Here is an analysis of incoming 2016 Tennessee football recruit Jonathan Kongbo, who joins the Vols as a defensive end.
The Tennessee Volunteers were already loaded at defensive line, particularly on the ends with superstars like Derek Barnett. But showing once again that he’s all in for this year, Butch Jones has gone out of his way to make sure he gets possibly the historically greatest defensive line ever.
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And that is where a junior college five-star at defensive end in Jonathan Kongbo comes in.
Kongbo has already pledged all of his loyalty to the Vols, even getting into some trouble for talking a heck of a lot on social media.
Born in the Congo and coming out of Surrey, British Columbia in Canada, Kongbo spent one year at Arizona Western College after never playing football until his senior year of high school.
But his raw talent became refined, and he was turned into a highly coveted superstar overnight in recruiting.
At 6’6″ 260, Kongbo is a rare hybrid on the line who could line up at any position and on either side at end.
Let’s take a look at his game.
Early Analysis
With an incredible size, Kongbo still brings rare speed to the defensive end position running a 4.69-40. He has great straight line speed, is very strong, and also knows how to get off blocks.
Kongbo’s biggest strength is finding the seam in the offensive line to close up or even go through to make plays. He also does everything he can to get a hit in, making him one of the most intimidating players to go against.
Also, when Kongbo wraps a player up, that player is going down immediately. And for a person who didn’t play football until his senior year of high, he is very refined already at rip and swipe moves. But that brings us to our problems.
Despite using the moves effectively, Kongbo has not demonstrated too much diversity at the rip and swipe move. If he doesn’t add more to his game there, he will be figured out halfway through the year.
Kongbo also has a slow first step off the snap despite his speed. That will give SEC offensive linemen huge leverage against him when he can’t just use the same spin move to get by every time.
The good news is that if Kongbo can pick up the rip and swipe move as well as he already has so quickly, he should have no problem becoming more multi-dimensional. Improving that first step is still a bit of a question.
must read: Evaluating the Tennessee Recruiting Class at Dead Period: Running Backs
What Jonathan Kongbo brings to Tennessee
Jonathan Kongbo joins a defensive line rotation that is going to be the best in the country. He is already likely to start opposite Derek Barnett to create the most havoc-wreak end tandem in the country.
Right there with them to provide depth is Corey Vereen, Shy Tuttle, and LaTroy Lewis, and playing with fundamentally sound players like Danny O’Brien and Kendal Vickers in the middle along with elite talent like Kahlil McKenzie should free Kongbo up to make lots of plays.
Not only does Kongbo set Tennessee football up to dominate this year at defensive line, though. He has the Vols set up for the future with all of this talent and given the fact that he is only a sophomore.
So with his supporting cast, expect Kongbo to make a ton of plays this year right out of the gate. He also will allow Barnett to continue to wreak havoc since teams can’t block both of them.