Michigan's 2021 defensive class finally has its first commitment in three-star DE/DT Dom Giudice (Jih-DEESE) of New Jersey, who made his pledge to the Wolverines Tuesday night, after receiving an offer earlier in the day($). With only a few hours to adjust to the news, the sites universally still have Giudice deep in Michigan State recruit range. He's currently the #54 WDE, outside the top-1000 on the composite, and had a spattering of nerd school and MAC offers before Michigan extended one.

He also hadn't spoken with recruiting sites or been on any radars other than those of people who compile lists of New Jersey up-and-comers. He gave virtually the same exact interview to Rivals' EJ Holland, 24/7's Brian Dohn, and MLive's Ryan Zuke after it. All three included an important clarification about what Michigan sees. Since I used Dohn's in the stub here's Holland's, which also worked in an associative quote:

“They basically like me as an anchor strong-side defensive end or a three-technique,” Giudice said. “I’ll play whatever. I feel like my biggest strengths are my motor and relentlessness. I never give up on a play. I use my hands well. I have hand violence and speed. I’m aggressive. I just want to smash somebody in the mouth on every play.”

The speed is the quick-burst variety. The hands could destroy a beater car in less than 20 seconds:

pic.twitter.com/j8WGnv55aZ

— Dominick Giudice (@dom_giudice27) March 16, 2020

PERFECT

…which we'll file under "Purest Harbaugh Bait."

He also plays right tackle for Mater Dei. The dueling interviews detailed Giudice's recruitment, which unsurprisingly went through a recent speedbump. Dohn:

Former Wolverines assistant coach Anthony Campanile recruited Giudice during the early part of the winter. When Campanile left for the Miami Dolphins, though, the contact with Michigan subsided for a bit until defensive line coach Shaun Nua got in touch with him.

“Coach Nua told me last week that he really liked my film and that he was going to get back to me and just be able to have conversations with me,” Giudice said. “I guess he showed (defensive coordinator) coach (Don) Brown and coach Harbaugh my film and then today we were on a group FaceTime call when they offered me.

Giudice mentions hard-nosed football, and a Michigan fandom dating back to when he was five.*

Dom recently self-reported a weight of 259 on his 6'4" frame, which means he's likely to be in the vicinity of 290 by the time he sees the field. So who knows? The tape shows a guy who's already a high school version Aidan Hutchinson who will play inside sometimes on passing downs. The numbers are in the legendary range of high school Chris Hutchinson And the recruiting rankings are as nondescript as a who-dat Nowheresville three-star from back when we still needed Tom Lemming's opinions on prospects.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals	ESPN	247	247 Comp
2*, 5.4, NR SDE, Not ranked	3*, No rating	3*, 80, #67 WDE, #40 NJ	3*, 0.8054, #54 WDE, #38 FL, #1146 Ovr

For what it's worth Giudice would be the composite's #64 strongside end, one spot below Cass Tech's Clarence Wilson, and one above the rarest creature in modern football recruiting:

A two-star! They exist!

* [So like, Henne/Hart.]

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]

SCOUTING

Most of what I could find is from the quotes he gave himself, and already represented above the jump. Here's the Dohn version:

“I always pride myself in my motor and that I am relentless on the field,” Giudice said. “I am always chasing the ball. No matter what happens, I am always chasing the ball. I like my violence and intensity on the field is also something I show. I always want to smash somebody in the mouth, like I was saying before.

Dohn added his own analysis which Allen Trieu relayed via the Detroit News:

“He’s a really smart kid and he has a great motor,” .... “He’s going to work his tail off. He has the frame to offer position flexibility. He can play defensive end. If you want to put another 30 to 40 pounds on him, he can move inside and has the mentality inside to clean up blocks and let the backers make tackles.”

Tom Lemming(!) is still bouncing around out there and reported on Giudice last fall:

Runs a 4.8 40 is relentless with a high motor. Shows quick hands and feet. Perfect 4.0 GPA.

That's all folks.

UPDATE: Touch the Banner watched the film and came away with a Michigan player comp that most of us have probably forgotten:

Giudice made a lot of plays as a junior, including some high-motor plays. He has a good hand strike and can defeat pass protection with hand work adequately.

On the negative side, Giudice lacks the explosiveness one would expect from a next-level edge player. He reminds me of a very good local player who went on to an excellent college career... in the Ivy League. ... He lacks a second gear and does not change direction very well on a consistent basis unless he uses really good technique.

OFFERS

A lot of academics and some mid-majors: Temple, Buffalo, Ball State, and CMU plus the service academies, who all came in together a month ago. Most of the Ivy League (Harvard, Penn, Yale, Cornell, Columbia and Princeton) offered too. Wisconsin and Rutgers were poking around. UMass, where Dominick's father Anthony Giudice was a captain in the 1980s, seemed to be after Dominick the hardest. Dad was a decade before Don Brown.

HIGH SCHOOL

Mater Dei Prep is a Catholic school in Middletown (near Sandy Hook), and a new-blood in New Jersey's second-tier Catholic league, the NP3. The school nearly shut down for good in 2014-'15 but a funding drive saved them. Part of the comeback plan was to use football to put themselves on the map, committing resources and participating in recruiting practices common in the New Jersey Catholic leagues. It's working: Mater Dei moved up to a higher division in 2018 and reached the state championship both years. Last year the Seraphs lost in a heartbreaker to DePaul Catholic (Kareem Walker, Mike Dwumfour) after twice failing to score from the 2-yard line. Giudice had three sacks.

A big part of that was recruiting head coach Dino Mangiero, a former NFL defensive lineman who was the high school coach of Brian Flores at Poly Prep in Brooklyn. Mater Dei has produced six three-stars, all since 2017, including 2020 Notre Dame cornerback signee Clarence Lewis, and a 2019 hybrid space player named Shitta Sillah who's now at Boston College. Teammate Rakim Cooper is a 6'2/280 defensive tackle prospect ranked 769th overall (44th DT) in the composite.

It's a good bet Mangiero's program will have a lot more Power 5 prospects as time goes on.

STATS

His Hudl page reports some ludicrous numbers: 24 sacks, 43 TFLs. Another site that was counting halves has that at 17.5. Either way this is many.

FAKE 40 TIME

No 40 time, which gets one FAKE because surely he's run a 40 before. Here's a great and powerful probably plays hockey on top of the Quick Stop mullet instead:

VIDEO

Junior highlights.

Many sacks:

(second half is on offense)

Sophomore highlights, freshman highlights, and single-game reels can be found on his Hudl page.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Giudice looks like a college strongside end right now, and is extremely advanced for a prospect not in top-tier league. That comes from having a football dad and direct coaching from from a former pro lineman with a good track record. Giudice is also doing a lot of that on his own; what little is out there about him makes it clear this dude is 100% a Harbaugh kind of guy.

He's also a Don Brown kinda guy. The sack numbers are nuts but I believe they're mostly indicative of the competition level and a strong group of teammates. What stands out on the tape is his technique and how he plays through traffic. His bend is just okay, more on the Ryan Van Bergen end of the spectrum than Chase Winovich. RVB's also a good comp because you never see Giudice falling down. He plays with a great base, stays in control, changes direction extremely well because of it, and accelerates well upfield. The result is a guy you'd watch over tight ends, but not out in space trying to do linebacker things. Here's a quick history of non-blue chip Michigan defensive end recruits who arrived over 240:

Player	Stars	Years	Ht	Wt (as Fr)	Wt (Lst Yr)	Career
Glen Steele	3.80	1993-'97	6'5	245	264	All-American DT-ish end for national championship team, played six years in the NFL
Chris Wormley	4.28	2012-'16	6'6	250	303	29 starts, best SDE of the decade
Ryan Van Bergen	4.20	2007-'11	6'6	260	288	38 starts as steady, just sub-star DE with moonlights at DT
Dan Rumishek	4.16	1998-'02	6'3	240	277	31 starts as a solid all-conference SDE type
Jibreel Black	3.95	2010-'13	6'2	253	278	16 starts between end and emergency DT
Carlo Kemp	3.95	2016-pres	6'3	255	286	Smallish nose, has 24 starts at 3T and NT going into final season
Matt Godin	3.90	2012-'16	6'6	265	288	Long-developing inside technician, allowed Hurst to anchor a 2nd unit
Rondell Biggs	3.27	2002-'06	6'3	265	278	Decent rotation SDE during good times
Lo Marshall	4.25	2014-'18	6'4	242	285	Serviceable backup DT as 5th yr senior
Patrick Kratus	4.00	1995-'99	6'3	248	265	Thick, academic special teamer, now a highly successful investment banker
Greg Banks	3.47	2006-'10	6'4	260	285	Bad DE in a 3-3-5 during bad times
John Ferrara	3.27	2006-'10	6'4	268	286	Started one game at DE, 5 starts at OG after emergency position switch
Jordan Paskorz	3.64	2010-13	6'3	244	255	Career backup, functional as a down-roster blocking TE, no 5th yr
Kenny Wilkins	3.78	2011-'15	6'3	244	294	Career backup DT, firm handshaked
Ron Johnson	4.05	2016-'18	6'4	240	267	Tried DT but didn't take, backup transferred to Rutgers
Michael Morris	3.89	2019-pres	6'6	260	262	redshirted last year
Tom Strobel	4.16	2012-'16	6'6	240	282	Bad backup forced onto field as a DT
Anthony LaLota	4.27	2009-'13	6'4	260	256	Couldn't gain weight, career backup
Chris Rock	3.60	2011	6'5	245	267	DNP, transferred and walked on at the Corporation for Pure Evil

While it may seem like Don Brown would take anything that looks like an Anchor, my guess is Giudice is ultimately ticketed for three-tech, where his solid base and E. Honda hands could translate to maximum disruptiveness without exposing him to the kinds of athletes out on the edges these days. If Michigan moves to a three-down line Giudice is a natural fit for 3-4 defensive end. He's probably too long to be a nose tackle, especially right away, but Ryan Glasgow-like 1-tech is a possibility down the line. Upside will be how far down the line he can play.

He should have some time to figure it out. Kwity Paye will graduate and Aidan Hutchinson will have an NFL decision to make at the end of 2020, but Don Brown has recruited a lot of Anchor prospects over the last few classes and there remains a lot we don't know about where they'll all end up. By the time Giudice is on hand, Julius Welschof and Taylor Upshaw will be redshirt juniors, Michael Morris, David Ojabo and Gabe Newburg will be redshirt sophomores, and Braiden McGregor, Aaron Lewis and Kris Jenkins will have a year on campus. Presumably by then these guys will all be filed into their proper defensive line bins and Giudice will be in the conversation for the wave after them.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

It now has a defensive player in it, albeit a versatile one. The last few classes have been stocking depth but impact players, especially at DT and CB, are still very much needed (and in high demand). A program-shattering scandal at Ohio State wouldn't be remiss right now either. Here's the class as it currently stands: