football

I just spoke to Demetrius Hart's mom, and Demetrius is definitely not coming this weekend for the BBQ. Instead, he's on his way to a 7 on 7 tournament with his teammates......in Alabama. She didn't know if the 7 on 7 was at the University, or just in Alabama, and I haven't found it yet, either. It sounds like it is at the university.

His mother told me that he's very stressed out by the whole process right now, and they couldn't make it up to Michigan for financial reasons. They will try to reschedule it in the summer, or possibly for his official visit. They couldn't make this trip due to financial reasons, which is completely understandable. 

She also said that nothing has changed with their opinion on Michigan, but they would like Demetrius to visit Auburn and Alabama. They want him to take his time, and make sure that everything is right. She reiterated that nothing has changed with their opinion on Michigan, but they wouldn't like to see him in a "woulda, shoulda, coulda" situation. 

They're not sure when he'll make his decision anymore, so we'll have to wait and see. I'm not really sure either way if it's a good or bad thing for Michigan the longer it takes.

Michigan passed out three new offers recently, and they were all from the state of Ohio. The two featured in the previous link are ATH Austin Traylor, and Nick Vannett. First up, Traylor.

Austin Traylor

Defensive End, Tight End

6'4, 215 lbs.

Columbus, Ohio

Traylor has been rising up a lot of lists lately, and now holds offers from Michigan, Arizona, Boston College, Cincinnati, Kansas, MSU, West Virginia, and Wisconsin among others. Considered an athlete, Michigan is recruiting him for defensive end/outside linebacker.

I haven't narrowed down my list yet, but I'm definitely interested in Michigan. I plan on trying to make it up there this summer. - Austin Traylor

Being from Columbus scares me, so we'll have to see how this pans out. His highlight tape is pretty impressive, or else I guess it wouldn't be a highlight tape.

Nick Vannett

Tight End

6'6, 230 lbs.

Westerville, Ohio

Vannett has over 30 offers, so just trust me that his list is impressive. He's a junior tight end that's 6-feet-6 inches, and 230-pounds, so it seems pretty natural that he has so much interest. The fact that he's that big, and boasts a 4.8 forty time is pretty impressive. 

There have been rumblings that he already committed to Ohio State, which he denies. Sometimes where there's smoke, there's fire, so I wouldn't get too excited about this one. His highlight tape is here. 

Ryan Kelly

Offensive Line/Center

6'5, 270 lbs.

West Chester, Ohio

Kelly is a national recruit, and has a really nice offer list, headlined by Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Tennessee, and Michigan among others. 

Kelly's offer from Michigan just came in recently, as you can see by the tweet below.

Kelly also recently accepted an offer to play in the Under Armour All American game. If I might add, the UA game has gotten a lot of really good athletes to accept an offer to the game this year. They're creeping up on the Army game as far as talent goes, especially this year. I can't figure out if this is an early roster list, or not. If it's not, a lot of those names have committed to play in the game, as well. Anyway, Kelly's highlight video is right here.

I'm essentially illiterate in college sports fan blogs except for those of the Michigan variety, but Brian's recent link to RCMB made me curious: What are the most thoughtful and intelligent blogs/boards for OSU and MSU? I'm hoping it's not RCMB considering the number of animated emoticons flying around on that site is enough to induce an epileptic seizure.

Also fun to note, in that very same link that Brian provided is an MSU fan, like, totally burning Michigan by changing player names on NCAA '09 to "Taynt (sic) Forcier" and "Martavious Scrodoms."

I know NCAA football is the clear favorite to everyone here, but  this might sway someone to buy Madden to hear a trademark Gus Johnson cackle.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/05/21/gus-johnson-will-be-the-new-play-by-play-voice-of-madden-11/

I've been following college basketball recruiting lately, and have been hearing a lot about Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones signing financial aid agreements rather than LOIs with Kentucky.  Much has been made of this, especially with Brandon Knight.  My understanding is that with a financial aid agreement, the school is bound to provide a scholarship for tuition and board to the player, but the player is not bound to that school.  Come August, a player can simply enroll at another school and play immediately; this is unlike an LOI where a player has to ask for and be granted a release (and schools can put restrictions on where the player can go).

This is smart for Knight and Jones, especially with the rumors (founded or not) that Coach Cal could be headed to the NBA.  I really think that we're going to see a lot of this coming up in college basketball.  Do you guys think that we'll also see an influx of guys in college football signing financial aid agreements rather than LOIs?

I'm also wondering what the restrictions are if one plays a year under a financial aid agreement but decides to go to another school.  Financial aid agreements are one year agreements and can be renewed every year.  I'm assuming the NCAA rules apply and they have to sit out a year right if they opt not to resign it right?

Nice shirt, dude:

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1086191