2024 Recruiting: Lugard Edokpayi (2024)

[Side note: I used to have Craig Roh to lend an assist on scouting edge prospects, and a lot of the coach talk herein was learned from him, so if you appreciate that stuff, the GoFundMe for his wife and son is ongoing. I miss him terribly.]

Previously: 2023's profiles. K Dominic Zvada (Tr), S Jacob Oden, S Wesley Walker (Tr), S Jaden Mangham(Tr), CB Aamir Hall (Tr), CB Ricky Johnson (Tr), CB Jeremiah Lowe, CB Jo'Ziah Edmond, LB Jaishawn Barham (Tr), LB Jeremiah Beasley, LB Cole Sullivan, OLB Mason Curtis

Moving down the positional spectrum we come to Michigan's last (non-transfer) recruit to join the Class of 2024. Unlike some of the others in his group, Edokpayi's purpose here is obvious. Michigan wanted an elite pass-rusher. An edge-bender. A whip. An unblockable freaky-freak who, yes, might drop into coverage here or there and command an annoyingly high amount of airspace, but is mostly there to take away the quarterback's reads by forcing him out of the pocket before he can get to a second one.

He is the definition of a late bloomer. Edokpayi was also an extremely late riser who switched from basketball as a junior and received his first Power 5 offer (VT) in September of his senior season, with Michigan offering on November 8th. When he committed on Signing Day it was days after On3 and 247 moved him up from a 3-star ranking in the high-500s, and Rivals didn't have an actual ranking. I referenced the Dragon Reborn.

And oh what storm. The scouts agree: this guy has the balance to ride on the winds, legs to run to the sounds of thunder, feet to dance among lightning bolts, and arms to tear the world asunder. All that's left is to teach him to play the game of football.

Then he kept going, with ESPN offering an out-of-character-for-them January 28th reranking. On3's final ranking moved Edokpayi on the edge of 5 stars. Since one of our metrics is "guys that move late never move far enough" he might as well be.

[After THE JUMP: Iconic Gus Johnson call cometh.]

MEASURING POTENTIAL

When the sites are raging about potential, often the thing they're measuring is the measurements. Edokpayi is a legitimate freak. Andrew Ivins, now scouting director for 247, called him a "spider out on the edge with what appears to be some of the longest limbs of the cycle" without the benefit of in-person measurements. Charles Power reports a 6'6.5 height and 34.5-inch arms, which are referenced multiple times in describing Power's favorite signee in Michigan's class.

He was a personal favorite of mine. His upside could be as high as about any pass rusher in the cycle. He’s a guy who’s relatively new to football and kind of a tall, long-limbed basketball player, but I think that just a combination of physical skills, his athleticism, first step quickness, and the ability to play strong despite, his relatively kind of thin frame right now bodes really well. We’ve seen these pass rushers that the staff has brought in. They’ll sit for a couple of years and then have a year where they just blow up and become a high draft pick. I think Lugard, he’s kind of cut from that same cloth.

Power would also start saying "twitchy" to describe Edokpayi's athleticism, and explained his main reasoning for moving Edokpayi into On3's top-50 at the end was "one of the highest upsides among the pass-rushers and EDGE prospects" nationally. Holland thinks "you probably won't hear from Edokpayi for a few years" but this is the best of presents to unwrap down the road.

When you look at Edokpayi, I mean the length is so special. Man, he is a guy that I visited at his school and when I saw him do the little wingspan photo that I had him do I was like oh my God this guy has just tremendous length. Like I thought Baxter was long; this kid is really really long.

That photo.

Ivins referenced a report that Edokpayi was at 84 inches (and not done growing) and Anthony Broome mentioned 85 inches. For reference the top wingspan at the latest combine was 86.25, and 85.48 (Zach Harrison) the year before.

Why arms? Power explains:

His length and twitch help to initiate contact and make pass-rush moves. It helps him with finishing as well. Having longer arms helps you (get to) ball carriers and quarterbacks.

See Also

Countdown to Penn State Kickoff: 77 days until Nittany Lions footballCollege Football: The top-10 defensive lines in the country

And he's an ATHLETE. It's not just the freaky-freak size but how he moves. Power repeatedly emphasized Edokpayi's…

athleticism and quick-twitch ability, as well as his surprising play strength, bodes really well for the future.

Austin Meek credited Edokpayi with enough bend to be a special pass rusher," a point Bishop McNamara head coach Greg Calhoun made while telling EJ he thinks Lu's a first rounder because of the combination of length, frame, and twitch.

You want a guy that can get to the quarterback and cause havoc, especially in the NFL with the way quarterbacks are now. He has the athleticism to maneuver.”

BC reporter Justin Rowland (Remember him from the Massachusetts wars? We like him.) explained the combination of basketball player/receiver/defensive end usually portends the kind of athlete who whips up on slower OTs, a point Rivals's Adam Friedman hammered when moving Edokpayi up to 4 stars:

With his basketball background, Edokpayi is an impressive athlete on the field. He started his football career as a receiver but began focusing on defensive end before this season and has really taken off. Edokpayi has elite quickness at the snap, is rapidly improving his hand techniques as a pass rusher and run defender, and he is stronger than his lean frame indicates. He has a great motor and chases down ball carriers across the field. Edokpayi also does a good job quickly redirecting if his first move isn't effective.

Speaking of basketball background: explosive dunking ho!

Ivins said Lu's "still figuring out how to consistently create pressure" but is not just about longness (emphasis mine).

has put very encouraging stretches of play on tape. Wins more times than not with his abnormal reach, but can also catch opposing tackles off guard with his initial burst.

Mmm burst. Good word for line prospects, that.

Figuring out how to create pressure is a good next step. That means things like learning how to make a plan, developing moves, footwork, break, hand usage in all situations, how to draw more holding calls and fewer holds, etc. Those are all works in progress, as Calhoun said getting that pad level down was the focus last year.

He’s really showing he can bend. … When I got here, he took the weight room way more serious. …Now, he’s playing with a low pad level. He’s using his hands to strike and get off blocks. He’s putting pass rush moves together. He’s shown the ability to stop the run and control his gap.

Bishop McNamara is a strong program with college-caliber coaching, and On3 thought they'd already done a lot for a guy new to football.

Pass rushing nuance with the ability to bend the edge. Length presents issues for opposing offensive tackles. Hits offensive tackles with a nasty hesitation move. Looks to be a twitched up athlete and changes directions well. Shows budding speed to power. Plays with an encouraging level of core strength. Plays with solid physicality and disengages to make plays against the run.

Other than growing, Power wants Edokpayi to focus on pass rush moves.

Working on the technical skills. Putting together a pass rush plan. I think those are the biggest things. It’s a combination of progressing physically in terms of mass and strength and then working on technical skills. But he plays with pretty good play strength relative to his size. He’s by no means a weak player at all.

But most of the other people who scouted Lu thought he was mostly getting by on being freaky. Brandon Brown:

On tape, Edokpayi stands out because of his length and speed. He's a bit raw when it comes to his pass rush moves, but you can see tons and tons of potential when you watch him play. You can also see it when he's on offense where he plays wide receiver, which certainly puts that length and athleticism on display.

This take was shared by WolverineWire's Owen Pustell, who called him a "blank slate" using his ability to out-athlete opponents. But he's learning:

Edokpayi’s highlights show that he is not afraid to try out pass-rush moves. He had success with swim moves, spin moves, and swipes. … Is it the most fluid? No. But that’s secondary to a raw prospect like him getting at least a taste of implementing pass-rush moves in a game situation.

Pustell suggested Edokpayi needs to work on his first step, and anchoring in the run game, two issues that were central to Ojabo's development.

Even his highlights show that his base is pretty moveable and he mostly relies on his athleticism to recover and get back in the play. Learning how to get violent with his hands to set the edge and collapse against the run is crucial for success in the Big Ten.

But can he cover too? Uh…let's just call him what he is.

“He’s probably a stand-up (pass rusher), but he can put his hand in the dirt in a four-man front as well. I think it depends on the alignment. He projects as a pure pass rusher and pure speed rusher.”

Power's comp was Odafe (previously Jayson) Oweh, the former PSU pass-rusher who was Wink's first pick in the 2021 Draft and has been the Ravens' pass-rush specialist ever since. You can teach any Braiden McGregor to drop back in coverage and just be huge, but Edokpayi is on the field primarily to drive the quarterback into it.

But it might be awhile before he's on it. So agrees everybody. Andrew Ivins, now 247 director of scouting, reports Edokpayi has mostly been focusing on pass rush from a wide-9 technique and not much else…

…unless he undergoes a major physical transformation and adds a ton of bulk to a rather slender frame. Should be viewed as a developmental pass rusher with a ton of upside. Must improve his game in a variety of different ways, but could prove to be quite the score for someone as his length allows him to attack the corner like few others. Rare features destined to draw the eyes of NFL scouts if he keeps progressing.

Power expects Edokpayi to "redshirt and look completely different physically in a year or two." Friedman says he'll "need to add a significant amount of mass to his frame before he's field ready" (but his ceiling is sky high). Calhoun admitted to EJ there will need to be a lot more physical growth too.

The biggest thing that has equated to all of this is his size. He was like a stick when I got here. His junior year, he gained a little bit of weight. But now, he’s at the 220 mark and was able to maintain it throughout the season. He’s comfortable there. The other thing is he’s just raw. I realized it when I figured out his birthday. He turned 17 in April. He’s still young. His body is still growing and developing.

Friedman says he'll "need to add a significant amount of mass to his frame before he's field ready" (but his ceiling is sky high).

Edokpayi will be a big test of Sherrone Moore's ability to continue Harbaugh's record of player development, which Power explained on several occasions was a big part of why he was betting on Edokpayi to realize his potential.

“It’s strength and conditioning and some of it is philosophy from an evaluation perspective,” Power said. “Just an overall mindset when you look at the type of prospects they recruit. Jim Harbaugh‘s teams, like at Stanford, were like this as well. They were very good at developing, and with the style they play with their physicality, it takes a little bit to get to the level they want. When you have the luxury of having the depth to sit and develop players, guys pop up later. It’s a good mix. Once you get it rolling, it allows the opportunity to not throw guys into the fire if they’re not ready.”

As for weight, the sites were still updating in spring, with On3 at 215, Rivals and ESPN listing 225, and 247 going up to 230. Brice Marich checked in last month to learn Lu was now up to 240. Michigan thinks they can get a lot more meat on him. Holland says Lugard has a thin lower and upper half, which from talking to Sam Webb means they believe they can easily get him to 265, and probably in the 275-280 range.

Also: Caris Alert: Edokpayi is on the younger end of his class, having only just turned 18 in May. Oden (11/26/2006) and Palepale (5/27/2006) will be the only younger guys on the team this year.

Etc. Delano Hill Disease is looking like you're over 40 when you're under 20, and this is the opposite of that.

Lugard looks like he's 14.

Why David Ojabo? Freaky long-limbed football baby that Michigan hopes to turn into a stand-up edge-rushing terror. Ojabo was called 6'4" and ultimately measured 6'4" with 33.5-inch arms at the combine, so he was long, but not as long as Edokpayi. Ojabo was also past 250 when he enrolled. In all other ways it's a tight comparison. Ojabo was a twitchy, perfectly proportioned, sushi-raw edge bending project out of Scotland with "primitive pass-rush skills" that Michigan developed into a 1st round edge menace (and 2nd round pick after his injury) by the latter half of his third year despite a pandemic in the middle of it.

Even if he'd been allowed into the country, Ojabo wouldn't have been playable as a redshirt freshman in 2020 except as a 3rd & long rush specialist, and wasn't starting or earning a plurality of snaps until midseason of 2021. By midseason he started grading out as elite not just at pass rushing but also as a run defender, holding his ground to set an edge against zones, and thwacking all kickout attempts back into the rushing lane. By the Ohio State game Ojabo was an established star often mentioned in the same breath as Hutchinson. But even has his surname became a classic Gus Johnson call, Ojabo was giving way to Jaylen Harrell against multi-TE offenses (like Iowa's) because Michigan wanted to keep the threat of the end dropping into coverage.

Guru Reliability: Low. Classic late riser who wasn't on anybody's radar until the class was coming together. No camps, no all-star games, barely any private workouts and the like, and only one site (On3) seemed to have any direct scouting or more than a couple of instances of their rankings class mentioning Edokpayi, which is understandable given he's a standard late blowup. They're not ALL over the place, but Edokpayi's rankings (or lack thereof) span the breadth of four-stardom. Even the site that made him a top-50 prospect has EJ Holland saying he'd agree with the low four-star sites because he "love(s) the ceiling but also understand(s) there is a low floor."

Variance: High. Michigan's track record with development should lean boom for a classic boom-or-bust project, but Michigan's last generation of developers are gone and the new ones untested. Also as much as the recruiting industry and we here at Develop U want people to think otherwise, that kind of development is 90% on the player's own self-motivation. Ben Herbert can only be so responsible for Ojabo doing footwork drills in a COVID safehouse in Scotland in 2020.

Ceiling: Maximal. Elite length and athletic profile, when maximized, is a 1st round pass rusher who's likely to get a franchise tag down the road because the NFL can't get enough of these guys.

Flight Risk Level: Elevated. Edokpayi's quick recruitment is the opposite of Mason Curtis's long one. In this case, Michigan has only been a part of Lu's life since last November, and he reportedly turned down one of those famous Maryland Signing Day bonuses because he believed in the education and that this was the place you come for development.

"It's a great place to be at," Edokpayi said. "They call it 'Best Chance U' because they have great academics and great football. You can't really go wrong. I feel like I'll be setup and developed for life having a great degree and being able to play against the best, compete against the best, and be developed by the best. That's why I chose Michigan.

Since then, his two main recruiters Mike Elston and Dylan Roney both followed Harbaugh to LA, but understandably it was Ben Herbert's subsequent departure that elicited a diagonal mouth face emoji reaction on Twitter. For non-youths, that means:

A yellow face with a closed slanted mouth. Can be used to express skepticism, confusion, or frustration.

Since Edokpayi has a long development track ahead of him and other schools have no compunction about continuing their recruitment pitches just because a guy's playing for someone else, Michigan's probably going to have to do some re-recruiting over the next year or so until Edokpayi is certain the program hasn't changed with the faces. There's also the factor that after three years the NFL is going to want that body if it's even half-developed into a football player.

Side note: then grad assistant/pass rush specialist Dylan Roney was a critical cog in Edokpayi's rushed recruitment. Roney followed Harbaugh to the Chargers this offseason, but would be a top candidate for a future opening on the staff.

General Excitement Level: High. Baseline 5: +1 for that is some elite length, +1 for length that's so elite we're going to stretch it to 2 points, +1 for that is some elite athleticism for that length, +1 this program made Taco and Paye and Ojabo and Uche out of parts like these with zero misses and that has to count for something, –1 for we're going to have to wait a few years for him to learn to play football.

Projection: The Ojabo track. Edokpayi should redshirt this year, but might be able to get on the field later in the season. You get 4 games and postseason games don't count before you burn that redshirt, and Lu's natural pass-rushing skills, with a season of work, might be too good to keep off the field on downs that call for it. In 2025 expect Edokpayi to find his way into the rotation while proving himself as a pass-rusher. That makes 2026 the takeoff year, perhaps sooner than midseason because we don't expect him to be holed up in Scotland for a chunk of his career. With all of the edge weapons Michigan will have at their disposal nobody's going to get more than 40 snaps a game, but Edokpayi seems the most likely of this current generation to be on the field for the most important of them.