Dundidda dundun.

Dundidda dundun.

Dundidda dundun. Daddiddadun-didda dundun. Daddiddadun-didda dun—

Daddidda DUN-DINNA DAH!

So in case the Kryptonian name wasn't a dead giveaway, Michigan is now possessed of an alien ILB granted incredible powers by Earth's yellow sun, at least when you hear Don Brown tell it. Dr. Blitz has had a keen interest in Kal-El since his spaceship escaped his doomed home planet and crash-landed in a seldom-used field (presumably the Boston College endzone) near Milton Academy back in the early 2017s.

BC extended an offer three days later. Since then, Mullings has popped up in Ann Arbor seven times by my count. 

GURU RANKINGS

Rivals	ESPN	24/7	Composite
4*, 5.9, #11 OLB, #2 MA, #106 Ovr	4*, 82, #14 OLB, #32 East, #1 Mass. #202 Ovr	4*, 91, #15 OLB, #1 MA, #186 Ovr	4*, .9388, #9 OLB, #1 MA, #148 Ovr
Seth Rtg: 4.44☆s	4.18☆s	4.17☆s	4.39☆s

More James Ross (or AJ Dillon) than Devin Bush, Mullings played mostly running back in Massachusetts, so you'd think the scouts wouldn't know if they've got a bird or a plane or what. The scores are quite tight, however, bumping Mullings's composite ranking into the top ten at the position for lack of major outliers. The marginal dissenter, Rivals, has him close to a top-100 player. Again, it's a bit of a bummer that 24/7 is a relative downer (albeit one that agrees with ESPN) over a guy in New England.

One thing I do believe is Mullings is here for a reason, and it's not to score touchdowns. It's to stop them. While there's a D-I running back there, there's NFL potential at linebacker, and the sites are willing to gamble on a guy who's game.

They all have him 6'1"/220 but Mullings was a verified 6'1"/227 at The Opening regional in early May and his coach says he was playing around 230 before losing some pounds to get back to that 225 range.

I believe the rankings here are mostly following the offers, which are indeed considerable, and the fact that this is an underager who's been playing varsity since he was a 13-year-old freshman. The other reason I think his rankings are high is he's the opposite of an academic risk. He has already traveled further than most readers of this site, target of Northwestern/Stanford, goes to a school you have to test into, etc.

[After THE JUMP: The scouting that almost makes it worth it to suggest all our prospects give Notre Dame a try.]

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SCOUTING

Mullings played running back, safety, hybrid slot defender, and both inside linebacker positions over his three and counting years on varsity. He also returns punts. Much of his sophomore year was lost after he dislocated his shoulder, and much of his junior season on offense was lost to a hand injury that saw him in a club the latter half of the year.

It's Mass so let's go to Adam Kurkijian, the Guy Who Scouts Massachusetts to get some clarity on Mullings's position. This was in response to "Do you have a preference [between running back or linebacker":

Honestly, as soon as I get to college, I just want to play as fast as possible. I feel like I can see myself playing both, but I feel like I might have a higher ceiling for linebacker. That's what I've been told. But I enjoy running back. I love running back, as well. I just love playing football. I love getting the ball in my hands, too. But I love playing both, so it's hard.

Unfortunately Kurkijian has put all of his scouting behind a paywall and even this Don Brown-obsessed site isn't going to shell out $60/year for UMass pressers.

Rivals is the only service that provides an explanation for its ranking. Sorta. The biggest chunk of it's from a BlueAndGold interview with Milton Academy head coach Kevin MacDonald last fall($) in which MacDonald describes a guy who gets into the backfield faster than a speeding bullet:

“The thing he does very well is he runs to the ball.,” … “He’s a very aggressive kid. A lot of times when he makes a tackle it’s for no gain or a loss. He’s got a good nose for the ball. He’s a big and strong kid who runs well.” …

“He has very fluid hips,” MacDonald began. “That’s something you can’t really teach. He’s good with angles too. He always takes the right angle and gets there in a hurry.”…

“At one point, he was up to 235 pounds, but he’s probably below 230 pounds now,” MacDonald said. “The one thing he has always been able to do is run. There’s probably not many guys in the country like that can run down and track running backs like he can. As a sophomore he was probably 210 or 215.

“The other thing about him is he’s a full year younger than everyone in his class. He started for us every game as a freshman. We’re in a very good league and did that and was 13 years old most of the season.”

BGI also scouted him as a running back, where Mullings was routinely leaping tall buildings in a single bound:

…size/frame grade is elite, and he has elite power potential, although continuing to refine his body and frame is a must.

What stands out about Mullings game is how nimble he is as a runner despite being a big back. He moves really well for a 6-2, 220-pound running back. There are a number of jump cuts he makes that look like something you’d see from a smaller back. He shows the ability to make back-to-back cuts and then get vertical. Mullings can bounce runs to the outside and can take back cuts all the way out to the perimeter.

Podcast listeners may recall Lorenz once saying he's got as much respect for the Irish as Michigan when it comes to scouting, so it's notable, via Kevin Sinclair of (24/7) IrishIllustrated, that Notre Dame was among those recruiting Mullings as a running back:

“Clark Lea has been great but for Notre Dame, the coaching staff has decided to pursue me more as a running back now,” Mullings said. “I’m more in contact with coach (Jeff) Quinn and coach (Chip) Long and coaches like that because they see my future at Notre Dame as a running back and made a comparison to me to Josh Adams which I’m enthusiastic about.

“(My position fit) doesn’t really matter to me personally. Whatever I can do to get on the field as early as possible, I’ll do. Coach Lea has been great to me, but moving more to the offensive side of the ball, that’s more of what I’ve been doing with Notre Dame.”

Or not? Via Tom Loy of the same site, ND pulled the plug because Mullings thought he was an RB.

I went ahead and removed Milton (Mass.) Academy four-star running back Kalel Mullings from the Top Targets board, as the Fighting Irish are no longer recruiting him. Stanford and Michigan look to be the big players in this race. There was a great deal of mutual interest here, but the staff liked him a little more on defense. He prefers offense and will be a good running back somewhere at the next level.

Guessing that was Loy trying to soften the blow of a Stanford commit, and Sinclair was correct. That would also track with the Wisconsin/Stanford offers at running back, since those schools like their ballcarriers more powerful than a locomotive. It also tracks with the video, which shows a guy who plays running back kind of like a linebacker.

That's about it—I think the sites are basing his ranking on the heavy pursuit by coaches and the fact that Mullings was playing as a freshman even though he's a year younger than he should be. Mullings apparently didn't participate in the The Opening D.C. last May, since he got a verified height and weight but nothing else. That might have been because Milton Academy's longtime OL/DL coach suddenly passed away that day.

We will get to see the Last Son of Krypton against Earth's better high schoolers eventually: he has invites to the Army Game and he's the first player out of Massachusetts ever invited to the Polynesian Bowl so we'll get to see what what Brown sees next January.

OFFERS

Even in remote Massachusetts Brown couldn't keep Kal-El's identity secret for long, and every school with a degree worth getting plus Michigan State got involved. Texas tried to get in late. Until very recently Stanford had pulled ahead in the crystal balls for the high-academic prospect. Notre Dame got him on campus, which is why we have any scouting at all from the major sites. Northwestern (remember they only try when they think it's worthwhile) also got a visit, as did Wisconsin and Stanford, who also wanted him at running back. Duke, Clemson, Penn State, Ohio State, Boston College, Lex Luthor, and many others wanted his services.

HIGH SCHOOL

Milton Academy is one of the stronger programs in Boston, and the winningest program in the ISL, the best league in the state, though last year was a down year for Milton. MacDonald has been coaching there since 1996, after 14 years as the head coach of a Catholic school one town over. That said, it's Massachusetts. This is a Milton home game:

If you pan left you'll see a small bleacher with two people. Other films show a soccer game going on in an adjacent field that's garnering as much noise as the football game, and a giant indoor facility bubble covering the length of the visitors sideline. Attendance is on par with photos of college football in the 1890s. Competition level is going to be a surprise.

Mullings is by far the highest-rated recruit in the school's history, and in fact the highest-rated prospect from Massachusetts in the 247 composite since OSU's Armani Reeves in 2012. Going back to Milton, Notre Dame kicker Justin Yoon was the nation's #1 K prospect in 2015. Two-star OL Zach Vaughan is a current Wake Forest commit. QB Jake Willcox, a transfer who used to be on Sainristil's team, isn't on all the sites but Harvard is looking at him.

STATS

I can't find any.

FAKE 40 TIME

Again, 404 not found. Since a speeding bullet goes about 2,500 feet per second we can estimate that Mullings's 40-yard dash would be a 0.048. This gets FIVE FAKES out of five because we've been way too lenient on the "laser-timed" 40s being reported here all week. FWIW ESPN gives a vertical of 30.8 and a Power Throw of 35—both are average.

VIDEO

Much of the film on him is on offense, and features a ton of lol rushes in which Mullings is reversing field multiple times while Earthlings fall over. The takeaway from all that is he plays running back like a linebacker, and Massachusettsmen shouldn't be asked to stop Kryptonian teenagers.

On defense they were often using him as a slot defender (because he's as fast as most Massachusetts slots, present Michigan company not included) until the middle of last year, when Mullings had a club on his hand. But he did publish a pretty extensive highlight reel from a game at middle linebacker vs Roxbury:

Watch him blitz for a safety at 1:19 if nothing else. Another video from later in the season showed off Kal-El's ability to diagnose and pick through traffic, though again I warn you not to take the offensive linemen he stiff-arms to the ground for Big Ten OL:

ETC.

Plays basketball, runs track. Injured for most of his sophomore year with a dislocated shoulder, and played most of last season with a club. Super secret identity is "Kalel Mullings" a mild-mannered recruiting reporter:

“I can call coach Brown and tell him about a player, and he gets on them right away,” Mullings said. “Other coaches won't even look at them until they have blown up. Coach Brown and Michigan had three satellite camps in New England last year.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

This is the Linebacker Man of Tomorrow that Don Brown covets: speed to keep up with modern running backs in coverage or run down quarterbacks who escape the pocket, quick to convert diagnosis to reaction, and with a running back's change of direction and burst to play back on RPOs enough to deter a throw then attack the run after the mesh. Michigan once wanted A.J. Dillon to be that guy.

Mullings's best attributes are an advanced understanding of the game, and that running back's acceleration he can use to dive into a gap as soon as it appears (after bouncing up and down a bunch). Jordan Anthony is another comp but not far enough in his career for that to mean anything. Going back a ways, Ian Gold's game was very similar. I wouldn't say Josh Ross because it's not big hits so much at this point, but that agility, quick diagnosis, and great coverage, with the occasional effective blitz are all there. The Man of Steel stuff could come.

It's helpful that we've seen a couple of slots tear up similar competition recently, because it helps to place Mullings's speed. It's not Devin Bush-level, but it's very very good. When he breaks loose on a punt return, there are two or three yards and holding between him and the doomed chasing defender, not a hopelessly widening gap. It's notable that his coaches were playing him as a hybrid slot defender until mid-last season—I wouldn't want to see that against Parris Campbell et al. but the speed and athleticism to cover all but super-elite running backs is there.

It's also important to remember he's maybe not done growing—Mullings is a good year younger than the bulk of his classmates, and you can see it in his Caris Levertian arms. It's also an indication that Michigan's found a true linebacking savant: some of the reads he makes are impressive for an 18-year-old's senior tape, but that's a 15-year-old you're watching.

Michigan will put him in the mixer with the rest of what should be a sizeable linebacker haul and see who can play in a few years. Given Brown's level of pursuit, I think Mulling is now the favorite among his classmates to win a spot on the two-deep next year when Gil graduates and Michigan needs at least one of McGrone/Anthony/Charles Thomas to start next to Ross, if the NFL doesn't claim him early. Since Michigan only got two real middle prospects in the next two classes it's clear whoever emerges first from the 2020 linebacker class will have a ton of opportunity to see the field.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Osman Savage, Nikhai Hill-Green, and Cornell Wheeler are the other three interior LB prospects currently in the class, although who knows if they'll all stick around through next winter. Michigan's also still pursuing Maryland target Mitchell Melton, a long and lean WLB prospect the staff had listed just behind Mullings. It's important to get the next wave now.

The fallout from VISITAGEDDON shot Michigan's class up to #1 in the Big Ten and #5 in the country on the composite going into the dead period. Since that's mostly by volume of 3.75-stars, Michigan is bound to fall back a ways as the other elite programs fill in.

Michigan's not done, either, though the sledding gets harder now that most of their long-term projects are in the fold save for Kris Jenkins (another SDE type) and NJ ATH RJ Moten. Defensive tackle is a priority, and weirdly there don't seem to be any good candidates, unless Nua is working quietly. They also still need some outside receiver types, given the 2017 windfall could get decimated next spring by the NFL and Oliver Martin skedaddled. There, at least, they have a Gattis card and are in play for some elite prospects. Another cornerback or two, a safety or two (depending on Moten), and some WDE/Edge types would be nice, and Michigan still plans to bring in one or more true running backs since the depth chart is empty. We'll have to see how the season goes before we know if they can go whale hunting in winter.

Anyway I think we're done with Commitapalooza 2019. Here's the class now: