Posts: 1,065
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Joined: Aug 2017
Four dimensional analysis on Symonds:
Services: 247 composite #1058 (#86 OT), On3 consensus #911 (#59 OT), 247 #65 OT, On3 #67 OT, Rivals 5.6 (same grade as Luke Baklenko, Jake Maikkula, Austin Uke, Jack Leyrer, Barrett Miller, Drake Nugent, Drew Dalman, Dylan Powell, Henry Hattis, Nate Herbig, Austin Maihen, Brian Chaffin, David Bright, Kevin Reihner, Brad Hallick), ESPN #79 OT
Offers: Stanford, NC State, Boston College, Cal, Connecticut, Duke, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan State, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Wake Forest
Production: As a senior against terrible competition (bottom eight percent of Stanford recruits), Symonds blocked for an offense with a modest 23.4 points per game. Only one game's statistics are available, preventing many other conclusions, though for what it's worth Taft passed 64 percent of the time that game and was bottled up in the run game when they did run; Symonds was not credited with any defensive stats in that game. As a junior he blocked for an offense with an also modest 25 point per game output and a 59/41 pass/run balance, which is more passing than one often sees from high school offenses, with the run game averaging 6.4 yards per carry (with the top back averaging exactly that, which can be a sign the team stat is fairly reflective of line play); he was fairly insignificant on defense with only 3 tackles. His sophomore season was cancelled due to the pandemic. He played basketball for three years but according to his football coach is giving it up this year to do football-specific strength and conditioning (unclear to me if he's enrolling early at Stanford as I don't know who is in general in the 2023 class but assume numerous). He reportedly started at center on the basketball team but unfortunately Maxpreps does not report stats for his team, I could find no evidence online of his quality, and I assume large chunks of his career were wiped out by the pandemic. In track, he's got a personal best in the shot put of 45' 11.5" that puts him slightly below average among Stanford football players who put the shot, a mark most similar to Drew Dalman, Andrus Peat, Brandon Fanaika, and AT Hall.
Highlights: The highlights show a mix of pass and run plays. The book on him, according to his own coach, is being big and athletic but needing to work on bending and technique. He does look like he plays too tall and could work on that, surely not easy at his size. As a junior he kept a pretty clean pocket and looked more impressive in that phase than in run blocking, though there were run blocks on the highlights, including a small handful of pulling plays and a couple getting to the second level. While the overall competition these Northeast prep schools face is quite poor, there are individual standouts on several of the teams that afford an opportunity to compare prospects against major college football players, plus one rival (Loomis Chaffee School) loaded with talent. The junior highlights against Loomis Chaffee School show Symonds pancaking then-sophomore Jerod Smith, a 2024 4-star DL, and later fending off an edge rush by him; fending off six edge rushes by Boston College LB Edwin Kollenge; authoritatively/effectively run blocking then-sophomore, now 2024 edge whale Jacob Smith; and fending off two pass rushes from Jacob Smith. Kollenge's highlights show him shedding Symonds on a run block to make a play to stop a run for short gain and a play in which Kollenge's speed rush arguably hurried the quarterback's throw. Jerod Smith's lone highlight was a sack lined up inside of Symonds, so victimizing a guard rather than Symonds. Jacob Smith's highlights show him beating Symonds a few times on run plays. Highlights of our old/brief friend Alabama OL commit Olaus Alinen show some plays of Symonds manning the middle on defense but not to much effect. In general that game was an eye-opening performance for Symonds given the competition. Against Avon Old Farms, Symonds neutralized Northwestern LB Kenny Soares multiple times, though one of the highlights looked oddly selected to me as Soares bull rushed and collapsed the pocket pretty well, even if the QB did get the throw off. But Soares' highlights don't show Symonds being victimized at all. In the senior highlights, what jumps out is exactly what his coach says: "He took a big step in the run game with his physicality and finishing off blocks." In general he's just much nastier in the senior highlights and was clearly trying to get defenders to the ground and keep them there, on run and pass plays alike. Of course, it was predominantly poor competition. Again the exception to that was against Loomis Chaffee School, in which Symonds had a run stop for a one yard gain playing defensive line (not lined up against a notable prospect as far as I could tell); tied up/stonewalled the aforementioned Jacob Smith on a run play, albeit not one to Symonds' side; and did the same against the aforementioned Jerod Smith on a similar play. While Jacob Smith didn't have any head-to-head highlights in this one against Symonds, Jerod Smith had a sack where he split through/ran through Symonds and the running back (Symonds' coach had said he didn't think Symonds gave up any sacks....but he definitely gave up at least that one). In the Avon Old Farms game, Symonds and Wisconsin LB signee Christian Alliegro and 3-star 2024 DE Benedict Umeh didn't square off, unless you count Alliegro being able to evade the much bigger man on an interception return or taking advantage of a lane to the quarterback when Symonds blocked inside and the tight end misread Alliegro's blitz. Symonds also posted basketball highlights, which give a sense of his size and athleticism but won't be mistaken for a basketball prospect. He mostly contributed rebounding but plays well beneath the rim (very far beneath) despite being the tallest guy on the floor. He looked more like a very big kid than a stud two-sport athlete to me.
A nice late add for a class. As it appears Yamauchi is not enrolling after all due to an LDS mission this would be only the third OL in the class, so we could use the volume. Symonds appears to be a credible recruit by any of the dimensions above. His performance against high major college pass rushers is the most exciting thing. For even his advocates to note lack of bend as a concern gives me some pause, but hopefully a player who only really got to play 16 games of varsity football (and only a few against real competition) can be a developmental guy who gets better. Late additions like this have a peculiar feel for me when you have a coaching transition like Stanford is undergoing as a fringe top 1000 player is the type some staffs will evaluate completely differently than others and Taylor/Adams may have different views than Shaw/Heffernan, so there's a bit of a White Elephant gift exchange feel here. But on paper it's a prospect who might help and our new coaches need all of those they can get.
