We've got two EDGE hellos to get through and we'll go accomplish them in chronological order. First up is Collins Acheampong, a native of Ghana who is slated to play HS football at Santa Margarita Catholic in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA (after a recent transfer). Acheampong is a 4* prospect who Michigan had to battle with Miami over to nail down, eventually having "transformational" win out over "transactional" (for once). He's raw, hyper-athletic, and oozing with upside, making this maybe my favorite Hello so far: 

GURU RATINGS

Last row is Seth's conversion to a five-star scale. Links are to profiles

Acheampong is a composite 4* prospect, with ESPN being the highest on him (we'll get to that in a minute), while On3 and 24/7 haven't quite raised him up their board to the same degree yet. The measurements in the top row are pretty similar on height, with Acheampong's 6/7-6/8 frame being ideal for a high upside EDGE, while there is some sizable disagreement on his weight. 24/7 and On3 have him a good bit heavier than the other two but that's a matter of recency for their rankings. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Another Ojabo?]

SCOUTING

This Hello post is a little different and it has to do with Acheampong's story. He moved from Ghana to the US for high school– but originally to further his basketball dreams. Eventually Acheampong changed his primary focus to football, with his first season being the fall of 2019. Unfortunately, COVID hit and his HS, Fairmont Prep, has not played 11-on-11 football since, triggering Acheampong's transfer to Santa Margarita Catholic this spring. Thus, we have just one year of game experience, from 2.5 years ago, to go off of, a season that represented Acheampong's first playing organized football. To make matters worse, the amount of film that is easily accessible from that season is slim. 

So, most of what we have on Acheampong is a combination of measuring his body and having him do drills and noticing that people that size normally are not that athletic. Thus, most of these tidbits will be about testing scores and physical dimensions and little about football besides noting "he's raw" because [glances at preceding paragraph]. 

We'll start with the most surprising item that this Hello contains..... SCOUTING FROM ESPN??????? ($). Actual, researched takes from ESPN these days is like seeing Bigfoot in the wild, but this time, we've spotted Sasquatch with our own two eyes. They penned a piece comparing top 2023 recruits to current college stars and Acheampong made an appearance, with his comparison being an exception to the point of the piece, as they used Jadeveon Clowney (!): 

The total body of work for Acheampong is noticeably less at this stage, but physically, there are strong similarities. Both are towering, lengthy edge defenders with nearly identical reach and hand sizes. Beyond the size, the 6-7, 235-pound Acheampong blends equally impressive speed and agility, posting a similar L-drill (7.33) time this spring to Clowney's at the NFL combine (7.27).

Considering this comes from the site whose remaining scouts still regard Clowney as the greatest prospect they ever saw coming out of high school ($), this is as high praise for a recruit that ESPN can dish out (slightly ahead of "ESPN knowing who you are or what position you play"). Whenever you have the same testing scores inside a similar body as a player who went 1st overall playing your same position, that's a pretty good sign!

Next we look at EJ Holland, who tells us what Acheampong has been doing when he hasn't been allowed to be on the football field: 

He hasn’t played in a couple years, so still really raw from a technical standpoint, but he’s been training at a private facility in Anaheim where he works trainers and actually works with NFL players in the area. He’s really come along from a body development standpoint. I think since I saw him in the early spring he’s added about 25 pounds. 

That would explain the difference in weights from the guru section and why On3 is one of the two sites listing Acheampong as 25-30 pounds heavier... because he is. 

Magnus at Touch The Banner has gone a pretty creative route in evaluating Acheampong, the football player: looking at Acheampong, the basketball player. There is vastly more basketball tape out there and here's how he thinks it could translate: 

From watching his basketball highlights, I think he’s going to be a major problem for tackles to block because of his length, quickness, and explosiveness. If Michigan continues to play their edge guys like bats out of hell who have nothing to do other than terrorize the quarterback, I think Acheampong could be a star. If he has to play a more traditional defensive end role with his hand in the dirt, I’m not so sure that will work. 

In other words "please don't treat Collins like Don Brown treated Kwitty Paye" and he has a decent shot to be a stud given the raw athleticism and measurables. 

Acheampong's rise in the rankings dates to his appearance at the Under Armour camp back in March, triggering a volume of P5 offers to roll in. 247's Greg Biggins recaps some of what was observed at that camp ($): 

Acheampong worked out at the Under Armour All-America Camp in Southern California earlier this month without any game experience in over two years. He's a fascinating prospect at 6-7, 230 pounds with a wing span over 80”. He’s a natural athlete that’s still raw in a lot of ways and is still learning the game. He worked out with the defensive ends and actually did all right during the one on one drills. He needs a lot of work on technique and isn’t going to wow anyone with a wide variety of pass rush moves but his potential is easy to see.

Acheampong was listed as an athlete originally, and Biggins notes that he played some TE at the Under Armour camp, participating in 7v7 drills and flashing good hands and leaping ability. Michigan has been very consistent that they want Acheampong as an EDGE. 

OFFERS

Acheampong held plenty of offers from west coast schools, including USC, UCLA, Washington, Cal, and Oregon, plus plenty of national offers, the most notable of which were Miami and LSU. Texas and Florida also offered but were not as involved in the recruitment. At the end of the day it was a Michigan and Miami battle, one that got quite close before the Wolverines pulled it out. 

HIGH SCHOOL 

Acheampong was playing at Fairmont Prep, but that's so long ago that it's more worthwhile to talk about where he'll be at Santa Margarita Catholic. The Eagles play in the Trinity League, among the most difficult and esteemed conferences in the country, featuring such opponents as Mater Dei, St. John Bosco, and Servite, among others. Santa Margarita has not been one of the powers in that league recently, going 6-5 overall and 2-3 in the Trinity League last season, but simply playing in that conference ensures a very high level of competition. That alone will be a very good learning experience for Acheampong, compared to his last two seasons spent in the gym. 

STATS

Maxpreps has him down for 51 tackles, 15 TFL, and 9 sacks in nine games way back in the 2019 season. Obviously no football stats since then. We do have basketball stats from 2020-21 (not 2021-22 though), 8.8 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 1.1 BPG, on 67% shooting from the field. 

FAKE 40 TIME 

I have not been able to find a 40 time posted anywhere despite Acheampong doing that drill at the Under Armour camp (you can see in the video below). The drill times from the camp that have been posted are enough to tell us about his level of athleticism, though. 

VIDEO 

Since tape of him playing football is very rare, I will instead give you video of him doing drills at the Under Armour camp in March: 

And here's some basketball video from his Hudl page: 

ETC

Basketball player. Interested in engineering classes? Wooed by Michigan's pitches based around Paye and Ojabo. 

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Acheampong is a prospect who it is okay to be very excited about because he fits the mold of prospects who Michigan has done tremendously with in recent years. The Wolverines have churned out quality edge rushers under Jim Harbaugh across several defensive line coaches, Taco Charlton (1st rounder), Chris Wormley (3rd rounder), Rashan Gary (1st rounder), Chase Winovich (3rd rounder), Kwity Paye (1st rounder), Aidan Hutchinson (1st rounder), and David Ojabo (2nd rounder). Of that list, nobody fits Acheampong's mold better than David Ojabo. 

Like Acheampong, Ojabo was a basketball player once upon a time who moved from a foreign country (in Ojabo's case, Scotland by way of Nigeria) to pursue an athletic career. Both were very raw, as both will only have two years of HS football experience when they arrive at Michigan, but both were recruited for their athleticism and raw upside. You can read back to Ojabo's Hello and see words like "freakish" thrown around all willy nilly to describe Ojabo's athleticism, while this Hello featured sources comparing Acheampong's athleticism to Jadeveon Clowney's. The only difference is that of frame: Ojabo is only listed at 6'4", whereas Acheampong is either 6'7" or 6'8". In other words, you're looking at a prospect in the Ojabo mold in terms of development and athleticism but occupying an Aidan Hutchinson-sized body. Zoinks, Scoob! 

That alone is exciting, but Michigan's track record of being able to take guys like Paye and Ojabo and mold them into first round (or in Ojabo's case, shoulda-been first round) picks is why the excitement is off the charts. The Wolverines will go at the same pace as they did with Ojabo, redshirting Acheampong, putting some more weight and strength on him and teaching him the tools of the trade, and then by year #3, he is a monster ready to terrorize B1G quarterbacks using all of his physical gifts. Sounds pretty good to me!

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS 

Enow Etta, who we will get to next week, has joined Acheampong as the second EDGE in the class, but they are somewhat different prospects, with Etta closer to DT than Acheampong. Michigan is looking for a large EDGE class and they still have several more slots to fill. Mike Elston wants fellow international prospect, Aymeric Koumba of France, in the class ASAP before anyone else learns about him. The big fish remains 5* Nyckoles Harbor, and right now it would seem that these four players would be the ideal EDGE class for Elston. 

Now that there are enough players in the class, we can add in the "class as it stands" table again: 

THE CLASS AS IT STANDS