Hello: PWO Andrew Vastardis

Submitted by MGoUP on

Andrew has decommited from Old Dominion and will accept a Perferred Walk On position at Michigan.  He is a 6' 4" 310lb guard who had an offer to Northwestern.  Always take chances on these type of players.

 

2016 Ashburn (Va.) Stony Bridge OG Andrew Vastardis accepted a preferred walk-on at #Michigan https://t.co/7WuiCtRAk0

— Eric Rutter (@ERutterTodaysU) January 27, 2016

Here is some film from 247: http://michigan.247sports.com/Board/59424/Contents/Michigan-picks-up-a-PWO-43179504

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turd ferguson

January 26th, 2016 at 8:31 PM ^

Wow, that's a nice pickup for a PWO.  Offensive linemen probably have the lowest correlation between recruiting rankings and performance, so he's definitely the kind of guy who could contribute at some point.  Congrats to him and kudos to the coaches.

Joined: 12/09/2009

MGoPoints: 26493

FutureOfA2

January 26th, 2016 at 8:39 PM ^

This is a huge get as a PWO. Love the nastiness and ferocity in his film. And to accept a PWO when he has full ride offers? Kid wants to prove he can play at the highest level. Drevno and Harbaugh in your corner doesn't hurt either

Joined: 03/18/2014

MGoPoints: 411

4yearsofhoke

January 26th, 2016 at 8:42 PM ^

Offer at NW shows he's a legit football player. Not sure why anyone would give up a free education at NW to pay for one at Mich, but I digress. Maybe he can make the league??

Joined: 12/19/2015

MGoPoints: 2256

Dan84

January 26th, 2016 at 8:51 PM ^

Welcome Andrew!

A little more context: this article (http://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/odu-adds-bulk-to-cla…) seems to imply that the Northwestern offer was commitable, but then someone stole his spot.

Also in that article, a Scout regional analyst calls him an "absolute steal" for ODU. 

Looks like he camped at Michigan both last summer (http://touchthebanner.blogspot.com/2015/06/2015-michigan-summer-camp-pa…) and in 2014 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/recruiting-insider/wp/2014/08/15/20…).

Joined: 05/21/2011

MGoPoints: 494

DMack

January 26th, 2016 at 9:31 PM ^

If you ask me, Swenson and Shad should have taken the PWO too. You get to learn from the best and play against the best competition anywhere. Day in and day out.

Guys being promised an open spot  and starting are dillusional and if your goal is the NFL you should want to compete and be challenged. You wont get better if you're not. 

I'm sure that just because you walk-on doesn[t mean they won't find you some financial aid or academic scholarship money somewhere.   

Joined: 06/22/2015

MGoPoints: 2743

recklessaBrandon

January 26th, 2016 at 10:55 PM ^

Are you sure about that? I know it is FCS but many of the Ivies meet all financial need. The service academies also technically give non-football scholarships to many of their players (they may have an exception though). I always figured you could still get need-based financial aid (though I guess it could only be FA from the state/feds)

Joined: 08/22/2015

MGoPoints: 721

Mr Miggle

January 27th, 2016 at 7:05 AM ^

academies. They don't give football scholarships and compete at levels where everyone else does.

It's possible to get financial aid to other schools. Michigan has a PWO in this class that's part of the Kalamazoo Promise. There are a lot of restrictions for walkons getting financial aid. The biggest are that it's not based on athletics and the school has no role in awarding or paying it.

Joined: 10/07/2010

MGoPoints: 47770

Phoenix

January 26th, 2016 at 9:47 PM ^

Ok, watching this film I get why I am not a scout. Dude looks vicious. He mauls kids (sure, who are probably two-thirds his size, but he seems tenacious). Seems relatively quick for a lineman his size. So is it his feet? His bend? Just too small of a sampling to see what he does on other plays?

Magnus, Space Coyote, anyone want to weigh in on what makes him not P5 scholarship worthy (other than NW which he is not attending, whether because someone else took a spot or...)?



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Joined: 12/05/2009

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ThoseWhoStay W…

January 26th, 2016 at 10:28 PM ^

He is decent size and good hands from the video. His feet are slow and does not have that explosive first step you look for. He also does not use his pad level, rather he just uses his size which works in high school but not going up agains the defensive lines of P5 teas. Just my two cents from what i saw. Great to have him though

Joined: 08/15/2015

MGoPoints: 927

Ghost of Fritz…

January 26th, 2016 at 11:21 PM ^

Why do so many linemen have difficulty mastering the simple technique of not standing totally upright?  I mean it just seems like a simple skill to master, right?  Don't stand up!

It is just learing to keep a low center of gravity.  It is not like learning harder techniques, such as effectively chip blocking and then moving on to the next block, or how to properly catch a pass by high pointing it and using the body to keep away the defender.

What am I missing here?  I mean it seems very weird that the failure to learn to refrain from standing totally upright is the main thing that keeps him from getting a D1 full ride.  Even if he has the worst HS coaching on the planet, 5 minutes on YouTube should teach him this basic technique.  How can such a simple thing cost this guy $200,000 in college tuition?

Joined: 10/04/2014

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trustBlue

January 27th, 2016 at 4:49 AM ^

That seems to more likely to be an issue of posterier strength, flexibility and balance more than it is of him simply forgeting that he's not supposed to stand up.

I mean, I dont think its a simple as getting him a wrist band that says "REMEMBER: DONT STAND UP."

But then again, Harbaugh got AJ Williams to run faster just by asking him to, so who knows.

Joined: 04/14/2014

MGoPoints: 8230

Wolfman

January 27th, 2016 at 4:51 AM ^

here by the name of  Will Campbell. In waching his film and commenting honestly, I enraged with a then mod by the name of Helmoldt. I remarked, "All I see in that film is a guy that just overpoweres his opponents, possesses no refined skills, seems to not understand the truth in the time tested and proven axiom that "low man wins" preached on every practice field in America, and I'm supposed to buy he's a five star?  He was pissed. I got kicked off later for an unrelated incident, even though I had told him I was aware the best players came from the east side, but at that time, which was true, the best teams came from the west side. 

His repsone, "Oh because he doesn't come from the west side, he is overrated? My responses, "If he came from the west side and possessed that athletic ability together with his body type, he would not require three years of getting rid of his bad habits." I think it was three years later he began making good plays.

You are correct and I am sure his coaches taught him the proper fundamentals. But if your aren't willing or able to set him down and watch someone do it right, there really exist no motivation that just continuin with what your're doing, which usually results in a win at that level.

There is a reason that Teeter, later to be recognized as strongest man in the NFL, Rheinhold, same school, Renes, another school, but in the general vicinity and Terrance Taylor, another Muskegon kid pretty much handled our NG position for rought 14 out of 20 years. Aside from Rheinhold, they were all  state champion wrestlers as well, but damn, you have to teach these freakishly stong players that leverage still dicates who will win. It's much more difficult, when someone has beel allowed to do the same thing over and over to correct than it is reaching into the bag and pulling out the ropes at a young age and getting rid of this poblem within one season.

And welcome and good luck young man. I am sure you will do great.

Joined: 07/23/2008

MGoPoints: 8259

Magnus

January 27th, 2016 at 6:48 AM ^

He's just a giant beer keg. He doesn't move all that well, and he's very stiff. He sure isn't afraid of contact, though. He's going to have a tough time staying in front of FBS athletes. But hey, if you can have a walk-on like that on your scout team, then that's a pretty good situation.

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