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Oh, Hello: PA DT Karamo Dioubate Commits to Penn State

One of the biggest and most mysterious fish in Pennsylvania commits to the Nittany Lions. But he's better than a normal fish. He's a fish that can play football.

By Nick Polak

Karamo Dioubate, ladies and gentlemen!

siren

Stats:

Hometown/High School: Philadelphia, Pa/Prep Charter

Height/Weight: 6'3"/279

Recruited By: Josh Gattis and Sean Spencer

Starz n' Sheetz:

Starz: 4* across the board

Sheetz: Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State, Arizona, Arizona State, Boston College, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, UMass, Miami, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ole Miss, 5B, BTPR, Temple, Tennessee, UCLA, Villanova, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wisconsin

Cinema:

The Tale:

When it comes to Dioubate, there really isn't much of a tale to tell. Much like Penn State targets Christian Wilkins and Alex Boosker before him, Dioubate hasn't been much of a talker when it comes to the media. Since March, his 247 timeline tells us that he's either visited or been visited by Penn State three times, the most recent occurrence in late April when Gattis and Spencer paid him a visit in Philadelphia. Karamo also visited Rutgers and Ohio State, but ultimately felt that Penn State was the place to be.

As far as quiet recruitments go, his has been one of the quietest since I began following recruiting. In fact, there wasn't much word at all about when he would decide, until this story on Scout popped up the other day. According to the article, Dioubate decided to cancel planned visits to both Alabama and Auburn, narrowing things down to Penn State, Rutgers and Ohio State. Luckily for the Nittany Lions, he decided that the Buckeyes and Scarlet Knights were not for him. The number four player in the state of Pennsylvania and number 150 overall will officially aid in the effort to dominate the state.

The Outlook:

The first time I watched Dioubate's tape, I giggled a bit. He completely dominates his high school-level competition, which is exactly what you want to see from a defensive line prospect (or any prospect, really). While he likely won't get the chance to play defensive end at Penn State, his ability to bull rush his blocker will serve him well anywhere on the line.

His game is very much about power. His go-to move seems to be to use his hands to simply bully his man off of him, rather than fighting with them. He'll need to work to develop some hand-fighting techniques at the next level, but the pure brute strength behind his push will be enough to get the job done consistently. If he can develop those techniques further and add to his repertoire, you could be looking at the next all-time great defensive tackle. As he is now, he'll just be the type of player who could lead the line for three or four years. Ho hum.

He's not as quick and precise as a player like Anthony Zettel, and he's not quite on the same power scale as Austin Johnson, rather he's a pretty good view at what a hybrid of the two would look like. While Johnson does most of his damage right at the line, somehow swallowing up two blockers and a running back/quarterback, Dioubate will use his power to overmatch the man in front of him in order to reach the next one. While Zettel employs a litany of pass rushing moves to get to the ball carrier, Dioubate has gotten pretty comfortable with perfecting his smaller arsenal of moves.

Could Dioubate's mixture of their talents lead to an even more dominating presence on the line in the near future? I guess you'll just have to wait and see.

You can't follow Karamo on Twitter, because he smartly doesn't have a twitter. No recruit should have a twitter. In fact, no one should have a twitter.

Dioubate's commitment brings Penn State's 2016 class to 19. It also shoots Penn State up the team rankings, to number four in the country. They trail only Ohio State, LSU and Florida State.

Welcome to Penn State, Karamo!

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