The Cardinal Countdown: 58 Days Until Kickoff

#58 Dejmi Dumervil-Jean

Class: Sophomore

Ht/Wt: 6-5/378

Position: Defensive Line

Hometown: Lauderdale Lakes, FL

Twitter: @kingdez1k

Thoughts: When the Cards picked up DDJ last year I thought it was a typo on the release. Nope. The young man was over 350 pounds, meaning the day he stepped on campus he was the largest player on the roster outside Becton. The knock on DDJ when he got here and went through a few workouts was that the 350+ he was carrying was not muscle stacked on muscle if you catch my drift. His conditioning needed to improve for him to see the field. To his credit DDJ evidently worked on the areas that needed attention and saw action in eleven games last year, including grabbing a few starts at the end of the season. His field presence on the line is undeniable as you are going to have a difficult time moving him just about anywhere. The downside of course is that his defensive movement is not as quick as you would hope to see from an interior lineman.

Let’s take a quick peek at one of DDJs tackles last year. On the snap the poor O-lineman has zero chance of doing anything with him and DDJ successfully clogs the hole. The problem is that DDJ only ends of grabbing the tackle here because his man becomes disengaged (later determined to be an injury) and the RB slows down to find his secondary cut. DDJ on paper did his job here, but the circumstances had to be just right for him to succeed in bringing down the back.

While I’m not asking Dumervil-Jean to run a 4.6 forty the fact that he has actually added close to another twenty pounds since arriving on campus isn’t exactly encouraging when it comes to mobility. Having a player who can occupy a 3-4 yard radius on the line certainly has its advantages but I need to see DDJ become a bit more agile up front to get out there consistently. The other problem, as one may expect, is that DDJ has to be a situational player. Any expectation of him being an every down player is out the window until his conditioning reaches a new level. Coach Ivey and Coach Sirignano will be the gatekeepers for DDJ this season looking to improve his on field performance/technique and his off the field strength and conditioning. I still think DDJ can be a nice piece of the D-line group this year and work his way towards becoming a bigger contributor as he becomes an upperclassman.

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When it comes to winter weather I got to point to Dog The Bounty Hunter for advice…

#RIPBeth