future blue derivatives

The thing that makes Kal-El, better known to most as Superman, isn’t his otherworldly powers but the decisions he makes. I haven’t waded too deep into the waters of online discourse surrounding the DC Extended Universe but my understanding is that most people’s objections to the Man of Steel stem from a decision Kal-El makes at the end of the film that feels out of character because over the decades we’ve come to expect a certain type of decision-making from everyone’s favorite sun-powered humanoid. Decision-making appears to be Massachusetts linebacker Kalel Mulling’s strong suit as well, as his advanced understanding of the game was the primary attribute that stood out to Seth when he viewed Mulling’s highlight reel for his Hello post. Also athleticism by way of hip flipping, but whereas Batman has the Batusi I can’t think of any instances of Superman dancing so that doesn’t really help this intro. Does Mullings’ ability to read and react stand out over the course of an entire game? Let’s dive into the film.

[After THE JUMP: every-snap film and scouting]

One of the interesting things about college football is the limitation of the "college" part. This limits the makeup of the team to those in college, and as the increasing whiteness of my beard reminds me every time I look in the mirror, feeling like you haven't really changed since college does not mean you're the same as you were in college. No, that's the domain of actual college students, who retain that qualification for just a small sliver of time. Once college football players move on they must be replaced by new college football players via a phenomenon college coaches and the public alike have taken to calling "recruiting."

It seems like an excellent time to look closer at the player who has turned into the third-best player in Michigan’s 11th-ranked class with the early signing period just a couple of days away. Blake Corum was ranked just outside the top 200 in 247’s composite when he committed to Michigan at the end of June. Since then he has shot up the board, now finding himself ranked #119 overall and the 12th-best running back in the country.

Fortunately for us it was easy to find film of Corum, what with him playing for a national powerhouse against another national powerhouse in IMG Academy and the advent of livestreams yielding a full game for dissection. IMG’s defense is loaded with five-star corner Elias Ricks, four-star defensive tackles Demonte Capehart and Warren Brinson, three-star safety Lejon Cavazos, three-star defensive tackle Jordan Butler, three-star linebackers Zay Peterson and Jaqwondis Burns, three-star defensive end Josh Griffis, and that’s just the 2020 prospects. Yet Corum’s film from that game is as impressive as the highlight reel I had to base my brief evaluation of him on in his Hello post, especially when considering the competition.

[After THE JUMP: every-snap film and scouting]

I was thinking about what I should put in the intro of this piece and the first thing that came to mind was something about Ojabo’s background and the length of time he’s been playing football. I couldn’t remember exactly what the story was off the top of my head so I pulled up the Hello post—something I don’t like to do until after I’ve written up the scouting portion to limit confirmation bias—and I am so, so glad I did. It was worth it for this paragraph alone:

Ojabo took a unique path to his Michigan pledge. Here's how his head coach describes his journey to playing football in the first place:

“(David Ojabo) was born in Nigeria, then he moved to Scotland when he was about seven, eight-years-old,” Saylor said. “Parents live in Scotland now but goes back and forth from Scotland to Nigeria – works for Shell Oil.

“He came to Blair Academy two years ago. As a junior, he played basketball and soccer. He was on the basketball team with [2018 top-100 Penn State DE] Jayson (Oweh), saw how Jayson was blowing up, came into my office and said, ‘hey coach. I’m more athletic and I’m tougher than Jayson. Do you mind if I play football next year?’ He’s 6-5, 240-pounds. I looked at him and said, ‘Oh yeah. You can play some football next year.’

But Ace followed that with this golden nugget:

Ojabo doesn't appear to lack confidence, nor should he: after his first year playing football, he picked up over 30 scholarship offers. As his stock blew up, so did his phone—but not quite in the way he wanted, he told The Wolverine's Andrew Vailliencourt:

“I’m not going to lie, when I look at my text messages, there’s no girls in there, it’s all coaches, so it’s kind of stressful,” Ojabo said. “It’ll be good to get it over with, but it’s a good problem to have.”

I cannot fathom having the kind of confidence that allows someone to look at a teammate and be like, wow, I guess I should play some football, can’t be very hard if they let that weenie play and having the weenie guy be a freaking top-100 recruit who’s known in Penn State circles for his freakish speed and athleticism. To the tape!

[After THE JUMP: The tape! Scouting, too]