Pennsylvania Linebacker/Defensive End Ken Wilkins, from Washington Trinity High School, has pledged his word to become a member of Michigan’s class of 2010. Wilkins stands 6-4 and 235 pounds, and is the Wolverines’ 13th verbal pledge in the class.
Recruiting Notes
Ohio State, Penn State, and Notre Dame may have seemed like the early favorites in the race for Wilkins’ services, as each team boasts one of his ex-teammates (Andrew Sweat, Mike Yancich, and now-Cleveland Brown Travis Thomas). However, he grew up liking Michigan, and by the time a Wolverine offer came through, Michigan and Pitt were in his top 2. Other schools, such as Penn State, Ohio State, UVa, and others were all in pursuit, but when Wilkins made it to campus for the Big House BBQ, he saw all that he needed to see in order to confirm what he had been feeling for quite some time: he belonged in Maize and Blue.
Player Notes
Though recovering turnovers on defense is mostly a luck proposition, Wilkins sure knows what to do with the ball once it’s in his hands: he scored 2 defensive touchdowns last season. He was named first-team all-state at defensive end. One thing that may be holding back his rankings a bit is the fact that he’s something of a tweener: Scout lists Wilkins as a 3-star defensive end, and Rivals has him ranked as a 3-star outside linebacker. It seems as though he’ll play mostly linebacker in college, though at Michigan he’ll have the hybrid role available to him. The low rankings certainly aren’t due to lack of exposure: on top of his all-state selection as a junior, he’s been attending the Pittsburgh Scout combine since his freshman year.
Video
Posted under Football, Recruiting
Tags: 2010, commitments, ken wilkins
FWIW – He is now a 4* on Scout
Could someone explain to me what makes a MLB? I’m a big Michigan fan, but obviously a bit of a neophyte. Yet, why can’t Wilkins be a MLB? He seems big enough? Is it quickness? Size? Height? Weight? Skill? It seems like these guys are OLB who might move to DE? Why can’t we move him to the middle? His frame seems big enough to put on whatever weght demands and he’s 6’3″/6’4″.
The scouting report on Wilkins (and Paskorcz for that matter) says he has some trouble moving laterally. They both do better going straight ahead, a lot of people are saying they will strictly be DE in college.
I can’t help but think your article is a little mis-leading, however unintentional. This is a middle of the road 3 star recruit that Penn State, Ohio State, and Notre Dame, “May have seemed like early favorites,” until they evaluated his talent, and decided not to offer. Wilkes did get offers, from the middle of the big ten and WVU, but no top tier schools were interested after seeing video.
“Other schools, such as Penn State, Ohio State, UVa, and others were all in pursuit,”
If by ‘pursuit’, you mean, ‘not offering’…then fine.