Signing Day Capsule: DT Ja'mion Franklin

JA’MION FRANKLIN - DEFENSIVE TACKLE 

ISD: 4-star

Composite: 3-star

Ridgely, MD (North Caroline HS)

6-foot-1, 295 pounds

Senior Stats: 45 total tackles, 12 TFL, 4 sacks, 4 FFs, Blocked punt for TD

Recruiter: Clark Lea/Mike Elston

Recruitment Rundown: Franklin visited Notre Dame in March and left with an offer and a new top school. Franklin was struck by the beauty of the campus and the people he met while he was in South Bend. The coaches and players specifically made huge impacts, but so did the scheme the coaches showed him. Shortly after that visit, Franklin announced that he would announce his decision on July 1 and again confirmed Notre Dame was at the top of the list. The Irish never relinquished that lead and Franklin moved up his decision date by a month. Franklin also had offers from schools like Boston College, Duke, Northwestern, Pitt, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wisconsin.

North Caroline head coach James McCormick: “They’re going to get a top-flight football player, a kid who is going to come in and compete and work and do things on the field and off the field that you expect for a high-profile college football program. He’s big and explosive. For a kid his size, he moves very well and has got great feet. I think the thing that’s allowed him to have more success than anything else that he’s a grinder. He’s a blue-collar grinder. He just works.

“He’s a perfect role model when talking to younger kids about what we expect behavior-wise and our approach and how we do things. Here’s a kid who does it the right way, does it the way we want it done. For these younger kids looking up, he’s a good role model…He’s just a good young man. He’s very likable. He can carry on a conversation with an adult with no problem. He’s not shy in that way, but he’s not arrogant either. He’s a good kid. He plays sports, works a job and gets good grades. He does all of the things you expect kids to do and he does them the right way.”

ISD expert Jamie Uyeyama: It’s difficult to glean much from Ja’mion Frankin’s senior year film for a few reasons. The first is that he sometimes lined up at defensive end. That’s not a spot where you’ll be seeing him at Notre Dame. The second is that the level of competition is not very good.

Yes, Franklin is dominant again like he was as a junior, but he’s supposed to be. I can’t say I learned much from his senior film that I didn’t already know. The good news is that what I already knew he had a great first step and he showed it again. He has rare explosiveness for someone that is in the 300-pound range. As a one technique at Notre Dame, he’s going to be a handful for any guard or center to block when he gets off the football 

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