Coach on 2021 Wisconsin OL Commit Riley Mahlman: A "Matchup Nightmare"

Ben Burk knew who Riley Mahlman was since the latter's middle school days. That was due to the Minnesota native's height, and along with that, his potential.

"When I took over the offensive coordinator role (in 2017) was his freshman year, and he was immediately the starter because he's the biggest kid on our team," Burk told AllBadgers.com on Monday. "Part of the reason we run the offense that we run is because we have a guy like Riley that's on the edge and can block and do all that.

"We're fortunate to have him. There's not a lot of people that are like him in the state so it's unique as a head coach to have a kid like that starting off my career."

According to the prep standout's Hudl profile, Mahlman stands at 6'8 and 270 pounds. He currently plays tight end for Lakeville South, though he is projected by recruiting services like 247Sports and Rivals to play on the offensive line at the next level. He committed to Wisconsin on Sept. 22, 2019, yet another imposing prep standout to announce his decision to play for head coach Paul Chryst and his staff.

Burk, who recently took over duties as Lakeville South head coach, described his offense as a Michigan Power T scheme that utilizes 32 personnel (three running backs, two tight ends). The Cougars pride themselves on misdirection that threatens all eight gaps on the line. That being said, Mahlman's athleticism pops out and allows him to play at one of the tight end spots.

"If we didn't play with two tight ends, he’d probably play tackle, but since we do, he does everything that a college tackle is going to do in our offense at tight end," Burk said. "He blocks down and doubles to linebacker, and he'll pull and trap or pull and kick out guys in our scheme, and then he'll occasionally go off for a pass. I'm sure his highlights got a couple of his catches.

"Two years ago, he caught more balls than he did last year, but he had a big touchdown catch in the playoffs two years ago so he's versatile. We just want to throw the ball up kind of like an alley oop in basketball. He's a mismatch for anybody that he runs a route on."

Lakeville South tries to make use of Mahlman's skill set in every way the Cougars can. For those that have seen his Hudl junior highlights, that includes working as a defensive lineman. Burk threw out words like "dominant" and "physical" to describe his player on that side of the ball.

Mahlman -- who is rated a four-star prospect by 247Sports composite rankings and ESPN, a high three-star recruit by Rivals -- never really comes off the field.

"One of his traits that makes him a really, really good football player is that he's such a smart kid," Burk said. "On the defensive line, his ability to process information at the snap of the ball and know exactly what they're trying to do to him and defeat that and know what to do next really helps. He's been kind of a 'nose-for-the-football' type player, and he's involved in almost every tackle at the line of scrimmage, and he sacks the quarterback and he does everything that a d-lineman needs to do. He's just a physical presence that most teams aren't gonna line up a guy like that across from him very often.

"We always try to debate offensively and defensively, are teams gonna try to take him away from us, or are they gonna commit to stopping everything else because he's a matchup nightmare as a blocker. He's a matchup nightmare as a defensive lineman so they're going to commit two guys to him every time and that frees up other guys. We have a really good d-line coach that knows where to put him and so he's played kind of all the defensive line positions for us."

Burk called out Mahlman's aggressiveness, particularly when Lakeville South runs its middle trap play on offense. In this play, they are working to send their fullback "straight downhill."

The interior linemen are blocking at the point of attack, but the tight ends have to get to the safeties.

“Almost every play, they're running that way anyway, and whenever we see Riley blocking on a safety who's probably half the size of him, it’s pretty fun," Burk said. "Riley’s not the kind of guy that's just going to position block and get in a right spot and make sure the guy doesn't get around him. He's trying to like physically dominate anybody he gets his hands on. A lot of fun memories of him coming across the line of scrimmage, passing a linebacker up and just locking onto a safety.

"We count pancake blocks in our program, and almost every time that happens it's a pancake block, so there's a lot.”

Congratulations to @riley_mahlman for being named 1st team OL, @johnnyshabaz1 being named 2nd team RB, and @BrekkeGeorge being named 3rd team DB to the 2019 Minnesota Associated Press All-State Football Team. #ChangeTheGame #BuildingChampions #S4L pic.twitter.com/7KPsfGEDcc
— Lakeville South Football (@LSHSCougarsFB) December 19, 2019

The head coach believes what Wisconsin runs with its offensive scheme, of all the programs Mahlman could have committed to, it is the closest to what Lakeville South works to accomplish in establishing the run, the power ground game and using multiple tight end sets.

According to Burk, that is what Mahlman has been "programmed" to do in his time as a Cougar.

"We've done things in our offense to try to even emulate what we see at Wisconsin with down-blocking tackles and really getting physical on defensive linemen up to ‘backer," Burk said. "I could imagine he's a tackle prototype with his height, with his ability to quickly move his feet and use leverage and be smart. If he’s not playing tackle for them, that would shock me, but at tackle I don't know how that translates into the pass protection game because that's not something that we do a ton of. But I know from watching Riley, his two greatest qualities other than his God-given height and size are his fast feet and his brain. He's going to be able to pick up any type of scheme that they're doing.

"He's not done growing, that's the other thing. He’s a 17-year-old kid that is just enormous, and so we fully expect him to put another 15, 20, even 30 pounds on by the time he's up there and just be an anchor is what I would assume.”

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