Previously: Last year’s profiles.

Jacksonville, FL – 6’0”, 190
[Brice Marich/247Sports]		247:                 3.57*	3*, 86, NR overall #70 S, #91 FL
		Rivals:                 3.60*	3*, 5.6, no rankings
		ESPN:                 3.67*	3*, 79, #255 SE, NR Ovr #62 CB, #84 FL
		On3:                 3.80*	3*, 89, NR Ovr #40 S, #56 FL
		Composite:                 3.66*	3*, 0.8655, #781 Ovr #65 S, #106 FL
		Other Suitors	Oregon, Pitt. Akron decommit.
		YMRMFSPA	Josh Metellus
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello post by me.
Notes	Twitter. Wearing #9. Michigans are for Losers.
Film:
Senior Highlights: More Film: Hudl only goes up to 2019.

Camp discoveries used to stay hidden. When Stan Edwards's kid started balling out at a Michigan camp, the coaches ran down their former running back in the tunnel and chewed him out for not telling them about the boy until now; Braylon Edwards will went into the recruiting database as a 3-star, but Michigan knew.

Hidden by the pandemic (a theme we'll come across again), and still skinny (175 pounds) when he went camping last summer, Dent popped on the radar too late to rise very far. He hit camps at Bama and Florida, then exploded at Oregon's open-to-the-public (we should totally copy that) camp they somehow get away with calling "Saturday Night Live."

At that point the Ducks probably assumed this Akron commit was their secret to lose. But Michigan (read: Courtney Morgan) had spies, and were on the hunt for all the secondary help they could get. They offered in early August, and had him on campus for the Washington game. Dent committed shortly after, and stayed that way despite late calls from Florida and Miami (yes THAT Miami), by which point Michigan had pulled in two more safety/nickel blue chips.

The recruiting industry largely left Dent ranked with the other late camp finds, but the buzz in Michigan circles was a mix of incredulity that an Oregon find could be turned in a month after Michigan's 2-4 season, and the certainty they'd pulled off some kind of coup. Either way, they stopped caring about Michigan State sealing the deal with West Bloomfield's Dillon Tatum.

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The academic. Usually camp and 7v7s discoveries are more about recognizing raw tools than how a player will operate in a full coverage, but Dent's sapient approach at SNL stood out, especially once he got to explaining it. Here he's describing to a 247 Oregon writer why he (Dent) didn't bite on a slant & go:

“Because he's not fully committed to his route,” said Dent. “If he came and leaned on me then I would have committed but he never took the action to lean on. You got to realize I'm fast so I can get to the sideline quicker than him. So I could have made a play if it was an out route, but he never committed the drive all the way outside and turn his head. All he did is went that way and cut up, so I knew the route.”

Unsurprisingly, the kind of player who UFRs plays in his head as they're happening was a theme of Holloway's assessment of the player he's been coaching:

The opposition has been hesitant to throw at Dent who has three interceptions this season, two he returned for touchdowns and another he ran back 60-plus yards. … His attention to detail, he understands going in every week certain plays and tendencies the offense is trying to do he’s been big in getting our younger guys in proper position to make plays.”

In another, longer interview, this with 247's Brice Marich($), Holloway also said that Dent…

…has really grown accustomed to memorizing things what teams do. … He’s mastered that to the point where it almost looks like he’s cheating because he knows pretty much what they’re doing. If he watches film on you and knows what you like to do and you give him a game plan, then he will play in that game plan, but at the same time, he’s studying tendencies to a T right now.

His 7v7 coach, Harrison Smith, emphatically agreed, emphasizing to EJ Holland that Dent can recognize formations and knows what routes receivers are going to run.

A cornerbackish safety-cornerback who could play nickel. Both coaches emphasized Dent's ability to play both ways, and play all over the defense. Holloway:

He’s versatile,” Holloway said. “He can play down in the box, can play back, play safety, anywhere in the secondary. He’s a Swiss Army knife. He can be anything, linebacker, cornerback, safety, strong safety, he can do it all. 

Smith added the safety words:

He's really rangy. He has a knack for the ball. He has great ball skills. He can actually play wide receiver if he really wanted to. He understands where to be at on the field to make plays on the ball. … I see him playing safety at the next level. … He can play in the box. He's really physical. But he does have enough speed to play corner.

This leads to speculation that Dent was ticketed to play Dax Hill's role, which was the nickelback when Michigan went to any sort of nickel personnel, and strong safety when they were in their 4-3 or 5-2 personnel. It's also what they say about most safeties unless they're rangy with a knack for the ball, possess great ball skills, are physical, and have enough speed to play corner at 6'4". However the recruiting beat writers are often taking their position directions from the players, who are getting them from the coaches, and there was enough mention of Dax in those writeups to think twice about trying to edge Damani Dent. Marich:

While Dent isn’t the most highly-regarded prospect in this recruiting class, but he’s got the chance to be one the players we look back and view as one of the best with his versatility and skill-set. The confident, physical and aggressive defender has the ability to play multiple positions, but viewed as a defensive athlete and projected to play the role Daxton Hill plays in this new defense.

EJ Holland claimed Michigan had Dent the #1 safety on their board before making a comp to the guy actually replacing Dax Hill:

I'm a big fan of Dent's length and athleticism. He reminds me a bit of Michigan freshman Rod Moore. Like Moore, he is still filling out his frame but loves to come into the box and bang heads. Dent is also a natural playmaker on the back end and fits in well as a pure safety or nickel. Also like Moore, Dent is athletic enough to make plays at wide receiver at the high school level.

And here's a sample of Dent telling reporters that the program recruited him for a Dax job:

“I fit well with blitzing, covering, me going to corner, safety and the nickel position. It’s a good fit. It’s a hybrid defense for a hybrid player. Anyone can play anything.”

Camp find. Dent first popped up at Florida's camp, where 247's resident scout Andrew Ivins noted a "smooth backpedal" and suggested Akron "might be getting a steal." Pitt was the only Power 5 school to jump in then. Dent's next stop was Alabama, who told him thanks but try Oregon:

I locked up everybody at Alabama camp and did my thing and stood out and they said they had too many spots, spots were closed so Nick couldn’t offer me that day … They wanted to offer me but they couldn’t offer me. After that a coach at Alabama knew somebody at Oregon, Coach Chance and he got on me and didn’t hesitate to talk to me.

Dent traveled to Oregon for Saturday Night Live, and immediately impressed the Ducks, set off a bell in Michigan's ear, and opened on NBC:

The Peacock's correspondent noted Dent "routinely broke up passes during 1-on-1s" and nearly plucked one from the #Buttzone. 247 Oregon writer Matt Prehm called Dent a diamond in the rough, the most consistent 1-on-1 performer, "physical at the line of scrimmage," and "quick in recovery." Maven’s Oregon site noted Dent stuck with the talented receivers (by which he includes TEs) present, including top-60 prospects DeAndre Moore (a Bama/USC battle), and Jurrion Dickey (Oregon commit), top-100 slot Kevin Coleman (Jackson State), and 247's #4 and #5 tight ends for 2023. Dent also "physically looked far more impressive than his rating would suggest."

Ivins reassessed his ranking in September, still focusing on the raw tools:

He has ample meaningful snaps at multiple levels of the defense, and his body control in contested situations and general on-field play strength are also encouraging. Dent is a natural football player who displays some short-area suddenness that should help him as he continues to develop his man coverage abilities.

Is "continues to develop" recruiting speak for has yet to develop? EJ Holland acknowledged that right now Dent "is still really raw—even more than Moore at this stage in his recruitment—but his ceiling is sky high. Dent also has that 'dog mentality' that U-M is looking for and plays with a chip on his shoulder."

Steve Lorenz did the same thing, but in a way that won't let me get through the first 2022 profile without setting the pace for Sleeper of the Class:

The lowest-ranked player on this list, Dent feels like the most underrated recruit in this class and someone that could quietly end up seeing the field in some capacity. He's our pick for the Rod Moore award (made up) as far as a guy not talked about that ends up playing in year one. Will he play the same role Moore did? Unlikely but we're buying on Dent.

He justified this by sharing the staff told another 4-star not to visit because they liked Dent better. I bought in too, of course, comping Dent to all of the other developmental athletes Michigan swung at after coming too late for Obi Melifonwu's brother:

…as soon as the recruiting rankers get caught up themselves it seems there’s a good chance that Michigan finally managed to reel in one of these late-breaking, hyper-athletic safeties they kept finding on their way up the rankings last year. I’m thinking of Donovan McMillon, Daymon David, D’Arco Perkins-McAllister—you know, a D guy! …

247 went from 81 to 84 in late July, then up to 86 (still a middling 3-star) at the end of September. ESPN doesn’t have a rating yet. Rivals recently slapped a 5.6 on him without ranking him among his position or state.

Since then On3.com hit the scene and placed Dent near the top of their 3-stars. ESPN came up with a similar rating but lower ranking (their thing is to put Southeast recruits on a pedestal), and they left Dent a cornerback.

Etc. B School.

Why Josh Metellus? If I said Dax Hill but doesn't run a 4.3 that would be a pretty accurate summary of his game, but also "doesn't run a 4.3" is kind of a big thing when comparing someone to a five-star recruit who just went in the 1st round. Dax also trusted that athleticism implicitly.

Metellus was that kind of player too—a cornerback-shaped safety who had plenty of speed and athleticism—but he also had to do it by reading and reacting faster since he didn't have Dax's top gear. Josh was called "raw" in his scouting as well, but developed quickly enough to start the Orange Bowl as a true freshman in place of the injured Jabrill Peppers at nickel. Dent is exactly the same size, had virtually identical rankings from the same services,

and had a Michigan career not too dissimilar from what the same program is envisioning for Dent. Metellus was the second-most powerful family in Late-Republic Rome; Dent is the second-best Batman villain in Late-Republic America. It's a frighteningly tight comparison.

Guru Reliability: Low. There are two tiers: 247 and Rivals who put him at middling 3-star and left him there (247 had a two-point bump after the camp offers), and ESPN and On3 who came in with generic high 3-star ratings after he'd committed to Michigan. The variance is between those points and the beat writers who are jumping up and down like Michigan just stole an only slightly less ludicrous Dax Hill. Just a few camps, late add who didn't get a re-evaluation from senior film from the two sites who had one earlier, and neither of the sites who came in with higher scores later (ESPN, On3) explained themselves.

Variance: High. Late-riser, did not play against top-level Florida competition, most of what we know about him is from summer camp performances and stuff his coach says.

Ceiling: High-minus. The super insane safeties who grow into 1st and 2nd rounders have gaudy forty times or make the Freaks list, and Jacksonville isn't so out of the way from the recruiting industry that nobody would have noticed one of those. The next tier however is where you get the heady/athletic Metelluses and Melifanwus who litter NFL depth charts. Or Rod Moore for a more recent example, though he's barely started. We just haven't seen it because Delano Hill—another cornerbackish type—was the only Michigan safety past the two recent five stars to go in the draft's first three rounds. Dent is a bit smaller than those guys, and projects to be way more Dax Hill than Brad Hawkins as a tackler, but the difference of a few pounds matters far less than getting there first.

General Excitement Level: High. The sites were loathe to move a guy up this year with a three-stop summer circuit and no measurements, but this guy is much more than a camp offer. One thing they all fail to mention, but is apparent on the film: Dent gets UP! His highlights show the guy leaping well into territory for 6'7" tight ends, which should answer any concerns about his height.

Combine that with the silky athleticism and I'm right there with the recruiting reporters who can't understand why Dent wasn't rated higher. Because he doesn't have a running back's arms? Michigan recruited too-tall running backs for safety for my whole life; how did that work out for us?

The other thing those years taught us is smart is a better metric for safety success than fast. Dent is already studying camp opponents' film to read subtleties in their movements, and apparently knew the inner workings of every position on his defense (while also playing offense). Yes! So excited!

Projection: There's room for a safety to emerge over the course of 2022, and I wouldn't count Dent out, but since he's the most raw of his three-safety class they can probably afford a redshirt. I won't say I expect him to sit out next year—this program often burns redshirts for no other reason than they like a guy, and I think they're really going to like Dent. A four-game redshirt. Three and a bowl game. Hold me to that!

I also don't think he will be on the bench for long—not when Michigan's answer to losing Moore for spring ball was Mike Sainristil. There is the matter of three current sophomores, but it's not stretch to see Dent sliding past Paige and Moten when Rod Moore just did so.

Sliding past Zeke Berry…well, we'll get to that. I do hold that Sabb will turn out to be no more of an obstacle for Dent than Khaleke Hudson was for classmate Josh Metellus, leaving Dent and Berry to make Makari Paige sweat in much the same way that Quinten Johnson and German Green don't. In Dent's case, I think it's a fair bet he's starting at one of the three safety positions by 2024, and grandpa longtime starter by 2026. If that doesn't sound like a projection for a three-star, it's because Damani Dent shouldn't have been one.