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| Ondre Pipkins |
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 337 lbs.
High school: Kansas City (MO) Park Hill
Position: Defensive tackle
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: #56
Last year: Pipkins was in high school. He had 60 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, 6 forced fumbles, and 3 pass breakups.
TTB Rating: 90
Perhaps the most anticipated arrival in 2012 will be defensive tackle Ondre Pipkins. The future Michigan nose tackle said that he played the U.S. Army All-American Bowl at approximately 360 lbs., so getting down to 337 by July has been quite a feat. Still, 330-350 lbs. was too heavy for the 6'5" William Campbell (who has slimmed down to about 308 lbs.), so Pipkins probably needs to continue to shed the weight. Pipkins tracked down all-everything wide receiver Stefon Diggs in the aforementioned all-star game and made some plays pursuing to the sideline, so he moves pretty well for a big man, even with excess weight.
As far as his freshman season goes, he will almost surely be pressed into action. Michigan's depth on the interior of the defensive line is rather non-existent, with only a handful of defensive tackles returning. The presumed starters are William Campbell at nose tackle and Jibreel Black at 3-tech, while backups Quinton Washington, Richard Ash, and Ken Wilkins return. None of those backups has produced much thus far, so the door is wide open for Pipkins to step in. He probably doesn't have a chance to start this season, but he could be Campbell's primary backup or a short yardage contributor. I have a feeling that he might start off the season third on the depth chart, but will probably move his way up as the season goes along. My expectations are high for his career overall, but offensive line and defensive line (especially defensive tackle) are notoriously difficult transitions for freshmen.
Prediction: Backup nose tackle
Have you seen any of his HS highlights? I have not. Wondering if you have any more insights into whether how technically developed he is coming in. If he is more of a physical specimen who just overpowers people, I could see him running into some initial frustration. Hoke is going to be all over him to master small technical details.
ReplyDeleteYeah, he's got some highlight films out there. He's not particularly technical at this point, but I don't really expect 350-pounders to be technically sound coming into college. I'm sure he will be frustrated at times. That's the nature of the beast.
DeleteDon't forget, Pipkins will have THREE position coaches to coach him up during his Michigan career. Not just Hoke ;) I think that we see Pipkins mostly in spot duty to spell BWC (or in goal-line/short yardage situations), but I think we'll see some clear improvement from Pipkins over the season due to this attention he'll get. The potential for Pipkins over his Michigan career with this level of instruction is scary.
DeleteBoy do we ever have a lot of eggs in the Pipkins basket. If there's any area that I would be really concerned about for 2014 and beyond, NT would be it. If he is a bust or he is injured, we've got no other obvious guy to take his place and 2013 was a bad recruiting year for big DTs.
ReplyDeleteFelt this way too, but Mattison used grunt types (e.g., Jason Horn) on the interior of the line in years past. Obviously you'd prefer to have future NFL guys, but they'll survive without them, if it comes to that. They have some other guys in the pipeline at DT too (e.g., Henry, Hurst JR). It's not ALL on Pipkins, but hopes are high for him.
DeleteIt does appear that Willie Henry and Maurice Hurst could potentially play some NG too. Both guys are in the 6'2" 300 lbs range. Even Hoke can't expect to reel in an NFL-sized NT like Pipkins every year because there are not many of them out there. Maybe you get a guy like that every 2-3 years. The depth needs to be filled out with smaller recruits in the Grant Bowman or Terrance Taylor mold who try to bulk up.
DeleteAlso, the tOSU and LSU offers for Maurice Hurst indicate that he might be pretty good in his own right. I wouldn't be surprised to see either Hurst or Henry as major contributors down the line. I like our depth at NT/3-tech, personally.
DeleteHe seems so athletic already, would you be surprised if they also give him reps at backup 3tech, or at SDE ?
ReplyDeleteHe's absolutely not a SDE, but the two interior positions (1-tech, 3-tech) are interchangeable, according to Mattison. He could play either/or if needed.
DeleteI mean I know he's not a 5 tech, but last year they had large guys moving around, and a 295 lb Heininger on the end, and the big 3 moving all over the place with Martin on the end dropping back into coverage sometimes, lol. I thought if he's trimmed down by the time he reaches campus he might be a better backup option across the line than Ash, or Q, or Brink. Kind of like Kalis on offense, even though we all know where both will end up.
DeleteHeininger came out of the game in nickel situations. Pipkins is already 337 and on campus. I don't think he's going to trim down a ton more before the season. Practice starts on Monday, I think.
DeleteAgree with you. Tough for a freshman to make an immediate impact, but he has a good chance of playing an important role in conference play. Hopefully he gets to play a bit against Alabama and see what this level is all about.
ReplyDeleteI do think freshman DL often make an impact - but usually at DE. It's harder inside. Some of our better interior linemen lately have played notable backup roles as freshman (Taylor, Martin). Black might be another even though he played WDE. So, if Pipkins does play, I'm going to take it as a positive sign.
ngata 2.0
ReplyDeleteWas his high school playing in a particularly tough league?
ReplyDeleteI know DTs are space eaters who plug the line and don't necessarily pile up tackles and other stats, but 10 TFLs and 4 sacks doesn't sound like a lot against (probably) 230-240 lb linemen last year. That basically means he tacked a dude behind the LOS once per game last year + 6 times beyond the LOS. I would expect a higher ratio of TFL+sacks/Tackles if he was being aggressive, penetrating the line.
Should we be concerned about this?
He didn't play in particularly tough league, but it's hard to say if we should be concerned without watching the games themselves. Some teams, if they're going against a tough defensive tackle, will double- and triple-team him the entire game and/or run to the outside almost exclusively.
DeleteIs that height accurate?...with that hair cut, or should I say without it... he is 6' 1" maybe? Short is not so bad for a NT, run stopper, hole plugger. I predict a couple starts this year (for whatever reason,... injury, sending a message, what not), ..... 3 yr starter thereafter.
ReplyDeleteI saw him in Ann Arbor last month...definitely taller than 6'1"
DeleteI agree with anonymous. I saw him at the CCRB last night and he was surprisingly tall. I'm 6'4 and I thought that Pipkins might have been as tall as me. It seems that these heights can be exaggerated, but I'd definitely say he is a solid 6'3.
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