| NEWS Alabama football lands commitment from Miles Kitselman, JUCO TE, in class of 2022 - Tuscaloosa News

[TerryP]

You know what Shakira said?!

To you? Please buy me breakfast?

 

[Tidestalker]

To you? Please buy me breakfast?

I wish.... "The hips don't lie!"

 

[TerryP]

I wish.... "The hips don't lie!"

While you're a stalker, we all know you're the man.

 

[PurlJam]

You know what Shakira said?!

To you? Please buy me breakfast?

Whew.... I swung and missed on that one. Thinking it was more in the lines of "Get off me Daddy, you're crushing my cigarettes."

 

[UAgrad93]

That's certainly a fair point!

Just not sure an Alabama football roster loaded with 4/5 stars is going to be the smoothest place to learn on the fly and beat people out... If that makes sense.

He's got potential, no doubt about it.

True! Just think of him as an undersized OT. He is perfect for our in-line TE needs. He is aggressive, plays with an attitude AND he is a receiving target. Something that Randolph can’t give us and what Latu and NiBlack lack on the blocking side of it.

 

[JoshB]

Maybe take a minute and watch those HUDL highlights again?

If there was one thing that the film demonstrated to me, it was "grit" playing on the line of scrimmage: there's that mean streak you want to see from an inline tight end. The very first highlight has Miles blocking the opposing defensive end 25+ yards downfield. There's another couple of clips in that video showing the same.

In other blocking highlights he's sealing the ends as well as any coach could dream of. Without counting I'd say more than a half of a dozen demonstrate such.

There's a few of him playing along the defensive line: he played both OL and DL in high school (from a smaller high school classification.)

There's a few things that jumped out to me.

• A JUCO with four to play three. The SEC requires graduation from JUCO to be eligible. We normally see these guys with, at the most, two years to contribute. He's well ahead of the game, academically.
• I love seeing guys on the line with basketball backgrounds: their footwork tends to better. It never hurts having a BB guy because they also tend to have good hands. Here we have a guy who can block, but is still a receiving threat. OJ Howard couldn't offer than his first few years.
• His coach pointed out he's competing against DE's who carry multiple P5 offers and he's doing more than handling his own: daily.
• He's 6'5"/6'6" and currently around 250 lbs. His injury last year held him back, physically, but he's gained "a lot of muscle mass" in their winter workouts. I can easily see him hitting the 285-290 mark. Size wise, and athletically, that's prototypical for an inline TE.

Good break down here. Reading about him initially my first thought was "he'll never see the field" but now I'm excited to see what he does.

 

[TerryP]

Good break down here. Reading about him initially my first thought was "he'll never see the field" but now I'm excited to see what he does.

I've read a few evaluations on him since that post and each has mentioned an aggressive style, strong blocking guy. I don't think my instincts are off here, but who knows? I believe I value his JUCO experience more than a lot who've read about his commitment. I see that A LOT different from a Craig Sanders type of player coming out of 1A or 2A ball.

He's not going to beat out Latu for the inline starter. If we see him contributing by mid-season I'll take it as a positive sign for his role next year.