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Positives: Has an even-proportioned frame with long arms and legs, broad shoulders, good chest thickness, wide waist and hips, quick feet and a powerful hand punch … Has the short-area burst to get back and neutralize the edge rush … High-cut, but comes off the line with his hands extended, delivering a strong punch to drive the defender off the ball … Smart athlete who makes good game adjustments and is rarely caught out of position … Plays with good balance and is quick to recoil and rest his hands in pass protection, showing the lateral agility to slide and mirror … Has the upper-body strength to defeat the bull rush and, even though he is sometimes late out of his stance, he can compensate with his hand placement and upper-body strength … When he keeps his pads down, he uses that strength to move off the line and gain advantage … Plays with too much waist bend, but will overpower an edge rusher with his hand punch and size … Has a frame that can carry at least another 20 pounds of bulk with no loss in quickness … Lacks explosive hips, but does generate pop with his hands … Can drill a linebacker with his upper-body power to kill the blitz … What he does best is to use his long reach and upper-body strength to put the defender on the ground consistently … That asset and his ability to widen and maintain the rush lane makes him more ideally suited for guard than tackle … Gets proper position on reaches and scoops and stays up on his blocks, thanks to good balance … Won't maul an opponent, but is good at creating movement and getting out in front on traps … Needs to finish better, but is strong on the move when redirecting in-line … Lacks sustained speed, but takes good angles to neutralize second-level defenders … Shows power when he connects with a block and has adequate change-of-direction agility … Gets too rigid in his pass protection stance, but uses his frame decently to push the defender around (will struggle vs. speed moves, though) … His hands are strong enough that when he catches, he is still able to steer the defender away … Used to hold his hands too low, negating his punch, but showed improvement with his positioning and placement in attempts to mirror in 2006 (see Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Louisiana State games) … Lacks the kick slide and base to neutralize the edge rush, but shows better footwork on running plays, where he can change direction to counter throughout the play.
Negatives: Showed more desire in his play as a senior, but preferred to compete in track rather than football most of his career (only spring ball he attended at Arkansas was in 2006) … Needs to play with more aggression and seems to go through the motions at times … Struggles vs. the quick edge moves, as he lacks the knee bend and pad level to fire out of his stance and gets too tall and narrow in his stance, making him susceptible to being pushed back into the pocket by the bull rush … Too lethargic picking up stunts, as he bends at the waist and fails to shoot his hands with consistency … Crosses his feet too much when trying to pull and spends too much time on the ground when trying to cut block … His feet tend to die from under him when he has to get out on the edge, and he needs to be more patient waiting for the play to come to him (gets a poor anchor and will lunge rather than absorb) … Needs to add more bulk to play tackle and gets beaten too often on the edge to be considered a valid pro offensive tackle (better fit at guard, where his lack of knee bend won't be exposed) … Not a hard worker in the offseason and needs hard coaching to produce … Lacks aggression in his play and will give up on plays when beaten rather than try to stick with the action.
Compares To: Marcus Johnson, Minnesota Vikings … Ugoh is an impressive-looking athlete, but needs to add more bulk to his frame … Like Johnson, he can maintain the rush lane and has decent lateral agility for the ground attack, but lacks the knee bend and kick slide to neutralize the edge rush. He is not an overpowering blocker, but does have a strong hand punch and can create movement off the snap … He just looks too stationary trying to mirror the pass rushers and looks too slow and clumsy when moving forward, doing a better job in his lateral moves or when retreating … If a team bulks him up and puts him inside at guard, he will be more productive, much like former Razorback Shawn Andrews (Eagles), who lacked the footwork to play tackle, but has had good success as a trap blocker at guard … There has to be a "buyer beware" tag with Ugoh, though, as he did not show much desire to play the game until his senior year, preferring track-and-field.
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