Crootin': Joey Velazquez
Sam Webb featured an interesting visitor from the past weekend. He is currently commited to play Baseball for osu - super centerfield prospect. However, he recently released a football HUDL page and has attracted a, lot of attention. He is about 6 feet+, 210 lbs and can run. Michigan is recruiting him as a Viper = Khaleke 2.0.
Very little football scouting on him as he was seen as exclusively a basball player but the tape is impressive. JH has told him that he can play both sports here and he is very interested.
Obviously a tough pull from osu but Webb thinks we have a good shot.
https://www.hudl.com/video/3/7250245/5ab85ef5d45e5b0db41e5875
And stealing him from Ohio?
Yes, without reservation.
Fun film to watch, he does like viper-y. Also, he looks like a special teams assassin.
He's a baller in typical Harbaugh fashion. Plays about 20 lbs heavier than he is has a nose for the ball, much better than adequate speed and has the tude to Vipe at this level. When, though, did it all jump from Peppers 2..0 to Hudson 2.0? Is that due to not finding the second Peppers yet? Curious minds.
As much as I love Peppers (Big Browns fan as well), Hudson has played better in his second year of college at the position than Peppers did in his final year. Sure, Peppers was the better athlete and did more on both sides of the ball, but I think Hudson 2.0 for the VIPER is appropriate.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/jabrill-peppers-1.html
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/khaleke-hudson-1.html
April 24th, 2018 at 12:07 PM ^
I can't beleive the amount of true stars this defense has. Hudson is a legit star out there along with Bush, Gary. Winovich, and Hill. Outside of a repeat performence from the offense putting them in terrible situations all the time, I expect this to be a top 3 defense this year if not #1.
If you've seen his film you know that the kid is absolutely a P5 football recruit, in addition to being a top baseball prospect. I hope the fact that we were the first major school to offer for football pushes him to us.
To me, him being a terrific baseball prospect increases his profile to me. One it shows how athletic he is, and second, it's a pretty good indicator of why he's underrated, under scouted and slept on by football programs. Especially if baseball had been his top sport, he probably spend the majority of his time in the summer playing baseball, not attending recruiting camps and doing football activities. Those are the guys that usually skyrocket once more scouting is done.
always thought he could be a good football player
And I know someone will ask, no he cannot be a baseball commit and walk-on to the football team.
Nope, wrong. He counts as a full scholarship in football and baseball. He would use one of baseball's 11.7 scholarships. I doubt this will happen.
wouldn’t count against baseball
While I get the logic, what keeps a basketball school from getting an extra few recruits by having them on the football team and bringing them on board using a football scholarship.
...the totally cray Water Polo team that Alabama would have, without this rule.
Actually, Alabama doesn't have a Water Polo team. But if we just adjusted the scholarship rule, I think that they'd have seven guys who were all a little over six feet, weighed around 235, could do a 4.5 40, but might not be able to swim.
Alabama would find a way to start a Water Polo team. With seven walk-on football players who had been recruited to play football at Auburn and Florida State.
Even better, they wouldn't even have to build a new facility - Alabama's football facilities can house most known sports in a pinch along with spectators. Not that they intended to do this, of course, but when you see the photos.....
A lot probably has to do with timing. Basketball and Hockey would be hard to be dual sport athletes because of the calendar. There's crossover with the football season regular and bowl season.
Football and baseball are a little more logical because there is zero crossover with regular season games or preseason camp.
But even at a place like Kansas or Duke, the football coach isn't going to make his team worse by wasting scholarships. It's still a big time sport even when their team sucks.
As a practical matter, I think there are a couple of other issues. The recruits still have to be legitimate football prospects. That's part of the rules. Moving players over before their football season ends will draw scrutiny. The high level recruits aren't going to want to go that route. And how much benefit do you get by adding a few extra players in a sport with little redshirting and tight rotations?
I believe the rule was implemented after Miami was skirting scholarship limits by having football players on the track team and then "walking on" to the football team.
Good thing we got on this kid before Bama and OSU.
Kidding aside I'm hoping Lance Dixon is the Viper in this class.
what gives?
Nothing personal. I heard Sam's segment this morning and it reminded me of all the recruiting roundups during the Rich Rich era where he tried to sell the fan base on guys who were very clearly reaches by the coaching staff.
Steinbrenner is resurrected after he comes to M and signs him to some bullshit minor league contract on the condition that he can't play football and fucking up the depth chart in the process for Michigan.
Maizen only cares about stars.
Would love to have him. But if he's smart he'll concentrate on baseball no matter where he goes.
You can make a lot more money playing baseball for 20 years than you can playing football for 4-6 years.
He would have been a #1 pick and perennial Pro Bowl QB. He did make his money but what could have been...
I think you may have missed my point. The average NFL career spans about 4-6 years.
I'm sure this kid, and probably others would like to wake up 20 years from now and be able to recall their children's names.
NFL = Not For Long
You are right if he truly projects as a big league center fielder. But, that’s a long ways off at this point, so playing both sports may in fact be his best option at this point. Especially if he excels at both sports in college and creates some bargaining leverage.
Counterpoint: he blows out his knee covering a kickoff as a freshman.
Lawyer argues both sides of case. Eliminates need for opposing counsel. Film at 11.
MLB = Most likely broke?
Always find it amusing that NFL is considered a pipe dream but then a 20 year MLB career is a given. At least in NFL you make money early or not at all. In MLB sometimes you have to wait 5 or 10 years before you find out not at all. Not everyone gets to be ARod.
Henson never played Baseball at UM
If he goes high enough, I'd agree he should concentrate on baseball. Otherwise, it's not so clear. Most pro baseball players never make the major leagues. Those longer careers also mean fewer openings for rookies.
His testing numbers are nearly identical to Khaleke's and he has the athleticism to be a top pro prospect in probably the most hand-eye coordination intensive sport there is. Not sure how much more of an athlete you're looking for here.
Bennie Oosterbaan, Bump Elliott, Bill Freehan and Rick Leach might want to have a word on that.
Also Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, Russell Wilson, Kirk Gibson, Jeff Samardzija, Jameis Winston, Todd Helton, Golden Tate, Eric Decker, John Lynch...I mean you could create an entire book with guys who excelled at both...Tony Scheffler here locally for WMU and then the Lions.