Chatmon Can Be Elite

The Class of 2013 has the potential to be the strongest that the City of Philadelphia has seen in several years and Cardinal O’Hara High School linebacker Brandon Chatmon looks like he will be one of the headliners. We spoke to him on Saturday about the attention he is already receiving from national powerhouses around the country.

Brandon Chatmon is an extremely athletic linebacker from Springfield, Pa., that didn’t get onto the field for Cardinal O’Hara High School until the middle of the season because of their outstanding depth at the position, but when he did the 6-foot-1, 215-pounder opened plenty of eyes.

Chatmon then showed up at tryouts for the New Level Athletics 7-on-7 where he was easily the most impressive linebacker and one of the best prospects out of the 300 players in the building and performed beautifully in the tournament itself at Rutgers University. While his junior season will be extremely important for him in terms of building offers, this summer he will go on a big camp tour and the schools contacting him give an indication of just how much potential he has shown so far with the Lions.

“Notre Dame just invited me out to camp this summer,” Chatmon said. “They have a good football program and a lot of players have gone to the NFL from there and I’ve talked to people that have gone there and hear the education is great and really takes you places. I also really like that it’s a Catholic School. It was just odd because I was working out at a local place here with a Notre Dame shirt on one day and a man approached me and asked if I was thinking about going there and when I replied that I was he told me his son went there and loved it, so that was good to hear. I can’t remember his name though.”

Given the area that Chatmon is from, it may be former Irish defensive tackle Derrell Hand.

“I’ve also been invited to camps by Iowa, Rutgers, Pittsburgh and North Carolina,” Chatmon explained. “I was supposed to go to Ohio State, but I can’t make it up there because I have a 7-on-7 tournament with my high school team. Ohio State is my No. 1 favorite school and I really want to go there bad. One of my best friends goes there in Corey Brown and one of my favorite players went there in A.J. Hawk. Watching A.J. Hawk gave me an extra edge to push myself even harder and I’ve just heard it’s a terrific program. As a matter of fact, even the No. 1 linebacker in the nation Curtis Grant went there last year.”

“Iowa has a kid named Marcus Collins from Bonner that I played against, North Carolina is a school that I really, really like too and Rutgers is another one that is just really high on my list,” Chatmon stated. “I’m very happy with all these schools that are showing me interest right now and I’m excited to get out to camp and see what it’s like at them.”

Chatmon didn’t become a varsity starter until midway through his sophomore season for the Lions, however he will certainly have every opportunity to be an All-State player with his ability this year.