Diaries

Ohio defensive end Pharaoh Brown has been committed to Michigan since May and has never looked back. The four star commit has been dubbed as an athletic defensive end with a ton of upside. 

He played quarterback and defensive end last year for his high school team and now plans to switch to a different role on offense. 

"This season I'll be playing tight end and defensive end," Brown said. "I don't really have a preference of either offense or defense, but I think I would rather play defense."

There was some noise this summer that Brown could potentially move to wide receiver after a seven on seven performance. The Michigan coaches have made it clear though that they want him on the defensive side of the ball, and he's good with that.

The senior season is always special and Brown feels as though they have a good enough team to make the playoffs. He has also set a few goals for himself to finish out his high school career.

"We have a great squad with a lot of seniors this year," he said. "We're projected to go to the playoffs so I think we'll go pretty far. I want to win the conference and make it to the playoffs, that's my goal." 

The clock is starting to tick, and I'm sure before he knows it he'll be packing his bags for Ann Arbor. Brown is measuring in at 6 foot 6, 223 pounds right now, which is fine for high school. Michigan's defensive coordinator Greg Mattison has told him he will need to bulk up once he gets to the next level, which is something he's prepared to do.

"My cousin played football in college and had an NFL tryout, so he's been training me," Brown said. "I learned some new technique stuff this off season and I feel pretty good. I know I'll have to put on a lot of weight once I get there so I'll just stay up on lifting and protein shakes." 

Brown said he committed to Michigan because of the academics, the scheme, and the whole package that Michigan had to offer. Since he's a part of the 2012 class he had heard the speech from the Michigan coaches, and knew what other prospects were hearing but he was still a little surprised by the quantity and quality of this class.

"I thought we would do well, but I didn't think it would be like this," he said. "I feel pretty good with this class, I think we're going to do big things."

Brown also said that he was doing some recruiting for his future team, and feels like he had a part in Ohio DE Tom Strobel committing as well. 

While he's excited for his future at Michigan he is 100% focused on the task at hand this season and finishing out strong. The season starts for Brown when his team takes on Eastlake North at 7pm on August 26th.

Pharaoh Brown Junior Highlights:

M Downing shaking hands pregame. Taller than all the refs... nice.

I had the pleasure of attending the U17 5 nations tournament last night in A2. Team USA's captain is the newest UM hockey commit Michael Downing. He is every bit as big as advertised, just needs to fill out a bit, which will not be an issue as he only recently turned 16.

In his own zone, he was physical showing a quick stick and a bit of a nastiness to his game. His break out was good, both passing and skating, will just need to improve on the quickness of his decisions in this area as he move up competition. His skating was very good and he used it to jump into the offensive rush on several occasions. He was part of the first PP unit and scored a PP goal as he crashed the net, grabbed a rebound, made a move and roofed it from in tight. Showed some real nice hands for a big kid and a Defense man at that. Did all that ANDshowed the composure to stay out of the box in a one sided game that was getting chippy late. 

In short, I was very impressed with the kids game and size. And the coaches must be impressed with some intangibles to have named him captain. To my untrained eye UM is getting (please no more defections) a very good one.

I was also impressed with a couple other kids. Big forward Michael Turner showed great hands, with decent skating - this look to be a little awkward maybe due to recent growth spurt? But when he fills out and gets his feet under him, he will be tough to stop.

Adam Erne was also very good. Always seemed to be around the net with a good control on the puck. Another kid with some size, seems to have grown into it a little quicker than Turner.

The Goaltender Demko was top notch. Big kid, stayed square to shooters, only let one in. Was very good at controlling the puck for the most part, smothering it when needed, kicking it way out or deflecting it up into the netting. i think he was 6-3.. little different look than UM has currently.

Lastly, my favorite kid to watch was Daniel Vanderwiel. A little shorter, but very well built and loved to use it. Several nice open ice hits, rubbed guys out along the boards. Was very physical all game long. The Czech players were looking out for him all game. Just has to do a better job of controlling the puck once he crushes the puck carrier and holding it along the boards, then you might have a little Tkachuk on your hands. 

Saw a ton of NCAA coaches there including Billy Powers. Hopefully he was making some inroads with a few of the other kids.

.
On the recent commitment of Kyle Kalis, many Michigan fans became excited at landing such a highly rated prospect
.
And they have reason to, because Kalis will develop into a great contributor on the football field
.
yes
.
But, THE KNOWLEDGE laughs at many folks on this website and other places that think they know which prospects to get excited about
.
Many indeed was the  number of folks that were considerably less excited about the commitment of a less heralded, and mostly unknown, prospect to the 2012 Michigan class
.
these people are idiots
.
and the name of that prospect is Sione Houma
.
yes
.
The proprietor and #2 writer on this blog, B. Cook himself seemed less than thrilled about the commitment of Houma; naturally less knowledgeable ordinary fans followed suit
.
but THE KNOWLEDGE is not ordinary as everyone knows
.
THE KNOWLEDGE soars and basks in glory due to his great abiltities, more than anyone can ever dream of
.
yes
.
with the future in hindsight, THE KNOWLEDGE reveals that Houma is the most important commitment of the class
.
He will be the best player on the field, and will earn muti-year All-American honors
.
yes
.
On to other matters
.
The event most people are awaiting in the next few days is the decision of the NCAA on the heinous violations committed at OSU
.
so they can know if the answered THE QUESTION correctly
.
yes
.
THE KNOWLEDGE, of course, already knows the result, but will not reveal it in order to keep the excitement growing until it reaches a crescendo

.
THE KNOWLEDGE will return in the future to congratule the winners of THE QUESTION and also to reveal the season review for Michigan
.
yes
.

Hoke's presser:

T-Wolf: