Football Recruiting - Jackets land D-Lineman

Well, the scholarships available are dwindling and they just shrunk by one because D-Lineman Ricardo Matthews has committed to Georgia Tech. He's a 6'2" 260lb Defensive Lineman. He's not ranked by the services at his position, and is a "2-star" guy by both major services. However, he's one of these athletic "jumbo" guys that could play a lot of positions at the college level. He put up some very impressive combine numbers for a guy of his size - 4.9-40, 32.5" vertical. His 40-time was the 3rd fastest for DT's nationally on the Scout.com listings.


Matthews was also a high school wrestler, which certainly helps with body leverage and technique on the line. It appears the staff pushed for his committment, as the numbers were disappearing. He was recruited by a lot of other big programs, but had a firm offer from Maryland.


So is Ricardo another "underachiever"? Another "diamond in the rough"? Could be. Evidently he played out of position in high school most of the time - manning the linebacker spot. So many coaches might have seen him as a LB and passed. Sounds like a good pickup for the Jackets and sounds like he was recruited as a DE, although he could eventually end up at a DT spot with that body size. Definitely a D-Lineman though.


Dude has a serious wingspan:



Picture from Scout.com


Welcome aboard Ricardo!!!!