Signing Day Capsule: DE Justin Ademilola
JUSTIN ADEMILOLA - DEFENSIVE END
ISD: 4-star
Composite: 3-star
Jersey City, NJ (St. Peter’s Prep)
6-foot-3, 245 pounds
Senior Stats: 37 solo tackles, 53 total tackles, 10 TFL, 6 sacks, 1 FF
Recruiter: Mike Elko/Mike Elston
Recruitment Rundown: Ademilola and his twin brother, Jayson, were relatively easy to land. The brothers made the trip out to South Bend for a camp in the summer of 2016. They’d already made the decision together, if the Irish offered, they were going to accept. Shortly after the workout, the offer came and shortly after that, Notre Dame had scored a pair of young, talented defensive linemen. The brothers ended their recruitment before it really got started and several other schools, specifically Ohio State and Alabama, did their best to find an opening. But even after Notre Dame’s disastrous 4-8 season in 2016, the Ademilolas never really had a sincere interest in other schools and St. Peter’s Prep head coach Rich Hansen kept the contact with other programs to a minimum.
DL guru Peter Kafaf: "I think Justin has a tougher position because he's really going to have to figure things out being a 6-foot-2 edge player. Typically, your edge players are 6-foot-4, 6-foot-5, 6-foot-3 at the minimum because of the length of their hands. It becomes a hand battle with those offensive tackles. Justin doesn't have that, so he needs to play with different sort of leverage and different sort of intelligence. It just may take him a little bit longer and it may take me a little bit longer to teach him how to develop and play with that. He certainly can, but it's a different skillset than what Jayson has.
ISD expert Jamie Uyeyama: Ademilola has been overlooked as a prospect because of his higher-ranked twin brother, but he's on a similar trajectory. His game improved leaps and bounds as a junior and he is advanced with his hands as a pass rusher. His get off has improved tremendously as well. At around 240 pounds, it's not out of the question that he grows into a strong side defensive end as I think that suits his game better than Drop. He can win with quickness at the point of attack and has a solid punch.
I don't think many are counting on him to contribute right away, but in my opinion, it's not out of the question for him to play as a freshman and potentially see action as a situational pass rusher. People are sleeping on him as a player because of his brother and more people should be taking note that the Irish are gaining a really good defensive end prospect.
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