Wisconsin offensive lineman commits to Arizona State

Marcus Mbow is all about relationships. It’s why his phone is littered with group chats whether he’ll actually meet the people in those group chats are beside the point.

In the current COVID-era, recruiting has turned into a heavy online and long-distance relationship between coaches and prospects. You’ll text a lot, call frequently, and maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll hop on Facetime together. No in-person interactions leave a semblance of doubt or skepticism with the whole relationship, a sliver that most recruits are willing to swallow right now to ensure they have a spot.

Mbow understands no one knows when official visits will ramp back up. He’s not certain if the first time he visits a college will be when he’s moving his bags in. So, in the meantime, he tried to build relationships with those inside the programs he was considering. With the coaches, sure. But also with the players who could be his teammates.

“It’s super important because it just makes life easier once you get there,” Mbow said

Today, his Arizona State group chat was likely firing off a stream of vibrations. Mbow, a three-star offensive tackle from Wisconsin, became Arizona State’s 14th commitment in the Class of 2021 and the second offensive lineman of this Sun Devil newcomer group.

At 6-foot-5, 312 pounds, he was a terrorizing force on Friday nights.

“He’s not afraid of a living creature,” Dave Pfeiffer, Mbow’s head coach at Wauwatosa High, said. “As the season progressed, he became more confident, knowledgeable, played faster, and was more dominant. In some games, multiple players were lying on their back when he got his hands-on them.”

For Mbow’s services, the Sun Devils beat out Iowa State, Nebraska, Michigan State, and Virginia, securing their third pledge from a 2021 offensive lineman.

And Mbow fits swell into a 2021 class that is strikingly spread out. It includes 14 players from nine different states. For a non-Alabama/Clemson/Ohio State-type program, that’s unheard of. From America’s Dairyland, too, Mbow ironically already has company as Mukwonago High tight end Garrett Gillette committed to ASU in May.

It was also Mbow and Gillette who kicked off the group chat. They teamed up with ASU quarterback commit Finn Collins, the trio trying to plan a trip to visit Collins out in California before the coronavirus hit and spoiled their plans. Instead, they decided to beef up their chat and began adding Sun Devil commits and targets to better communicate as a group.

“It’s awesome. I’m building a relationship with those guys already,” Mbow said, adding that he’s also in contact with ASU tight end Nolan Matthews and offensive lineman LaDarius Henderson, sounding boards for him on what ASU is really like.

“They tell me that it’s just super fun. That’s it’s not super strict, and you can live your life and enjoy it.”

As much as it helped to have young voices to help lure Mbow, to have his future teammates already feel like buddies, Mbow raved about his relationship with the Sun Devils’ coaches.

Most notably, he said graduate assistant Adam Breneman was “more like a big brother than a coach.” Add that to the connection Mbow made with senior player personnel assistant Matt Sieler along with head coach Herm Edwards and offensive analyst Kevin Mawae -- a former NFL head coach and Hall of Famer, respectively -- and the Wisconsin native felt like Tempe could be home.

“Marcus is all about relationships,” Pfeiffer said. “Arizona State is high. How can’t it be when you have a head coach with not only an NFL playing but head coaching career. An offensive line coach that’s a Hall of Famer. I mean, holy buckets. And it’s freaking Arizona.”

When college coaches have come calling about Mbow, Pfeiffer has tried to explain that he’s miles away from reaching his potential. Some more prominent names schools moved off the scent, claiming he was inconsistent. Well, of course, he was, Pfeiffer told them, he’s only seriously played football for one year.

"There's a lot to like when you turn on Marcus Mbow's tape," said Recruiting Analyst Cody Cameron. "The big 6'5 310-pound offensive tackle moves extremely well for his size and he possesses quick, violent hands off the snap of the football. He does an amazing job of getting the second level quickly, sealing and flattening linebackers who are attempting to scrape over the top.

"Once Mbow gets his hands inside of you, good luck trying to get away. This is a player who consistently moves defenders five to seven yards off the ball. My favorite play from Mbow's film comes at the 1:40 mark. Mbow explodes inside off the snap, keeping his pad level low as he works to the second level to the inside linebacker. Mbow strikes the backer through the chest plate, runs his feet, and buries the linebacker in the dirt ten yards off the line of scrimmage. That's some BIG MAN football right there. Mbow will be another great addition to the ASU 2021 recruiting class."

“He is a piece of coal that, put under the right pressure, is going to be an absolute diamond for somebody,” Pfeiffer said. “He’s so far from a finished product. It’s scary.”

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Mbow was never going to quit playing high school football. Sure, he would have loved to, but in his house, Mbow’s mom runs the show. Through hell or high water, she told him, he wasn’t throwing away his pads.

Begrudgingly, after scores of threats to quit, he stuck around. His senior season, he thought, would be the long-awaited finale. No more pads. No more playbooks. No more down blocks. No more football. He’d have a scholarship -- likely from a low-D1 or D2 school, he figured -- and could at long last delicate himself to his passion, basketball.

At 6-foot-5 and tipping the scales at more than 300 pounds, Mbow doesn’t exactly have a hooper’s frame. Years and years of playing were able to make him nimble enough to excel, his footwork thriving regardless of how much football weight he put on. He compared his game to NBA star DeMarcus Cousins, two big bodies who can wreak havoc in the paint and occasionally step out and knock down a 3.

When Pfeiffer met Mbow for the first time last summer, it was clear the 16-year old had his mindset on basketball. Pfeiffer had just been hired as the Wauwatosa coach. New on the job, he staked out the weight room for his first week during the summer, introducing himself to his new players and trying to grasp where they were athletically. He heard about a tall, big-bodied offensive lineman, but he didn’t come in for a while. Pfeiffer asked another player to relay a message to Mbow that the new coach wanted to talk with him.

“He never really said he wasn’t going to go out (for football), but you could tell by his actions that basketball was his passion,” Pfeiffer said.

“All I said was, ‘Marcus, I’m not saying you can’t be a good basketball player, because you can. But God has given you a gift. He doesn’t give out 6-5, 300-pound that can move like that. Those aren’t just growing on trees. You have a gift. Don’t mess this up.”

So far, he hasn’t; and the Sun Devils don’t believe he will.

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