Get to Know Your Orange Man: #76, OL Kalan Ellis

Name: Kalan Ellis

Position: Offensive Line

Year: Freshman

Height: 6’6”

Weight: 388 lbs

Hometown: Waimanalo, Hawaii

High School: St. Louis School

2021 stats: Five starts, nine games as a true freshman. While stats aren’t a big thing for the offensive line, Ellis passed the look test for much of the year and has earned himself a major spot in the rotation moving forward. Taking over for an injured Chris Bleich, he asserted himself and showed he belonged at this level.

2022 projections: Last year we mentioned he may redshirt. This year, he’s vying for a starting nod or a major contributor at a minimum. He’s bulked up another 23 pounds, which one would hope is from the weight room, not the cafeteria and at 6-foot-6 and 388 pounds, he’s got the size to play at this level which he showed in spades last year. I would be surprised if Coach Mike Schmidt doesn’t incorporate some way of consistently getting him on the field to further develop his game.

How’d he get here?: San Diego State was interested when Schmidt was there, so the connection was present ahead of time. Hawai’i, Virginia and UCLA were all at the table as well.

What’d recruiting sites say?: Three stars all around.

Money quote: When asked about his biggest strengths by SI.com, Ellis came back with the following:

My biggest strength is just being a solid force. Not getting a move off the ball easily. I still got to work on it though, got to work on speed, techniques all that.”

Twitter feed: @ellis_95

Tweets of wonder: Not many tweets of wonder from him as he doesn’t seem to be very active on social media, but there is this little nugget:

Interesting nugget o’interest: Sumo grand champion Akebono is from Ellis’s home town. It seems that producing extremely large and extremely athletics people is a thing for Waimānalo. I’m not sure what’s in the water, but it’s working.

Let’s get a look at ya: Sled drills!: