Recruiting on the South Plains: 2015 OL Madison Akamnonu Player Profile

Amazingly, Texas Tech lands one of the state's best offensive linemen in Arlington Bowie offensive lineman Madison Akamnonu, who was apparently down to Texas Tech and Oklahoma.  This is yet another huge commitment for Texas Tech as Akamnonu is a prototypical left tackle in terms of size and what he can or will grow into and now, Texas Tech has commitments from one 4-star defensive lineman in Breiden Fehoko, and two 4-star offensive linemen, Connor Dyer and Madison Akamonu. If you've ever wondered about this staff's ability to recruit, well, hopefully they are changing your mind about what they're able to do.

And don't look now, but Akamnonu is now this class's 4th top 300 commitment.  That's 4 out of 9 commits that are top 300 players.

OFFENSIVE LINE
MADISON AKAMNONU	OFFENSIVE TACKLE
HT/WT: 6-5/275 FORTY: 5.20 HIGH SCHOOL: Bowie (Arlington, TX) VIDEO: Clip 1 RECRUITING SERVICES: Rivals 5.5 | Scout | ESPN 81 | 24/7 Sports 93 CUMULATIVE RANKING: 0.8952 VTM PROFILE DATE: August 9, 2014 OFFERS: Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, Kansas St., Missouri, TCU, Arizona St., Arkansas St., Colorado St., Connecticut, Houston, Mississippi St., North Texas, Ole Miss, Southern Miss, Texas St., Wake Forest

THE PLAYER SPEAKS: Akamnonu spoke with Wreck'Em 24/7 and said that Texas Tech was definitely out early on Akamnonu, namely cornerbacks coach Kevin Curtis:

The Red Raiders became his favorite for a number of reasons, one of the biggest being his connection with the coaching staff. It appears his relationship with Red Raiders assistant coach Kevin Curtis started well in either October or November of last year.

"Before I had any offers, nobody knew about me, he was talking to me," Akamnonu said. " 'Hey, at Tech, we're talking about you, Big Dog.' That made me feel really good."

SCOUTING REPORT: This year, when I started out writing scouting reports on players I set out to take a look at what football genius Bill Walsh thought about each position and in doing this bit on Akamnonu, I rank across this article specifically about the offensive line and how to scout them.  The biggest areas to address when looking at an offensive line man are strength, agility, footwork, speed, attitude, punch and intelligence (this isn't word for word, but generally speaking). Go read the whole thing, it definitely gives you some perspective.

Akamnonu really does exhibit all of those things that you look for in an offensive lineman and he's still growing. At near 270, Akamnonu still has a long ways to go in terms of where he'll be when his frame fills out. From watching his 2013 highlights, Akamnon simply toys with the opposing offensive linemen and they really don't have much of a chance. Akamnonu almost looks skinny in the film, which is scary to think that a guy his size is considered maybe a bit skinny. Again, there is a lot of room there and that's a good thing. Akamnonu has terrific footwork and he easily stays in front of pretty much any defender that presents itself, big small, whatever. He is able to stay in front of and engage pretty much any defender, even on the second level. Akamnonu also finishes plays really well, pretty much on every play. Maybe the biggest area of improvement for Akamnonu is to work on that initial punch and work on keeping that defender away from his body with those long arms. That's a pretty minor technique thing that looks like could be improved, but all of the tools are there.

Madison, welcome to Texas Tech and Git Your Guns Up!

You can check out all of Texas Tech's 2015 class on VTM's commitment page.