Maea Teuhema recruit scouting report: Massive offensive lineman

Offensive lineman Maea Teuhema is considered one of the best players in the state of Texas and a top recruit nationally.

The composite five-star lineman out of Keller (Texas) High School stands 6’5 and weighs a staggering 346 pounds. Disputes as to his rating are largely based on position: Rivals and 247 Sports, who project Teuhema as a tackle, have given Teuhema a five-star rating, while Scout and ESPN, who peg Teuhema as a guard, have him at a four-star level.

As of February, Teuhema held nine scholarship offers, including LSU , Texas, TCU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Iowa, Baylor, Oregon State, Utah, and Washington State. His brother, Sione Teuhema, was a three-star defensive end prospect in the Class of 2014 who signed with LSU in February.

Teuhema has remarkable mobility for a lineman of his size. He carries his weight extremely well, looking like more a 300-pounder than a 346-pounder, and packs one of the best punches of any lineman in the state over the last several classes. He also likes to pancake opponents and finish the block by making sure they don’t get up again. By falling on them. Ouch.

As a result, opponents tend to try to avoid Maea in space after experiencing the pain of 346 pounds coming crashing down on them. When Teuhema does pancake opponents without leaving his own feet, he’s often able to acquire another defender, some times resulting in two knock downs on a single play.

For any prospect the size of Teuhema in high school, several concerns come into play.

The first is of maintaining weight, as though Teuhema doesn’t need to reshape his body like most high school linemen who weigh well over 300 pounds, it’s questionable how much more weight he can still carry without sacrificing some of the athleticism that makes him such an elite prospect. Attempting to guess about such a thing is difficult because there are so few comparisons for a prospect of Teuhema’s size.

Another concern regards moving in space. Even for much smaller linemen, it can be a tough task being asked to acquire defenders in space -- it takes a special type of reactive body quickness and feet to do so. Remarkably enough, Teuhema is quite good in that regard, as he is used effectively on screen passes by Keller.

The final concern regards his ability to pass protect. There’s not a lot on film in that regard and as has been the refrain here, there aren’t many 346-pound offensive tackles in college football. However, his mobility and body quickness suggest that he could possibly play right tackle in college. To do so, it might be advisable for Teuhema to work on getting down to around 330 pounds while improving some of his functional strength.

In a limited viewing at the Keller spring game, Teuhema was able to pass set well enough to stop his younger brother several times attempting to come off the edge -- as suggested by his overall mobility, there is some upside there as a pass protector because of pure athleticism.

The natural punch, lower body strength, and body quickness of Teuhema are all elite and remarkably rare for a prospect of his size. Even when his pad level suffers coming off the ball, his other attributes allow him to plant high school defenders.

And if Teuhema can’t play right tackle in college, which would make him tremendously valuable, he still projects as a difference-maker changing the line of scrimmage from a guard position.