Hello: Andrew Stueber Comment Count

Brian

darien-112614steuber

[Darien Times]

Michigan's landed a commitment from three-star CT OL Andrew Stueber, who recently received a camp offer and is now a lock to succeed Jake "Ruddock" as the internet's most misspelled Michigan football player. Stueber's rankings are of the middling three star variety, but he's got a relatively impressive suite of offers: PSU, Tennessee, Pitt, UNC, Duke, Harvard, and Yale. An informative update is coming right up.

GURU RATINGS

Scout Rivals ESPN 247 247 Comp
3*, #43 OT 3*, #64 OT NR 3*, 86, #740 overall
#79 OT, #3 CT
3*, #785 overall
#80 OT, #4 CT

Generic three star OT ahoy, except ESPN hasn't even put up a profile for him yet. That's probably for the best, since ESPN is an open-minded service that is willing to look at a guy like Ben Mason with fresh eyes—he's a four star to the WWL—but tends to fire and forget evaluations. 247 shot him up several hundred spots a few weeks ago.

SCOUTING

Stueber is just emerging from sleeper status and there is correspondingly little actual scouting out there. The Penn State 247 site did discuss his recent effort to slim down:

A year ago, Darien (Conn.) offensive tackle Andrew Stueber tipped the scales at nearly 320 pounds on his 6-foot-6-inch frame. The now three-star prospect decided to try to trim down after his senior season… Stueber hit a low point of 283 pounds this spring. Now back closer to 290 entering the summer he is a different prospect.

“I feel good. I feel at The Opening I did well with my agility and my shuttle and that was something I really wanted to work on,” he said. “My strength is improving, I definitely feel better as a player. I can get off the ball faster and I feel like a better player when I’m faster.”

That's the kind of thing that often happens during a prospect's freshman year of college, not high school. If Stueber continues on the path he's on he could arrive in Ann Arbor around 300 pounds and college-ready. He was impressive enough at Michigan's camp to grab an offer:

"The camp was awesome," Stueber said. "Coach Drevno is experienced, and he knows so much about the offensive line positions, and to bring in a bunch of NFL guys that went to Michigan and played for coach (Jim) Harbaugh and coach Drevno, that was awesome. It was such an incredible learning experience. I definitely picked up as much as I could.

"I was really happy with the way I performed. I won a lot of the competitions and everything. Coach Drevno was pleased with what he saw and everything worked out the way it did."

He drew some notice at the Opening's regional camp in his area:

Darien (Conn.) High offensive tackle Andrew Stueber was another potential big-time guy on the offensive line, took some good reps and has all the tools college coaches covet.

This concludes people talking about Andrew Stueber productively. Woo sleeper Connecticut OL.

One thing I did glean: Stueber is definitely a tackle. He's the kind of guy who is listed at 6'6.5" when people want to get specific, not 6'5.5", and once you get into that range you are a candidate for pass-rush-engulfing left tackle stuff.

OFFERS

As above: PSU, Tennessee, Pitt, UNC, Duke, Harvard, and Yale give you the shape of things. Maryland, BC, Rutgers, and other middling Power 5 schools fill out his offer sheet. My impression is that the PSU offer was committable:

The 6-foot-6, 285-pound Stueber was at Penn State twice this spring - once for a Saturday visit in March and then again for the Blue-White Game in April. The Nittany Lions have identified him as a top candidate to fill the remaining tackle slot in their offensive line class and they hope to get him back to campus again this summer.

Not enough data on the others. FWIW, PSU's new OL coach is former Minnesota OL coach Matt Limegrover. This may assuage worries that PSU being involved with an OL is a kiss of death.

HIGH SCHOOL

Rivals borked their database so you can no longer search by high school but I assume Michigan's never gotten a kid out of Darien before. Connecticut Wolverines are rarities indeed, although Stueber is joined by LB Ben Mason in this class. 

STATS

OL don't have stats.

FAKE 40 TIME

Stueber does not have one listed.

VIDEO

Junior year:

One on one reps from the Rivals camp he attended:

The guy with the dreads is Luiji Vilain, BTW.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Despite the low ranking, Stueber checks a lot of boxes: great frame, great academics, the discipline to shed weight and build it back up. The camp reps above show a guy with excellent agility who has work to do anchoring against a rush and preventing opponents from getting into his chest with his hands; I'll take the latter if it's paired with the former, because you can teach the latter.

This isn't a camp commit that gets me tweaked because Michigan has four stars on the hook if they'd just show some patience. There's a good reason Stueber has been overlooked by the sites, he's got a bunch of solid offers, and Michigan just saw him in person twice. Also Stueber also has the greatest twitter feed ever right now: it is one tweet announcing his commit. 99/100 on the Never Tweet scale. Thumbs up.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Stueber's the second offensive lineman in a class that will go to five or even six. He's a true tackle—something Michigan needs badly—and will be joined by up to three more depending on how various 6'5"-ish players get classified.

Comments

evenyoubrutus

June 25th, 2016 at 2:42 PM ^

Harbaugh built Stanford into a national powerhouse mostly with guys rated lower than him, especially on the line. It's okay to have a few sleeper types thrown into the mix in what will surely be a top 5 class.

Mongo

June 26th, 2016 at 9:23 PM ^

Andrew is 6-7 300lbs as a junior in high school. Big Dutch dudes mature later than most kids - he could be 6-8 and 330 of pure muscle in UM's development program. NFL big, this man will become. Like Lewan.

BTW Newsome is legit and the starter until the Dutch dude learns the system and gets gigantic, not saying he will take Grants's spot. I just like the pipeline of big dudes at left tackle ... trust Drevino and JH.

Wolfman

June 26th, 2016 at 12:44 AM ^

When I first fell in love with this thing called college football, there were two schools whose traditions were a combination of academics and football excellence and their traditions and histories would not have, could not have been the same if either one were taken out of the equation. They were, of course, ND and UM. If they had a player of questionable talent in a starting role, one could safely assume theit total understanding of the game, an understanding of their individual duties on any given play was one thing the staff did not have to worry about, so knowing a Mallory, for example, a young man that might have been among the upper crust of today's three star rankings, was able to play himself into an All Big X player is an excellent example of the importance both staffs placed on the intelligence of their football players.

New to the party, in this context, but a school whose admissions standards are even higher than the above two is the Cardinal. Because Jim was one of us, it was only natural, and I am assuming the same was true for many of you, we would check in to those late night games on the other coast to see just what the hell he was doing to turn around a program that  had been unable to remove itself from a mire of such strength not many schools find themselves close to, let alone immobilized by.

The ability of the skill players was obvious and one had to tip their hat to this coach whose previous head coaching  experience was coaching what was "supposedly" the second best college team in the city of San Diego, for his mere ability to draw them to Stanford. As obvious as to the ability of the skill players it soon became evident his OL was an excellent matchup for any school in that conference in terms of both size and ability to both pave the way for their RBs and to supply sufficient time for their QB to survey the field and then throw to option no. 1 and progressively read through to no. 2, 3, etc. Quite impressive when one checked the offer list for these OLmen and not surprisingly found it consistent with their h.s. rankings. Jimmy, it seemed had been able to convince some of the best teachers of the game to toss their hat in with him because they all shared a common bond toward football. Love of the game was obvious; they were all former players, but very rare was the fact that he was able to group such a fine collection of teachers whose love for teaching the game was only surpassed by their love for playing. When it was obvious they couldn't play at the top level any longer, it didn't take them long at all to decide they'd take advantage of what came in second.

As obvious as it was none of the individual groups on the Cardinal team were struggling to play at a level equal to the best of that conference, the jump to superior coaching manifested through superior execution of more complex "unit dependent" assignments where the execution of each assignment was a continuation of that which preceeded it, the fact he was not using a secret formula, instead using the one advantage he had, and  perhaps only capable of being carried out by his team, he simply gave them more complex roles, roles which they understood and bought into and are still being carried out today because they do demonstrate an "elite" status, not necessarily of upper echelon football skills but definitely one of overall team intellect.

Naturally, where you once looked and saw three stars throughout, with spot appearances of 4, occassional 5 star players either running the ball or throwing it, it's not unusual to have to scroll down to the 8th player on the incoming group to find your first 3 star. And as one poster here stated, "Jim Harbaugh loves smart football players," truth it they all do, but once where ND and UM were able to fill their roster with these types, although having a hell of a lot more 4 and 5 stars to carry out these assignments, welcome Stanford to that same level of uniqueness. Hell, as evidenced by the decision of DeVery Hamilton and not even making a move in the direction of Dylan McCaffrey, being a member of this type of football appeals to a hell of a lot more players than one would assume.

As evidenced by the words of Nico Collins from Bama, followed up by top 100 DT from GA, Aubrey Solomon, along with fellow 4* and h.s teammate Otis Reese, A change is gonna come and that change, like most things lead by Harbaugh, is being  realized at a pace a  hell of a lot faster than many thought possible. So Coach Harbaugh, kudos to yet one more example of probably possessing a greater understanding that no team has to merely accept "we don't have a chance" due to simply "being unable to matchup" given the obvious talent disparity. Each time you've done this, you've given hope to many other teams and have reinforced that desire, combined with perfecting what you do best can overcome any obstacle. You've made a lot of teams better, but none moreso than ours.' We are blessed to have you. 

maize-blue

June 25th, 2016 at 2:42 PM ^

6'6", 300+ lbs., plays with a nasty side, likes to put people on their backsides. Totally looks like a Harbaugh player. 

getsome

June 25th, 2016 at 6:59 PM ^

no guarantees but book smarts translate to the field more often than not, at least in my experience.

agile feet, strength, quickness, balance and flexibility comprise most of the physical traits OL coaches look for but mental agility is right up there.

OL must make split second decisions and adjustments with the body following suit and thats much easier to accomplish with good athletes that process quickly and on the fly.

harbaugh obviously targets great athletes but he also wants smart, tough dudes that love the game and have the desire and the ability to improve each day - and this kid appears to fit the bill.

i havent fully understood accepting early commits from a few guys under harbaugh but this cat isnt one of them.  and while i question some areas of his game / ability and he obviously has a ways to go (like most prospects), this kid is a nice pickup with solid potential.  good for him

Farnn

June 25th, 2016 at 2:49 PM ^

Best performer at recent big man camp, which earned him the offer. Not a generic 3 star to the coaches. With Slaton, Herbert, Wilson, Ruiz, and others still high on Michigan, they wouldn't take him if he wasn't high on their board.

gwkrlghl

June 25th, 2016 at 2:56 PM ^

And anyone hand-wringing because he's just a 3* can please go compare how Harbaugh's 3 stars at Stanford panned out compared to our 4 stars under Richrod and Hoke. Recruiting rankings are not gospel and the head coach matters a lot

Space Coyote

June 25th, 2016 at 3:15 PM ^

Not sure he will stick at OT. Currently plays too high at times and kind of falls over defenders, though going against guys much shorter than him it's to be expected a bit. The most impressive part of his game is his first step burst and his ability to move in space. I want that guy pulling or down blocking into the 2nd level. Not a wow pick up, but as a sort of swing OL that I think has some real promise as an interior player, I actually really like this pick up.


Now he isn't a perfect player. His pass pro technique is pretty poor. As I said above, he bends at his waist too much and I haven't really seen him able to sink his hips on the move. He isn't playing great competition and gets away with some hand placement that he wouldn't even against better HS players. I have some concerns about his feet to work in space. But he gets off the LOS really well and he finishes plays. Technique issues can be worked out and a lot of limitations, if they still exist, can be mitigated by moving inside. He may take a few years to get there, but I think he has some very good tools. Those worried about stars, I'd have guys rated in our class - even perhaps some higher rates ones - below him if I was rating players.

Space Coyote

June 25th, 2016 at 3:56 PM ^

He could play either. He can likely get by at OT, he's long enough and moves decently (losing bad weight may help him move better), he just looks like he'd be more natural inside. Michigan is still in on other OT prospects as well, but him ending up there wouldn't be an awful situation, he's similar to a lot of college OTs like Uluzio.