Xavier Kelly set to announce Friday
ACC has also great bag men....
Those within the SEC footprint
Totally different situation. Also, Clemson does a good job of developing wide receivers (much better than Michigan recently) and Michigan was in a weird situation when they were recruiting Watkins and his teammate Dallas Crawford.
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Watkins came to visit with Crawford in the winter. Crawford loved UM but Watkins made it very clear that he did not want to live in the cold weather. Crawford was almost surely a Michigan lock if RR stayed, but he kept saying to stop trying to get him to recruit his friend Sammy. Watkins was never going to come to Ann Arbor.
Sammy loved RR and was all set to commit to Michigan until RR got fired in which Sammy looked elsewhere.
Michigan had been trending downward before this. I don't think Michigan would have been his #2 or #3 choice, either. This is just the way it goes sometimes. The kid blew up on the recruiting trail, and we couldn't hold onto the lead we had when we were battling the likes of Kansas State. Oh well.
I said in Monday's Ace roundup "he gone" when I saw a sudden flood of southern schools in his top group. Just not very good odds ever when suddenly all these schools south of Mason-Dixon get involved.
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The team grandmother will write him a check for $5 on his birthday. Doesn't get more close-knit than that
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True, Harbaugh is better than Sweeney. But, Brent Venables is certainly a more established DC than Durkin. Clemson's DE coach, Marion Hobby, has had recent success with Beasley and Branch being drafted in the first two rounds. And, Clemson's 2014 D lead the nation in total yards and yards/play allowed. Right now, Clemson's situation is one of the better defensive situations a recruit could walk into.
They also didn't play a single top 10 offense and padded their stats against georgia southern and Whatsthematta U. Michigan's defense finished in the top 10 in the same category last year. Clemson's defense was better than their offense last year but stats can be deceiving.
Yes, they did play top ten offenses. 4 of them, in fact.
Sure, stats can be deceiving (especially the one I cited), but that's why people have developed advanced statistics. Clemson ranked #1 nationally last year in BOTH FEI Defense(opponent adjusted) and S&P Rating Defense (play by play data). http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/feidef
You mentioned that Clemson didn't face any top ten offenses, but that's only if you use "total offense" as the measure, which you yourself said was "deceiving." It reality, Clemson faced 4 top ten offenses last year in FEI Offensive rating (GT #1, South Carolina #4, Florida State #8 (albeit FSU without Winston) and Georgia #9) They also face another top 20 team in Oklahoma (#18.)
I thought we were all on the same page that stats can be deceiving and that Michigan's #7 total defense ranking was a prime example ever since alum96 released this diary.
http://mgoblog.com/diaries/are-big-10-defensive-stats-inflated-bad-offe…
I just look at total offense, plays, yards, offensive TD's, yards per play. The only important that it's missing is possibly 3rd down conversions. By total offense ranking the top offense they face was GT and they where 19th, then Oklahoma 23, Georgia 28, south Carolina 29. Florida state, North Carolina and Miami are the only 3 ACC teams ranked in the top 50 for total offense (ranked 35, 44,45) So i'll stand by my previous comment about them not facing any really good offense all year.
It's deceiving like all sports statistics because you cant adjust a number for an opponent. I'm sure there are formulas obviously but, that's the coolest thing about footbal, it's unpredictable.
Because a lot of the time when a recruit chooses the Clemsons, Ole Miss's, and Auburns of the world, bag men are actually involved.
Not sure if it's still going on there. Nobody has made it as obvious as Ole' Miss, well maybe Auburn under Chizik
I have a friend who played ball at a school near Clemson. He has told me multiple times that he saw lots of shady dealings with athletes at Clemson. (Clemson and my friend's school do not play each other or recruit the same athletes, so I don't think it's just sour grapes, either.)
Actually, that reputation comes from the Danny Ford days, when it was very true, but that was quite a while ago. I live a half hour from Clemson and am not aware of any evidence of systematic cheating under either Bowden or Sweeney. Dabo is a solid individual. They certainly should not be classified with Auburn or Ole Miss. And let's not make that our default answer when we lose a recruit. Clemson is a beautiful campus and lots of recruits fall in love with it.
Shady dealings aside, Clemson has done a good job of producing defensive line talent over the years, so there's a very practical reason for defensive linemen wanting to play there.
Too soon?
Hey guys, hate to burst your bubble but so does Michigan.
If I'm weighing my options, I'm still going with Clemson. Going back to 2007, they have Gaines Adams, Phillip Merling, Jarvis Jenkins, Da'Quan Bowers, Andre Branch, and Vic Beasley all going in the first two rounds. In that same time span, Michigan has Alan Branch, LaMarr Woodley, Brandon Graham, and Frank Clark.
I'm saying we also do shady shit. Clemson has had a clearly better last decade of football.
Hmph. Okay. Well, it was weird to say "Michigan does it too" in reference to "shady shit" when my comment said "Shady dealings aside . . . "
But anyway, shady stuff happens everywhere. But I do think some places are worse than others.
This is silly conspiracy theory talk. Might as well chalk it up to the illuminati.
Believe it or not, recruits may just like Clemson more than Michigan. They've had a lot more success lately than Michigan has. It's not exactly crazy to think that MAYBE they just wanted to go to Clemson. Every time a recruit doesn't pick Michigan, it isn't because of the mythical bag man.
In spite of Michigan's academic excellence, you can get a good education at most major universities. What you get out equals what you put in.
Some people like going to schools where the weather is more moderate than what we get in Michigan, I'm often amazed that any kid who visits USC or UCLA or Stanford, top academic schools with Cali weather and women, would ever consider going anywhere else.
I'm amazed at anyone that makes a big life decision based primarily on weather.
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I'm amazed at anyone who wouldn't put weather into their quality of life equation. Ever been to a Rose Bowl? Yeah, it really sucks to walk around in short and a T-shirt on New Years day.
There is a flip side to that coin.
While some folks do not like spending time outside in the winter, I certainly wouldn't want to live somewhere where it's 95 degrees with 80 percent humidity for five months a year.
For many folks, having cold weather, snow, ice to skate on, avoiding insane heat, etc., factors favorably into their quality of life equation.
As a senior in high school i visited a cousin that went to Florida and I nearly cried when it was time to leave Gainsville.
Hormones + plus short shorts is a powerful inducement.
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