Previously: Last year's profiles. S Makari Paige, S RJ Moten, S Jordan Morant, VP William "Apache" Mohan.

Andre Seldon in a nutshell:

5-8 #Michigan signee Andre Seldon wins this battle with 6-7 5-star TE Darnell Washington, likely a future #Dawg. pic.twitter.com/6maukTpToP

— Keith Niebuhr (@Keith247Sports) December 31, 2019

That's a guy who doesn't even get the 5'9" courtesy listing against a TE nearly a foot taller than him. It looks like they gave a middle schooler a run for laughs. It looks like Alex Honnold versus El Capitan. And yet the ball hits the turf.

[After THE JUMP: in which your author remembers how impossible "will likely" is to google]

You can extrapolate the rest of it from there. Seldon is really really good at all the cornerback stuff except being tall. Touch The Banner:

"He’s small, quick, and fast. He has excellent hips to stay with receivers, and he shows a great understanding of how to play defensive back. He gets good position on receivers, tracks the ball well in the air, and shows some nice ball skills. He’s not afraid to hit people, and he does a nice job of using his hands to shed blockers." Also: "ready to compete against anyone who wants to challenge him. … extremely smooth in his transitions and shows very good ball skills."

Allen Trieu:

…exceptional positional skills, instincts, competitive qualities and an all around feel and savvy for the game … big vertical and good make-up speed. … If height was a concern, then his battles with Julian Fleming and mountainous tight end Darnell Washington quelled those concerns. Seldon was arguably the best defensive back [at the UA game] … room for smaller cornerbacks if they have exceptional qualities outside of size and Seldon has those.

Trieu notes, again, that 24/7 is explicitly projecting the NFL draft and that "other services [ie, Rivals], who rank more based on college projection, already had him in the four-star range." He does mention that with the way football is going guys like Seldon who can stick with slots are becoming more valuable.

Earlier in the cycle Trieu scouted Seldon in person and said he was "one of the best corners at jumping routes that I have seen in the last few cycles," a take that is echoed on 24/7s overall evaluation:

Below average height … excellent make-up speed and closing speed. Combine that with his instincts and technique and he is able to jump a lot of routes. Highly competitive … Clean footwork with very little wasted motion. Change of direction is at a high-level. … excellent vertical jump

The other component of playing corner doesn't come up much at the camps Seldon hit, but when Adam saw him in person against a team that didn't throw a lot he got an opportunity to see him hit folks:

Seldon has excellent closing speed, and questions about whether he can translate that to proper run fits were answered in this year's film. Angles are no longer an issue, as Seldon repeatedly showed he could weave through traffic to take the most efficient anticipatory path to where a ball carrier would be.

There is really only one way a guy with Seldon's stature gets major D-1 offers, and Seldon has taken that path. (FWIW, I wouldn't read much into the "suitors" above. Seldon got an early offer from Michigan and committed about a week later.)

Despite Seldon's camp mania we don't have a lot of good testing numbers. Brandon Brown reported that he finished second in the 40 during the Five Star Challenge with 4.47 and 4.5 runs, FWIW. His functional change of direction must be off the charts.

The worry is naturally his size, something that's wiped out more than the odd Cass Tech cornerback over the past decade—and Seldon's high school coach used to coach DBs at Cass.

Seldon has done literally all he can to prove himself. There are zillions of camp reports on Seldon. He started hitting them up as a rising sophomore and never stopped. He appears to have missed the Opening; he did everything else, including getting selected to the UA game.

He killed every one of these appearances. The takes got repetitive, but in a good way:

• "…one of the most active players in attendance … elite explosiveness … Bigger receivers tried to beat Seldon on jump balls, but he was able to contest almost every one."
• "Took on the camp's top receivers, as he usually does, and once again showed how tough he is to separate from."
• "…as usual, came to play. He takes on the best guys and has been to multiple off-season camps and we aren't sure we have seen him give up a completion yet."
• "…will always be in the mix for the MVP award at any camp … plays much bigger than he is listed …footwork is outstanding. Wide receivers had a really difficult time separating."
• "…requested to be put against the camp’s best receivers, and he answered the call, using his speed and aggressiveness to win the reps."
• "…very quick, fast and does not waste a lot of movement. He’s always in the receiver's hip pocket."

"Fast and competitive"; "Lockdown in 1-on-1s"; etc. There were more that said the same thing.

The UA game, mentioned above, deserves special mention since the opposition there is a non-stop parade of the best WRs in the country. Even there Seldon excelled, prompting 247 to move him up in defiance of the NFL draft. The takes hardly budged:

• "Scrappy, tough defensive back with quick reaction and instincts … played the ball all week and stood out day after day."
• "playing big … multiple interceptions on day three … stayed on the hip of some of the best receivers in the country. … great quickness, the ability to turn and run and the physicality it takes to match up."
• "… huge week … thoroughly impressed the coaches throughout his string of strong practices. … small in stature … makes up for it with his instincts, speed and dog mentality."

Multiple reports held that Seldon had more pass breakups, both on individual practice days and over the the course of the week, than anyone despite his stature. Afterwards Pacman Jones, who served as a DBs coach at the event, told MLive's Aaron McMann that Seldon was the "real deal":

“Very coachable … He reminds me a lot of me, you know? A smaller corner who’s willing to compete every play. … Smart … (He) was one of the smartest guys that we had here as far as football knowledge.”

So, yeah, he's short. Of all the micro-corners Michigan's recruited over the life of this series, Seldon's done the most to prove he can hack it at a higher level. Say what you want about the utility of no-pads camps, but surely they are most relevant for corners and wide receivers. As "one of the Midwest's most consistent camp performers," Seldon used them to vault up five rating points and a couple hundred ranking spots on 24/7.

Seldon enrolled early and was able to put in a little work before COVID shut everything down. Sam Webb reported that he'd run sub-4.5 40s and broad jumped almost 10 feet, and both his defensive coordinator and position coach got off positive takes. Don Brown:

"That's one of the reasons we signed him, was because of his ability to play nickel," Brown said. "We feel very strongly that he'll be able to make a run at that position, because the back position is not a position that requires crazy amounts of mental process. It's really about the physical challenges, the most important piece. And we think he's up to that.

Mike Zordich:

“I’m really impressed with that guy … academically, I’m getting reports through the roof. … But he’s competitive as hell now and he’s quick as hell.”

Now, Brown's mention of the nickel spot is interesting and somewhat limiting. Under Brown, Michigan has not used a nickelback except on passing downs. They've been a little allergic to the idea—over the last couple years this site has puzzled at the decision not to move Lavert Hill inside on passing downs, instead preferring a third safety. Maybe Seldon was recruited specifically because that was unsatisfactory.

If Seldon gets pigeonholed as a nickel it'll either mean the defense changes fairly significantly or his role is limited to passing downs. Which there are a lot of these days.

Etc.: Along with Giles Jackson, Seldon is going to be the first #0 in program history.

Why Will Likely? This site is pulling out the Big Ten's most recent MegaSmurf cornerback because Seldon has done everything he can to prove that he's a guy who can overcome his size. Likely was a star at Maryland despite being 5'7" because he was one of the best start-stop guys in the country. Unfortunately, a senior-year ACL tear prevented Likely from doing much at the combine except the bench press and saw him go undrafted after getting mid-round hype after his junior year.

There is always the possibility that a guy Seldon's size just gets overwhelmed at the college level, in which case Boubacar Cissoko and Terry Richardson are your comparables. Amongst guys who actually saw the field, Courtney Avery? Avery is listed at 5'11" on the official site but I swear I remember him as incredibly tiny but feisty.

Guru Reliability: Exacting. Camps, AA game, healthy, no positional projection.

Variance: Low. Extremely good cornerback with one major baked-in issue.

Ceiling: Moderate-plus. Seldon projects as a pretty good Big Ten corner who won't be of much NFL interest. Might get drafted late if the game keeps shifting to all slot everything.

General Excitement Level: High-minus. Michigan badly needs a CB with a high floor and Seldon is it. If he's an okay-to-good outside corner and a perfect nickel corner that's a very valuable player.

Projection: Will probably get thrown on the field more or less immediately as Michigan searches for slot answers that don't involve safeties. Seldon should emerge into the starting nickel by midseason. Down the road his ability to get a full-time starting gig will depend more on the alternatives than Seldon himself.

Seldon will probably become a starter on the outside despite the potential issues with that, because it's better to give up some contested fades than get dusted entirely. That will be less than ideal but better than bad.