Tristan Bounds, Wolverine

Tristan Bounds, Wolverine


June 1, 2020
Tristan Bounds (image via SI)

Wallingford (CT) Choate Rosemary Hall offensive tackle Tristan Bounds committed to Michigan on Monday. He picked the Wolverines over offers from Maryland, Nebraska, Texas, and UCLA, among others.

Bounds is listed as Very Tall and 285 lbs.

RANKINGS
ESPN: 3-star, 78 grade, #51 OT
Rivals: 3-star, 5.5 grade
247 Sports: 3-star, 88 grade, #39 OT

Hit the jump for more on Bounds’s commitment.

Bounds has been dangling out there as a Michigan target for months. Is he a take or not? Will Michigan have room for him or not? Will he end up at Notre Dame or not? Recently, during the coronovairus lockdown, Bounds hopped in his car and visited a few places, including Ann Arbor and South Bend, even though he couldn’t meet the coaches or truly visit the facilities. A week later he’s committed to Michigan.

Bounds is 6’8″ and looks like a baby deer at times. Despite being listed at 280-285 lbs., he looks very thin with lots of room to fill out. His length is great, and his straight line running ability is a plus.

Unfortunately, his technique and functional strength are lacking at this point. Somewhat like Jeffrey Persi in the 2020 class (LINK), Bounds has a lot of the physical stuff I like to see, but putting it all together on the field is a different story. Bounds lets his feet get too narrow, and he does not have great turnover of his feet. He needs to take shorter, choppier steps with a wider base. In the running game, he should be burying people but tends to get overpowered more often than not. Getting overpowered is also an issue in the passing game, where Bounds tends not to move his feet and needs to sink his hips. His kick set is very rudimentary, and his hand placement needs to be improved.

Overall, Bounds has potential as a project. I recently made a post about gambling on “athletic freaks” (LINK), and Michigan has room to do that in this class. The upside is obvious, and the downside is that . . . well, maybe he just never fills out and Michigan plays another highly ranked lineman instead. I trust Ed Warinner to do a good job with offensive line development. Bounds is a guy who I think is accurately ranked as a 3-star, but you could also see him turn into a 2nd round pick in four or five years.

Michigan now has 17 commitments in the 2021 class, including four offensive linemen: center/guard prospects Greg Crippen and Raheem Anderson, plus outside guys in Bounds and Giovanni El-Hadi. The word is that the staff wants to take at least five and maybe six linemen, so expect another one or two offensive line commitments in the class. Though the Wolverines have never landed a scholarship player from Choate Rosemary Hall, current walk-on defensive back Hunter Reynolds is an alum.

TTB Rating: I am not giving out TTB Ratings for 2021 yet.

2 comments

  1. Comments: 295
    Joined: 12/19/2015
    Extrajuice
    Jun 01, 2020 at 10:17 PM

    I really liked the last 3 commits but Bounds isn’t moving the needle. Like Thunder said, you can take some chances but I’d rather take chances on a guy who can at least change positions to C/G. It’s just tough to put it all together for a guy his size. especially, one who probably can’t transition to anywhere else on the field. I like the analogy of the “baby deer” because he’s all over the place. He’s pushed back by kids half his size because he’s so raw. To me, it looks like he probably learned how to stalk block and no one ever taught him how to use his arm length and bend. He just uses his large frame to get in front of people.

    I was holding out a bit of hope for Dellinger but that seems to have passed. This is setting up more and more like Spindler is headed to ND with the amount of Guards we’ve already taken. Maybe they get Kendall who seems overrated to me too. The good news is that you only need 2 tackles and it doesn’t matter which class they come from.

    I know people see a high ceiling but I think it’s much more likely a low floor. On TTB ratings I would give him a 55.

  2. Comments: 1356
    Joined: 8/13/2015
    Roanman
    Jun 02, 2020 at 6:19 AM

    He can run. He’s shown pulling and then getting there at least once in this film.

    He is much nastier than Persi, although against significantly softer competition.

    I’m guessing that he has spent a lot of time fooling around with basketball and has never been in anything approaching a real S&C program.

    I’d like one of these every single year.

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