I was down in Manheim Friday to watch Fatorma Mulbah and Susquehanna Twp. take on Manheim Central. He's been up to PSU for multiple camps this summer, but this was actually my first time seeing him in a game. There was a lot that I liked, but he also has a lot to learn still.
I included both positive and negative plays in the film I made. Like I've mentioned before, it's hard to evaluate players from highlight clips. We need to see what they need to improve on to really get a feel for where that player stands.
Below are a few things that stood out to me:
- Mulbah was pretty good at using leverage, which is what I expected knowing that he wrestled this past winter. He actually faced a kid that was comparable in overall size, so it was good to see Fatorma consistently stay low and get underneath the OL's pads. That's what he'll have to do at the next level, so it was good to see him match up against a player who had similar height.
- The rip move is go to move on basically every play. He's still learning, so perfecting that is probably a good thing to focus on this season. Once he gets to PSU, Sean Spencer will certainly stress other moves - the swim move, the chop, etc. - but for now, I think it's good that he's consistently working on the rip. I'm far from a DL expert, but I think it's probably good thing that he works on perfecting a certain move before he tries to learn all these different variations. You'll notice that he rips in about half of these clips.
- There are two things that I think he needs to work on: keeping his feet during tackles and his overall endurance. Fatorma could've had another 3-4 tackles in this game if he stops lunging for tackles. That just comes with time. Players get excited and leave their feet all the time. I see even the best prospects do that. I included two clips of him leaving his feet and missing a tackle. Also, he needs to focus a bit more on his endurance before he gets to Penn State next year. Comparing what he looks like now to just March/April, it's obvious that Mulbah was focused on adding muscle all summer. Thats OK, but I think it was also easy to see that all that added weight slowed him down at times. He was bent over sucking for air just a few drives into the game. So, I think that's something that Penn State will want to address when he gets his pre-enrollment workout from the staff after he signs.
- Overall, I saw exactly what I expected to see. Mulbah is still pretty raw, but he has a lot of potential. He's really only played one full season at this level. This is season number two. After all the coaching and training he's received in recent months, he's going to keep improving every week. I'm excited to see him again when playoffs start.
