Prospect Evaluation: Notre Dame Commitment John Montelus
By Nick Combs
Feb. 1, 2012; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly speaks at a press conference for national signing day at the Guglielmnio Athletics Complex. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-US PRESSWIRE
Montelus committed to Notre Dame on April 21st, 2012. He is ranked 57th in the nation according to Rivals.com and the best ranked Offensive Guard in the country.
Strengths
Montelus is a 4 star recruit that stands 6’5’’ and weighs 295 pounds, which is a monster of a guard. Typically guards tend to be a little smaller, since they tend to do the most moving out of the group. He is classified as a guard, but in his film he played guard on most running plays and tackle on passing plays. I couldn’t believe how fundamentally sound this guy is. His pass blocking is flawless, simply because he stays on his toes and chops his feet constantly so he can move in any direction quickly. Each lineman executing a pocket protection blocking scheme knows that you take kick slides backwards generally 1-2 for a guard and 2-3 for the tackle. This creates a pocket and if each lineman does their own job no one should get through. Montelus stays low, doesn’t take unneeded steps with his kick slides, and most of all keeps his feet moving. There are different blocking schemes for quick passes, which is a lesser of a drop and can be in some cases firing out of his stance 2-3 steps. When run blocking, Montelus looks like an unstoppable force that defenders fear. He stays low when firing out and has a good point of contact. Driving a defender correctly consists of a good base, this means having your knees bent and your feet shoulder width apart, and lastly your hand under the shoulder pads. Strength is channeled through his whole body when he hits a defender. On film he has many pancakes simply because he has good technique. Just wait until he has a strength and conditioning coach in college.
Weaknesses
To be honest, Montelus has very few weaknesses and these are things that can be corrected very quickly. At points in the film you can see he likes to deliver the big hit, which is great, but in college against the caliber of player he will face those guys will be able to counter that into a missed block. Now when Montelus delivers a big hit he gets his head too far over his feet putting him off balance. A good defensive lineman will be able to swim or side step this leaving the offensive lineman on the ground. The good thing about this is I only saw him do this a hand full of times on film otherwise he was under control.
Overall the thing I really like about him is the technique he executes very well. He must have some good coaches down there, because it is hard to find a consistent flaw in his blocking. As far as seeing him as a freshman is highly doubtful. There are not many freshman linemen that start in college, mainly because they don’t have the strength yet. It is always a possibility, but as we all know there are 4 senior offensive linemen right now for Notre Dame. We will see, but I see him as at least a 2 year starter maybe 3.