Commitment Analysis: Atonio Mafi

Welcome in, Atonio Mafi.

We’ve been waiting for a man of your size – a 6’3, 300+ (and reportedly, 340) pound behemoth to anchor a new look defense – and now we’ve got one. JH Tevis and Alftin, despite their Rivals listing at DE, look a bit too slight to play up front – are slated for OLB roles -- meaning that Mafi joins Justin Kakala as the other D-Line reinforcement for 2018, with Kakala set as end, and Mafi right in the center.

Mafi has no Power Five offers besides Cal, but he’s sitting right in our backyard here in San Mateo, which is a good sign a) in terms of hanging onto him if he does blow up, and b) also puts us in good position with close friend Tyler Manoa/other local programs.

A few quick thoughts on what our big unknown body brings on tape, a lot of which is on offense, but that’s fine:

· It’s obvious, but Mafi is big. Really, really big. Like, towers over other HS guys big, and according to Trace, the first lineman on that first play that he dominates is the aforementioned 3-star player Manoa, who has offers from damn near the entire Pac-12. We want Mafi to compete at our nose tackle position once James Looney is gone, which basically means his job is to demand two blocks, and possibly three on every play. If he can do that, the rest of the defense has a much easier time to run around freely, and if you can be actually disruptive up front, great. Within this role, being big, strong, immovable, but not immobile are key.

· The offensive clips are of limited use to us, but they demonstrate he has decent burst off the ball and should be able to handle himself. Being slow off the ball and big would spell doom.

· Not sure why he doesn’t have an offer somewhere. He’s an S&C project to be sure, but the odds of Cal stumbling onto an under the radar guy feel high. Perhaps he just hasn’t been at any of the camps to be discovered yet, and Cal discovered him through a camp

· What really excites me about Mafi are these two plays in particular, at :36 and 2:25. In the first of these, the offense tries to test Mafi by running him laterally on sweep, but he moves without lumbering and actually ends up beating other smaller linemen into the gap for the tackle. This indicates that with proper S&C and losing 10-25 pounds – depending on how Azzinaro wants him – he could be a prime fit at nose tackle. The latter play at 2:25, and again later in the tape is just of him pulling, which, again, is about as much running around as he’ll have to do in the future. Looks perfectly comfortable there, too, size and all. He probably won’t ever be a three-down guy, but particularly on first down and run situations, he could be used situationally his freshman year if he’s in good enough shape.

· 4:14’s also fun – here is Mafi decleating a guy. No spoilers as to how that happens, but even though he’s exposed in the open, this is still a dope feat of agility at that size.