Aggies sign one of Philly's best
Texas A&M's efforts to strengthen their offensive line group continued Wednesday with the signing of massive Philadelphia Northeast tackle Naquil Betrand.
Chose A&M over: Auburn, Syracuse, Kentucky, Colorado, Georgia and Penn State, among others
Betrand, a one-time Colorado commit, came back on the market in the early summer and the Aggies were ready. Elijah Robinson, who has had great success in and around Philadelphia, helped Steve Addazio lock down the 6-foot-7 offensive lineman and his commitment was never seriously challenged.
Projected 2023 role: Backup offensive tackle
Film study
You can't teach size and strength, and Betrand has those in spades. He is absolutely massive and can just bully many of his opponents.
You can see his strength as he just shoves opposing linemen aside. If a linebacker somehow has to deal with him, it's not going to end well for the defender. He'll probably end up flattened.
Betrand has tremendous lower body strength, which you can see as he pushes defensive linemen 15 or 20 yards down the field. He's also got extremely long arms, which he should be able to use to gain control when grappling with a defender.
Betrand still has a lot of work to do technically. He bounces right out of his stance to full height immediately, a big no-no. He also doesn't use his arm length to his advantage as much as he should, allowing defenders to get in on him. He needs to get his weight forward on the balls of his feet instead of either in the middle or on his heels, because then he'll have the advantage of having all of his strength moving forward at an overmatched defensive lineman.
Betrand improved significantly from his sophomore to junior seasons and hopefully he'll continue to do so. If he can improve his technique to match his size and strength, he could be a real force on an SEC offensive line.