Cory Besch, Hassanein’s half-brother who facilitated his journey to America and helped kickstart his football career, had Detroit circled as the top destination for his brother to land in the draft.
“I know about the Detroit Lions and I especially know about (head coach) Dan Campbell and the culture that he’s built over the last few years, so I was hoping and praying that it would be Detroit, because there’s not a better fit in the NFL for him, and the culture around the team and the community,” Besch told The Detroit News
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Besch recognized his brother’s ability and pushed him daily.
At one point, when he thought Hassanein’s discipline might be slipping a little bit, Besch gave him a “homework assignment.” Hassanein had to write down, from morning to night, everything he thought a Division I football player does on a daily basis.
“I told him, ‘Now compare your actions, what you’re doing with your decisions to what you wrote down.’ It was like an ‘aha’ moment of realization,” Besch said. “From that moment, I saw a different player. I saw a different person.”
“He’s one of the most grateful people I’ve ever been around. I mean, the first time he got a protein shake from our nutritionist, it was like we gave him a million dollars,” [Boise State Head Coach Spencer] Danielson said. “He’s never changed. … He’s an elite human being.”
He is the most violent at the point of attack on first and second down that I’ve ever been around. … You better get your mind right when you’re trying to block Ahmed.
We’ll see if the pick pans out, but it sounds like this guy is wired to be a Lion.
Honestly he was one of the more obvious day 3 targets for us. I’m kicking myself for not including him in my prediction, but he wasn’t on the visit list and I stuck to that to make my predictions. But we talked about him regularly in one or more of those draft threads, posted that video interview with Eisen, and @Jman and I had him as crushes on the crush list. He just screamed us.
Hell, @CuriousHusker was talking about him as a fit last summer, that was the first I’d heard of him. He’s got a knack for finding future Lions, that guy. Found Kerby, Barnes, and Vaki way before anyone had heard of them too.
Bah, you’re as selective as anyone else, especially as the process goes along. You just like to downplay your prognosticative talents, for fear of being branded a witch.
Btw, I’m making a note for next year. I need to be more of sizeist. I would personally bet on the high end college player with some limitations far more than the GM whose job is on the line. Need to push back against my instincts there.
I am that way with speed/explosiveness but I’ve under accounted for the draft bump/penalties for size parameters.
Just continue to apply your witchy powers to cast hexes and curses on the rest of the NFC North and it’s all good. Maybe add Philly in there, now that I think about it. And SF. Oh, also Washington. I know you keep “predicting” a backslide, now I understand why you’re so confident.
I think you can relax that as the draft goes along though. Lovett’s not that big for a WR, and while Hassanein is good-sized, the arms are quite short.
Actually now that I think about it, we don’t really seem to care much about arm length at all. So maybe don’t apply it there.
Our CBs are on the smaller side, and Rodrigo is at least squatty for a LB. Branch is pretty small too. Wingo’s pretty small for a 3T, though not for an edge.
I DO think it can be reliably applies to the OL and DL though, at least in the draft. Kingsley, Niese, Galvin show we can overlook it if the cost is cheap enough.
The lions are all about stopping run on obvious run downs. Then the de will be hutch and levi or paschel (or z smith or Davenport )Then on pass downs you will see this kid or some linebacker 5th man line (barnes) or blitz from a safety or cb.
