Michael Badejo
	Height	6-3
	Weight	220
	40-yard Dash	4.56
	Bench Press	255
	Squat	390

247sports: ***
ESPN: ***
Rivals: ***
Scout: ***
ESPN: No. 64 OLB in country
247sports: No. 68 OLB in country
Scout: No. 76 OLB in country
Scout: No. 13 OLB in Midland Region
ESPN: No. 171 player in region
247sports: No. 124 player in Texas
ESPN: No. 137 player in Texas
Scout: No. 12 OLB in Texas
First-team All-District as a junior (DE), second-team All-District as senior

Last Year Statistics

81 tackles
12 tackles for loss
6 sacks

Strengths as a Player

Michael Badejo is an exceptional athlete with the intelligence and versatility to play a number of positions. Recruited to play the “Leo” position manned in 2015 by Justin Lawler, Badejo is a fast and aggressive pass rusher. In high school, he played mostly defensive end, but he also played some outside linebacker and middle linebacker, and in his team’s “Wolf” defensive package, he lined up at noseguard and served as a spy on the quarterback. Badejo is a sure tackler who can drop into coverage, and is one of those relentless players with a relentless motor.

Interviews

Michael Badejo on why he chose SMU:

When I first narrowed it down, I wanted at least to go to a school out of state, to see someplace else. But I wanted my mom to be at all my games — that was much more important — and SMU is right down the street. So then I narrowed it down to just Texas schools, and SMU was the closest one and the best one. I’m from Dallas, and I really liked the idea of playing in my hometown, so to have a great school there … it just made sense.

Getting recruited by Coach (Claude) Mathis was cool. He coached at DeSoto, and when he came to see me, he asked “do you remember me?” When we played them my sophomore year, DeSoto had the best offense in our district and we had the best defense, so something had to give, and they won — it was the first loss we took. So yeah, I remembered him, and I liked him right away. He won’t be my position coach, but he’s still a good coach and a really good guy. He’s someone I can talk to about anything.

When I was on my visit, Myron (Gailliard) didn’t have to recruit me, because I had been committed for so long, so it was more about hanging out with the other guys, especially the guys who hadn’t committed yet. It was more about just catching up with him. We played together in high school, so when he went to SMU, we would text from time to time — I would ask him questions. He asked me if I’m fully committed, or if I’m still looking at other schools, and I told him I’m fully committed. So he told me about the team, what it’s like to play for these coaches, even though he redshirted this year. He told me “if you’re not working out now, you’re going to die out.” I took that as motivation to get ready.

The coaches at the other schools were cool about it. Notre Dame, Purdue … I had a chance to play at some really good schools. But I told them that being near home was important, being close to my mom was important, and they understood. They were nice about it.

Everything is going to be an adjustment. This spring, I’m going to run track again, but after track workouts, we’ll do football drills to work on my footwork. Physically, I’ve got to get bigger, because the (offensive) tackles are going to be way bigger than what I played against here. I’ve got to hit the weight room hard to handle those dudes. I’ve got to go out there with the mindset that “I want to beat this dude every time,” and to do that, I’ve got to think about those dudes now. Every time I go in the weight room, I think about the tackles at the other schools who are in the weight room, too, getting stronger. That just makes me work harder to get ready.