Michigan added to its already-impressive offensive line haul for 2012 today, picking up TN OL Blake Bars.

GURU RATINGS

As you can see, the sites are basically in agreement about Blake: he's outside the top couple tiers nationally among offensive line recruits, but it still a solid player. Oddly, Rivals - usually the stingiest site as far as giving out stars - is the only one to give him the fourth star. He started in Scout's top 300, but has since moved out of it.

The sites are unanimous on Blake's height: he's 6-5. There is a bit of disagreement over how much he weighs, with ESPN saying he's all the way down at 260, 24/7 Sports just 5 pounds heavier, and the other two sites going up to 275.

As we so often do, let's kick off the evaluations with ESPN's profile comments:

Bars demonstrates good tough run blocking skills, showing the ability to dominate at his present level of competition. Has the height and athleticism for the offensive tackle position at the BCS level of play; will need to add bulk to his frame over time... Although we see the need for refinement in all areas of pass protection this guy possesses the long arms and nimble feet which should be assets; flashes the ability to handle edge quickness. We like the nasty finishing attitude this athlete plays with; it's what we look for when evaluating offensive linemen.

They seem to be pretty intent on labeling him a tackle, though I had previously assumed (based on the other players Michigan is recruiting, along with his height) that he would probably move inside for college. Long arms tend to negate a lack of ideal height, in certain instances.

He's probably a little behind the curve in terms of technique as well, since he wasn't even a high school starter until last fall. However, his father is a former Notre Dame linebacker, and his older brother Brad plays for Penn State, so he does come from a football family. He talked a little bit about technique with the local paper:

“(Coach Mawae) has been helping us with our footwork,” Bars said. “He’ll come into the weight room and show us technique and introduce new drills to us that I know are going to make us a lot better. It’s such a great opportunity. Kevin is the man, pretty much.”

That's not exactly revealing about Blake's current skill set, but it does speak to a desire for improvement. His strength also seems to draw praise here and there, so when he adds another 30+ pounds of muscle onto his frame, he could be a very powerful player to go along with that nasty attitude.

There's precious little info out there on Blake, but it seems that the evaluations that do exist are more optimistic on his abilities than the 3-star ratings would seem to indicate. As we'll see in a moment, his offer list tells the same story.

OFFERS

Bars's offer list is quite a bit more impressive than you'd expect from a guy who's a generic 3-star to most of the recruiting sites. Clemson, Florida, LSU, Penn State, and South Carolina all have recent success either on the field or in recruiting (or both), and had shot this kid an offer.

In less-impressive offers, Arkansas State joins Boston College, Kentucky, Louisville, Middle Tennessee, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Purdue, Vanderbilt, Virginia, and Wake Forest. There are a couple pretty good programs in there, so his whole resume is nothing to sneeze at. He had interest but no offer from his father's alma mater, Notre Dame.

STATS

Blake is an offensive lineman, and therefore doesn't have stats. Montgomery Bell Academy went 9-3 last season, his first as a starter.

FAKE 40 TIME

None of the recruiting sites have listed a 40 time for Blake, so I get to give out my default five FAKEs out of five.

VIDEO

Junior highlights:

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Blake is a prospect that seems to have plenty of upside, but at this time, he's far from a finished product. Seeing as how he's just finished his junior year of high school, that's no surprise. Still, it takes a redshirt year as a true freshman from "extremely likely" to "certain."

Following that redshirt year, he may still have a bit of growing to do. Adding 30-40 pounds or more is a tough thing to do while maintaining flexibility and agility. As a redshirt sophomore then, will be the first time he has the potential to really contribute. Fortunately for him, that season also sees the departure of a few linemen ahead of him.

As an upperclassman, he should get into the starting lineup, and his versatility (he doesn't seem like a left tackle, but almost any other OL position seems possible) will help him see the field.

He looks like the type of guy who will become a solid starter, but maybe not an All-Big Ten caliber guy, unless his physical development is truly impressive. His upside seems to be high, so if he can reach his ceiling, it could mean very good things for his future.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

The commitment of Bars could mean a couple things: 1) he's higher in the coaching staff's eyes than we previously believed, 2) the staff doesn't feel good about their chances with some other top prospects, 3) the door is closed for other medium-range prospects, or 4) there are plans to tae more offensive lineman than we realized. The truth is probably some combination of those factors. No matter what the reasoning is, I'm guessing the coaching staff is done pursuing offensive linemen aside from Kyle Kalis, Jordan Diamond, and other elite-level linemen (i.e. Andrus Peat).

That means that, other than those guys, we shouldn't expect any offensive line commits any time soon, unless the staff uncovers a sleeper that they really like. Look for them to focus on defensive tackle and wideout, and once they fill those needs, they'll be able to focus on top prospects, regardless of position. Quarterback and running back are other, lesser needs for the class.

Ed-Tim: A really sad story, especially considering Austin has been hit with plane-crash tragedy in the past. Keep the entire Hatch family in your thoughts and/or prayers, if that's what you're into.

2013 commitment Austin Hatch, just weeks after verbally committing to play at UofM was seriously injured in a plane crash last night.  His father and step mother died at the scene.  Austin is in the ICU at Northern Michigan Regional Hospital.  This article explains the crash with no names, and Dylan Burkhardt of UMHoops has been tweeting about it.  Prayers to Austin and his family.

UPDATE

Indiana News Center provided an update on Austin's condition with the details coming from a family friend.  To summarize, Austin is in a medically induced coma.  He suffered a broken clavicle, ribs and a fractured leg.  Along with that, both of his lungs were punctured and his skull was fractured.  There is minor swelling in his brain, but doctors claim to have it under control.  He is in critical condition, but doctors do believe they have control over the situation.  Continued support and prayers from the Michigan family to the Hatch family.

Michigan has accepted a greyshirt commitment from KY S Jeremy Clark. Clark impressed the coaches at camp, but not enough to earn an immediate offer. Should he pick up a number of mid-level scholarship offers, I wouldn't expect this one to stick.

GURU RATINGS

Since Jeremy is effectively a member of the 2013 recruiting class (pending a decision from OH S Jarrod Wilson) and also very under-the-radar, this section should be brief. HOWEVA, with Brian unavailable, why not profile a guy who's basically a preferred walk-on at this point?

As you can see, the recruiting sites aren't so high on Clark. Scout is the only site with a ranking for him, and even that is a lowly 2-star. The sites are in accord there, and also on his size: He's a consensus 6-4 (ESPN says 6-2), with two votes for 205 pounds and two votes for 185 pounds. I'll go with 195 then.

Since there's nothing out there on the free webs, a paid article from Scout:

This 6-4, 175-lb. safety was the surprises of the day. He flashed good speed and EXCELLENT ball skills. He is a bit of a sleeper on the national scale because he grew four inches since last fall. Just as impressive was the fact that he soaked up the coaching like a sponge and just seemed to really be relishing the overall experience.  

Of course it's in their best interests to talk kids up as sleepers, so take it as a grain of salt. It's sleeper bluster, but in the parlance of sleeper bluster, height, ball skills and coachability are nice compliments for any system.

Clark aso drew "plenty of attention" from Ohio State's staff at their camp ($, info in header), but apparently they didn't see enough to offer him. He is pictured OMG SHIRTLESS at right.

OFFERS

Most of Clark's full scholarship offers came from the MAC. Akron, Ball State, Central Michigan, Ohio, and Toledo were his offers from the Big Ten's JV league. NC State was his only other BCS-level scholarship offer.

STATS

His Rivals profile has junior year stats: 75 tackles, 3 interceptions, and 8 pass breakups. That's not a ringing endorsement of Scout's "ballhawk" characterization, but it's certainly not bad either.

FAKE 40 TIME

Rivals says 4.47. That is very fast. A kid with Clark's size is not an unranked prospect at this point in the recruiting cycle if he's actually that fast. I'm going to have to go with 4 FAKEs out of five.

VIDEO

Junior highlights:

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

This guy is a greyshirt prospect for a reason. At one step ahead of preferred walk-on, it's tough to see him accomplishing much until very late in his career, as is usually the case for these guys. He'll greyshirt the fall of his first year (pay his own way and, if I'm not mistaken, not practice with the team), then join the squad as a redshirt freshman in the spring.

I see him being a special teams contributor as a redshirt junior and senior, and the type of guy who gets a few plays in the secondary, but not much more.

Of course, if he is the level of sleeper that Scout's recap above seems to imply, he could also blow up once he gets into college, and absorb all the coaching (and weight training, etc.) available to him, becoming a contributor by the time he leaves campus.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

As a greyshirt, he doesn't affect much about this class. The needs are still offensive line, defensive tackle, wideout, and - with lesser emphasis - quarterback/running back.

(photo courtesy of mgobluelacrosse.com)

It’s time for Part II of my Introduction to Lacrosse Recruiting.  In this section, I will compare Michigan’s roster to some of the top programs in Division 1 Lacrosse.

Before we get into Michigan’s roster, I will explain the data that I tried to track with all of the rosters. First, I tracked the number of Inside Lacrosse Top 100 players (lacrosse&rsquao;s equivalent of the Rivals 250). The other piece of data I kept track of, for lack of a better term, is the “pedigree” of the players by following their location and whether or not their high school is listed on Laxpower.com’s Top 100 High Schools for 2011 (the BCS rankings of high school lacrosse, Laxpower uses a formula to rank all 3,000+ high schools that play lax in the country from #1-#3,000. It has yet to state why it is better than a playoff). As the comments from my last post showed, the lacrosse community assumes that only the top-ranked national high schools produce D1-level players, and the only players on these top college teams are from the four major hotbeds (New York, Maryland/DC, New Jersey, Pennsylvania). 

My hope is that we can see whether or not these locations and schools actually produce D1 talent in the numbers most people assume. That will give us a sense of how long it will take Michigan become a nationally competitive lacrosse program.

I know I should have averaged out the last 4 years of Laxpower ratings rather than just taking one year seemingly at random, but at the end of the day all national rankings are based mostly on reputation so there is not great variance in who is in the Top 100 year after year. This is an opening analysis, so if anyone wants to make it more precise, I’d love to read what you find.

Michigan Roster Analysis

I started with Michigan’s roster from 2007, the year before they won their first national title, and ended with the 2011 roster.  In terms of location, here is where Michigan has drawn their players from over the past five years:

Michigan’s roster has changed over the last five years as they became an MCLA juggernaut. The number of Michigan kids on the roster has dropped from a near majority in 2008 (nearly 49%) to a mere plurality this past season (35%). It has increased its draw from 9 states to 15 in 2011, which shows that the team’s name recognition increased as the team began winning MCLA titles.

The team has remained heavily dependent upon players from the Midwest. In 2007, the team had 21 players from the Midwest—almost 54% of the roster; in 2011, it had 21 players—51% of the roster. The East Coast representation has dropped slightly in this stretch, starting at 16 players (40%) and ending with 14 (35%). The remnants come from the South and the West.

Michigan has never signed an Inside Lacrosse Top 100 player, which should not be a surprise since it wasn’t a varsity team. In 2007 the team had 3 players from Top 50 high schools and 8 from the Top 100; 2008 had 3 Top 50 high schools, 8 Top 100; 2009 had 5 Top 50 and 10 Top 100; 2010 had 4 Top 50 and 9 Top 100; and in 2011 the team had 2 Top 50 high schools and 6 Top 100 high schools represented. On average, that comes out to 3.4 kids out of Top 50 high schools each season and 8.2 kids out of Top 100 high schools on the roster each season.

How Michigan Stacks Up Nationally

I chose eight schools to compare with Michigan’s roster. Here’s how I chose them (I will look at Michigan's conference, the ECAC, in my next entry):

• Virginia, Maryland, Duke, Denver: The 2011 Final Four participants. Since that’s the ultimate goal for any program, those are the teams we want to compare ourselves to first
• Cornell, Syracuse: They were the #1 and #2 seeds in the NCAA tournament, and champions of two of the toughest conferences in lacrosse (Ivy and Big East). They missed the Final Four, but were the class of lacrosse for most of the season
• Johns Hopkins: They are the Notre Dame [Ed-M: ... when ND was relevant] of lacrosse. This year they were the #3 seed in the NCAA tournament. They have the most wins in lacrosse history and the most Final Fours even though they are not affiliated with a conference
• Notre Dame: They were #1 for a good portion of the season, came in second in the Big East, and were NCAA runner ups in 2010. Also, they happen to be the closest to Ann Arbor in terms of location and were the last BCS school to add lacrosse (in 1981)
• It also happens that these teams are ranked #1-8 in Inside Lacrosse’s way-too-early 2012 Preseason Poll.

Not infallible, but I hope you see the rationale.  On to the breakdown!

Virginia

2011: 13-5 (National Champions)
2012 Preseason: #1
Inside Lacrosse Top 50 Young Guns on Roster: 30
Top 50/100 High School Graduates on Roster: 11 Top 50/18 Top 100
2010 Recruiting Class Rank: #4

Roster breakdown:

Maryland

2011: 14-4 (NCAA Runner-Up, ACC Tournament Champion)
2012 Preseason: #7
Inside Lacrosse Young Guns Roster: 27
Top 50/100 High School Graduates on Roster: 9/19
2010 Recruiting Class Rank: #3

Roster breakdown:

Duke

2011: 14-5 (NCAA Final Four, ACC Runner Up)
2012 Preseason Rank: #3
Inside Lacrosse Young Guns on Roster: 20
Top 50/100 High School Graduates on Roster: 13/20
2010 Recruiting Class Rank: 5

Roster Breakdown:

One thing to note about the number of Young Guns on Duke: Their program took a big hit after the infamous “Duke Lacrosse Party/Sexual Incident/Legal Clusterfuck” of 2006. The program was suspended for a year, an entire senior class was granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA, and a new coach was brought in. Not surprisingly, that led to a junior class (class of 2008) that only had 2 Top 100 players. Expect a big bounce back in that number over the next 2 years for Duke.

Denver

2011: 16-2 (NCAA Final Four, ECAC Champ)
2012 Preseason: #4
Inside Lacrosse Young Guns on Roster: 8
Top 50/100 High School Graduates on Roster: 12/17
2010 Recruiting Class: Not ranked (so below 20)

Denver is an interesting case. They came out of nowhere this year to make the Final Four (they have made the NCAA before, but never before had it made it to the Final Four). They are in a strange location as they are the Westernmost D1 school. The closest school to them in terms of distance is Notre Dame [edit: unless you forget to count Air Force. So, one of two teams in Colorado and west of Notre Dame. Thanks for the catch, Tim], so they are on a bit of an Island.

On top of that, they are in their second year under the helm of legendary coach Bill Tierney.  Tierney won 6 NCAA titles at Princeton before moving to Denver, so this would be the equivalent of Mack Brown leaving Texas to lead Villanova to the FBS. Tierney has said he thinks Colorado is a tremendous recruiting area, so it has more in-state talent than outsiders probably think. Interesting from a Michigan prospective since it shows how you can win from a new location, but also not relevant since we don’t have a Hall of Fame coach that is a living recruiting legend coming in to take the helm (not a shot at John Paul, just a fact).

Syracuse

2011:  15-2 (NCAA Quarterfinalist, Big East Champion)
2012 Preseason: #8
Inside Lacrosse Young Guns on Roster: 29
Top 50/100 High School Graduates on Roster: 11/15
2010 Recruiting Class: #2

Cornell

2011: 14-3 (NCAA Quarterfinalist, Ivy League Champion)
2012 Preseason: #2
Inside Lacrosse Young Guns on Roster: 7
Top 50/100 High School Graduates on Roster: 9/17
2010 Recruiting Class: #12

Johns Hopkins

2011: 13-3 (NCAA Quarterfinalist)
2012 Preseason: #5
Inside Lacrosse Young Guns on Roster: 26
Top 50/100 High School Graduates on Roster: 10/22
2010 Recruiting Class: 6

Notre Dame

2011: 11-3(NCAA Quarterfinalist, Big East Runner Up)
2012 Preseason: #6
Inside Lacrosse Young Guns on Roster: 16
Top 50/100 High School Graduates on Roster: 13/22
2010 Recruiting Class: #11

Chart Overload and Feeling Overwhelmed, So What Does This All Mean?

We can see a couple of trends appear in the makeup of these teams. It turns out that the conventional wisdom is accurate: an overwhelming number of players on the top D1 teams in the country come from the Mid-Atlantic hotbeds. These 8 rosters included a total of 358 players. 25% of all the players on these Top 8 rosters are from New York. 18% of players on these rosters are Marylandians. Those two states alone constitute more than 40% of all top level college players. New Jersey (8%) and Pennsylvania (7%), not surprisingly, check in as the third and fourth most represented states, respectively. The hotbeds represent almost 60% of the players on these rosters. Extreme outlier Denver is the only program that does not have a majority of players from the hotbed.

We also see trends in what schools these players are getting recruited out of. Every school has at least 9 players on its roster from the current Laxpower Top 50 high schools; every school has at least 15 players from Top 100 high schools. The average number for these programs is 10.8 players from Top 50 high schools, and 18.5 players from Top 100 high schools. These schools carry 40-50 players on the roster, so between 20-25% of the roster is composed of players from these Top 100 high schools. Not surprisingly, the majority of these schools are in the Mid-Atlantic region. Michigan has 1 school in the Top 100, Illinois 1, Indiana 1, Ohio 3—there are few options in the region.

Finally, we see similar trends in quality of recruit. These schools average 20 Inside Lacrosse Young Guns on the roster, which comes to 5 per recruiting class. The two outliers are Cornell and Denver, who with 7 and 8 Young Guns respectively, are the only teams on the list with less than 15 Young Guns. If you eliminate these two outliers, the average jumps to 24.67 (or 6 per recruiting class). Inside Lacrosse provides this great map of where there Top 100 players have come from for the past four years. From 2007-2009, Michigan produced 3 Top 100 players (2 Brother Rice, 1 Detroit Country Day). The Midwest as a whole produced 13 (3 from Michigan, 2 Illinois, 8 from Ohio). For comparison sake, New York produced 27 in 2009 alone. There is some serious D1 talent in the state and region, but not the depth to rely solely on Michigan and its contiguous states.

So no matter how we slice it right now, location means a lot, and where you recruit seems to play a very serious role in how your team stacks up nationally.

What This Means For Michigan

Michigan is going to need a pretty serious overhaul of their roster before they are able to compete with the big boys for national championships. This should really only shock lacrosse players that haven’t played games outside the state of Michigan before. We’re going from having players who pay tuition and $1-3,000 dollars in dues per year (I don’t know Michigan’s figures specifically, but that’s typical for an MCLA program), to attempting to bring in the best players in the nation. We’re going to have to do things differently, and the faster we change, the faster we’ll be competitive.

So, how do we need to change? Here’s a chart that compares the regional make-up of 2011 Michigan’s roster to the Top 8 schools.

As stated before, the Mid-Atlantic represents nearly 60% of the players on the top programs. The Midwest represents less than 6% of the roster on those teams, and the state of Michigan has only produced 3 players total in the last four years that earned roster spots on these Top 8 programs. Michigan’s current roster is nearly 50% Midwestern players, and only 12.5% are from New York and Maryland. Michigan needs to cut the number of Midwestern recruits on its roster by 85%, more than double the number of players it recruits out of the Mid-Atlantic. Just as the Michigan football team cannot compete for national championships by recruiting players only from the state of Michigan, neither can the lacrosse program. While in the long term hopefully having a varsity team in state will increase the growth of high school lacrosse in Michigan, and consequently lead to more in-state talent, in the short run this presents a problem for Michigan.

So How Long Will This Take?

Good question.  Most likely, Michigan will not have a recruiting class that reflects the school's attractiveness to the sorts of guys who play lacrosse on the East Coast until 2014. They will probably be getting in too late for top 2013 kids. After all, here’s a list of the current commits from the Class of 2012. All of the top schools have pretty much closed their recruiting with the exception of 1-2 spots for “athletic projects” or transfers. That means we’re looking at 5-6 years before we see a roster composed of dominant players from dominant regions that played for dominant high schools. That’s a sobering number—it means John Paul’s building project is much more along the lines of Tom Crean and Indiana basketball than Urban Meyer and Florida football.

There is one wildcard out there. We don’t know how long John Paul and Dave Brandon have talked about making Michigan a D1 program. If John Paul has known for a year, he may very well have spent the last 12 months getting in touch with high school players in the classes of 2012 and 2013. Maybe these players are listed as committed to a Duke or Syracuse, but were ready to switch their commitment if Michigan made the move to D1.  This would mean Coach Paul’s been able to make headway with these players at the ground level, and isn’t just trying to scramble in at the last minute. If Paul was able to do this hush-hush recruiting, he may be able to sneak a couple of low-level Top 100 players in 2012 that buy into his vision, and then have a very good-to-great class in 2013. If that’s the case, we could be looking at 2-3 years before our roster on paper could hang on paper with the big boys.

I hope this gives you all a better sense of how the program will adjust to D1 status. My next diary will look at how Michigan’s roster stacks within it’s own conference, the ECAC. Please leave anything else you'd like me to include for next time in the comments.

Prepare the little girl screams. Tom broke OH OL Kyle Kalis's upcoming Michigan visit, then Kalis decommitted from Ohio State, and now guys who work for OSU's 247 affiliate (specifically Dave Biddle) are writing off not only Kalis but still-committed OH RB Bri'onte Dunn:

Source: OSU has "no chance" at Dunn or Kalis

Wow. This coming from the family member of an OSU player. These guys aren't just decommitting, they have written off going to OSU. Remember, there are current and former OSU players who went to the same high school as Kalis and Dunn respectively. Word going around at both St. Eds and GlenOak are that the Buckeyes have "no chance" at landing either of them.

What a complete 180 for Kalis. I'm not surprised in the least about Dunn. When I interviewed him two months ago and he said he was "opening things back up" that told me he was basically decommitting. But Kalis was Mr. Buckeye talking about how much he loved OSU and that he was going to recruit like crazy to get other top prospects to join him in Columbus. He reminded me of Brewster and Justin Zwick in that respect.

"Wow" doesn't quite cover it unless it's the sort of wow that goes along with a fondness for hot dogs. Flipping Dunn and Kalis would see Michigan graduate from drinking MSU's milkshake to drinking OSU's. It's gotten so bad for the Buckeyes that the Spartans are drinking OSU's milkshake, nabbing Se'Von Pittman. If Aldophus Washington commits to Purdue next week put the entire state of Ohio on suicide watch.

What are Michigan's chances of flipping the decommit(-ish) duo? Well, Kalis's visit in particular seems to coincide with last weekend's OL visit madness—if he is going to jump ship he's got to do it quickly and it appears Michigan is pretty much his list outside of OSU, about whom see above. Dunn is wobblier since he hasn't actually committed yet and Penn State is a factor, but if the above is reliable Michigan would have to be the favorites.

Later Biddle says Brady Hoke is "negatively recruiting the hell out of OSU," which causes the requisite amount of swooning from the daintier folks in the thread. Specifically:

He's telling these guys that OSU will get hit harder than USC and they "shouldn't fall for the same (stuff) Lane Kiffen sold all those SC recruits."

Heavens to Betsy.

NFL not so much. The National Football Post has a really interesting, extensive piece in which Michigan's seniors are evaluated for NFL potential. No one other than Mike Martin rates highly, but some of that is because of Michigan's zone system. David Molk:

A shorter, compact lineman who looks nearly maxed out physically, despite weighing 288-pounds. Looks a little tight hipped trying to sit into his stance, but has a quick first step and snaps and steps very quickly. Creates leverage for himself consistently, extends his arms and can easily reach and seal on the plays off his frame. Displays a compact, sturdy punch and can stun defenders at the point. Looks really natural when asked to quickly reach block on runs to the perimeter, as he’s coordinated getting his feet around and can seal the edge routinely. Displays natural range/balance getting into blocks at the second level as well. Breakdowns well showcases the ability to routinely seal on contact.

This is three years of UFR on Molk in one paragraph. Molk is praised as a "perfect fit" for Michigan's run-first spread offense but only a potential starter in a zone scheme. If he's big enough he could end up one of those guys who gets drafted in the seventh round and plays for a long time for a good team whilst remaining totally anonymous.

Whole piece is worth a read; it's really interesting to see a professional break down Michigan players after you've formed your own opinions of them. Nothing seems particularly off base.

Hybrid until you die. I've tried to make the case that the 4-3 under is halfway between a conventional 4-3 and 3-4. My basis for the assertion usually revolves around the idea the strongside defensive end and three-tech defensive tackle are more alike than the three-tech and the nose tackle or the SDE and the weakside end. Here's a bit more ammo for that POV from an interview on Touch The Banner with Matt Godin:

"We have the main position which I'm going to play, which is the 5-technique. I guess you'd consider it more D-tackle, but I'll also play outside...I'm only going to have one guy blocking me. It's more of an outside position, actually, but I'm going to be run stopping a lot, too."

The confusion in that statement is considerable, but when he says "outside" he probably means he's going to get a look at WDE. I'm guessing that look will be brief since he's already 270 and with Roh/Beyer/Black/Ojemudia/Brown hanging out at that spot he's probably not going to bring as much pass rush as the winner of that derby.

So when you're looking at the recruiting class you can roughly bin the three-tech DTs with the SDEs; many of those guys will flip from one to the other like Ryan Van Bergen and Brandon Graham before them. If Michigan's two committed SDEs, Godin and Tom Strobel, are really 6'6" each they're a bit taller than you'd like at the three tech, which should leave a spot open for a Danny O'Brien who's more of a fit there, but rumor has it that's not the case. Like everyone else on the internet I'd much rather have a DT than a fullback or a sixth OL, but the internet does not call the shots.

This institution is mad under control, yo. The 65-page Notice of Allegations lodged against UNC yesterday contains many, many allegations headlined by one of their assistant coaches acting as a runner for an NFL agent. It does not allege the dreaded lack of institutional control, which should have Trojan fans running to Los Angeles Torch & Pitchfork.

Stewart Mandel notes this and suggests Butch Davis could keep his job as a result:

Blake's nefarious role in all this (which includes his own unethical conduct charge for withholding information from investigators) is the biggest source of mystery as to how his boss, Davis, managed to avoid the NCAA's wrath. In a document outlining its Principles of Institutional Control, one of the acts the Committee cites as "likely to demonstrate lack of institutional control" is if "A head coach ... fails to monitor the activities of assistant coaches regarding compliance." But it then follows that up with: " ... the head coach cannot be charged with the secretive activities of an assistant bent on violating NCAA rules." Apparently the school did a bang-up job portraying Blake as just such a character, absolving Davis and the school for failing to uncover his secret employer.

Because of that, North Carolina may have staved off the most severe imaginable penalties, but you have to imagine they're still going to be pretty rough. Maybe it's a one-year postseason ban instead of two. Maybe it's 10 docked scholarships instead of 20. Either way, three years' worth of wins are about to be vacated.

The biggest question: Will Davis keep his job? That one will be entirely up to the school.

I'm baffled. I'm not sure how you can possibly suggest anything was under control at UNC. I'm also in favor of removing that bit on not charging the head coach for secretive activities of his assistants. Here the canard about how you can't follow 100 college-age kids around is even more ridiculous: Butch Davis has nine assistant coaches. He should be expected to know whether one of them is working for Gary Wichard.

Mandel's just speculating when he says the UNC case will cause a smaller ripple than those of OSU and USC. I think he's likely to be wrong about OSU if only because we've already got a meaty notice of allegations in the UNC case and until that document hits for OSU we've got no idea what the NCAA will decide is impermissible in Columbus. But if he's right it's going to be a blow to this whole We're Serious Now, You Guys, Seriously campaign Mark Emmert is running. The document the NCAA produced on UNC should be enough for a firebombing.

Meanwhile, Oregon has managed to dig up some more stuff they got from Will Lyles: four spreadsheets with erratically reliable information about 2012 and 2013 recruits sent in February and March of this year, more than ten months after Oregon wrote him a check. The NCAA can't possibly buy what Oregon's selling, can they?

The next year is when the NCAA decides whether implausible deniability is a proper defense. Here's hoping the answer is

Reverse Righthaven. Rivals' Tom Dienhart sat down with Rich Rodriguez for an interview. It's the same boilerplate you'd find in any interview with a guy who'd like a head coaching job in the near future save for this small bit on Pryor:

Are you surprised by what is going on at Ohio State?

"I know some of it because we were close to the situation when I was at Michigan and part of the rivalry, the recruitment of Terrelle Pryor and all of that."

Ok, then.

It's about 1500 words. The Detroit News took 750 of them as an "excerpt" for an article in the paper without so much as linking the original piece or writing anything around it. The News just up and took half of a published article and republished it. The only explanation is there's some sort of content sharing agreement, but since Scout's Sam Webb writes for the news and Rivals' Josh Helmholdt for the Free Press, that doesn't seem likely. The News is so internet hood, yo.

The best part is that when I C&Ped the News article into Live Writer to get a word count it automatically inserted a "read more" link to the News. False.

Request. MVictors has a request, and a reward:

I summarized my take on the mascot situation in one tweet: The Michigan mascot in my head wears fierce armor made from pieces of the stadium halo, and the ’93 Final Four banner as a cape.  

Make that happen and I’ll sign on.  Someone sketch that out for me and I owe you a beer.

Etc.: Via Michigan Hockey Net, OSU hockey's schedule release says Michigan will visit Columbus for a series. Presumably this means the outdoor game is off.

Lonnie White got paid at USC back in the 80s. Also, The Daily (not that Daily) figured out this ASCII thing.

Grantland commissions Brian Phillips to write on Roger Federer, a great example of the site picking the cream of blogging-type people and not just the Klostermans of the world. Only problem is the obvious one when writing a footnote-laced article about Federer: you have giant posthumous looming competition.

Um. This happened. Why does Eastern have a football team again?

Ohio running back Alden Hill (6'2", 220 lbs) planned on going up to Michigan's camp to prove to the coaches he was worthy of an offer. He was happy with his performance and so were the Michigan coaching staff. Hill called me today to let me know that he spoke with the coaches and they have offered him a scholarship. Here's a look at his film and what he said about the offer.

TOM: What did the coaches say?

ALDEN: I talked to Coach Hoke and he said that I have an offer to Michigan. 

TOM: Did they tell you what role you would be playing, or what position you would have on the team?

ALDEN: They want me as an all purpose back, a full back and running back. Someone they don't have to change personnel if they switch plays out of the two back system. I'm definitely good with that role, it's good for competition. I actually just got an offer from Iowa too, so the Big Ten is starting to come in now.

TOM: What's next for you then, are you heading out to any other camps? Are you going to try to make it out to Iowa?

ALDEN: I haven't been to Iowa yet, but I'll be at Ohio State on Saturday. I'll go up there and workout because I know there will be other coaches there too.

TOM: What do you want your timeline to look like? How is your recruitment going to play out?

ALDEN: I'll probably make my decision early to mid football season, I'll have it done by then. I'll have it narrowed down by the time my season starts up.

TOM: With this Michigan offer now where does that put the Wolverines? Are they in your top group?

ALDEN: Oh definitely. They're in my top five with Illinois, Boston College, Vanderbilt, and Iowa now.

TOM: You have a few teammates that are also being recruited. I know Zach Higgins is committed to Michigan State and 2013 ATH Dymonte Thomas has a Michigan offer. Are you close with them?

ALDEN: Yeah, we are real good friends. I have been friends with Dymonte before he came to our school through sports. Dymonte, Zach, and I all stay close through this recruiting process because we can all relate in this unique situation. We would love to play together, not too many guys get to play with their teammates from division three high school to a division one college.