The Football Brainiacs

Image from TulsaWorld.com

People who know me know it’s no secret I’ve been talking about OLB/DE and recent Oregon State commit, Jonathan Willis for quite some time. The first time I turned on his tape I was absolutely shocked at how explosive and relentless he is. After speaking to his coach at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Coach Marvin Dantzler, I believe in this young man even more. When I asked Coach Marvin if Jonathan is as good as I think he is he said very candidly, “he might be better”. Coach Marvin told me something I have felt for many months now. He said that Jonathan is the kind of kid who in 2 or 3 years is going to have people around the state of Oklahoma wondering “how the heck did anyone let him go out of state?”

Last year was Jonathan’s first year to play defensive end but this year he’s been moved to outside Linebacker since Tulsa Washington has switched to a 3-4. And that is exactly where I’d like to see him play at Oklahoma. Right there at Eric Strikers spot – rushing the passer, dropping into the flats, etc. As soon as you watch Willis on tape Eric Striker will come to mind. The difference is that Willis actually has a bigger frame than Striker. Jonathan’s accurate measurements are 6’2 and around 210 lbs. Coach Marvin feels like Willis can comfortably hold 230+ lbs without losing his freakish speed. For those who have been concerned about Striker’s ability to hold up against the run, Jonathan seems like the kind of explosive pass rusher you want at that OLB position but has the frame to carry enough weight to be physical against the run.

And Jonathan is indeed nothing short of a freakish athlete and you don’t need to talk to his coach to know that. His athleticism jumps out on tape but we asked Coach Marvin and he only echoed that sentiment. He said Jonathan has “legit 4’4 speed…maybe even 4’3”. And get this, according to Coach Marvin Jonathan really only recently started playing football. As I mentioned above, last year was his first year as a defensive end and he led the state of Oklahoma’s class 6A in sacks…with a cast on one hand! That’s right, Willis played with torn ligaments in his hand last year and led the biggest division in a football state like Oklahoma in sacks in his first year playing on the defense front as an undersized DEnd in a 40 front! Let that sink in for a minute.

When we asked Coach Marvin about Jonathan as a person he was more than complimentary. I’ll admit most coaches aren’t going to say anything bad about a kid but they don’t have to go out of their way to say something good and coach Marvin had plenty of good things to say. He talked about what a great kid he is and how hard working he is but what caught my attention is when he really emphasized that Jonathan is “very intelligent!” And he said it like he meant it. Coach Dantzler is a football man and he knows that a critical quality in a football player is their intelligence. A lot of great athletes never made it far because they didn’t have it upstairs and a lot of lesser athletes did because they were intelligent. Jonathan has it all.

I asked Coach Marvin why he thought Jonathan didn’t have more offers and he said part of it is because of the fact that Jonathan only recently started playing football (sounds like Charles Tapper) and part of it is he is “not a camp kid.” He means Jonathan never attended the recruiting website camps (like Rivals, ESPN. etc. – on a side note: one day I might do a write-up and tell y’all how coaches really feel about those camps, but you can probably guess).

Fortunately for Oklahoma fans Jonathan did camp at Oklahoma and apparently Coach Mike Stoops likes him a lot. So he is on our board and I for one am hoping he moves to the top of it. I’ve seen a lot of film on stand up OLBs this year since we are looking for those kinds of players now. And I don’t care how many “stars” they have or how many offers they’ve received, Jonathan looks every bit as good as them if not better. And considering how short his football career has been so far, it is scary to think what kind of OLB he could grow into. And scarier still to think he might be doing it out of state.

Jonathan Willis is a bad man! (and yes “bad” means good)