It’s not hard pick out Marvin Wilson when he is on a football field or at a camp. At 6’4”, 329 pounds, Wilson is an imposing presence physically and he uses every inch and pound of that frame to dominate his opponent on the field. Despite being a mountain of a man and not being one to smile much during photo ops, when you interview him he is one of the nicest and most personable kids you will ever speak to. Marvin has the amount of personality that matches his talent on the gridiron, and that is exactly why he has become one of my absolute favorite players to cover this cycle.
When you draw up how you want a defensive tackle to look, they generally come out looking like Wilson. Wilson doesn’t just possess great size, he is also very athletic (he also plays basketball for an AAU team), he has good functional strength that shows up on film, he plays with great effort, and one of the most important things I’ve noticed about him is that he is very coachable. It’s one thing for a player to very talented, and it is something completely different for that player to know how to harness that talent and continue to improve it.
Having seen Wilson at multiple camps over the spring and summer, it was abundantly obvious that he was more than a player that just lived for game day. The great players approach every day of the week like a game so that when the actual games are played on Friday or Saturday it becomes easy. They approach practice with the mentality, that they can’t waste a day and that they must find a way to get better. That is Wilson in a nutshell.
Wilson earned his five star status with recruiting networks long ago and burst onto the scene as a sophomore in 2014 when he tallied 67 total tackles, 19 TFLs, and 15 sacks. If you want to get the attention of coaches and recruiting networks, then that’s exactly how you go about doing it. Having already notched several offers and proven himself in the eyes of analysts, Wilson didn’t necessarily have to go prove himself on the camp circuit this spring. So what does he do? He goes out and earns MVP honors at just about every camp he attends, including the Rivals Five Star Challenge and The Opening Finals in Oregon.
At these camps I witnessed Wilson take countless reps during individual drills and one on ones against offensive lineman despite not being asked or required to do so much. Every time I looked up Marvin was practically breaking in line to get more work in and whether he won or lost a rep he was listening attentively as coaches showed him what he needed to work on.
Even at The Opening, where he by far met his biggest challenge yet against some of the best offensive linemen in the country, Wilson continued to show why he is so sought after by every school in America. Adversity struck several times for Wilson, as interior linemen were able to get the better of him on several reps (something that had not occurred at previous camps), but even though he got frustrated he came right back for more and looked to his coaches and guys like Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh for pointers.
Photo by www.maxpreps.com
When adversity hits you get a good idea of who is going to shrink in the moment and who is going to elevate their game and try to find a way to win; Wilson falls in the latter category. Instead of hanging his head and pouting about a lost rep, he buckled his chin strap and went back to work.
It’s hard not to love and appreciate a player like Wilson. One of my favorite quotes is: “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” So often you see guys with so much God given talent, but they end up squandering it, because they are not willing to put in the time. Not only is Wilson very talented, but he has a grinder’s mentality and when you mix those two traits together you have a chance to see something great.
I’m excited to see how Wilson concludes his high school career after putting in a ton of work this offseason. If his senior season is anything like this offseason, I wouldn’t want to be an opposing offensive lineman that is saddled with the task of blocking him.
