Purdue Football Recruiting: Dylan Powell Commits

Purdue has its first offensive verbal commitment for 2016 in 6'3", 270 lb. offensive lineman Dylan Powell out of Hannibal, Missouri.  He's a 3-star recruit according to Rivals and 247sports and also held several other offers from schools including Army, Air Force, Illinois State, and Eastern Michigan, among others.  He had previously visited a few other schools in the B1G -- including Iowa and Indiana -- before deciding on becoming a Boilermaker.

BIG day for the boilermakers! #AllAboard let's get goin #Purduenation

— Gerad Parker (@GeradParker1) June 10, 2015

This is Coach Hazell's third verbal commitment in the past two days.  The 2016 class now includes 4 solid verbals and, for a class that was expected to be just about 10-12 players deep, that's not too shabby.  Of course, this is before you factor in things like attrition, transfers, dismissals, academic casualties, medical hardships, etc., but I wouldn't expect the 2016 class to be any larger than 12 players at this point.

Powell plays offensive guard for Hannibal but could possibly shift to center at Purdue.  I am not too worried about the lack of big-time offers going his way due to the nature of the position.  Offensive linemen are extremely difficult to recruit and evaluate, especially when they're still juniors in high school.  Projecting how much a 16 or 17 year old kid will grow and how their frame will fill out is almost impossible.  Eric Fisher (the #1 overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft) was a 230 pound 2-star recruit when he landed at Central Michigan.  Now, he's a 315 pound millionaire.  I'm not comparing Powell with Fisher, just pointing out how much things can change with linemen based on their development and size.

If you have 8 minutes to kill, here's a video of Powell doing work.