Hello: Kiante Enis Comment Count

Ace



[Photo via The Star Press]

It didn't take long for Michigan's satellite camp tour to pay dividends. This afternoon, three-star Winchester (IN) Community ATH Kiante Enis committed to the Wolverines after participating in the Indianapolis camp, as first reported by 247's Steve Wiltfong. Enis becomes the eighth commit in the 2016 class and Michigan's third at running back, joining Kingston Davis and Matt Falcon.

We'll see if Enis actually ends up there; 247's Steve Lorenz tells me Michigan is taking Enis as a pure athlete, and he could end up at running back, slot receiver, or even safety at Michigan; for now, they're taking the athlete they want and seeing how it'll play out.

GURU RATINGS

Scout Rivals ESPN 247 247 Comp
3*, #26 ATH 3*, #54 ATH NR ATH 3*, 87, #36 RB,

#553 Ovr
3*, #53 RB,

#712 Ovr

Despite posting some eye-popping statistics last year (more on that later), Enis currently is stuck in the middling three-star range. Much of that may be due to his high school and the quality of competition; he's the first Division I prospect to come out of Winchester Community in the Rivals era. As Enis hits the camp circuit, not to mention adds the exposure of being a Michigan commit, we'll see if his rankings begin to rise.

The four sites are in general agreement about his size, pegging him at 6'1" or 6'2" and 190-200 pounds; a solid frame for a player with his elite speed.

SCOUTING

There's very little scouting out there on Enis. What we have are tantalizing track numbers and absurd high school statistics. On the latter: Enis rushed for 3,189 yards and 49 touchdowns on 299 carries (10.7 YPC) as a junior; his yardage and touchdowns were both among the top figures nationally. On the former: he is faaaaaaaaaast:

Enis is also a mid-major basketball recruit. That athleticism on the hardwood still didn’t do a whole to attract more recruiters on the gridiron.

But now, college coaches can’t ignore the electronically timed 10.53 second 100-meter dash Enis posted at the recent Randolph County track meet, which according to his football coach Mike Jones, is currently the top time in the state of Indiana.

Verified athleticism.

Legitimate size.

Enis added his Michigan offer shortly after that blazing run. Later in that article, Enis claims a 4.35 40-yard dash time; that figure would get a lot of FAKEs in normal situations, but not after seeing his elite sprinting times.

Enis is the nephew of former Penn State and NFL running back Curtis Enis. His high school coach sees him as much more than just a speedster, per 247's Steve Wiltfong:

“He’s tough,” Jones said. “All the stuff we do, everybody talks about the speed, and obviously speed is the unteachable factor, but he’s so good in between the tackles right now. We had a drive last week, it was a third-quarter drive that put the nail in the coffin. We ran trap, ice, read, just over and over and over, all inside stuff. He carried it 28 times and wanted it more.

Enis is “by far, by far,” the best player to ever suit up in Winchester. He owns the school’s career rushing record, career touchdown record and he’s one interception away from that record as well.

“He’s explosive, dominant, the speed helps so much,” Jones said. “The thing I like about him, he’s so tough with the ball. He never gets tackled by one guy. The film shows it over and over. He doesn’t go down.”

That's about it as far as scouting reports go; ESPN hasn't ranked him or posted an evaluation, Rivals has just two articles about him (both focused on recruiting), and Scout doesn't have much more than that.

What's clear from the film and the numbers is that Enis is an explosive, versatile athlete; it's not a surprise that Michigan is willing to take an athlete of his caliber now and figure out the positional details later.

OFFERS

Enis holds offers from Ball State, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Indiana, Iowa, Miami (NTM), Michigan State, Ohio, and Western Michigan. His bigger offers have come this spring, including MSU extending one within a week of Michigan doing so last month. Enis backing up the speed apparent on his film with top-notch times on the track has clearly helped his recruitment.

HIGH SCHOOL

Winchester Community is a small school (enrollment: 459, per IHSAA) that participates in Indiana's second-smallest classification (2A) for football. Enis is the first major prospect to come from the school; in fact, he's the only recruit from WC to hold a Division I offer in the Rivals database, which extends back to 2002.

If you're wondering why major offers have been slow to come in, that helps clear up the picture.

STATS

In addition to the rushing stats mentioned above, Enis recorded four interceptions during his junior season, and he also had four receptions for 104 yards and a score, per MaxPreps. More complete stats, as well as sophomore stats, are available at that link.

FAKE 40 TIME

Enis' self-reported 4.35 gets one FAKE out of five because of his track exploits. Speed is not an issue, to say the least.

VIDEO

Junior highlights:

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

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

I... have no idea. Enis has the size and athleticism to play running back, receiver, or defensive back; safety seems to be a legitimate possibility given the number of guys already committed as running backs, though Enis also mentioned a desire to have the ball in his hands during his recruitment, and after watching the film it's hard to blame him. Wherever he ends up, he's a good bet to compete for a spot as a return man, and his speed will make him a player to watch on either side of the ball.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Michigan is up to eight commits in the class, and they look poised to hit nine when fellow Indiana athlete Chris Evans announces his decision on Saturday. Unless something changed in the last week, Michigan will happily take both Enis and Evans, who has similar positional flexibility.

It's still far too early to take a stab at the final numbers for this class; it's clear the coaches are eyeing a class in the neighborhood of 20-25 prospects, which would require a decent but not unreasonable amount of attrition before Signing Day. Wide receiver, tight end, offensive line, defensive tackle, defensive end, outside linebacker, and—depending on where Enis and maybe Evans end up—defensive back remain areas of need.

Comments

JeepinBen

June 4th, 2015 at 3:17 PM ^

Harbaugh has talked about building an "army" of "big, fast guys." I think that RBs in high school can be a lot like Short Stops - it's often the best athlete on the team. Figuring out where great athletes will be for their college careers seems secondary. Harbaugh has had LBs play FB, etc. He seems to really like versatility, the idea being they'll "find a spot" for the really athletic guys.

Rabbit21

June 4th, 2015 at 4:08 PM ^

There are two things I like about this approach:

1.  it indicates to kids that the coaches want them to succeed and are willing to help them develop their talents no matter where they ultimately lay.

2.  Eventually it's a great way to build up dpth in the program, to take versatile guys and plug them in where they're needed and have guys flexible enough to ask them to fill in elsewhere.

The one thing I worry about a little is that this is an approach that would seem to rely on depth already being built up to afford that flexibility and I don't know that the program is there.

Regardless it's good to get talented players on board and it's really fun to see the camp circuit already paying off.

lebriarj

June 4th, 2015 at 2:01 PM ^

We will see time will tell. The most important thing is this staff has to development these kids its doesn't matter if there 3,4 or 5 stars. This is something in my opinion Hoke and Rich Rod didn't do.

ThoseWhoStayUofM

June 5th, 2015 at 3:56 AM ^

I think quite a few players would find contention in saying players on the defensive side of the ball weren't developed under Hoke.

David Molk, Taylor Lewan, Denard Robinson, and Junior Hemingway might have something to say about the alleged lack of player development under Rich Rod.

These coaches were one dimensional with exceptionally inept position coaches on their respective sides of the ball that were their weaknesses. Be objective about what actually happened.

Losher

June 4th, 2015 at 5:43 PM ^

There was info in another thread today that said he wasnt going to make the decision as planned and that the coaches told him when they offered that his offer wasn't contingent on other guys at the position.

So I think that there is a chance that he will pick the wolverines when his time does come to pick a shcool. 

Blue Know It

June 4th, 2015 at 2:11 PM ^

Anyone else see what Ty Isaac tweeted? 

something like "this is actually crazy smh"

 

i heard he is at home and his return is questionable for whatever reason. But i'm not too sure on the specifics other than rumors. Can anyone else elaborate on that?

theguy49503

June 4th, 2015 at 2:12 PM ^

Also this kid is coming to a coaching staff that can develop talent. I seem him as a fs or a slot wr and legit 4.35 speed to boot! Can we say game changer

FreddieMercuryHayes

June 4th, 2015 at 2:17 PM ^

If he's really a good 6'1", I wouldn't doubt he gets a look at DB as well, especially considering the log jam at RB coming in.  However, it would be really nice to have that kind of speed in the backfield which the RBs we currently have don't seem to possess as much of.

TyTrain32

June 4th, 2015 at 2:43 PM ^

his foot speed and acceleration are not what I was expecting for someone with his reported speed, looked slower than expected. Heck just based on film I played with 3 guys faster than him in HS, granted two went on to play in the NFL, but...

In reply to by TyTrain32

jmdblue

June 4th, 2015 at 3:17 PM ^

An electronically timed 10.5 in the 100 puts him in the territory of fastest kid ever in the State of Michigan (if he were from Michigan.  Add in the frame and he's in Wheatley territory from a size/speed persective.  Not saying he's Wheatley, but I'll take the electronic timing over your observation of a short bit of film.