Posts: 1,065
Threads: 80
Joined: Aug 2017
Four dimensional analysis on Ojarikre:
Services: 247 composite NR, On3 consensus NR, 247 NR, On3 NR, Rivals 5.6 (same grade as Terian Williams, Joshua Thompson, Collin Wright, Kyu Blu Kelly, Nicolas Toomer, Donjae Logan, Malik Antoine, Obi Eboh, Andrew Pryts, Justin Reid, Alameen Murphy, Alijah Holder, Ra'Chard Pippens, Jordan Richards, Ronnie Harris, Michael Thomas), ESPN NR
Offers: Stanford, Georgia State, Troy, Georgia Tech, Duke, Georgia Southern, Kentucky, Army, Boston College, Liberty, Missouri, Tennessee
Production: As a senior Ojarikre played very good competition (top 20 percent of Stanford recruits) but unfortunately Denmark barely reported any stats (and none on defense) to Maxpreps. His highlight videos showed that he had an interception (likely the sole one of his career) by jumping an out route. As a junior against good competition, he had 3.5 tackles per game (tenth on the team), 2 tackles for loss (tied for eighth), 4 passes defended (second), and no interceptions (team had 10, including two players with 3); on offense, he had 4 catches (tied for seventh) for 114 yards (fifth) and 1 touchdown. In track, Ojarikre has personal records of 11.29 in the 100 and 23.49 in the 200 (as a sophomore, but he did compete as a junior), which we can be pretty confident are good gauges of his speed in those events as he competed in full seasons both as a sophomore and junior. Those are competitive but not speed demon times, fairly standard marks by Stanford DB standards (Alijah Holder and Ethan Bonner perhaps a general comparison, though Bonner was much faster in the 200).
Highlights: The junior highlights were strange, only showing three passing plays (one of which was a pass defended and the other two showed Ojarikwe making tackles in space on balls thrown behind the line of scrimmage). Mostly the highlights showed his reads/tackles in support as opposed to coverage. As a junior, Ojarikwe got to go up against Northern Illinois QB signee Mason Kidd but Ojarikwe did not put any pass defense on tape for that game and the only highlight Kidd put on tape was a 36 yard pass beating Ojarikwe down the sideline. Against the talented Grayson team (four 4-star players spread across the sophomore and junior classes), Ojarikre put on tape some tackling in the form of working through a block on the boundary to make a tackle and another play perfectly reading a pass to the running back for a 3-4 yard loss in the flat; highlights for said 4-stars (including Stanford 2024 TE target Kylan Fox) didn't show anything come Ojarikwe's way, though a lower profile future UNLV receiver did have a 36 yard touchdown victimizing somebody else but with Ojarikwe not able to get the angle/catch up in pursuit. Against West Forsyth I didn't see anything matching up with Georgia whale TE Oscar Delp. The senior highlights showed more in pass coverage with 5 passes defended, with the same kind of tackling highlights as before, and "showed" (bad camera work) a punt return touchdown and two receiving touchdowns. The highest profile matchup Ojarikwe ever had in high school was his senior year against Milton, as that featured him head-to-head against Texas A&M 4-star WR commit Debron Gatling. In that matchup, Gatling's touchdown came on the far opposite side of the field away from Ojarikwe, but Gatling did have a first down in which he caught the ball in front of Ojarikwe and then juked our guy to get the requisite yards. Ojarikwe's highlight included a pass defended. On the game Gatling only had 35 yards, 12 of which came on the touchdown and had nothing to do with Ojarikwe, so this is a pretty nice feather in Ojarikwe's cap. Against Roswell, Ojarikwe showed more of the nice tackling but no matchups against the notable Roswell players. Going to those players' tape, I see that Nebraska DB signee Ethan Nation's big play of the game victimized somebody else, Middle Tennessee WR signee Ethan Crite didn't play, and Florida Atlantic TE signee Zeke Moore's highlights just corroborate Ojarikwe mostly showing up on tape from coming in to support in tackling on plays that start elsewhere. Against Pebblebrook, South Carolina WR signee CJ Adams had nearly two minutes of highlights, none of which showed him against Ojarike, while Ojarikwe's highlights included two passes defended on deep balls to the other, lower profile WR.
Now this is a flyer. He's a reach by Stanford's standards but there were Power Five programs in pursuit, one recruiting service thinks he's solid, he's got a good frame and easily competitive speed, and dissection of the highlights reveals much more good than bad. His profile is somewhat strange, with Rivals viewing him competitively (but not reporting on him much) and nobody else having him on the radar at all, which coupled with the solid offers might suggest a late bloomer....yet his offers almost all came before his senior season, so not a late bloomer and presumably somebody whose serious engagement with Georgia Tech and Duke (and supposedly Kentucky) would put him on recruiting service radars. Odd. But in a year in which we have a lot of scholarships and not a super high bar to clear, nor an embarrassment of riches in the position group, it's a very reasonable take. Along with OL Charlie Symonds, Ojarikre is probably the most plausible Pac-12 player Taylor has brought on board. I'll be interested to see what position he is listed on our roster. Teams all told him cornerback with flexibility to play nickel or safety and the way Akina operated at Stanford that would have been basically a lock for how he would initially be viewed at Stanford, but we have new DB coaching and, to my non-coach eyes, Ojarikre looks more like a safety than a corner to me. Our pipeline isn't great shakes at either so I'm interested to see where he slots.
