Previously: Last year's profiles. S Quinten Johnson, S Daxton Hill, CB DJ Turner II, CB Jalen Perry, LB Joey Velazquez.

Miami, FL– 6'0", 200(?)
		24/7	3*, #445 overall #30 OLB, #42 FL
		Rivals	3*, 5.7 rating #25 ILB, #62 FL
		ESPN	4*, #81 overall #7 OLB, #11 FL
		Composite	4*, #223 overall #14 OLB, #23 FL
		Other Suitors	Miami, PSU, SoCar, UF, Texas, VT, Clemson, OU
		YMRMFSPA	Stevie Brown
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello post from your author. Future Blue Derivatives from Adam.
Notes	Twitter. STA (Jake Rudock, John O'Korn).
Film
Senior:

Anthony Solomon is a member of one of the most incredible recruiting classes in the subscription-site era. Not Michigan's—the Wolverines finished first in the Big Ten but only 8th nationally. Miami's class… of decommits. The Hurricanes churned through so many commits that the 17 guys who ended up leaving their class would have been a top 20 class themselves. Velveeta is impressed at the amount of processing going on.

Solomon's recruitment was part and parcel of this strangeness. He was considered a heavy Michigan lean after a five-day(!) unofficial visit, and then fell off the radar. He committed to the Hurricanes. Months passed. And then it was suddenly a fait accompli that he was going to flip to Michigan. If Solomon can ghost past OL as well as he ghosted in and out of Michigan's recruiting class he'll be a star.

Michigan's pursuit of Solomon was relentless even as other schools and the recruiting sites lost some interest. Solomon went from a consensus four star to a three star on the two sites that bother to do much updating. In this case the drop is pretty easy to explain. Solomon was a massively touted prospect as a 188-pound high school freshman. At the time he claimed his offers as such:

Who's Interested: Many of the top programs in the country have already offered Solomon. Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, LSU, South Carolina and others want Solomon to play at their school.

Solomon was listed at 190 when Michigan flipped him three years later. While he's listed at 200 on the official roster that may be aspirational. When Sam Webb caught Solomon at UA game practices he was skeptical of that number, saying Solomon "may tip the scales at 200-lbs. currently". Over the last three years Solomon has added somewhere between 2 and 12 pounds. This is our concern, dude.

[After THE JUMP: Don Brown does not share this concern.]

Or rather, their concern. Where other schools envisioned Solomon as an inside linebacker getting paved by OTs, the longer Solomon remained light the more neatly he fit into Don Brown's viper spot. Because the one thing everyone says Solomon can do is cover:

• David Lake, 247: " is very smooth when dropping back into pass coverage. Changes direction and runs like a safety in the short area."
• Gary Ferman, Rivals: "shines in coverage … going to have to put on a lot of weight … hyper athletic linebacker who's incredibly skilled in coverage … enormous ceiling"
• Corey Long, Orlando Sentinel: "…athletic, active linebacker who goes sideline-to-sideline as well as any player in this class. He is fast enough to match up with receivers in space and will develop the strength to bring a physical presence in the run game."
• Rob Cassidy, Rivals: "moves really, really well and he’s really great in coverage … slight linebacker and does need to add weight … hyper-athletic kid … one of the more active players on a really good defense"
• ESPN: "Quick, active linebacker with good pursuit speed. … sideline-to-sideline and can matchup in space. ...Lacks ideal size and speed  …can cover the field and tackle in space."
• Steve Wiltfong, 24/7: "dominant reps overpowering and rerouting running backs and getting his hands on a lot of footballs. Also tested well."
• Sam Webb, 24/7: "…a step faster than when we first saw him in action … impressive hip fluidity  …asset in coverage."

Other aspects of Solomon's game are less heavily promoted. It does sound like he's got the mentality to be a box defender, if not the size just yet:

…accelerates quickly to the ball … [strikes] ball carrier while running full speed.  …can change direction and flip his hips… not afraid to seek out contact … fast and he's aggressive.

Allen Trieu:

Lean and light … Explosive kid who has good burst. … makes open-field solo tackles on skill guys. … Sure tackler …always looks like he is moving full speed. … prototypical WILL backer for most systems.

Touch the Banner:

…body of a safety….has not grown much …plays low, shows good change-of-direction skills, and attacks downhill. …takes good angles, can cover backs out of the backfield, and shows good ball awareness. …excellent blitzer, but I think he could improve his play recognition skills, as well.

Adam:

…[can] carry a tight end down the field or come screaming off the edge on a blitz … the speed to hit the mesh point (or the quarterback) in the backfield … though he was prone to taking a false step or two he’s quick enough and changes directions fast enough to recover. … fundamentally sound two-arm tackler. … should be a plus in coverage and be able to hold his own in the run game mentally and physically. Solomon has the speed to be a viable piece of the blitz game, but he’ll need to work on taking the right angle to the backfield and bending the corner.

Chris Hinton took a rankings dip when he was evaluated as a DE and then shot back up when he proved he could be a DT at the All Star game, and Solomon is in a similar situation except for the late surge. This is in part because the sites don't seem to have a real handle on spacebackers.

This was most evident on Rivals. He took a dip there late. He went from a four star outside their top 250 to a three star, dropping 23 spots in their state of Florida rankings. They also moved his positional designation from OLB to ILB, which makes no sense.

Interestingly, the ESPN ranking was not a fire-and-forget based on his early hype and nothing else. Last April he was 115th there. At some point over the course of his senior year ESPN bumped him up 34 spots. ESPN doubled down on their Solomon eval as the other sites tossed him down the well. Naturally, they didn't explain themselves at all.

Another factor in Solomon's fall is an ugly testing number. Solomon's listed 40 time is a 4.8. That almost has to be a one-off run that doesn't reflect Solomon's true speed, because 190 pound linebackers who run a 4.8 aren't Power 5 prospects. Also, all of the above scouting. And other scouting.

“He’s undersized for a linebacker, but he’s very, very fast," Lorenz said. "They’re trying to get guys that are fast as hell at every position. Solomon fits in that area. He can play sideline to sideline. He would just need some time in the weight room.”

Also, Solomon is one of the most prominent players at St Thomas Aquinas, a Florida powerhouse that plays at the top level there. There's no chance Solomon's lack of speed was concealed by a poor level of competition. Heck, when he got into the UA game the two plays on which he was tested were these:

…showed his ability to go sideline to sideline as he made a tackle on a running back and also covered a receiver before absolutely laying him out near the boundaries. …two of the flashier plays of the night

I'd bet the 4.8 is just a weird blip.

Etc.: 71 tackles, 8 TFLs, and 4 sacks isn't a whiz-bang statline but sounds like he was in a situation where there weren't a whole lot of snaps to go around. STA's D gave up 9.2 PPG last season and had 7 shutouts in 15 games.

Why Stevie Brown? Despite being a high school linebacker Solomon is more on the safety end of the viper continuum, and the best recent example of that was Stevie Brown. Brown came to Michigan as a highly touted safety and disappointed until a senior season spent as a RichRod "spur" linebacker, which is a close analogue to the viper. Brown led the team and tackles, got drafted late, and kicked around the league for several years. His final listed weight on MGoBlue: 211 pounds. Brown moved back to safety in the NFL and had a run as a starter there.

Solomon is not as highly ranked and doesn't have the combine stuff but is immediately headed for his best fit on the defense and seems to have all the relevant coverage chops for viper.

Guru Reliability: Moderate. Extensively scouted guy with consistent takes, but the sites tend to lag their evaluations when it comes to viper/hybrid types and have missed on LB sorts whose claim to fame is the ability to take on spread offenses. ESPN might be ahead of the curve here—their ranking is a double-down, not a fire-and-forget.

Variance: High. The weight is a thing. Some guys just can't get big enough to play—Myles Sims is a recent example—and Solomon's weight barely budging over three years as a high level prospect gives some pause. Note that Solomon is probably a couple inches taller than Hudson and if he tries to play at the same weight he'll have a tougher time holding up because of the all-important Leverage.

Ceiling:  High. "Hudson but can cover anything" is nice.

General Excitement Level: Moderate. Boom or bust guy.

Projection: One of the more certain redshirts in the class as Michigan tries to beefcake him up to what he's listed at. Will then be in a multi-way free-for-all with Joey Velazquez, Michael Barrett, and maybe one or two position switches. ( dollar says one or both of J'Marick Woods and or Brad Hawkins is moved to viper shortly.) Handicapping that particular position battle is impossible.

Solomon doesn't have great secondary options if he's beat out at viper. He's unlikely to pick up the weight to play ILB or do anything on offense, which he apparently hasn't played. Moving any variety of LB back to safety gives me the heebie-jeebies.