Purdue Football Recruiting: Da’Joun Hewitt Commits

Once again, as the weather starts to heat up, so does Purdue football recruiting. Last week Purdue added 4* ATH Mershawn Rice, today Purdue added 3* RB Da’Joun Hewitt. Hewitt has offers from Western Kentucky and Rutgers (along with an assortment of smaller schools) and is getting a look from Vandy, Kentucky, and South Carolina.

Hewitt is a 5’11, 190 pound, all-purpose back out of Davidson Academy in Nashville. As a junior he ran for 2,352 yard and an absurd 43 touchdowns. Wait, I’m double checking on that...yup, 43 touchdowns is correct and absurd.

The question is, how does a kid that ran for 2,000+ yards and 43 touchdowns in a season end up as a somewhat under the radar, 3* prospect. The obvious answer is competition, or lack there-of. Hewitt and Markell Jones are similar in terms of their recruiting rankings (Markell was also a mid-3* prospect despite putting up insane numbers) because the guys that do the rankings aren’t sure what he’ll look like against better competition.

I can tell you that on film he is obviously the best athlete on the field. He runs around, over, through, and past his would be tacklers with stunning ease. He has nice feet, and a good burst through the hole. Once he’s in the secondary, he has a gear that his opponents don’t possess.

Even though it might be hard to judge his ability against obviously over matched opponents, he was recruited by Chris Barclay and Brian Brohm, and I have supreme faith in those two and their ability to evaluate talent.

I don’t think Purdue is done with the running back position in this class, but getting Hewitt early is an important piece of the puzzle.