ALL TWENTY-TUESDAY: CONNETICUT S OBI MELIFONWU

We’ve all watched Star Wars, right?

Who was your favorite character? I kinda liked Mace Windu the most – besides Darth Maul, who is unquestionably No. 1 on the all-time favorite bad guys list. I don’t know why I like Windu, probably because Samuel L. Jackson was so calm in that role, then when the big fights broke out he was this bad-ass leader. But, I know I’m probably on the short list with that.

A lot of people love Han Solo because of his rebel nature. I know some like Darth Vader the most, but in Episodes 2 and 3 Anakin is the biggest whiner of all time, so he’s out. Yoda and Luke are classics, but there’s one name I hear more than others: Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Obi-Wan’s presence throughout the early episodes is iconic. He’s like a father figure to kids who are watching the movies for the first time, he was like an older brother to Anakin and then, at the end, he turned into this wise sage. His journey as a character was so great it’s hard to not like him.

So what does Obi-Wan Kenobi have to do with UConn safety Obi Melifonwu other than having the same cool first name? I would say these two have three common characteristics: dependability, a desire to help, and great use of (the) force.

When it comes to dependability, Melifonwu (pronounced OH-bee mel-uh-FON-woo) has been a constant presence for the Huskies. He’s a four-year starter who actually played high school ball in the Massachusetts area, too.

In his first year with the Huskies, Melifonwu became the team’s starting free safety, recording 70 tackles, three tackles for loss, two interceptions, five pass breakups and two forced fumbles. He started 11 games the next season as a sophomore, adding 75 more tackles with 3.5 tackles for loss and three PBUs. As a junior he had 88 tackles, two tackles for loss, two interceptions and five pass breakups. And, finally, as a senior, Melifonwu had career highs in both tackles (118) and interceptions (four) while playing both strong and free safety.

The last sentence is key when talking about Melifonwu as a possible Buccaneers draft pick. As discussed on the previous page, Keith Tandy started his career at strong safety, but showed he was better the more space he was given in a free safety role. However, the Buccaneers’ safety scheme is very fluid, there are times when Tandy and fellow safety Bradley McDougald switched roles to throw off defenses – you have to keep an offense guessing when only playing two linebackers to keep the run game at bay. That’s why it would be important for an incoming safety to have knowledge and success with both strong and free safety roles.

The play above (sorry it took me so long to reference it) is a good place to start when evaluating a strong safety, especially one that will be called upon to make tackles closer to the line. Melifonwu’s long 6-foot-4 body frame allow him to stretch out when facing ball carriers in open space so he can wrap up and stop them in their tracks.

This next clip shows what that looks like from a bird’s eye view.

Melifonwu does that a lot where he’ll see the play develop, recognize where blocking is and isn’t and shoot a gap to make a play at or just beyond the line of scrimmage. That’s the kind of fearlessness that is required to play strong safety. We often talk about ball carrier vision for running backs, but Melifonwu shows that same type of vision trait as a safety.

This is what make him dependable.

The next Obi connection we have is their willingness to help. For Melifonwu, that comes in the form of range in coverage.

The play above is of Melifonwu from a free safety spot. He’s being used as the deep man to help any long routes down the middle first, then if there are none, anything vertical down the sideline to help a cornerback in man or, most likely, Cover 3.

On a pass that was a little overthrown, what’s important to note is the kind of athletic ability it took for Melifornwu to get from where he was to where he ended up quick enough to knock the ball loose. That range is something you can’t teach and it’s a big reason why people are high on him as a Day 2 pick.

In his game versus USF (which was bad, we’ll get to that). Melifonwu again showed off his natural athleticism by not only making it to the catch point, but also being able to track where the ball was going at full speed to make the catch. Do I love the fact that he body-caught that pass? No, but coaches will yell at him enough in the NFL to get that out of his system. What’s important to note is that, when asked to play man coverage, which the Buccaneers do a lot of from both of their safeties, Melifonwu is athletic enough to track and cover receivers or tight ends.

My biggest gripe with Melifonwu as a prospect is that he sometimes (more often than he should) either loses focus or is too confident in his athleticism and it burns him, which is kind of like how Obi-Wan Kenobi failed to notice or stop Anakin from turning to the dark side because he wasn’t aware of it or didn’t want to believe it. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the ability to sense it. He just lost focus. That’s Melifonwu.

In the play above, Melifonwu was playing at the line of scrimmage against a bigger receiver (I think it’s a tight end). As the tight end started to run his route, you could see Melifonwu slow up as to think, “I’m way more athletic than this guy, he’s not a threat to me.”

Melifonwu then proceeded to get burned on the longer route, only to get bailed out by a terrible throw. This should have been an easy interception for him, but again, because he was so lackadaisical and overconfident, he let himself get outworked and the receiver ended up scoring a touchdown. That effort is inexcusable.

The same type of poor effort showed up in the play above.

Knowing the kind of athlete Melifonwu is, he should have been able to cut off this receiver about 10 yards shorter than he ended up going. But, because he wasn’t going full speed to the sideline, you see him get beat to the spot, then panic and speed up at the end to barely push the receiver out of bounds. That shouldn’t happen.

Finally, Melifonwu just looked unfocused here as a strong safety at the line of scrimmage. He wasn’t paying attention to what he needed to, and was caught a step behind when the ball was snapped. Because he didn’t move right away, he allowed the offensive lineman to get over and into him, guaranteeing the touchdown. If you’re a strong safety playing close to the line of scrimmage, you have to be more disruptive than that.

Though there are those lapses in judgement and focus from Melifonwu, he does have some really nice plays at the strong safety position, which is what bring us to out last similarity between he and Kenobi: (the) force.

In Kenobi’s world, the force is a manipulation of the limitations of the human body by being both exceptionally wise and one with what would a spiritual world, combining the two and controlling both. In Melifonwu’s world, the force is him hitting a ball carrier so hard they either drop the ball or stop in their tracks.

The play above is a great play from Melifonwu. In it, he anticipated the snap, got a good jump to run across the line, and was the first player to the ball carrier to stop him for a no gain.

In that same game, Melifonwu showed good traits of being able to accelerate quickly, locate where the ball carrier is going, and hit him with enough force to allow for no yards after contact. Having the second nature to go up and stop play at the line of scrimmage is what makes a good strong safety. This is something Bradley McDougald does well occasionally, and something Melifonwu might be able to do even better with his size and athleticism.

Players like Melifonwu aren’t for every defensive coordinator. It would take a creative mind to be able to get the most out of the successes he’s shown as both a free and strong safety – also knowing he’s not perfect at either. I think keeping Mike Smith as defensive coordinator bumped up Melifonwu’s chances of becoming a Buccaneer. His lapses in judgement do worry me just because too many talented football players have come and gone in this league because of a failure to be focused.

If he can stay focused, he can be a great compliment to Tandy, in time, and he might become a fan favorite, just like a certain Star Wars character that shares his name.