Dequinta Jones Commits - Update
Updated with information and stuff!
A defensive end has signed up. His name is awesome: Dequinta Jones. It is so awesome that a google search for just his first name pops up stuff about him. (When you are a blogger prone to google-stalking these things become disproportionately important; I vaguely hope Mike Jones changes his name to "Frobozz Tamoshanter" before he commits to Michigan, if indeed he does so.)
His skills? The recruiting sites are pretty meh: three stars all around. He did have offers from Arkansas, Cal, Okie State, and Alabama, FWIW. Informative update coming tomorrow AM.
Update: Okay, this one's pretty weird. Jones hasn't visited Michigan and the last time he touched base with a recruiting site he claimed that Alabama and Cal led with a decision pending on Signing Day. He wasn't even on the recruiting board. Then out of the blue he picks Michigan. He is from Louisiana, the national epicenter of wacky recruitments. All these things indicate a potentially shaky situation. But, like... what the hell. He's committed. On with the show.
Jones is a three-star to everyone. Tiger Rag's "Midsummer Top 40" published just a few weeks ago weirdly claims no offers and interestingly claims he'll end up inside:
27. DeQuinta Jones DT (6'2,265, 4.8) Bastrop HS - Jones is explosive off of the line of scrimmage and is a quarterback's nightmare. Jones moves along the defensive line for his high school team fulfilling different positions, but with some added weight he will likely be more of an inside guy at the next level. Jones is currently flying under the radar as he awaits his first offer, but like many other talented prospects offers should appear flowingly throughout his senior season. During the spring, Jones took in visits at LSU, Alabama, Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
"Dandy Don" has him a bit higher at #19, saying he is a "little under-sized but has great speed and outstanding work habits." He appears to have fallen in the estimation of the gurus after starting out a member of the Rivals 250; clearly that's no longer the case. He's actually moved steadily down, falling from #187 in the first Rivals 250 to #218 above to entirely out and just a three-star. I know I've said this a few times already this year, but he might have some upward mobility left with his late-ish flurry of offers and Michigan commit. 50-50 he ends up a four star and back in at the tail end of the Rivals 250.
ESPN, however, is not particularly impressed, providing a 77. His evaluation is littered with words like "adequate"; in summary:
Has the ability to develop into a solid college defender that can at worst could be a good swing guy.
They, too, bring up the defensive tackle thing.
Unfortunately, that's about all on Jones: he's a DE/DT prospect that is sitting on the 3/4 borderline. Given Michigan's needs, a good pickup but not a thrilling one.
And now, a word. Earlier this year there was a mailbag in which a reader asked which of the premium sites was the better one to subscribe to. At the time I hadn't had much direct experience with Scout, but I related the general opinions of a trusted group of internet friends. I've now added some direct experience to my portfolio of Scout knowledge.
Sometime yesterday both sites came out and said "we can't confirm this yet, but we're getting indications that Dequinta Jones has committed to Michigan." Rivals got Jones on the phone and got these direct quotes from him:
"I talked to Coach (Jay) Hopson and he asked me if I was ready to be a Wolverine and I said 'Yes sir,'" Jones told Rivals.com national analyst Barton Simmons Monday afternoon. "Coach Rodriguez was in his office and heard the celebration down the hall and came out to see what it was all about and found out I committed."
Point for Rivals if you care which recruiting site posted information about a commitment nanoseconds before the other. No one who's sane should, but this is internet recruiting we're talking about here.
Scout did not take this well. They've got a story up with quotes from Jones' parents saying that Jones hasn't committed anywhere and that he was "on the farm." Okay, fine, whatever, different information. But Tom Beaver has posted this in at least three separate places:
Let's hope this didn't get messed up by the gun-jumping.
This garners responses like this:
TOS ["The other site" -ed] at their best. Way to do the due diligence Sam/Tom. That's why I come here for the real news.
To recap: Rivals has a direct quote from a kid saying he has committed to Michigan and that Jay Hopson and Rich Rodriguez know. They run a story reporting this. Tom Beaver laces his premium message board with innuendo about "gun-jumping" and lets his message board minions leap to the desired conclusion. Given the situation outlined above -- weird, no-visit Louisiana commit out of nowhere -- there's at least a small chance this commitment doesn't make it to February, at which point Beaver will tut-tut those jerks at Rivals who had the audacity to run a direct quote.
Lord knows I've had issues with a couple of the more sanctimonious Rivals writers, but Beaver routinely pulls stunts like this whenever he's beaten to a story. It's dishonest and drives me crazy. If you're looking to sign up for one site or the other, keep it in mind.
guy who will help out the depth chart and has a good chance to become an adeqaute starter.
Don't say that. He's a Condom. No "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" here. Fuck USC, and fuck the Bukkeyes. Still, props to him for saying that about OSU, even if he said it as a Pac-10 supremacist bastard.
Oh God I hate Ohio State, but dammit I might root for them against USC. I hate having to choose between OSuckU and a Pac-10 or SEC team.
Carson Palmer living in Ohio, comes out and blasts the Buckeyes, do you know how pissed Ohio State lovers are about this?
I would highly recommend rooting for USC (I Will be) - an OSU loss will probably ensure that they don't end up in the title game again.
Jim, you ignorant slut.
That is a good point. I don't want OSU back in the title game. If they beat the Condoms, and Michigan somehow just maybe manages to pull off the impossible, then it would be the upset of the century, but it's probably not happening. Still, OSU represents the Big 10. If they win this year, then it will shut up some of the detractors. I know some people don't really care about how the Big 10 does or about Big 10 loyalty, but OSU (not their fans though) is sort of representing us. Maybe say, so what? Everyone else should do well in OOC and bowl games.
Anyways, want to see how far to the end of the screen this thread will go? Who's with me?
A side note about music: Ne-Yo makes some damn catchy tunes. I can't get So Sick or Because of You out of my head. You know, he writes his own songs and songs for other people.
I'm going with JHS on this one. I really don't see USC as a rival, maybe it's because I live in LA and most of my buddies are USC grads and they cheer for Michigan with me when they play. I doubt any OSU grads would do that. I relish in any moment when someone who knows the game well and who fans respect rips on the Buckeyes. And I will be going to the USC-OSU game, and I will be cheering for the Trojans. For the record.
I agree that we like to see the Big Ten do well, but OSU has been on top too long, and that needs to stop. God knows the Buckeyes were going nuts after our first two games last year.
My attitude is, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." The challenge is making them fall. Since UM probably can't do that this year, I should probably root for USC. There are many older OSU fans such my dad (grew up in OH and went to OSU) who root for UM "in every game but one." DC Scott Shafer grew up in a mixed family in OH and was brought up to root for either team in the Rose Bowl regardless of whom he rooted for in The Game. It's an old school approach, but it does exist. I'm sure it's much less common among younger fans, especially those of OSU because they grew up with Cooper and the 1997 championship team but mainly because they have no class and are insane.
I kinda like UCLA though. I hate USC and their home team advantage at the Rose Bowl (which is also the Big-10's fault). Still, I really just want to see how far to the right side of the screen this column of comments will go.
I, too, am conflicted. I cheered for OSU when they beat Miami for the BCS Championship in 2002, because when one member of the Big Ten does something great, it bodes well for the conference as a whole. I cheered for OSU against Florida (although admittedly it was nice to see them get creamed). I did not cheer for them to beat LSU because enough is enough here, IMO. It's one thing to see the Big Ten do well, but it's another when the team is OSU and they have been pretty diminant as of late. I don't want OSU to turn into a dynasty a la USC in the last 6 years or Miami of the 6 years before that.
Also, Pete Carroll lives a block down the street from me, and he's a pretty cool guy. Him and I have gone surfing together a handful of times in the offseason, and he's a guy you can't not like. I think that's part of why I don't hate USC like a lot of Michigan fans do.
Aghakhan played for Moeller.
I won't lose sleep over OSU losing a bowl game, but the one that bugs me to this day is their loss to Florida last year. That really puts a huge question mark on the quality of the Big 10 for that season. And it's weird, because I didn't think that Florida was any better than Michigan, but it's hard to know. UF won some close games, including one against Vandy, whom Michigan completely dominated. Michigan is also to blame for losing to USC.
Even though people have explained to me how OSU outplayed UM in the 06 game, that game's results were distorted by the shitty field turf. There is no way that either defense would have given up the same yardage on normal turf that wasn't coming apart. I know that multiple Big 10 opponents that year said that UM was better than OSU. During the Rose Bowl, Michigan just looked flat. (A Big 10 coach has said that they looked "distracted" but also that OSU was just better than everyone else.) The secondary was not that great, but that was a damn good team in 06.
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