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Hello: Zach Carpenter

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when you see the ball and realize #26 is not on offense [photo via 247]

Now this is how an offensive lineman commits.

Late last evening, at the tail end of a rare busy May news day, three-star Cincinnati (OH) Archbishop Moeller OG Zach Carpenter announced an out-of-nowhere commitment—even Sam Webb was caught off guard—with one word and a hashtag:

Committed. #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/GuYFOH2Lk6

— Zach Carpenter (@CZach23) May 31, 2018

You'd be excused for not having Carpenter at the forefront of your mind. His rankings range from middling to high three-star, he didn't add his Michigan offer until last month, and his recent campus visit was overshadowed by higher-profile visitors and a few subsequent commitments, including two on the offensive line.

Michigan's coaches, especially primary recruiter Al Washington and O-line coach Ed Warinner, turned up the heat in recent weeks, however, as it appeared Carpenter was destined for a Clemson commitment. The Wolverines liked what they saw enough to make a strong push, per Sam:

Some are questioning why this didn't go down after Carpenter visited two weekends in a row back in April? My answer is two-fold. First they had to answer the obvous numbers queston above (i.e. would they take another interior guy). The second part is further evaluation. I know that Ed Warinner was in Carpenter's school last week. I also know Carpenter is tipping the scales at about 310 and benching around 430. Pair that with his road-grading film and you have a physical interior guy that fits the the bill by the eyeball test athletically also.

At 6'4", 310 or so, Carpenter joins four-star Nolan Rumler among interior-only commits; the other three linemen in the class—four-star Trente Jones, three-star Karsen Barnhart, and three-star Jack Stewart—could all play tackle or guard, with Jones looking the most likely to be a pure tackle. As Sam noted in the post above, Michigan will continue to pursue another tackle in the class.

Meanwhile, if you're wondering how the Amazon series would impact recruiting, here's a data point from after his visit, via Steve Lorenz:

Cincinnati (OH) Moeller 2019 three-star offensive lineman Zach Carpenter says Michigan's Amazon documentary helped set the table for what was an excellent two-day visit to Ann Arbor over the weekend.

"It really gave me an idea of what Coach Harbaugh was like and how involved he is with the program," Carpenter told 247Sports on Sunday evening. "Getting to meet and know Coach Harbaugh was probably the highlight of my visit. My parents and I have the utmost respect for Coach and what he's about after taking this visit. The time he invested in us during our conversations was more than any head coach has done at any school we’ve visited to date. We truly feel like he treated us like family and are grateful for his transparency and honesty (during the visit)."

That feeling stuck, evidently. Carpenter is the 11th commit in the 2019 class, which sits fifth nationally and first in the Big Ten in the composite rankings.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals	ESPN	247	247 Comp
3*, 5.7, #15 OG	3*, 78, #34 OG	3*, 88, #21 OG, #464 Ovr	3*, #19 OG, #486 Ovr

Hey, ESPN scouted a guy! Who's not in their top 300, even!

Anyway, Carpenter is either a high three-star—the top three-star guard on Rivals, four position spots away on 247—or a meh three-star (ESPN). ESPN should be taken with at least some seriousness here since they actually got eyes on the guy. That said, the other sites and Carpenter's offer list—plus Michigan's obvious desire to beat Clemson to the punch—are good indicators that he'll at least wind up on that 3/4-star borderline by the end of the cycle.

He certainly has the size for the interior. Carpenter is listed at either 6'4" or 6'5" (I'd guess the shorter end is more accurate) and somewhere between 290 and 325 pounds. While he plays tackle in high school, he projects as a people-moving guard or center.

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]

SCOUTING

Michigan's staff had quite a bit of familiarty with Carpenter before they were actually Michigan's staff: Warinner offered him while he was coaching for Minnesota, and Washington recruited him when he was at Cincinnati. Meanwhile, Carpenter has a good offer sheet and plays at one of the most prominent programs in a big-time football state, where he's on track to be a four-year starter. He's already earned first-team Division I all-state honors, among several others.

There's very little actual scouting out there on him, oddly. Until today, we mostly just had a skimpy ESPN underclassman evaluation:

STRENGTHS: Possesses good size and demonstrates he can play with leverage and be a physical run blocker. Displays good awareness working to second level to get a hat on targets in his track... AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT: Displays limited range and ability to adjust on the move .... BOTTOM LINE: Carpenter is a tough, effective guard prospect

This was the only other thing that qualified in the non-coach-quote category that I could find, from BuckeyeGrove's Marc Givler:

Carpenter will ultimately leave Moeller as a four-year letter winner. That is certainly not a common occurrence at a program of that caliber. Carpenter has experience playing outside at tackle, but his build will probably take him to the interior at the college level.

247's Steve Wiltfong collected the requisite coach quotes yesterday, and they're good ones. Former head coach John Rodenberg, who named Carpenter the first junior captain in Moeller history before stepping down after last season:

"First of all they're getting a very dedicated football player," Rodenberg said. "His grandfather was a CFL coach and a Division II football coach. Zach is a very intelligent football player. He's well schooled in technique. He has a great intensity about him. I remember when he was a freshman, he had no fear. Came in and got his ass kicked a few times, but he hung in there. Just a fun kid to coach. I still talk to him and he's the ultimate competitor." ...

"He can read defenses well," Rodenberg said. "He has a great first step, strong, he is right now college strong. Benches 405. Squats over 600. He's college strong. Played against great competition. I really believe he's the type of guy that can go in and compete early as a freshman."

Michigan hopes that last bit won't be necessary despite Carpenter's apparent physical readiness.

We finally got some real detail today from 247's Ohio guru, Bill Greene, who did a full breakdown in which he said Carpenter reminded him of a couple middlingly ranked interior linemen who ended up thriving under Warinner's tutelage: Pat Elflein and Billy Price. Here's a chunk from the positive side of the outlook:

This is a physical, head-knocking, road grader on the offensive line, and Carpenter fits perfectly to Ed Warinner's system which places a premium on toughness. Carpenter is far more advanced as a run-blocker than he is as a pass-protector, as are most high school linemen. While some offensive line coaches look at size, length, frame, quickness or footwork first, Warinner looks as nastiness first and once that box is checked he will move on to the other qualities.

Greene noted that Carpenter likely needs conditioning work to reshape his body a bit and shed some bad weight. Even when noting Carpenter's potential shortcomings in pass protection, stemming mostly from a lack of quickness, Greene qualifies by saying he believes Warinner can coach him up to be ready to play in his second or third year on campus.

OFFERS

Carpenter held offers Arkansas, Cincinnati, Clemson, Duke, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ole Miss, Oregon, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, USF, Vanderbilt, Virginia, West Virginia, and UCLA, among a couple others.

Notably absent from that list is Ohio State, which gave Carpenter some looks but prioritized other linemen and didn't offer before Carpenter was ready to make a commitment. He's unlikely to forget that, especially with Warinner in his ear.

HIGH SCHOOL

While Archbishop Moeller hasn't won as much as they're used to of late after back-to-back state titles in 2012-13, which led to their coach stepping down, it's still one of the big-name programs in Ohio and a regular producer of talent. Four-star DT Aeneas Hawkins signed with Penn State in the 2018 class. The school produced four-star tight ends each of the previous two years in 2016 OSU signee Jake Hausmann and 2017 MSU signee Matt Dotson.

Other notables include former OSU DE Sam Hubbard, former MSU LB Shane Jones, former MSU DE Marcus Rush, and former MSU LB Greg Jones. The Spartans have done very well with the Moeller prospects the Buckeyes left behind; Michigan taking some instead would be a nice change of course.

STATS

OL, no stats.

FAKE 40 TIME

None listed—I don't think Carpenter has done many camps. The impressive 400+ pound bench press and 600-pound squat, if true, are much more relevant to his position anyway.

VIDEO

Junior highlights:

Sophomore highlights and single-game reels can be found on his Hudl page.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Carpenter will almost certainly get a redshirt year. When he arrives on campus, the presumed starting duo of Ben Bredeson and Mike Onwenu will be seniors, Onwenu challenger Stephen Spanellis a redshirt junior, and Joel Honigford and Chuck Filiaga will be in their third years on campus. Cesar Ruiz is locked in at center until he departs, meanwhile, and Phil Paea is reportedly working there too.

Spots on the two-deep really start to open up the following year, however, and there could be even more opportunity for Carpenter if Ruiz ends up as an early NFL entry candidate. As Greene noted, Warinner has done a lot with interior linemen of Carpenter's size, style, and caliber.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Michigan is up to 11 commits in the class and five on the offensive line. That's quite an OL class already, but as Sam mentioned, the light OL class last year and the team's general desire for more tackles means they'll go for a sixth lineman, almost certainly a pure OT. Four-star RI OT Xavier Truss, four-star IL OT Trevor Keegan, four-star FL OT William Harrod appear the three most likely candidates, with Keegan and Harrod looking like better bets at the moment than Truss.

Here's the class as it currently stands:

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