverines off on Koumba and sealed the deal. 

STATS 

N/A

FAKE 40 TIME 

Not FAKE this time! As stated previously, Koumba was timed at the camp in Georgia running a 4.7. The dude is an athlete.

VIDEO 

Here is a short package of tape that Koumba put together on his Hudl page: 

You can scroll around and see other snippets if you want on the page. 

ETC 

Seemed to be convinced by the "Michigan = EDGE U" pitch. 

 

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE 

Koumba is an intriguing prospect who is as much of a flier as anybody, but like what I said with Collins Acheampong, when it's Michigan under Harbaugh and Mike Elston taking an EDGE flier, your ears have to perk up a bit more. They deserve the benefit of the doubt on these kinds of players and given how much Elston wanted Koumba, and his track record of identifying EDGE talent, it's hard to argue that this isn't a lottery ticket that's worthwhile.

We will see how much of a leap Koumba can make during his senior season, but he is going to require a major amount of fine-tuning. Physically he is like Ojabo was when Ojabo entered Michigan, but developmentally he is somehow quite a bit further behind. Michigan ended up putting ~20 lbs. on Ojabo once he arrived and that is likely to be the same for Koumba, given how identical his current frame is to the 2018-version of Ojabo in HS. Put the extra weight on him, but most of the development is going to be mental and technical transformations, not physical ones. Koumba will get his guaranteed RS and then likely at least two more years after that. You're looking at more of a Julius Welschof-type timeline here, and we're now in year #5 of the Welschof experiment, waiting for it to finally pay major dividends. 

One could argue that if Koumba was in the United States, given his physical testing scores, he would be a 4-star prospect. Collier himself said that. But the thing is, he's not in the US. He doesn't have that experience playing HS football in the US, nor has he experienced the benefits of being coached by a well-established American program. The fact that he is French playing against players who will never approach an NCAA field is where the inherent risk is. You have to do so much more of the legwork to turn him into a stud than you do with Enow Etta, for instance. Koumba is an all-or-nothing project and it's his presence next to Acheampong in the class that has made the 2023 EDGE group a trio that has a very low floor, but also possibly the highest ceiling of any in America. The good news is, Michigan has the coaches in place where you wouldn't hate taking the bet that it turns out okay.  

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Koumba is the third EDGE prospect we've covered now, and the bottom line is more or less the same for what I said in the Etta Hello. Michigan will likely try and take a fourth EDGE prospect but we're not sure who the top targets are with Nyckoles Harbor now being prioritized as an offensive player. Stay tuned. 

THE CLASS AS IT STANDS

OFFENSE
Pos	Player	State	Stars	In a nutshell
RB	Cole Cabana	MI	4.2⬆⬆	Speedy receiver back
RB	Benjamin Hall	GA	3.7	Battering ram with vision
SL	Semaj Morgan	MI	3.8⬇	Homegrown Gattis-ian slot
WR	Fredrick Moore	MO	3.6	Crafty, Roundtree 2.0
TE	Deakon Tonielli	IL	3.9	Catchy bouncy bballer
OG	Amir Herring	MI	4.1	West Bloomfield's interior mauler
DEFENSE
Pos	Player	State	Stars	In a nutshell
DT	Brooks Bahr	IL	3.7⬇	Long grow-a-3-tech
SDE	Enow Etta	TX	4.3⬆	Poor man's Rashan Gary
WDE	Collins Acheampong	CA	4.1⬆⬆	Long/tall athletic freak
WDE	Aymeric Koumba	FRA	3.7	Long/French athletic freak
MLB	Semaj Bridgeman	PA	4.0	Formerly elite, WLBish
PK	Adam Samaha	MI	3.1⬇	Local #1 kicker