Name: Courtnye Wynn
Position: DE
Hometown: Norfolk
School: Norfolk Christian
Height: 6'6"
Weight: 245
24/7: 93; four stars; #23 DT; VA #7; US #214
ESPN: 77; three stars; #82 DE; VA #19; Atlantic #88
Rivals: 5.6; three stars; VA #14
Scout: three stars; #62 DE
Other offers: Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Michigan State, NC State, Illinois, Vanderbilt, Connecticut
Of the Norfolk Christian quartet that's coming to UVA next fall, Courtnye Wynn was the one who, at the kickoff of the 2012 recruiting season, was the one most heavily connected with UVA. Then he got offers from schools that can hang with UVA academically, like Notre Dame and Vanderbilt, and got a chance to see VT's pitch, and things slowed down a bit.
Annnnnd....in the end it didn't matter. Wynn was the third of his teammates to commit to Mike London, but commit he eventually did, despite the threat of Notre Dame swooping in.
The main attraction for the schools offering Wynn is his athleticism; he's actually been playing basketball longer than he's been playing football. His body needs a little muscle-building work - he looks bigger than his 245-ish pounds which means he's not yet as lean as he could be - and if he's carrying extra fat and still showing off raw athleticism, you have to figure that college coaches have been having daydreamy visions of what Wynn could look like with a year or two in a college strength program.
The other slight on Wynn is the level of competition he faces; Norfolk Christian doesn't play the big boys in the 757, instead playing outside the VHSL entirely. This adds up to some work to do on Wynn to catch him up to some of the other prospects. ESPN's scouting report sums up thusly: good physical tools and frame, solid tackler and decent against the run, needs to learn how to rush the passer. Project that out a couple years and it means a little bit of uncertainty as to where on the line he ends up. Wynn will probably never be a nose-tackle type, but depending on his physical development he could make either a strongside defensive end or three-tech tackle.
DT, in fact, is where 24/7 evaluates him, and they're also easily the most enthusiastic about his potential. The other three services have him down pretty consistently as a mid-level three-star; his offers are somewhere in between 24/7's ratings and the other three. Gaudy stats, to be sure, in his junior year - 24/7 credits him with 105 tackles, 31 TFL, and 10 sacks - but again: level of competition.
Which is all to say that Wynn is a prospect that UVA fans should be excited about, but to what extent, I have no idea. Will he come in and be a star right away? Probably not, but he doesn't have to; UVA has a ton of depth at DE (where I think Wynn ultimately will end up, but that's, like, a 60-40 kind of confidence.) Depth is competition, as I'm sure you know, but I think Wynn is good enough that when he makes his impact depends more on him and less on others. A career path similar to Will Hill might be the best comparison, albeit with a redshirt year unlike Hill. Hill is now in his junior year and breaking out. Can't keep him off the field or out of the DT rotation. I don't know when Wynn will truly start his breakthrough but his redshirt junior year seems like a safe bet.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I view Wynn's best position overall as a 5-technique, but since we're in a 4-3, I think he'll end up being inside. His frame looks like he could be at 280-290 easily. I'm not sure he's going to be your "classic" 3-tech, size, length will make it hard for him to be the classic "burst" guy. I think, physically, his potential, in the 4-3, may be more as a 2 or 4 technique.
I guess I could see him as a power end, akin to how they use Brent Urban (if it wasn't for better options inside and some end weakness on the current 2-deep, I do wonder if Urban isn't better off inside as well), but I do think he has the potential to hold enough weight to be an interior player.
I think what it comes down to and that I wish I'd done a better job of conveying, is how much weight he can put on vs. how much pure athleticism he has and how they balance. Both are really hard to project because of Wynn's rawness and baby fat. It wouldn't surprise me if Wynn really tops out at 265 or so. (At least for an amateur like me, but the ESPN scout seemed pretty waffley too.) I look at Michael Moore, for example, as a comparison, and it's the easiest thing in the world to picture him at 290 and playing tackle.
Well, there are several physical points when making frame analysis. It is, though, as much "science" as it is guess-work. Typically, you start at the butt, and then you look at his shoulders.
Having not seen him in person, I'm only going off pictures of him online. I'll be a tad surprised if a collegiate weight program can't get him into that 280 range, but again, it's as much guesswork as anything. He is long and lean right now, though, and I think that has a lot of folks thinking he won't add much, but the physical body points to analyze, from online pictures, tends to have me thinking he could be a bit bigger.
Two other comps for him that are quite obvious relative to UVA football history, but I could see him as either a Matt Conrath type (if he ends up not being able to get significantly higher than 280) or a Chris Canty type, if he's able to hold more weight than suspected.
Of course, one note in all this is that Reid want's leaner, quicker, athletic guys, so he might not reach his frame possibilities in college.
This guy is scheduled to play olb I have seen him recently he has cut his body up tight and could not have weighed more than 220
Post a Comment