Recently-offered 2021 DT an underrated prospect, good find by new staff

Among the topics on this week’s Future Brew is pertaining to 2021 three-star defensive tackle Ikechukwu Iwunnah, who was offered by the new defensive coaching staff last week. He isn’t even in the top 1,000 on the composite, but his tape says otherwise.

Von: He is a 6-4, 275 defensive tackle from Garland, Texas. Very low ranked recruit — he is No. 1,187 on the composite. He’s currently committed to Colorado, but committed just a couple days before Michigan offered him. But if you turn on the tape, he doesn’t look like a guy not in the top 1,000. He’s outplaying his ranking, in my opinion. Jon, I don’t know if you got to see his tape yet, but he also performs track and field with the discus and triple jump. He’s a very athletic guy for a man of his size and I think he could be a pretty decent player in college, what say you?

Jon: Yeah, I was actually just watching his tape before we got on. Seeing him pick up a fumble and out-run some guys like 40 yards to the end zone, I think he’s a pretty good athlete. And I think there are reports saying he’s playing around 290 right now, and he definitely looks bigger on film. So I think that is good. But I like his athleticism, he plays pretty low for someone that big. He’s got good burst and strength. He kinda just rag dolls offensive lineman, so I think this is a good find by the staff. I don’t know if Nua has been monitoring him for a while, or if it’s coach Mo Linguist with his Texas connections, but whoever found him I think had a good evaluation here.

Stephen: I really like his film. I’m surprised he’s ranked like 1,200th overall. I think my favorite aspect of him was his track and field career. He still did the triple jump in the 2020 outdoor season, that’s pretty insane he did that. He’s also listed on the 4x100 relay, which is kind of insane, I really wanna see the footage of that. I think his footwork is what benefits the most off of that. I’d expect him to get a bump in the rankings, and possibly be one of those guys that wasn’t able to visit camps in 2020 due to COVID, and maybe grew a bit late into his position, so scouts weren’t able to give him the appropriate ranking. So I’m interested in a guy with that much athleticism and size.

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