Previously: Last year’s profiles, K Adam Samaha, K James Turner (Tr), S Brandyn Hillman, CB DJ Waller, CB Cameron Calhoun, CB Jyaire Hill, HSP/LB Jason Hewlett, LB Hayden Moore, LB Semaj Bridgeman, LB Ernest Hausmann (Tr), OLB Breeon Ishmail, DE Aymeric Koumba, DE Enow Etta, DE Josaiah Stewart (Tr), DT Brooks Bahr.

Chatsworth (Sierra Canyon), CA – 6'4"/260
		247: 6'4/260                         4.06*	4*, 90, NR overall #41 DL, #25 CA
		On3: 6'4/260                         3.83*	3*, 88, NR overall #66 DL, #57 CA
		Rivals: 6'4/260                         3.83*	3*, 5.7, NR overall #31 DT, #42 CA
		ESPN: 6'3/255                         3.98*	4*, 80, #65 West #25 DT, #37 CA
		Composite            3.89* / 3.93*	3*, #455/#407 Ovr #51/#46 DL, #36/#34 CA
		MGoAverage                         3.89*	3.5*, #460/789 Ovr #39/69 DTs since '90
		YMRMFSPA	Carlo Kemp
Other Suitors	Stanford decommit, USC-ish.
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello by yours truly.
Notes	NHS. Instagram.
Film:
Senior Highlights:Hudl. EJ Holland breakdown. HS feature.

So here's something we haven't seen much of in this class: A player who's played football for a long time, went to plenty of camps, got scouted a ton, and committed to Michigan on Signing Day. Cam Brandt was the penultimate commitment in the class. He is the second or third DT/DE tweener, depending on your projection for Etta, the third youngest member of the class, and the fourth alphabetically. If we were ordering these purely on the distance-from-the-ball spectrum, Brandt probably falls in between Etta and Bahr.

Like Nugent and Myles Hinton, Brandt was a gift from the implosion of David Shaw's Harbaugh successor program at Stanford. Michigan turned up its pursuit when they lost Collins Acheampong, who is an Edge. That's where Michigan plans to put Brandt too. But I don't think it's going to take much to tip this one into the DT bucket.

[After THE JUMP: An easy comp that's going to start an argument anyways.]

---------------------------

Nothing Seems to Pop

When Oregon offered ScoopDuck thought Brandt would jump into the top 150-200. He did not, because Brandt picks up B-minuses in his football grading like he picks up A's in school. EJ Holland said "he's solid in a lot of areas but not necessarily special in any one" and said he agrees with the On3 Consensus that placed Brandt right under the 4-star borderline. Touch the Banner described a kid who "lacks the quickness to be an elite edge rusher and right now doesn’t have the size to be a force on the interior." Adam Gorney put the Sting Factor for his Stanford decommitment at a strangely mid "6."

The site saying otherwise is 247. West scout Greg Biggens, who saw Brandt in a camp setting and thought the potential was there to play outside.

…moves his 6-3, 260 pound frame around with ease and runs more like a linebacker than a defensive lineman. We love his positional versatility and feel he’ll be able to add on enough weight to line up anywhere along the defensive line.

Greg Brooks said "the play violence pops" and credited Brandt for "impressive play strength, quickness, pursuit ability, and a hot motor," while mentioning that playing track might improve his explosiveness. They also point out that Brandt is young for his grade (he turned 18 in May). Cardinal writers, when they had him, said he "moves really well and is very light on his feet" for a guy with a big frame, and hits hard.

What makes Brandt such an exciting addition for Stanford is his rare physical package. Guys at his size rarely move with so much ease.

Lucas Reimink praised the "overall athleticism"

Including Brandt.

Reimink also said Cam "isn't a dynamic DL player right now due to lack of explosion off the LOS," which this is the main knock on his game from, well, everybody who had something negative to say. EJ Holland:

I don't really see this speed or the explosiveness but he has some really nice power to his game I think you'll obviously continue to get stronger at the next level.

Touch the Banner was one who thought this would put a ceiling on Brandt at DT. "He can be a little slow off the ball at times, and partly because of that, I don’t see him being an elite penetrator." He underlined this take by comparing Brandt to Chris Hinton, who went undrafted after leaving Michigan early to a chorus of scouts calling his get-off less reactive than bismuth.

Smart Cookie Eats Runs

Like Hinton, Brandt would probably get the chemistry dad humor. Between the ears alone, Brandt is the kind of Michigan recruit that Michigan would recruit even if he wasn't playing football. He was committed to Stanford. He made the National Honors Society. He put himself through a ridiculous daily commute to play for the high school the Baldwins send their kids to.

Cameron Brandt is from Carson (yes, like Dre). He transferred from St. Bernard, the high school you might have seen while landing at LAX, reportedly taking a bus in to Sierra Canyon at 4:30 every morning to get his workouts in before school. I leave it to people in LA to figure out how to use public transportation to get from practically Torrance to the other side of the Hollywood sign in just 3 hours, because Google Maps couldn't figure it out.

And he was team captain. The big brains on Brandt come out on the football field. Touch the Banner usually doesn't have much praise for the borderline 3-star guys but came away impressed with this one for a very specific reason.

His intelligence is apparent with how he approaches his position, from slanting into gaps quickly to how he approaches tackles. A lot of tacklers just jump on the pile at full speed, but he makes a concerted effort to drive ball carriers sideways or pull them backward to stop forward progress. Despite getting pinballed around a little bit as a slightly undersized interior lineman taking on double-teams, he maintains his active hands and quickness to slither through gaps and make plays with second and third efforts.

The developed approach was evident when he committed to Stanford. Gabe Brooks of 247 saw "an advanced sense of changing speeds and setting up blockers in his pass rush, while also flashing startling redirecting athleticism in close quarters." This is a repeating theme in the descriptions of Brandt: he's a disruptor who will scratch and claw his way into the backfield. Lucas Reimink even credits him for good pad level.

He also shows good mental processing speed and good hand use, knowing when to use what moves in order to put pressure on the QB from the interior. In the run game, he’s good at block deconstruction, so he can get off blocks in a timely manner and make a play on the ball carrier due to his good mental processing speed and good hand use. He will stack and shed opposing OL consistently, showing good feel for how to make tackles as a DT. When teams run zone his way, he shows good recognition and makes the appropriate adjustment to maintain his gap discipline and plug up his gap. When teams run man(power) schemes at him, he shows good recognition there as well to brace himself for a trap block and stand his ground with his solid physical strength.

His coach calls Brandt the "hardest working kid you can imagine" and praises his motor and speed, but you know, coaches are usually pretty positive about that stuff.

Is he Going Inside or Outside?

At least to begin, they're saying he goes outside, with a caveat.

“They see me playing as a big edge for them,” Brandt said. “They think I can do that and also play the 6, 5, 4i and the 3 techniques in their defense.

Biggens liked that Brandt had the potential to do that, provided that…

We really like his positional versatility and feel he can play defensive tackle or as an edge rusher depending on the scheme. He probably projects best as interior lineman and at the high school level, he never leaves the field and plays on the offensive line as well.

Reimink thinks Brandt would be okay if he stays outside, however,

Due to his marginal explosion off the ball, Cameron Brandt projects as a good role player as a run stuffing DT or DE at the next level, and if he can add a bunch of mass, and improve upon his physical strength and agility he could become a 3-down player and carve out an NFL role for himself down the road.

Touch the Banner will accede to any tech 5 through 3 depending on,

I see him more as a 5-tech defensive end who could maybe slide inside to a 4i or 3-tech spot. Of course, that depends on how much bulk he adds over the next few years.

And finally Holland noted Brandt explicitly replaced Acheampong in the class, but,

I don't necessarily think that's where he projects the best I do think he can play there but I just don't really see the speed or the explosiveness for him to be an edge guy. I see him more as a Kris Jenkins type.

…while stressing several times that Brandt needs to get in the weight room. Helpfully, the Stanford site people gave us a comp from their own periodic table of techs:

If there’s one recent Stanford player for Brandt to try to emulate, it would be Thomas Booker, who got drafted by the Houston Texans earlier this year. When Booker came to Stanford, he was a 4-star defensive tackle listed at 6’4”, 280 pounds. He was slightly bigger and also rated slightly higher with a Rivals rating of 5.8 as opposed to Brandt’s 5.7. But when you watch Brandt play, it’s hard to not think of Booker. Like Booker, Brandt has a big frame and moves exceptionally well. When he gets in the backfield, he knows how to make plays.

Here's Booker in college.

In the Hello I noted that Booker "ended up playing around 6'3"/301 and was a versatile 4-3 DT but still very much a DT." I also went into PFF to show where Booker fits on the DL spectrum, which was about halfway between Kris Jenkins Mason Graham/Chris Hinton on the Tech Scale.

Player	Kemp '20	Jenkins '22	Booker '21	Hinton '21	Graham '22	Smith '22
Nose	3%	0%	8%	6%	10%	29%
3-tech	43%	58%	60%	80%	80%	63%
5-tech	11%	33%	27%	13%	9%	6%
Edge	42%	8%	5%	0%	0%	0%
Linebacker	0%	1%	0%	0%	1%	1%
Avg Tech	5.00	4.07	3.59	3.13	3.01	2.48

Etc. Grew up playing hoops. Also competes track & field. Also there's academics and there's Stanford commit who publishes his report card on Twitter.

What odds that he had a very good argument about commas in modern use cases, e.g. inside quotations, that led to that A-?

Why Carlo Kemp? Intelligent, feisty DL who should not have been forced to play nose. Kemp didn't have great explosion and never got big enough to be a true DT—he measured 6'2.5/281 at the NFL combine and made a couple of practice squads since. He also spent some time at edge when needed in 2020, and was an irascible technician with good pad level who wasn't the problem on the DT-poor lines he played on. Stick a handful of Paganos on Brandt's bloodline and you've got the same player, with a similar attitude and GPA. Brandt projects as another undersized 3-tech/4i-tech type who can fill in as needed at 5-tech but shouldn't be placed between an Ohio State guard and center. Jibreel Black was another Kemp-like, and was the guy Kemp was comped to. Again: should not have been a nose.

Chris Hinton works too as an academics-minded DT who didn't have enough burst, but Hinton was a 5-star DE out of Georgia who didn't take much projection to get DT-sized, and got there in a few years—he was 6'3 5⁄8 and 305 at the combine. Hinton is also the most head-scratching early NFL departure in memory, which makes him harder to comp guys to since he probably could have developed further.

Guru Reliability: High. Big California school in a big LA league. They all say the same things, all picked the same weakness, liked him for the same strengths.

Variance: Low. Already has pad level, isn't expected to be a superstar.

Ceiling: Medium. Could get to 305 with the kind of leverage and technique to be a plus player and of interest to the NFL. Lack of explosion AND lack of size limit this considerably.

Flight Risk Level: High-minus. I don't like it but he has a lot of the markers. Situational late flip from Stanford shows he's reactive to changing situations, and that Michigan wasn't his first choice until Shaw's program disintegrated. Put himself through a ridiculous commute for a high school with better opportunities shows he's dynamic in finding the best situation for himself. Has unequivocally stated in interviews that he wants to get to the NFL "as soon as possible." Also Michigan said he's going to be a Edge when everyone who scouts him thinks he needs to gain weight and play DT, so there's going to be a reconciliation to that. Finally guy like Brandt has more access to the portal than most, since half the schools in NCAA are looking for a functional DT who'll be eligible next season (a lot of behind the scenes transfer work is academic, which shouldn't be a problem for Brandt). Working in Michigan's favor is he will need to develop his body, that he's already at the most academics+athletics+development program in the country, and that he's at the one that plays three DTs often. If anyone can keep Cameron Brandt around for four years, it's probably Michigan.

General Excitement Level: Moderate. Baseline 5, –1 for doesn't have the quickness for edge, –1 for doesn't have the size for DT, –1 for won't ever have the size for nose, –1 for doesn't have explosion to be a seriously disruptive DT, +1 for already pretty developed, +1 for perfect Michigan fit, +1 for fluid athlete, +1 for the fine points of DT are far more important than people realize, and I have seen too many things not to be happy for a DT, even if he doesn't know that's what he is.

Projection: I'm 100% with the people projecting him to DT. Brandt has very few of the traits that would raise his ceiling at DE, but projects pretty smoothly to the 4i-tech/3-tech role that Kris Jenkins plays, even if he's not like Jenkins. Here's where I defend Carlo Kemp, who wasn't a nose, but should have been an effective sidekick to the nose because he had the athleticism and the skill to be a pain in the ass to single-block. Kemp wasn't the problem on those teams; the fact that Kemp was a 280-pound guy with a 2019 Tech Scale number (2.11) lower than Mazi Smith's was the problem.

The depth chart Brandt is walking into right now is actually pretty favorable for DTs. Jenkins is going to the NFL after this year, and Cam Goode will be out of eligibility. The 2024 threesome is locked at Graham, Grant, and Benny but the only DTs behind them are Ike Iwunnah, a pure nose, and Alessandro Lorenzetti, an OL swing who may move back there. They need at least one guy from this DT class in the top-four rotation by next year, and may need three new starters by 2025.

Ideally Michigan can get senior years out of one or two of that top three; realistically Brandt is needed to play as a redshirt sophomore in that Jenkins spot. If forced to guess, Brandt gets in a few games this year but preserves a redshirt, is 3rd string by 2024, and a full rotational piece in years 3 and 4 who scores well in UFR but doesn't get a lot of fan recognition before leaving us a year before we wanted him to.