[Nasternak/MGoBlog]

David and I traveled to the friendly confines of Wayne State’s Tom Adams Field last Friday to watch Orchard Lake St. Mary’s take on De La Salle. It was a beautiful game for a certain definition of the word; if you like heavy sets and spread-to-run offenses, then this was a game for you. It was also kind of ugly. Neither team had much of a passing game to speak of, and a fairly strong wind made punting an adventure, as one punt looked like it was going out of bounds before a gust sent it careening past the sidelines toward the stands. OLSM ended up eking out a 14-7 win while holding De La Salle to 63 yards passing and 81 yards rushing.

De La Salle’s offense may not have been able to get much going, but their zone read and jet sweep action made it an interesting game for linebackers. It just so happens that a linebacker is exactly who David and I were there to watch, as we wanted to get a look at how Michigan commit Josh Ross had developed halfway through his senior season.  

[Video and scouting of Ross after THE JUMP]

Video

Scouting

2017 LB #5 Josh Ross (M commit)

At 6’1.5” and 225 pounds, Ross is undersized for an ILB; luckily for him, Don Brown’s done some of his finest work with smallish ‘backers. He packs a heck of a punch for his size. There are no light or glancing blows; every hit is a hit. Unsurprisingly, he was consistently able to take on blockers and knock them back. The play at 1:00 is a nice example of this, as Ross bashes the tackle and ricochets off, which allows him to slow down the back and assist on the tackle.

Another known entity from previous scouting Ace has done on Ross is his athleticism. The play I thought was his best of the night (2:00) sees Ross knock back a blocker, escape, pull up to avoid a fallen offensive lineman, pursue toward the sideline, and make the tackle before the back can turn the corner. If there’s anything that encapsulates Ross’ positive attributes and seems like a flash of what could be should he realize his talent, this is it.

Ross was also able to drop into coverage relatively smoothly. I had to throw the adverb in there because he looked smooth live, but rewatching he looks a bit clunky. He did do a couple of nice things once he got into his zone. For one, no receiver went through his zone without getting bumped off his route. There’s some evidence of this in the video at 2:47. Ross also did a nice job surveying the field and making decisions when there wasn’t a receiver in his vicinity. He was able to transition from sitting in his zone to coming up to stop the run quickly at 00:08, reading run and charging the line, then dropping into his zone when he saw the QB roll out and bring the ball up to his chest, then digging in and changing direction in order to charge the QB as he escaped the first wave of pressure. At 00:35, Ross reads the QB, spots the mesh route and gets proper depth, continues reading the QB, then takes off across the field when he realizes the throw isn’t coming to his spot.

The most difficult thing to judge in Ross’s game is his awareness. On one hand, his head is on a swivel and he’s looking to diagnose constantly, even after the ball has been snapped. On the other hand, there are times where he seems to diagnose the play and just ends up being wrong. In that vein, at 00:22 he knifes through a gap and ducks around a blocker, but the QB is headed for the edge so it’s all for naught. Then at 1:33, Ross reads run as soon as the ball is snapped, rockets toward a gap, checks and sees that it’s clogged up, then bounces over one to stop the running back. At 2:11 Ross thinks the running back got the handoff and chases for a few strides before realizing that the quarterback kept the ball. To further muddy the waters, at 1:23 he seems to anticipate both the guard releasing to him and precisely where the run will go.

To be clear, Ross is intriguing as a prospect, and I can see why the coaching staff wants to bring him into the fold. He hits above his weight class, and when he does diagnose the play correctly he’s got the athleticism to shut it down in a hurry. Most of the awareness issue can presumably be mitigated with college-level film study; I did something I’ve yet to do this season and watched some film on Ross from years past after finishing my notes to see how much he had changed, and there does seem to be progress made in this area already.