Scouting 2020 Michigan OL commit Micah Mazzccua

Earlier this week, Michigan picked up its first offensive line commitment of the 2020 cycle in 3-star guard Micah Mazzccua. He’s viewed as a raw prospect, but one who hasn’t gotten many looks after transferring from Simon Gratz in Philadelphia to national power St. Frances Academy in Baltimore before last season.

After watching his film, that sentiment holds up, but there are plenty of strengths in his game. He’s a strong run blocker who can latch onto his guy and drive him backwards. He shows a tenacity and willingness to go until the whistle.

Familiarize yourself with his style of play before I start pulling clips.

The 6-foot-5, 290-pound athlete moves very well for his size. His highlight film is littered with clips of him pulling. He’s good at keeping his head on a swivel and looking for a man to pick up, like in the clip below, where he knocks a linebacker to the ground and keeps looking for contact, finding a defensive back to chip.

Going along with his feet in space is how well he fires out of his stance. He shows good explosion off the line when he keeps his feet under him. Here, he blows a defensive tackle back after getting under him and driving his feet.

Sometimes, though, Mazzccua gets a little ahead of himself and will lunge at his target out of his stance. This takes his lower body out of the equation and he has to rely on his upper body strength, which still usually gets the job done.

In pass protection, Mazzccua possesses a strong first punch that usually stuns the pass rusher and neutralizes him. Watch this play below, where Mazzccua stuns the defensive lineman with his punch, which knocks him off balance and causes him to fall over.

But he can work on his footwork when dropping back into pass-pro. Sometimes he only relies on the first contact and doesn’t drop back, so he’s not in position to keep up with the pass rusher if they are still balanced.

As an interior line prospect, he won’t have to be that concerned with taking lunge steps backwards like tackles do, but if he faces someone with a good pass-rush move, Mazzccua could be wiped out.

I like what I see in Mazzccua, who will have a few years to develop behind a stacked interior line depth chart. If he can refine his technique and work on keeping his base under him, his explosion off the line could be special. His agility in space will be a real asset when he’s asked to pull or get downfield on screens.

I don’t think he’ll see the field before his redshirt sophomore season, and after that, who knows. If he continues his development, he could be a candidate to rise in the rankings since he attends such a highly-publicized high school.