Hello: Jack Stewart Comment Count

Ace

Michigan picked up their second commitment in two days yesterday when three-star New Caanan (CT) offensive lineman Jack Stewart announced his pledge on Twitter. As a Connecticut prospect, Stewart hails from Don Brown Country, which means at this juncture he's all but unscouted by the recruiting services.

Stewart has picked up increasingly impressive offers over the last couple months, however, starting with a trip out west that netted Arizona and ASU offers. Michigan offered a couple weeks ago and—despite picking up offers from Baylor, Ole Miss, TCU, and Texas A&M—Stewart didn't wait long to jump on it. He's the ninth commit in the 2019 class, which moved up a spot to fourth nationally, and the third on the offensive line, joining top-100 OG Nolan Rumler and four-star OT Trente Jones.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals ESPN 247 247 Comp
2*, 5.4, NR OT NR OT 3*, 87, #56 OT,

#616 Ovr
3*, #83 OT,

#1012 Ovr

These should be ignored, despite what you may have read in the comments on the initial commitment post. There isn't a single scouting report on Stewart from an analyst on any of the three recruiting sites. His ESPN page didn't exist until today; Rivals didn't mention anything about his recruitment until after yesterday's commitment. 247 appears to be the only site that's at least looked at his film and they have him as a decent three-star; it's hard to get far above that before an in-person evaluation without being an obvious monster athlete.

Stewart has solid size for a future interior lineman. All three sites list him at 6'5" and either 280 or 285 pounds, and he doesn't look to be carrying a lot of bad weight on film.

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

SCOUTING

There's not much out there on Stewart, who doesn't appear to have hit the camp scene that usually gives scouts a chance at an early evaluation. We're going to start with Stewart's junior highlight tape because, for the moment, the only scouting available on him comes from his high school coach:

The competition he faces isn't stellar, as you'd expect, but I was nonetheless impressed with what he put on tape. Here's my quick evaluation:

Stewart displays good targeting; he doesn't just get to his spots, he gets his hands on the right guy. Mean blocker who finishes. He shows decent agility as a puller or heading out to the edge and finds a guy to hit. Uses his hands well, which also shows through on his defensive clips. He'll pop up too high out of his stance at times but drives with decent leverage. Clearly stronger than his competition. He has solid, not spectacular, footwork—better in the run game than in his pass drops. Stewart looks best suited for guard, though right tackle is a possibility down the road.

247's Brian Dohn caught up with Stewart's high school coach to get an insider evaluation:

"He's a road grinder kind of offensive lineman."

...

"Jack Stewart is one of my best football players, no doubt," Marinelli said. "He's a big, strong, tough, athlete. He's a heavyweight wrestler."

Stewart was recruited to play inside on the offensive line, but Marinelli said he offers position versatility.

"I would play him as a guard," Marinelli said. "The colleges have different specs for different positions. Some like real big tackles and some don't. He's tough enough to play inside and tough enough to play on defense if they wanted him to. He's a really good player."

Stewart's wrestling background translates to his film; wrestlers tend to be good at using their hands to gain leverage and control and he's no exception. 

247's ranking looks fair to me, especially pending review of a full game in some form; his composite ranking should rise considerably once the other two sites get around to scouting him. Stewart doesn't jump out as a tremendous athlete and doesn't have prototype tackle size, so he'll probably be limited to guard or maybe right tackle. His agility and power at guard, however, give him the potential to hit the starting lineup after some development, especially since he looks to have decent instincts.

OFFERS

Stewart chose Michigan over offers from Arizona, ASU, Army, Baylor, Boston College, UConn, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ole Miss, Rutgers, TCU, Temple, Texas A&M, and Yale. Even though Stewart doesn't appear to have hit the camp scene at all, 

HIGH SCHOOL

Stewart's commitment was part of an unusually eventful recruiting day for New Canaan:

It started with class of 2020 quarterback Drew Pyne announcing his commitment to Notre Dame. And an hour before Stewart announced his chose Michigan, fellow offensive lineman Jack Conley committed to Boston College.

"Quite a day for a public high school in Connecticut," Marinelli said.

That group represents half of the FBS commits New Caanan has produced in the Rivals era (2002-present). The other three: former Notre Dame starting OL Conor Hanratty, honorable mention All-ACC/PFF fave-rave Boston College DE Zach Allen, and TCU right tackle Lucas Niang, who started the last eight games of 2017 as a true sophomore. The numbers may not be high but it's tough to beat a 100% hit rate on recent prospects, especially when none were rated above three stars.

STATS

MaxPreps has partial-season junior stats: through five games, Stewart recorded 25 tackles (13 solo), two TFLs, two pass breakups, and a forced fumble. Intriguingly, he blocked two field goals in five games as a sophomore.

FAKE 40 TIME

None listed.

VIDEO

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

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Stewart will almost certainly redshirt and get a year or two to develop behind Mike Onwenu, Ben Bredeson, Stephen Spanellis, Joel Honigford, and possibly Chuck Filiaga (word is he's better inside than at tackle) before competing for a spot on the two-deep at guard. From there, I like his chances of making an impact; Stewart's recruitment suggests his talent is well beyond his current rankings and Michigan didn't hesitate to take him relatively early.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Michigan now has a solid group of three offensive linemen in the class (and potentially four, though Chris Hinton prefers defense and, as a five-star talent on either side, can do what he wants). They could add a fourth as soon as Friday, when in-state OT Karsen Barnhart announces his decision in a recruitment that looks very likely to go Michigan's way.

The coaches will also continue pursuing other linemen, including in-state five-star DeVontae Dobbs (they're still working on him) and—more realistic to end up in the class—top-100 RI OT Xavier Truss, four-star IL OT Trevor Keegan, and four-star FL OT William Harrod. Michigan holds 100% of the Crystal Ball picks for Harrod and over half the picks for Keegan; meanwhile, Truss was on campus last weekend, and PSU looks to be the main competition.

Here's the class, which ranks fourth nationally and first in the conference, as it currently stands:

Comments

pkatz

April 18th, 2018 at 7:21 AM ^

which is where New Canaan (Ace misspelled in post) is located... trust me, the overall football talent is not great here, despite the fact we also got Stueber from the same area.



Regardless, if Don Brown like this kid I’m all in... welcome Jack!

lhglrkwg

April 17th, 2018 at 2:41 PM ^

My assumption is that this guy will basically end up in 4* range. Dude from New England who is barely scouted, who we scooped up so early in the process that he's clearly not a last second "we need a warm body for this position in this class" filler. Offers alone suggest he's at minimum 3* territory and I imagine he's going to finish higher than that

ColeIsCorky

April 18th, 2018 at 2:15 PM ^

Ed Warinner wanted him "Now," and he's supposed to be an offensive line genius; I'll take Ed's word and roll with it.

The biggest reason the kid is under-scouted is because he hasn't attended any camps and doesn't intend to. The fact that he has this many high major offers despite playing in Connecticut and not doing any camps shows that he is likely an extremely high talent. I'm not saying a 5* talent, but I believe we are getting a really good recruit here in the mid to high 4* range. I doubt we will see a big jump in rankings because of all the above reasons, but this is not a kid that we should expect very little from. The staff is in on a ton of excellent line recruits still, so you don't take a kid this early without it being at or near the top of their offensive line board.

Real Tackles Wear 77

April 17th, 2018 at 2:45 PM ^

Welcome to the Michigan family Jack!

For those unfamiliar with football in the northeast, he is from the blood rival of Andrew Stueber. Their schools are 1/1A in CT football over the past decade or so and have turned out an increasing number of power 5 prospects in the past few years.

Alumnus93

April 17th, 2018 at 3:02 PM ^

As long as they are TACKLES. for I've had enough of this past decade of all interior linemen and no tackles.
Welcome Jack

Jack Be Nimble

April 17th, 2018 at 6:46 PM ^

That's definitely an accurate characterization of the last few years but not really the last decade. Remember 2013? We had all tackles and no interior linemen. One of the best tackle pairs in Michigan history (Lewan and Schofield) on one of the worst Offensive Lines in Michigan history.

ak47

April 17th, 2018 at 3:21 PM ^

Filiaga has been seen as a guard prospect by a lot of people even during his recruitment. His performances at the army game showed he didn't really have the foot speed to handle a speed rush off the edge which was always the concern with him.

I wonder if we will ever get the story on what is going down with the Belleville kids. At first the party line was the staff didn't want them, then they are recruiting them, then they aren't then its grade issues now they are still pushing for Dobbs. Its just all over the place and not ideal for a school that seems to be pumping out a fair amount of talent just down the road from AA to become a pipeline to msu or just out of state.

bronxblue

April 17th, 2018 at 3:34 PM ^

Looks solid.  There is talent in the Northeast if you dig around, and it makes sense to go after these D1-ready bodies whi might be overlooked.  Uber Alles Don Brown.

4th phase

April 18th, 2018 at 1:22 PM ^

Yikes that Ulizio Hello post was grim. Even more depressing that Ulizio was at one point ahead of every tackle left on the roster.

So basically Stewart is already 1300 spots ahead of where Ulizio finished the cycle, and he hasnt been ranked by 2 sites yet. 

Fezzik

April 17th, 2018 at 10:32 PM ^

With Barnhart also being a likely Michigan commit does this mean we are 100% out of it for Brown and Dobbs? Seem like Jones is the only sure OT prospect in the class. I thought one of our problems with the OL over the recent years is we essentially have true guards and centers playing tackle. Hope these guys end up with a lot of versatiity for us.