Daily Short #135, January 30th, 2017: What Happened to D'Andre Christmas?
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Has the ship sailed on Texas junior DT D'Andre Christmas?
I'm just curious what has happened to the guy. I was reading Jason's update on the status of Katy DT Moro Ojomo (who looks like an intriguing player who'll certainly command his own edition of the Short one day if he happens to commit to the Horns), and I started thinking that defensive line depth is kind of an important focus right now.
Charlie Strong's big DT haul -- where the now-fired HC "brought the beef" in the form of a much-needed five-pack of big D-line prospects -- has now dwindled to two players thanks to attrition: Gerald Wilbon and D'Andre Christmas. Classmates Jordan Elliott, Marcell Southall and Chris Daniels have all skedaddled, and the d-line depth in the absence of Poona Ford has become a little more concerning.
You have Chris Nelson who returns as a senior after playing 122 snaps in 2015, 430 in 2016 and 370 in 2017. Nelson was more effective in 2016 than he was in 2017 where he produced almost 6% of the defensive market-share of productivity versus only 3.6% in 2017. It was not all due to pure volume of snaps, either. Nelson produced on a per-snap basis in 2017 (production caused once per every 11.04 snaps) at almost exactly the same clip as he did in 2015 (11.09) before his relative 2016 breakout (7.41) during Charlie Strong's last year in Austin. Some of this could be attributed to Todd Orlando's defense not generating the same productivity from the defensive line while the big uglies are more likely to draw two-gapping dirty work in the trenches more often than they are asked to pin their ears back and penetrate one gap upfield. However, if this is the case, how do we explain Poona Ford's 2017 breakout under Orlando?
Fans are hoping for a Chris Nelson re-emergence in 2018 to be certain, but it's already in the bag that this will be only a one-year fix. Behind Nelson (as far as "true" big DTs are concerned) the cupboard features only now-juniors Gerald Wilbon and Christmas.
Wilbon seems like a dependable-enough longer-term option to fill in as an eventual starter as he's shown nice flashes, but I was very surprised to look back and see the guy has only played a total of 167 snaps as a Longhorn to this point (80 as a freshman and 87 as a sophomore). The fact about Wilbon is that we have absolutely no idea how he'll fare in full-time duty. His largest snap participation number in 2017 was 18 snaps and in 2016, he got up to 29 snaps in one game (a career-high thus far) which just so happened to be in a monumental disaster of a loss to Kansas.
After playing 69 snaps as a freshman, Christmas only played 10 snaps in 2017 during garbage time, not generating any productivity to show for it. Christmas was basically the same player in 2017 as Tope Imade, an offensive line prospect moved to the defensive side of the football as an afterthought for seemingly no reason other than desperation depth.
So what happened to D'Andre Christmas? This is what I wrote in 2015 regarding Christmas when doing the evaluation work on him:
--
Scouting Notes versus Brother Martin (LA) (DT No. 77)
- Extremely fast first step - it's the first thing you notice from him on every play.
- Ability, like Tyrus Butler, to get almost unreasonably skinny through the gap and penetrate.
CLICK HERE FOR CLIP
- Uses hands, arms and positioning to engage violently but keeps offensive linemen well-away from his body with long arms and pressing power.
CLICK HERE FOR CLIP
- Gets held constantly - he's very hard to keep from his assignment.
CLICK HERE FOR CLIP
- Shows consistent ability to take on double-teams, diagnose and explode to the ball-carrier.
CLICK HERE FOR CLIP
- Will need to work on pad-level at the next level, but has no issues with core power, strength, size or motor.
- Plays every snap for his team and doesn't take plays off - not a loafer or a fat on/off-switch guy. Seems to be the "hype man" of the defense that gets the others fired up.
Is DCG Texas good? After spending a day evaluating his film, I say most certainly "yes."
As for how he compares to DTs in Texas, DCG is not the prospect that Ed Oliver is, but he's a different type of defensive tackle. DCG could end up being the better player in the end ... that is, if Oliver's tornado-motor and explosion abilities are already close to maxed out, which is a legitimate worry. Still, I would rank Oliver over DCG if DCG were a Texas prospect. After Oliver, DCG would, without a doubt, be the second-best DT prospect in Texas. If I were in charge of a college team, I would rather sign DCG than OU commit Chris Daniels, or, honestly, probably two Kendell Jones' or three Ross Blacklocks.
--
To think that Christmas (who I referred to as 'DCG' in the passage above as he went by 'Christmas-Giles' at the time of his recruitment) was a player who I even used in the same sentence as Ed Oliver is so crazy to me. With this said, I did say clearly that Oliver was the prospect I'd ranked higher and my remarks about preferring Christmas to Daniels, Jones and Blacklock have stood the test of time well enough, too.
We know he's shown on tape that he could take on double-teams and thrive against some of the best competition in Louisiana as a high-school man-beast. We know his first step was almost as good as you can imagine from a high school prospect and while he needed to work on pad level, the motor, nastiness and aggression were there every time you turned on the film. It seemed like opposing offensive linemen had to hold him on every other play to keep this guy from taking over football games.
Sometimes prospects just don't pan out as college players for any number of reasons. It's just how things go. There have been rumors that maybe he'll transfer and I've found that speculation about these things causes me more trouble than it's worth, so I won't even go there. Assuming Christmas will be around for the 2018 season, though, maybe we could finally see glimpses of all the elite attributes Christmas showed as a prep? It's not like there's a 100% chance that the guy is a bust after just two years in a college program. And it may be a monumental task at this point, who knows, but if Todd Orlando can squeeze the potential out of Christmas that he showed as a recruit, the defensive line's immediate near-term outlook becomes much more promising.
presented by the Dental Offices of Wendy Swantkowski, DDS
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
Has the ship sailed on Texas junior DT D'Andre Christmas?
I'm just curious what has happened to the guy. I was reading Jason's update on the status of Katy DT Moro Ojomo (who looks like an intriguing player who'll certainly command his own edition of the Short one day if he happens to commit to the Horns), and I started thinking that defensive line depth is kind of an important focus right now.
Charlie Strong's big DT haul -- where the now-fired HC "brought the beef" in the form of a much-needed five-pack of big D-line prospects -- has now dwindled to two players thanks to attrition: Gerald Wilbon and D'Andre Christmas. Classmates Jordan Elliott, Marcell Southall and Chris Daniels have all skedaddled, and the d-line depth in the absence of Poona Ford has become a little more concerning.
You have Chris Nelson who returns as a senior after playing 122 snaps in 2015, 430 in 2016 and 370 in 2017. Nelson was more effective in 2016 than he was in 2017 where he produced almost 6% of the defensive market-share of productivity versus only 3.6% in 2017. It was not all due to pure volume of snaps, either. Nelson produced on a per-snap basis in 2017 (production caused once per every 11.04 snaps) at almost exactly the same clip as he did in 2015 (11.09) before his relative 2016 breakout (7.41) during Charlie Strong's last year in Austin. Some of this could be attributed to Todd Orlando's defense not generating the same productivity from the defensive line while the big uglies are more likely to draw two-gapping dirty work in the trenches more often than they are asked to pin their ears back and penetrate one gap upfield. However, if this is the case, how do we explain Poona Ford's 2017 breakout under Orlando?
Fans are hoping for a Chris Nelson re-emergence in 2018 to be certain, but it's already in the bag that this will be only a one-year fix. Behind Nelson (as far as "true" big DTs are concerned) the cupboard features only now-juniors Gerald Wilbon and Christmas.
Wilbon seems like a dependable-enough longer-term option to fill in as an eventual starter as he's shown nice flashes, but I was very surprised to look back and see the guy has only played a total of 167 snaps as a Longhorn to this point (80 as a freshman and 87 as a sophomore). The fact about Wilbon is that we have absolutely no idea how he'll fare in full-time duty. His largest snap participation number in 2017 was 18 snaps and in 2016, he got up to 29 snaps in one game (a career-high thus far) which just so happened to be in a monumental disaster of a loss to Kansas.
After playing 69 snaps as a freshman, Christmas only played 10 snaps in 2017 during garbage time, not generating any productivity to show for it. Christmas was basically the same player in 2017 as Tope Imade, an offensive line prospect moved to the defensive side of the football as an afterthought for seemingly no reason other than desperation depth.
So what happened to D'Andre Christmas? This is what I wrote in 2015 regarding Christmas when doing the evaluation work on him:
--
Scouting Notes versus Brother Martin (LA) (DT No. 77)
- Extremely fast first step - it's the first thing you notice from him on every play.
- Ability, like Tyrus Butler, to get almost unreasonably skinny through the gap and penetrate.
CLICK HERE FOR CLIP
- Uses hands, arms and positioning to engage violently but keeps offensive linemen well-away from his body with long arms and pressing power.
CLICK HERE FOR CLIP
- Gets held constantly - he's very hard to keep from his assignment.
CLICK HERE FOR CLIP
- Shows consistent ability to take on double-teams, diagnose and explode to the ball-carrier.
CLICK HERE FOR CLIP
- Will need to work on pad-level at the next level, but has no issues with core power, strength, size or motor.
- Plays every snap for his team and doesn't take plays off - not a loafer or a fat on/off-switch guy. Seems to be the "hype man" of the defense that gets the others fired up.
Is DCG Texas good? After spending a day evaluating his film, I say most certainly "yes."
As for how he compares to DTs in Texas, DCG is not the prospect that Ed Oliver is, but he's a different type of defensive tackle. DCG could end up being the better player in the end ... that is, if Oliver's tornado-motor and explosion abilities are already close to maxed out, which is a legitimate worry. Still, I would rank Oliver over DCG if DCG were a Texas prospect. After Oliver, DCG would, without a doubt, be the second-best DT prospect in Texas. If I were in charge of a college team, I would rather sign DCG than OU commit Chris Daniels, or, honestly, probably two Kendell Jones' or three Ross Blacklocks.
--
To think that Christmas (who I referred to as 'DCG' in the passage above as he went by 'Christmas-Giles' at the time of his recruitment) was a player who I even used in the same sentence as Ed Oliver is so crazy to me. With this said, I did say clearly that Oliver was the prospect I'd ranked higher and my remarks about preferring Christmas to Daniels, Jones and Blacklock have stood the test of time well enough, too.
We know he's shown on tape that he could take on double-teams and thrive against some of the best competition in Louisiana as a high-school man-beast. We know his first step was almost as good as you can imagine from a high school prospect and while he needed to work on pad level, the motor, nastiness and aggression were there every time you turned on the film. It seemed like opposing offensive linemen had to hold him on every other play to keep this guy from taking over football games.
Sometimes prospects just don't pan out as college players for any number of reasons. It's just how things go. There have been rumors that maybe he'll transfer and I've found that speculation about these things causes me more trouble than it's worth, so I won't even go there. Assuming Christmas will be around for the 2018 season, though, maybe we could finally see glimpses of all the elite attributes Christmas showed as a prep? It's not like there's a 100% chance that the guy is a bust after just two years in a college program. And it may be a monumental task at this point, who knows, but if Todd Orlando can squeeze the potential out of Christmas that he showed as a recruit, the defensive line's immediate near-term outlook becomes much more promising.
