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F10Y CFB – Week 13 Scouting Notes, Ohio State vs. Michigan

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The final weekend of the regular season, which doubles up as rivalry weekend, had some great match-ups, but all eyes were on the big one between the #2 Buckeyes and the #3 Wolverines.

The loser knew that this would cost them a place in the Big Ten Championship game and, more importantly, almost certainly rule them out of the college football playoff.

I’m not sure anyone could have predicted what unfolded here, as a remarkable second half display from Michigan blew Ohio State away 45-23.

We’ll get into the big draft names below and how they fared in this heated rivalry…

Ohio State

Offensively the Buckeyes looked good early on, but as the game wore on they found it much harder to move the ball down the field on a tough Michigan defense. 

Quarterback C.J Stroud will shoulder a fair portion of blame for this defeat, but in all honesty he wasn’t helped by his offensive line and a real lack of running game to fall back on.

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The stats will show him throwing two interceptions, but these were desperation picks as he tried to spark his team into life. This game certainly won’t define his draft status, he is still one of the most accurate passers in the country and when he stays in structure he looks like an NFL franchise quarterback.

On the other hand, out of structure is a bit of a different story, and a lot of plays when he was under pressure he looked sloppy, but the tools he does have will still have NFL teams drooling over him.

There’s no doubt that the Buckeyes have more stud wide receivers coming through their ranks, but as they aren’t draft eligible yet we’ll move our focus over to the offensive line, where they have a couple of very highly rated guys.

Offensive Tackles, Paris Johnson and Dawand Jones have had very good seasons to date, but Michigan gave them their toughest tests yet, and ultimately exposed them both a little bit.

Jones entered the game as a bit of an injury doubt, but played through it, and this may help explain why he wasn’t at his dominating best. He lacked his usual fluid mobility, and although he was still able to toss guys around once he got his hands on them, he was also done a bit too easily by twitchier pass rushers.

NFL teams will know what you’re getting with him, which is a right tackle only, but one who could step in immediately and improve an NFL offensive Line. He looks like a top two round player to me, and possibly as high as the end of the first round if he tests really well. 

However, Johnson is a different kettle of fish altogether.

The traits and athleticism he displays are off the charts, but on every watch this year he has had mental lapses, and his rawness is continuously exposed by clever pass rushers.

When it’s good it is exceptionally good, but there are still too many mistakes in him to warrant this top ten hype.

Johnson is helped by a real lacklustre tackle class, which got worse when young stud Olumuyiwa Fashanu of Penn State decided to go back to school, so the temptation is there for him to come out early and possibly be OT1.

If he is a high pick, I really hope his NFL team doesn’t throw him out there on day one, as I think there may be some real growing pains with him. There’s no doubting the talent though…

The Buckeye defense was exceptional for the first half of this game, but the second half saw big plays on busted coverages, and poor tackling and angles on big, back breaking, long touchdown runs.

There are future NFL players all over this defense though and two of them were excellent in this game.

Linebacker Tommy Eichenburg has been an absolute revelation for the Buckeye defense this season. He has gone from a relative unknown to leading the team in tackles in one season, and it’s tough to understand how he didn’t see the field earlier on in his career.

Statistically this was one of his quieter games, but you could still see the read and react speed on his run fills, and his excellent athleticism and sure tackling. This is a guy that has really thrown his name out there, and although he has a year of eligibility remaining, he may want to test the draft waters, as he could easily be a top 75 pick when all is said and done. 

EDGE Zach Harrison has been a bit of an enigma during his four years in Columbus.

He was a top end five star recruit but has only flashed that kind of lofty status, never really dominating like his high school tape would suggest he should.

Well, this season the light seems to have come on, as he has shown more high level, consistent play, than ever before. He had both Michigan tackles in fits during this game, consistently beating them outside and inside, and disrupting plays throughout the game.

Despite plays like the one above, he still isn’t the most productive player in the world, but you can see his development in his pass rush plan, and he can win in multiple ways now, making him difficult for tackles to adjust to.

Harrison is incredibly gifted athletically, and with his super size profile (6’6 272lbs) he will certainly appeal to all NFL teams. This is a very deep EDGE group, so he may not go as high as some similar types in recent years (Odafe Oweh springs to mind), but you’d expect someone to pull the trigger on a traitsy, athletic EDGE like this before the end of round two for sure.

Michigan

The Wolverines boast a very young team, so the future is bright for them beyond this season, but from a NFL draft perspective we don’t have too many guys to gush over for this upcoming draft. We’ll take a look at three guys who are draft eligible, and who certainly helped themselves during this game.

Center Olusegun Oluwatimi was already on my radar, having scored very high grades in his three previous seasons at Virginia. He decided to transfer out of there and opted to come to Ann Arbor, where he has been excellent again, and helped solidify the Wolverine interior line.

The former Cavalier was dominant again in this game, paving huge rush lanes for big plays, particularly in the second half. He is a thick built anchor type, who is difficult to move when engaged, yet still has enough movement to get out and block on the edge, and at the second level. He was up against some pretty talented interior defensive lineman, but managed to really limit the impact they had on the game.

There isn’t a consensus number one Center in this class, but he has done enough over his 3000+ career snaps to be up there in the conversation as the top guy this year.

Cornerback Mike Sainristil has had a very interesting career at Michigan.

Recruited as a cornerback, he spent his first three years as a wide receiver, where he showed ability but wasn’t overly productive in that role. For this season he has gone back over to defense and has been the teams starting Nickleback all year.

You can instantly see that he is much better suited to this role, as he moves really well in space and he has very quick click and close ability.

It’s a difficult position to play, and he has been exposed at times this season, but you can see that with some more time he could develop into a decent prospect in that position.

#0 gave up a couple of big plays against the Buckeyes, including a touchdown, but if he does enter the draft this year I could see a team taking a late round flyer on someone with his kind of skillset and upside. 

Like Ohio State’s Zach Harrison, Michigan’s Defensive Tackle Mazi Smith has been a bit of an enigma since arriving on campus.

A four star recruit, he barely played his first couple of seasons, but has been a mainstay on the defensive line for the last two years, flashing big time ability in some games. This was probably his best performance that I’d seen from him in his career. He was unblockable at times, getting in the backfield and regularly disrupting run plays and even getting pressures when the Buckeyes passed. He even lined up as an EDGE on one play, and beat the aforementioned heralded tackle Paris Johnson to the outside, and got in on a pressure. We know he’s athletic, as he was the number one player on Bruce Feldman’s pre-season freak list.

He will test through the roof at the combine, and even with just these flashes he shows, he’ll end up going on day two as players with this type of size/speed profile don’t last long on draft day.

This brings an end to my 2022 season scouting notebooks. It’s been quite a journey from all the way back to that classic week 0 game in Dublin, through to “the game” this past weekend, packed with future NFL talents.

We’ll see where these guys, and the ones mentioned in the previous 12 weeks’ reports, go in the 2023 NFL draft in April.

Find the rest here in the college section of the F10Y site.

Follow Keith on Twitter @LordLucken

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F10Y CFB – Week 9 Scouting Notes, Penn State vs. Ohio State

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The week 9 slate threw up a couple of interesting matchups. I hadn’t had a good look at Ohio State since their week 1 win against Notre Dame, so away at Penn State seemed a good time to check-in on some top talent, not only the Buckeyes, but a couple of highly rated Nittany Lions too. 

The game itself was a tight affair, with the Buckeyes having to fight tooth and nail to maintain their unbeaten start. They did come through in the end though winning 44-31, although the game was much tighter than the final score suggests.

We’ll start the notes with the winning Buckeyes…

Ohio State

Quarterback C.J Stroud seems to be suffering from the “over analysis brigade” this year. He is putting together a Heisman Trophy winning type season. However, the nit-pickers are highlighting some flaws, whilst ignoring the consistency and production.

Penn State gave him some issues, and truth be told it was the defense that won this game for Ohio State. That said you can’t ignore the poise and accuracy he displays from the pocket. The questions come when being asked to perform out of structure, and there’s no doubt this is his biggest weakness, but what you see from him when he’s kept clean, is one of the best clinical passers in football.

I still believe he will be QB1 come April, but in all honesty you can’t go wrong with either him or Alabama’s Bryce Young.

Stroud may have a limited ceiling, but he has such a high floor that he seems like a safe, NFL starter ready player, and those types will go very high.

Stroud’s favourite target this year has been Freshman sensation Wide Receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. Those old enough (like me) will remember his Dad destroying cornerbacks in the NFL from 1996-2008 with the Indianapolis Colts, and his son looks like he may be as good as his old man, who of course is a Hall of Famer. Those are lofty expectations, but what he displayed in this game was his smooth routes and excellent hands.

I would go so far to say that I’m certain if he was draft eligible he would be WR1 in this class.

We’ll have to wait until next year to salivate over this next great Ohio State receiver prospect as he already looks like a certain future first round pick. And would it be bold to say, possibly a high end one at that?

Left tackle Paris Johnson was very highly thought of coming into the season, but there was a question mark about how he’d transition over from guard, where he spent the 2021 season.

Well, from what I’ve seen so far this season, he’s done a very nice job, so much so that he has been talked about now as a potential top ten pick.

I really like him as a prospect too, but this tape against Penn State makes me pause, and perhaps we need to lower that hype just a touch?

 There is no doubting his natural ability and athleticism – that’s easy to see – But there still seem to be some mental errors and technique issues that would need clearing up before slotting him in the top ten for me.

Right tackle Dawand Jones is almost the complete opposite of Paris Johnson. He is a massive (6’8 360lbs) road grader who once he gets his hands on you it’s over.

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He has better athleticism than you’d think for such a huge human, but he does get done by quicker, shiftier Edges, who can get by him in a flash. He is a plug and play right tackle in the NFL and there’s an easy comparison to Trent Brown. Brown has carved out a nice career for himself, despite originally being just a seventh round pick.

Jones displayed his heavy hands and brute power in the run game against the Nittany Lions and he looked pretty good in pass protection too, as he held up well against their edge rushers, but he had some trouble with the blitz’s that Penn State dialled up.

He will be viewed as a high floor player who should be selected somewhere on day two of the draft.

As I mentioned earlier the Buckeyes have their defense to thank for this win. There were numerous standout performances but we have to start with the quite incredible show that EDGE J.T Tuimoloau put on.

It’s not often that a defensive lineman will grab an interception, but Tuimoloau didn’t just get one against the Nittany Lions, no he bagged two of them, and returned the second one 18 yards for a touchdown too.

He also battered a pass that was intercepted by fellow EDGE Zach Harrison, recorded three tackles-for-loss, two sacks and a forced fumble. Quite an afternoon from the sophomore and one that will really put him on scouts’ radars.

The interceptions were very different, the first being a great read on the running back coming out in the flat and jumping the route. The second was leaping high mid pass rush, to grab the ball intended for a receiver behind him. Both of these plays demonstrated elite athleticism and high football IQ.

However, we mustn’t get carried away here.

All of his pass rush wins were against the back-up right tackle, who was playing because of injury to their regular starter, and he was having a complete mare. I don’t think he is the second coming of Chase Young or the Bosas, he doesn’t have that kind of bend around the edge that the top pass rushers do.

But one thing he has now, is a statement game on tape and something to build on heading into the 2023 season. 

Junior safety Ronnie Hickman has impressed me quite a bit this year, and that continued with another good showing in this game. He is such a solid all round player.

Hickman is good against the run and a willing tackler, he also has nice athleticism and play recognition to match up in the passing game. He was always around the ball and finished with six tackles, three passes defensed and a forced fumble. Even the negatives were not so negative either – The only completion he gave up went for just four yards.

If it wasn’t for Tuimoloau, Hickman would have been the talk of the game. There isn’t a clear cut number one safety in this draft class, but Hickman is certainly making his way up boards and he would be a top five safety for me right now.

Penn State

The Nittany Lions were in this game deep into the fourth quarter, which is a testament to them, as there is a big gulf in the quality of draft prospects between the two teams. They do have a couple of players who are getting quite a bit of buzz right now, so let’s see how they did in this game.

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We’ll start with Left Tackle Olu Fashanu, who right now is being discussed as an OT1 possibility. He is only 19 years old, but is draft eligible and he has scouts drooling with his natural ability.

He is quite an easy watch, especially in pass protection, where he has excellent feet to control the arc and strong hands on long arms to ride pass rushers away with ease.

The problems occured in the run game where he was often beaten to his spot by a defender and knocked off balance. He does have everything scouts want in a blindside protector though, size, arm length and athleticism, so it’s easy to understand why he’s moving up boards.

I would just like to see him become more refined, especially in the run game, before investing a round one pick on him. There is a chance of course he returns to Happy Valley for another season, but with the tackle class this wide open I think he would be a certain first rounder if he did come out.

Like Marvin Harrison, Cornerback Joey Porter Jr. is the son of a former NFL star too. Joey Porter Sr. was a Pittsburgh Steeler legend in his day, and now his son is climbing rapidly up draft boards and into first round mocks.

Porter Jr. is as feisty as his old man was, he is just 40 odd pounds lighter and playing a totally different position.

We were hoping to see plenty of Harrison vs. Porter matchups during the game, but the truth was they only battled each other on a handful of plays. They were a fun watch though, and although Harrison had the big stat line, Porter matched up nicely with him when they did face off.

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Porter’s physicality is both a positive and negative though. Everyone loves a physical corner who isn’t afraid to hit in the run game and jam receivers off of routes, but he also gets very grabby. He was called deservedly for one pass interference penalty in the game because of this.

I think Porter will appeal to lots of NFL teams, but without elite athleticism I think he may end up as a day two player rather than going in the first round.

Penn State’s best player in this game was wide receiver Parker Washington, who I’ve been high on for the last couple of seasons.

He had his biggest game of the season, against the highest ranked opponent they’ll play, catching 11 balls for 179 yards and one touchdown. He has great hands, runs nice routes and always seems to find a way to get open. And he does all of this without being the best athlete on the field.

How about this for a way to bring this article to a close… I feel like there’s a bit of Deebo Samuel about him, and I think if he test’s OK he may sneak into day two of the draft, if he comes out.

Check back with me in April on that one.

Follow Keith on Twitter @LordLucken

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Week 1 Scouting Notes – Ohio State vs. Notre Dame

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This was the biggest match up of the week 1 slate, and from a scouting perspective this game was loaded with high end prospects. Both teams struggled with early season rustiness but Ohio State put together a strong second half to see off the Irish 21-10. I’ve got a few notes for all of you on how all the top players did and throw in a couple of guys who surprised me too. We’ll start with the victorious Buckeyes…

Ohio State

All eyes were on potential number 1 overall pick Quarterback C.J Stroud and star Wide Receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba (both of whom made our Preseason All-Conference team), but unfortunately we lost Smith-Njigba early in the first quarter to a hamstring problem. He did come back later in the half but clearly wasn’t right and was left on the sidelines after that.

The initial report is he’ll miss a couple of weeks, which isn’t a disaster for him, especially as those games will be against Arkansas State and Toledo.

Stroud had a difficult first half, with Notre Dame containing him well and then losing his top target, you could see him becoming frustrated. He was totally different in the second half and looked much more like his usual self, taking control of the offense and improvising when needed. This was a big early test for him and he showed he could cope with in-game adjustments and dealing with adversity well. 

With Smith-Njigba out Ohio State needed some pass catchers to step up and two did in Wide Recievers Marvin Harrison Jr. and  Emeka Egbuka. Harrison looks tall and lengthy and made a couple of nice key catches when needed. Obviously the pedigree is there with his Dad (former Colts legend, Marvin Harrison Sr.) being a Hall of Famer so there will be a lot of expectation on his shoulders going forward, but this was a nice start for him.

Egbuka was Stroud’s top target in the game and he looked very comfortable in that role. He wasn’t used to stretch the field, as they had him running shallow routes and picking up boundary work, but he looked smooth in space and displayed some nice safe hands. These two will become the focal point of the passing attack whilst JSN is out, and it appears to be in pretty good hands, pun intended…

The Offensive Line wasn’t very good last year, although they received plenty of hype. This year’s version seemed to have some question marks, but on the first showing of the season, against a top ten quality team, they came through with flying colours. I’m really high on Offensive Tackle Paris Johnson Jr. who has moved over from guard to take the coveted left tackle position and he had a nice debut there. He did get beat on the outside a couple of times in pass protection, but considering the level of opponent and the new position switch, he handled himself very well and this will be the benchmark he’s set for the rest of the year. Right tackle Dawand Jones graded as the best Lineman for me on the day. Jones is absolutely massive (6’8, 350lbs) but plays with much better agility than you’d expect for someone that size. This was a big test and he was dominant, particularly in pass protection, which again for a man that huge is a big arrow upwards. He has the ability to be an Orlando Brown type and that’s pretty high praise.

I also have offensive guard Matthew Jones graded highly on last year’s games watched and he enjoyed a good start to the season here too. An under the radar guy now, but if this offensive line gels like I think they can, he will move up boards.

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Defensively, Ohio State had Notre Dame’s number, all bar one big pass play in the first quarter. There were plenty of stand out performances on all three levels of the defense but we’ll start with Safety Ronnie Hickman. Hickman spends most of his time in the box and is a very aggressive run filler, flying downhill to hit runners. For all his aggressiveness he is a sound tackler too, which isn’t a thing you always see. He has good size, quick feet and this is his second year as a starter. He graded pretty well for me last year, so he is definitely on my radar now.

Linebacker Tommy Eichenberg really impressed me with his violent style of play. He was consistently around the ball and like Hickman is a fantastic tackler. He only started four games last year and didn’t grade great for me, but this is an impressive start and I’ll certainly be keeping my eye on him going forward.

His partner in crime in the middle of the defense is former running back turned Linebacker Steele Chambers. He looks super athletic, which is not surprising given his previous position, and you’d expect him to get better and better with the more reps he gets in his new role. He will be an intriguing player if he does declare for the 2023 NFL Draft.

Defensive Tackle Michael Hall, who is not draft eligible, had some real standout flashes here. He was quick off the snap, had strong hands and showed some nice ability to work in space. They lined him up all along the defensive line and he had success wherever he went. One for the future for sure, but certainly a name worth noting.

Notre Dame

I’m sure the offensive game plan for the Irish was to grind the clock and keep that explosive Ohio State offense off the field, which to a certain extent they did, but it didn’t make for exciting viewing. The star attraction for Notre Dame offensively is Tight End Michael Mayer, who most consider TE1 and a first round lock. This game certainly won’t go down as one to show scouts as he was largely ineffective, only showcasing his great hands on one catch that he plucked out of the air. Even on that play he ended up fumbling and was lucky the ball bounced straight back to him. Ohio State stuck cornerback Cameron Brown on him all game, and this really limited his effectiveness as a receiver, and will surely be copied by other teams they face going forward. How he deals with this kind of attention will be interesting to see as the season goes on.

Notre Dame defensively in the first half were excellent, never allowing Stroud time to settle and limiting his off script plays. The second half was a different story though and the Irish were exposed, particularly at cornerback, where one guy really struggled.

I was quite high on Cornerback Cam Hart going into this season but he had a bit of a shocker here. He is a big corner at 6’3, 200lbs and whilst the size is impressive he looked very clunky in transitions and really struggled locating the ball when he did get in position. He gave up a touchdown and had a pass interference call against him, and he was targeted often by the Buckeyes who had obviously singled him out as a weak link. This game will hurt him, but he has size and length you can’t teach, which means he’ll still be highly regarded in the NFL world.

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The biggest name for the Irish defensively is EDGE Isaiah Foskey. Notre Dame used him all over the place last year, which was frustrating for the evaluation process as we didn’t get to see him all the time in what will be his NFL position. Off of what we saw in this game, it looks like the Irish have ditched that plan and are exclusively using him as a pure EDGE. Now while that’s good for us, it wasn’t so good for Foskey, who struggled to have any type of influence on the game and was limited to just one pressure. The two offensive tackles from Ohio State that he went up against could both be top 50 players come draft time, so this isn’t doom and gloom yet, but we need a good bounce back game or two, as this will be a talented EDGE group come draft time, and he needs to keep his name in that first or second tier of guys.

Safety Brandon Joseph came over from Northwestern as a high level transfer, albeit coming off a disappointing Sophomore campaign with the Wildcats. He had a good solid debut here looking strong in the tackle, which was a weakness on last year’s tape, and limiting the effectiveness of the big plays over the middle, which is a staple of the Buckeyes offense. The one play he wasn’t roaming the backend they blitzed him, and Stroud threw right behind him, exploiting the single coverage he left behind for a Touchdown. Not his fault at all, just a good demonstration of C.J Stroud’s understanding of the game. 

By Keith Lucken, follow Kieth on Twittter @LordLucken