This is one I have been waiting to publish for some time!
Back in Early August the Buffalo News printed that UB had received a verbal commitment from Brandon Berry
UB picked up four more verbal commitments on Saturday, according to a source. The Bulls landed two players from Detroit Cass Tech in LB/S Brandon Berry and CB William Rembert and also received verbals from WR Malcolm Robinson from Canton, Ohio and CB C.J. Stancil from Chesterfield, Va. -- Rodney Mckissic, Buffalo News
Yet as the season went on none of the services would mark him as committed and there were no local stories about Berry which even mentioned UB. When the offer from Cincinnati hit the wire many believed that Berry was going to pull away from UB, if he had ever really committed in the first place.
But ESPN just taught us a valuable lesson. NEVER DOUBT RODNEY MCKISSIC!
A couple of days ago Berry's ESPN profile, based off on information at rivals, noted that he had made a commitment to Buffalo
High two-star safety prospect Brandon Berry (Detroit, Mich./Cass Tech) has committed to play for the Buffalo Bulls, Rivals.com reports -- ESPN
Berry seems to be the most highly touted among an army of defensive back recruits coming in this season. If there is one area on Buffalo's defense that needed a big catch it's the defensive backfield. They get some slack for this past season because they were so young but the squad never really looked to have it together and Quarterbacks torched them more often than not.
Berry, if used as in the defensive backfield, is going to bring a very physical game with him. The scouting reports note that he played the position like an outside linebacker, which makes sense because he spent most of his high school career as the SAM linebacker.
The positives from his reports are that he gets downhill fast and pursues well. Closes fast and is a sound tackler. He is also an exceptional blitzer because he has a great initial burst off the snap.
The main area in which he needs to develop is his coverage. He was pretty good at the high school level but right now he probably would not be ideal as the last man in a zone, nor is that a guy who can currently line up across from some of the conferences best receivers.
Given he has exactly one year as a safety under his belt and garnered four FBS offers, one AQ offer, and was touted by services like ESPN to be one of the best at the position in Michigan this is a solid get.
If he grows a bit, and fills out, he will make a great linebacker. If he maintains his current height and dimensions but cleans up his coverage a bit he can be a huge asset as a safety. Josh Thomas, Davonte Shannon, and Domonic Cook all landed in NFL camps last season, following Mike Newton in 2009, this might be the class that starts to fill those gaps.