Purdue Football Recruiting: Matt McCann Commits

Purdue is on a recruiting roll of late, this time securing the services of Matt McCann. McCann is Purdue's first recruit from Indiana, and their first offensive lineman commitment in the 2014 recruiting class.

Of all the realistic players on Purdue's recruiting, Matt McCann may very well be the most important. For those of you worried about "off the radar" players, McCann is very much on the radar, with offers from Cincinnati, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Syracuse. Oh, he also has an offer from Indiana, I guess that's kind of important to mention. In fact, McCann narrowed his list to Indiana and Purdue before choosing the good guys, and breaking hearts in Bloomington. Matt has always been considered a Purdue lean, but Indiana thought they had a foot in the door after an unofficial visit to Bloomington on June 10th. We can only hope that Indiana still had their foot in the door when McCann slammed it earlier today.

Strengths:

Size: At 6'6 - 305, McCann has the size to play the first day he steps on campus. When you watch his tape, it's impossible to miss him. He makes his teammates and opponents look small.  As they say, you can't teach size, and McCann has plenty of size.

Attitude: McCann plays until the last echo of the whistle, and isn't happy unless his blocking assignment is laying prone on the ground 10 yards down the field. McCann generally ends up bringing his entire 305 pound body down upon his defeated defender. I feel bad for some of his pancake victims, and assume several of them require both physical and mental therapy after playing McCann.

Drive/Strength: McCann plays with a solid base and drives players out of the hole. He isn't interested in hand fighting and standing defenders up. He gets low and moves them where he wants to go, showing good bend and lower body strength. He also uses his hands well, and displays excellent upper body strength when delivering a blow and pushing players out of the way.

Run Blocking: This plays into the above mentioned strengths. McCann moves his feet, and moves people out of the way, and then continues to move them until the whistle blows. He blocks down well, and he has enough agility to kick out and lead the way on outside runs. Once he gets his hands on a defender, it's pretty much all over for the poor kid.

Weakness:

Pass Blocking: Maybe weakness is a little strong, but he is much more of a road grader than a pass blocker. He is going to have to work on his pass sets and footwork on the college level. His days of overwhelming players with sheer size are coming to a close, and he will need to work on his pass blocking technique.

Overall:

McCann looks like a natural born right tackle. He is big, strong, and mean, and will be Big 10 sized the day he steps onto campus. Once he gets into Purdue's strength and conditioning program he will add at least 10 more pounds onto his giant frame.  You people wanted an impact recruit...well here he is. Welcome to Purdue Matt McCann, may you squash numerous Hoosiers during your stay in West Lafayette. Now, if Purdue can bring Noblesville OT Brandon Knight into the fold, the future of the offensive line suddenly looks much brighter.