Antonio Kinard 6th UM commit
Feel free to rip on me if this was already addressed, but i didnt see anything on it.
Apparently Antonio Kinard, a 2010 DE from Youngstown Liberty HS committed blue over the weekend. The sites seem to have very littled info on the kid and list Michigan as his only offer. Whats the deal with him? Is he a legit prospect? Is this an attempt to further strengthen our connection to Youngstown HS? Are we simply trying to piss off people from Ohio? Are we just really desperate with our needs at Dline?
Is it possible that hes really 6'4 210 as listed? If thats tru he makes craig roh look like a fatty. Its interesting that were recruiting so much speed over size on defense (minus Campbell). We are loading up on converted-safeties for the LB positions, and this would be our 2nd undersized speed-rusher at DE out of the 3 weve recruited over the past two seasons (or at least of the ones that have committed/enrolled.)
March 16th, 2009 at 11:59 AM ^
He'll be a linebacker.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:04 PM ^
6'4 is undersized? Wow, pretty high bar there (or heavy bar). There is such a thing as gaining weight after high school. He might be underweight, but I am sure the coaches have plans for that. It is much easier to have size when starting at 6'4 than when starting at 5'11 like many of our other recruits. If this is your complaint, it seems pretty thin to me. Be glad to have this kid.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:01 PM ^
A lot of prospects still haven't been evaluated fully yet. If you look at the list of commits 3 of 5 haven't even been rated yet. He's probably around a 3 star guy (complete speculation on my part) that RR saw a lot of potential in. At 6'4" he can fill into his body and be a great DE/OLB type speed rusher. Which we've had a lot of success with in the past.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:12 PM ^
....and you deserve to be ripped. Did you honestly think that no one on this blog would mention that someone committed to the Michigan football team? Or that at least three Michigan - oriented websites have articles about the guy?
It took me 25 seconds to search back through the MGoBoard and find the set of posts that would indicate to me that a new commit was discussed.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:23 PM ^
Is he a legit prospect? Yes.
Are we trying to strengthen ties in Youngstown? Perhaps.
Are we trying to piss off Ohio? Absolutely.
Are we desperate? No.
Who was our other undersized speed rusher? Craig Roh, who's 6'5" and 230 but will probably be 250 lbs. by the end of his career? Tim Jamison is only 256. Brandon Graham is only 268 or something like that. Roh will bulk up. It's not like we recruited Boubacar to play DE.
This kid will definitely fill out. Don't worry about that. Kinard has the talent to be a 4-star recruit by the end of this cycle. Unfortunately, the recruiting services probably won't pay much attention to him because of his early commitment. Either way, he should be a pretty good player in a few years.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:31 PM ^
thanks good stuff
he probably won't be going to all the camps? That's where these kids get really evaluated and graded, so I would assume 3 star at most
March 16th, 2009 at 12:28 PM ^
I usually keep pretty up to date on my recruiting info and my blog reading, but i was away for the week on vacation and was too busy getting my tan on.
And my concern was obviously not his height blue(x3) so dont be an ass. I also was not degrading his skill based on a lack of reviews, i was merely asking if anyone had any further info on the guy, b/c the sites dont have much. My concern was with his lack of weight. Of course he has the height to add lbs, but putting on the 40 or so lbs that it would likely take to compete, and maitaining speed, is not exactly an easy task in a yr and a half. For this reason i expect hell redshirt.
But to re-state my earlier question:
do you guys think that we are intentionally looking to recruit smaller, quicker DEs like roh and kinard, or is that just the way things are working out? This seems extremely different from the mentality under the Carr staff who seemed to go for the big guys at all the dline positions.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:41 PM ^
It's not that we're recruiting ALL smaller guys. We've offered bigger guys like Jibreel Black (253), Darryl Baldwin (250), and William Gholston. Who we recruit and who commits are two different things.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:46 PM ^
This kid's a junior in high school, and who knows how up to date profile is. This 210 number could very easily be from 6 months ago when his profile was created. So from the time he was 210, he has somewhere between a year and a half to 2 years until he shows up to campus. You can put on a lot of weight in that amount of time. Throw in there that guys at this position don't play until they've been on campus for a couple years and we're in good shape.
All that said, I heard he was supposed to play LB?
sorry to come off as an "ass". Just thought you were being a bit near-sighted in calling a junior in high school "undersized" and asking if he was "legit" as a result, especially simply going on some stats taken from who knows when, which have only some relation to future stats. I just think we should put more trust in the wisdom of the coaches. Again, your statement just rubbed me the wrong way - my fault.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:42 PM ^
If you read some of the OSU threads on him it's pretty entertaining. You get the usual cliche's like "GREAT MOTOR!" "WE GOTTA GET THIS KID...HE'S RELENTLESS!!!".....then at the end of the thread they say he wouldn't have been offered by Tressel anyway and how he's a lower tier guy.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:45 PM ^
Sounds like some of our idiot fans when talking about an MSU recruit from the state of Michigan.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:46 PM ^
this is true
the scouting ohio highlight film on him. In that video he is playing more of ilb position. Video shows that he reads the play very well, he gets up and plugs holes and is a very sure tackler (of course a hilite video is of even stevie brown will not show missed tackles). His pursuit angles seemed good, but again that can change in college. Only a couple of clips include pass coverage. One nice backpedal/pass breakup. Does seem to have pretty fluid movement and does keep square to the line. Most of the hilites do not show him having to take on a blocker, but rather show him shooting a gap or on the edge. Of course the shedding and scraping is one huge criticims of Ezeh.
While his measurable may put him on the edge, he does show that he has at least at the hs level, good MIKE skills.
I'm pretty sure he'll be a SAM or a DE.
In my opinion, he has poor pursuit angles. Luckily, he's faster than everyone in high school so he can get away with it.
I guess I could see why you would think his pursuit angles were not that great because he was coming from the side or even slightly behind the ball carrier in most of the hilites showing that issue, but I think that he did judge the speed of play pretty accurately, and he did seem in control in most and not reaching to make the tackle.
Like I said, the college game could expose that as a problem.
I agree that probably ends up on the outside, but would rather move an inside guy outside than have to do the opposite.
My concern was partly that he went behind blockers a couple times instead of fighting across their faces. That could be bad news for him, but he's only a junior.
I'm find with him playing inside and moving to the edge. High school teams often put their best athlete in the middle because a) they can chase down plays to either side and b) if a team is soft up the middle, that's disastrous. That exposes weaknesses all over the place.
Magnus -- would you explain how the necessary skill-sets differ across the three linebacker positions? It seems like you would need more speed to play on the outside, but I really don't understand what makes someone a better candidate for WILL than SAM.
First of all, I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert, but I'll do my best to answer the question.
WILL - These usually end up being smaller, quicker guys. In a split backfield, usually the RB is to the weak side. Flares are thrown into the weak flat more often than to the strong side. Your WILL needs to be able to run with the opponent's RB or a slot receiver away from the tight end. He also needs to be fast enough to chase the play down from behind. They also need to be good open-field tacklers.
MIKE - I prefer shorter middle linebackers, because they tend to be able to shed blocks more often by keeping blockers off their knees. This needs to be the guy who can read plays best and see things before they happen. It's nice of he can run sideline to sideline, but that's not necessary if he can take proper pursuit angles. The #1 skill a MIKE needs to have (in my opinion) is an ability and willingness to step up into the hole, play downhill, and take on a lead blocker. Coverage skills at MIKE are a plus, but the least necessary of any of the LB's.
SAM - In my opinion, the SAM needs to be your best all-around athlete at LB - he needs to have the instincts of a MIKE, the speed and agility of a WILL, and the strength of a DE. Obviously, that doesn't happen too frequently. But the point is, he needs to be a good all-around athlete. He often has to cover the tight end, so he can't be just a big lug. He also has to take on run blocks from TE's, tackles, and FB's. And he should be a good blitzer who can at least present a challenge to right tackles.
That's why I was a proponent of flip-flopping Ezeh and Thompson last year. Ezeh is our best all-around athlete at linebacker. Thompson is a typical MIKE. And Mouton is obviously a pretty good WILL.
I guess the biggest differences between WILL and SAM are a) who they have to cover on pass plays (RB's or TE's) and b) their ability to shed - not just dodge, but shed - blocks.
I hope that helps.
March 17th, 2009 at 12:00 AM ^
Thanks, Magnus. I appreciate your response.