Avery Walls deciding today!
k guys so I'm pulling a Tom here, and just reminding everyone Avery Walls was supposed to be deciding today at his highschool at 9:40 (don't ask me when they decided on that time)
looks like it's between us and oregon, though most people say oregon has the upper hand.
go blue avery!
December 14th, 2010 at 9:53 AM ^
know who the coaches are!! Thanks DB
December 14th, 2010 at 9:50 AM ^
Avery is just a part of the enormous conspiracy. Against me.
December 14th, 2010 at 9:53 AM ^
Cal it is.
December 14th, 2010 at 9:56 AM ^
weak sauce
December 14th, 2010 at 10:04 AM ^
December 14th, 2010 at 11:41 AM ^
I guess he could be serious about academics, early playing time, but and blue/yellow-ish jerseys... Darn.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:08 AM ^
December 14th, 2010 at 9:56 AM ^
How in the hell is Cal pulling in these guys all of a sudden?
December 14th, 2010 at 9:57 AM ^
You've obviously never been to Berkeley...
December 14th, 2010 at 9:59 AM ^
My brother-in-law, a Cal grad, describes Ann Arbor as "Berkeley: Cold."
That's a semi-irrelevant comment.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:01 AM ^
Campus is spectacular.
Academics are amazing.
Great school, great football.
Can't knock the choice, IME.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:07 AM ^
family members can watch games for free there!
if they sit on that hill
December 14th, 2010 at 10:10 AM ^
HD-Tedford is on line 1.
Can say the same for Michigan. Is Cal football that great? They do have the best looking smart girls.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:30 AM ^
I do understand Cal is an outstanding university and Berkeley is a great town -- but they are pulling in a damn good class. The last two recruiting classes (this year and last) are a big step up from previous years.
December 14th, 2010 at 9:57 AM ^
No poop in my pants.
Sorry.
December 14th, 2010 at 9:57 AM ^
Its official, he's going to Cal
December 14th, 2010 at 9:57 AM ^
Mr. Lyons, the path is all cleared off for 'ya. come on down!
December 14th, 2010 at 9:58 AM ^
Another 5-7 season in Berkeley and Tedford will be toast.
December 14th, 2010 at 9:59 AM ^
A 7-5 season in Ann Arbor and Rich Rod might be toast...
December 14th, 2010 at 9:59 AM ^
Thanks, David Brandon, for making the coaching staff's recruiting job much easier this offseason.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:03 AM ^
I get the feeling we were out of the picture for Walls a while ago.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:12 AM ^
Have you read anything that would indicate why Walls cooled on us? Our lousy defense, the uncertainty at HC, the weather, all of the above...?
December 14th, 2010 at 10:31 AM ^
After his visits to the west coast schools, he didn't really talk about Michigan much. I think he just found somewhere he liked more.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:08 AM ^
You ain't Lyons.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:10 AM ^
WHile I am in agreement with the idea of your post, I don't' think that was the breaker here. I guess I never really felt that Walls would be here.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:24 AM ^
He was doing his best Ricardo impression and recuriting for Michigan for the entire summer, and for the first half of the season. He was Michigan's to lose, and with him being a December graduate, the process lost him.
December 14th, 2010 at 11:02 AM ^
What's more annoying than David Brandon following the timeline is reading endless comments about it.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:00 AM ^
Well, let's pray to God that Sheldon Royster chooses Michigan. Because other than him, there are really no free safety-type kids on the board who are giving Michigan a look.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:04 AM ^
wayne lyons?
besides we have a young backfield already, we probably won't need to fill it for a while
December 14th, 2010 at 11:15 AM ^
Wayne Lyons is more of a SS type.
And we literally have two scholarship free safeties (Vinopal and Johnson). Both were freshmen this year. Vinopal is likely to stick at FS, but Johnson split his time between OLB and FS, so I'm not counting on him being a stellar FS.
So . . . I sure hope Sheldon Royster commits.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:01 AM ^
Cal sucks. I could've understood Oregon, but Cal?
December 14th, 2010 at 10:03 AM ^
He doesn't think that waiting till after the bowl game is going to affect recruiting? My large butt it doesn't. Walls was a Michigan lean from the beginning and we blew it w/ him, could blow it w/ Dee Hart, not to mention many others who are coming down to the wire and picking other schools because Brandon hasn't pulled the trigger one way or the other!
December 14th, 2010 at 10:13 AM ^
Right now is not affecting Dee Hart. If RR stays, Hart comes to Michigan. If he is fired, Hart goes elsewhere.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:07 AM ^
Thank you Mr. Brandon for giving us no shot at this kid. Goodbye Zettel, goodbye Dee Hart. Tough to stay positive now.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:14 AM ^
Completely agree.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:25 AM ^
on Brandon. Kids have chosen other schools over M before. Quite a few actually
It certainly doesn't help, but even if RR stays there's going to be a new DC. Would you like Brandon to say RR stays, and GERG with him?
I think Zettel probably goes Blue with either RR or Harbaugh. Hoke or other? Nah...
But what the hell do I know
December 14th, 2010 at 10:09 AM ^
I'll say that David Brandon needs to shit or get off the pot.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:17 AM ^
If this were three weeks ago I would agree, and in the abstract, I TOTALLY agree. But for now, I think Brandon has to follow through on what he said he would do, and we all have to accept (suffer?) the consequences. I think he has a plan, I just think the plan didn't fit well with the small-p politics of big time college football.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:32 AM ^
I really, really, really don't understand this argument. If Dave Brandon is half the super-awesome being that a lot of people think he is, then he should be smart enough to realize that the consequences from the uncertainty might be (read: are) worse than the minor fallout that would come from him abandoning his "plan."
December 14th, 2010 at 11:04 AM ^
Believe me, I'm sympathetic to your argument as well. I just think that at this point, he has something in mind that he thinks will work, and has decided that changing this mid-stream will be worse than not changing. I guess it's my somewhat shaken faith in the pimp hand etc. etc.
I know this has been rehashed a bajillion times, but it seems to me that there are really only three courses of action he could take:
- Rehire RR without caring about the bowl results.
- Hire JH, which he would have liked to do earlier, but JH's people told him to wait until JH coaches in the Orange Bowl.
- Wait and see how UM does in the Gator Bowl and make his decision accordingly.
Two further points:
- The only one of these that requires an early decision is 1, so I think we can rule that out, because Brandon is not stupid.
- #3 has been his stated position, so at least he's consistent with that. It is also possible that (3a) he wants to hire JH but JH isn't giving him a clear signal that he will be moved from Stanford, or that he won't take a NFL job; hence, DB is hedging his bets with #3, or (3b) he wants to keep RR but is under so much pressure from the donors that he is hoping the team will give a good showing in the bowl, thereby giving him cover to keep RR. I find this latter point (3b) implausible, because if UM gets rolled, what will he do?
I think the only likely scenarios are #2 and #3a, both of which more or less require him to stick to his plan.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:39 AM ^
He can come out and say, "listen, I know I said I was going to stick to this timetable, but these are circumstances that require immediate action for the health of the program moving forward blah blah, therefore I'm going to do this..."
Just my measely 2 cents though.
December 14th, 2010 at 11:00 AM ^
Completely agree. It is like watching your stock crash when you know the CEO of the company has all the power in the world to announce news to lift it, yet sits on his ass stupidly. Does this bowl game really influence RR's performance for the year? Either keep him or get rid of him. Do something. DO SOMETHING. DO SOMETHING!!!!
December 14th, 2010 at 10:21 AM ^
That is a lot better person to blame right now for losing recruits than "negative fans and message board posters". They seemed to be the target before DB decided to let RR hang in the breeze.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:29 AM ^
Both scapegoats are equally bullshit.
December 14th, 2010 at 10:34 AM ^
is the new black
December 14th, 2010 at 10:36 AM ^
because Dave Brandon has refused to clear up the coaching situation, but I don't know how anyone can say it isn't having a real, negative effect on recruiting efforts.
December 14th, 2010 at 11:06 AM ^
Because it's speculation. You assume there's a crop of recruits that would have committed to Michigan in the last two weeks but for Dave Brandon's evaluation period. The only decommitment was Sousa who, according to Tom, was wavering anyway. Hart's comments are the only evidence that it MAY be affecting one guy.
December 14th, 2010 at 11:21 AM ^
would have committed by now if they knew Rich Rodriguez was going to be the coach of Michigan going forward.
December 14th, 2010 at 11:59 AM ^
It's possible but you don't know that. Zettel has been "about to commit to Michigan" since last summer. He didn't do it when we were 5-0. So I'm doubting that DB's evaluation plan is the only true reason he hasn't pulled the trigger.