TomVH: OL Kyle Murphy Update
California is an area of familiarity for Brady Hoke, and there's no surprise that he's made that region part of his recruiting focus. Typically a hot bed for recruiting talent, this year is no different for California.
San Clemente High School is the home to 2012 offensive lineman Kyle Murphy (6'6", 255 lbs), who was extended a Michigan offer this past Friday. Murphy's head coach, Eric Patton, told me how it went down. "Coach Ferrigno from Michigan called Friday. He got a little info on Kyle and then told us they were offering." Michigan's offer was not the first, and certainly won't be the last for the talented lineman. "He's very heavily recruited. He's being recruited by Cal, Stanford, Notre Dame, Duke, and Washington. A number of Pac 12 schools," said Coach Patton.
It's still too early in the process for Murphy to have any leaders, and is wide open in the process. With so many schools coming after him, it's easy to see why. "He's a top notch recruit. He's a legitimate 6-foot-6, he's getting close to 6-foot-7 now. He's really athletic, good frame, great balance. He has and does a lot of things that big men don't usually have in high school," his coach said.
Outside of his athleticism, Murphy has a good reason to focus on academics. With an older brother starting on the Harvard offensive line, and maintaining a 3.9 GPA, he has a lot to live up to. "Kyle is probably a better football player than Kevin (his brother). He's interested in academics, that's one of the reasons why Michigan appeals to him. He wants to play at the highest level he can, and the Big Ten and Michigan are right up there," said Patton. "The Big Ten is very prestigious, and he wants to go to a place that respects football and a good education. His family is very academically oriented, and they've said they'll move out of state for Kyle, like they did for his brother."
With distance not a part of the equation, that's a big hurdle avoided by Michigan. The next step in the process will be to get Murphy in Ann Arbor, and on campus. "We haven't talked about visits yet to Michigan. I know he wants to visit, and he wants to take a serious look at a number of schools. My guess is that he'll take a look and then decide which five he'll want to visit. Outside of Michigan, I'd have to say that Stanford will be real high on his list," Coach Patton said.
February 16th, 2011 at 1:50 PM ^
With Stanford as the other school that appeals to him... I'd say concern about academics may be a legitimate claim.
However, I'm still not sold on the Proximity from home claim... Stanfords distance may be a challenge to beat, and their academics are definitely over ours, hopefully it'll start to close the gap once he's on campus
February 16th, 2011 at 2:02 PM ^
Also, Duke.
February 16th, 2011 at 2:53 PM ^
I don't know...no argument here about whether Stanford is generally rated more highly than Michigan, and in academic circles, Stanford undergrad is considered to be on the highest echelon of schools, whereas our undergrad gets some bad pub from some stats that compare apples to oranges when comparing public versus private schools.
I am curious about how academically-inclined recruits really view these "tiers". While Stanford, Duke and NW have higher academic ratings from sources such as USNWR, much of that is due to faculty-student ratio and percent of applicants accepted, which obviously favor smaller, private schools with less students.
The impression I've always gotten is that when you look at great academic schools that often play a great brand of football, you end up with the following list: USC, Michigan, Stanford, UCLA, Cal/UNC/Virginia (sometimes they play good football), and NW & Vandy offer the opportunity to at least play in top leagues. While I have no empirical data to support my intuition, it seems like distance from home, school culture and coach-player relationship have had much more important than the relatively small diferences between the rankings of these top-tier schools.
So here's hoping to these recruits catching Hoke-A-Mania...
February 16th, 2011 at 4:52 PM ^
might have better academics but when you combine the academics and football at Michigan I think that would do the job.GO BLUE!!!
February 19th, 2011 at 9:16 AM ^
Although I wish you were right have you compared our two football teams lately?
February 16th, 2011 at 2:18 PM ^
I'm just loving these offers to academically focused student athletes! Prepare them for life while succeeding on the football field!
Go Blue!!
February 16th, 2011 at 2:26 PM ^
Yes - talented and smart can only lead to better play.
February 16th, 2011 at 2:41 PM ^
closer to his brother and has the moniker of harvard of the west. M has a few things going with it along with both Stanford and M having new head coaches.
February 16th, 2011 at 3:44 PM ^
But Harvard is the Michigan of the East.
Carry on.
February 16th, 2011 at 4:03 PM ^
February 16th, 2011 at 4:23 PM ^
I hope Stanford starts sucking again with Harbaugh going to the NFL. We need to be able to get the high quality kids from the west coast.
February 16th, 2011 at 4:36 PM ^
we should just send this kid tape of Jake Long and Taylor Lewan and then ask him why he would want to play anywhere else
February 16th, 2011 at 4:42 PM ^
San Clemente is not really known nationally for producing top level talent like Glenville, Cass Tech, Dematha, St. Thomas Aquinas, etc. This last year they finished 2nd in the South Coast League to Mission Viejo who is known for producing talent.
There is a QB for 2012 class named Travis Wilson who has offers from Utah and Washington. He is 6'6" prostyle QB with upside. Should be interesting if he has a good showing at camps and senior season to garner more offers.
http://ocvarsity.freedomblogging.com/2011/02/11/football-recruiting-san…
February 16th, 2011 at 5:54 PM ^
The offers Hoke and Co. are making show that they're no slouches in scouting (at least it would seem that way based on early projections for these kids), but I want to see who is serious about making it to junior days and what the vibes are there, and who commits, before I start jumping for joy.
We need to win recruiting battles against tOSU, MSU, ND, and any of those punks who try to come into our state to steal talent.
February 16th, 2011 at 7:26 PM ^
the way he serves up pancakes!
February 18th, 2011 at 6:41 PM ^
There's a rim shot for ya.
February 17th, 2011 at 2:18 PM ^
Least we dont have to worry about kids not qualifying....
February 18th, 2011 at 3:46 PM ^
....when they claim that academics is a big factor for them? hmmm?
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