There are a lot of clever things a clever coordinator can do on defense to cover up for a weakness. Programs unable to recruit enough of the kind of defensive backs who can play man will commit to zone (Iowa). Those short on athletes in the second level can add hybrids and blitzes to make up for it (Indiana). Slower ends can be supplemented with 3-4 OLBs (Wisconsin), smaller ones can be covered by DTs and a good thumpin' Mike (MSU), and if you don't have a 3-tech, well, half of football bases out of a three-man front for a reason. Nose tackle, though: The nose thing is probably my biggest "just watch the games, nerds" take. It's just so obvious when you watch good defenses that the Nose/iDL is the lynchpin. — RichardJohnson (@RJ_Writes) December 31, 2020 Things happen too fast in the A-gaps to take a loss there. If you don't have a guy who can both stand up to doubles and demand them, all of your Winoviches and Garys get doubled, your secondary gets abused, your linebackers get blocked, and your clever coordinator is spending all of his time dreaming up mitigation strategies instead of stopping the opponent. This is why for years Michigan fans have been imploring our program to add at least one gettable nose tackle-shaped nose tackle to the end of the class in case the more dynamic options at the top don't work out. Failing to Moneyball this problem with build-a-bears and the odd competition-averse blue chip is the reason coaching legend Don Brown just got fired. Here in January 2021, Michigan's current class has zero plausible NTs signed, one local four-star on the hook, and a lame duck DL coach who has little hope of finding more. The good news: the state of Michigan has at least one nose tackle-flavored nose tackle who projects to nose tackle, and he's game to play for Michigan when he graduates in 2022. The better news is he's got a lot of athletic upside. The bad news is he's never played nose tackle. GURU RATINGS As you'll see in the scouting, Miles is a nose tackle-sized person River Rouge has been playing at end, sometimes as far out as a stand-up SAM. That speaks highly of his agility, but hasn't made projections easy: Rivals ESPN 247 247 Comp 3*, 5.5, SDE, no rank no profile 3*, 86, NR OVR #45 DT, #17 MI 3*, 0.8466, #671 OVR, #49 DT, #23 MI 3.40* n/a 3.58* 3.47* Bottom row is my conversion of the above to a 5-star scale. Links are to profiles. As with fellow recent commit Connor Jones, Miles has barely been seen by services. ESPN doesn't have a profile up. Rivals lists him as an SDE and slapped him with a 5.5, which is Rivals for "I'm working on something but I'll get to it I swear." 24/7 has little more than that, but put Miles down in the MAC/MSU portion of the in-state rankings. They also show an apparently more recent 6'5"/275; Rivals has Miles at 6'4"/265. His high school roster still says 240. So he's grown. [Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]