Commitment Profile: Ondre Pipkins

Name: Ondre Pipkins

Location: Kansas City, MO

Position: DT

Ratings: ESPN – 3* (78), Scout – 4*, 247 Sports - 4*

Recruitment: Pipkins actually grew up in Michigan, and his Dad still coaches football here, so he has plenty of connections to the state and the state's premier football program! Michigan has really always lead for Pipkins since they offered, but there was fairly strong competition from the SEC schools, particularly Tennessee and Alabama. Michigan State will try to claim they were in the race, but to be honest, they weren't. Pipkins visited Michigan for the first time at the BHBBQ and claimed it to be his best visit, but he still insisted that he would take officials. A few days later he committed, funny how things work.

Offers: Michigan, Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Florida, Michigan State, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and many more.

Stats: Currently stands at 6’3 and around 320lbs, with a 40 yard dash time of 5.15 seconds. The best stats I could find on his junior year were 50 tackles and 3 sacks.

ESPN Analysis: Pipkins is a big boy and he shows flashes of being a real handful at the nose. He has good overall size, but may need to spend some time in a college weight program not only improving strength but reworking his build some to allow his size to better work for him. He can show flashes of very good first-step quickness which can grab your attention.

Has the ability to knock blockers back, but could use his hands better as well as improving his upper body strength. Has good burst off the snap of the ball and can collapse the pocket, but needs to show this more consistently.

It's a harsh evaluation compared to others!

Improvements: Needs to work on his consistency and footwork when driving through blockers. Also needs to work on his pad level and use of hands.

Film Highlights: Link here. There is actually no highlight film of him available on the likes of youtube etc, so there's a video of him just after he blew up the nike camp.

Final Thoughts: I like ESPN's evaluations, they are by far the most thorough and generally quite accurate when we look back at past players. However, I've got to be skeptical about this evaluation. Pipkins is one of the top players in the country this year based on his combine performances, and his offer list is much better than a three star rating.

As a freshman with great size, he'll definitely have a chance to compete for a rotation spot, and by his second year he could well be starting if UM is still in a 4-3. In other words, a redshirt is unlikely, unless his technique really needs as much work as ESPN says it does.

There are only four spots left in this class, and I don't think any will be going to another DT, unless his name is Aziz Shittu. The remaining spots should go to a WR, RB, CB and and OL. However you could definitely see UM missing out on that RB...

DT was a big need coming into this class and Michigan has finally filled it, to the relief of many fans I think!