Recapping 2012 Commit Mario Ojemudia

Today, we continue on with the defensive line recruits and reach Mario Ojemudia.  He's a defensive end out of Farmington Hills, Michigan and has one of the fiercest stares in the history of the world (see here).  He brings in some decent hype and is expected to progress into a defensive end that wrecks havor in the backfield.  Of course, this will take time, but his talent could definitely be important in the future at a position of need for Michigan.

Ojemudia has several skills that can make him absolutely lethal as a rushing defensive end.  First, he has incredible speed off the snap and is often able to get in the backfield before offensive linemen can even react.  This is one of the reasons he was able to amass so many sacks in high school.  He also possesses a solid wingspan and some good fundamentals.  Of course, with just about every recruit, there is a negative side and Ojemudia certainly has one.  He is pretty undersized at this point, coming in at 225 lbs according to the media guide.  Along with this, he's just 6'2" and doesn't have nearly the level of strength needed to be a major factor on the line in the near future.  Yes, he will be playing weakside defensive end, which is closer to a linebacker than a defensive tackle in Mattison's scheme, but he's just doesn't have the size and strength to be a factor at this point.



Here are the basic stats on Ojemudia:

	ESPN	Rivals	Scout	247Sports
Height	6’2”	6’3”	6’2”	6’2”
Weight	222 lbs	215 lbs	220 lbs	215 lbs
Position	DE	WDE	OLB	WDE
Rating	4*	3*	4*	3*
Position Rank	#23	#30	#20	#28
National Rank	#150+	#250+	#162	#247+

There's no doubt that Ojemudia is a player with a high ceiling, given his ratings listed above.  Scout undeniably has him the highest, but they also have him rated as an outside linebacker.  Michigan's weakside defensive end position is basically a linebacker spot, but that's still something worth noting.  He seems to be an edge 4* recruit, but he is rated pretty well in terms of his position, even if Scout has him listed at another spot.  The heights and weights aren't really important here because we have the media guide that I mentioned above.  Regardless, he is pretty highly ranked.

For the 2012 season, we're talking about a clear redshirt here.  If the coaching staff even considers playing him this year, there is either going to have to be some massive developments with the starters and backups, or he will have to grow 20 lbs or more during fall camp.  I really don't expect either to happen.  Michigan may not have massive depth, as I mentioned in my defensive line breakdown here, but they should have enough to where they don't have to play a very undersized Ojemudia.

With sophomores Brennen Beyer and Frank Clark expected to play heavy time at the position this year, it makes even more sense to give Ojemudia a redshirt.  This way there will be a few seasons between them and them in terms of eligibility.  I think Ojemudia has the potential to be much better than both Beyer and Clark because of his high ceiling, but it's going to be minimum one to two years before he's really ready to play.  If he redshirts, he should be about ready to go when Beyer and Clark graduate, which makes it a perfect decision here.  This may be a sleeper recruit fans forget about in a year or two, but he could do some big things in 2014 and afterward.