Melvin Keihn is a four-star outside linebacker out of Gilman School in Baltimore (MD).
He is listed at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, with a 4.5 40 second timing to boot. His stock as risen significantly over the past year and he boasts offers from a lot of big name schools. In the ACC alone, Miami, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Boston College, UNC and N.C. State have offered. Not to mention national power (and kinda ACC team) Notre Dame.
Due to the quiet nature of his recruitment process so far, it was unknown as to what Keihn thought of Wake, if anything. Earlier this week, contact was made between Keihn and the staff and a visit was immediately planned for Friday. This is the first Wake practice of the fall and will be a great chance for Keihn to build a repertoire with the staff and see what the Winston-Salem campus has to offer.
He stresses academics in his school choice, so Wake is a natural fit in that realm. Keihn was planning on trips to Miami and Georgia Tech, but it is unclear as to whether he will make to those campuses this fall. He is visiting Rutgers on Saturday after checking out Wake on Friday.
247 Sports has him favoring future Big Ten school Maryland and ACC team Virginia right now, but there is a long way to go before Keihn makes his decision it would seem. Based on the number of schools currently looking at him, narrowing the list down once he begins his school year at Gilman would make a lot of sense.
Although Keihn is listed as an OLB on Rivals, he played DE for Gilman last year. That would seemingly make him an ideal fit for the 3-4 that Wake currently employs. My guess would be to bring him in as an OLB and let him do a little bit of both. With his speed the blitzes could be hidden well with a devastating potential.
His explosiveness out of the three-point stance is apparent at first glance, as is his ability to bring down an offensive player when he gets into the backfield. There are several plays that demonstrate his 4.5 speed as well, making him a threat to get to tacklers in the open field. His versatility and ability to play on either side of the line as well as the linebacking position has to be a defensive coordinators dream, especially at the high school level.
It is pretty easy to see why Keihn holds as many offers as he does. If Wake Forest were able to land his talents and bring him to Winston-Salem it would be a huge get for the Coach Grobe and the staff.
Melvin's Twitter handle is @M_15OnMyChest
More videos of Keihn can be found here, along with a few good interviews