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alim mcneill
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noah locke

Friday Recruitin' Delays Decision Comment Count

Ace

Time To Not Watch This Highlight Video Again

After previously being eliminated in a move that came as a surprise, Michigan is back in the mix for four-star NC DT Alim McNeill. McNeill had planned to announce his decision on September 9th, almost certainly for stated leader NC State, but with some nudging from the Wolverines he's put that decision off until he can take some official visits, per Scout's Michael Clark:

“I’m going to take some official visits before I decide,” said the 6-foot-2, 272-pound McNeill. “I’m definitely taking officials to Michigan, N.C. State and Virginia Tech.”

Michigan is making a late push for McNeill.

“They’re just Michigan,” McNeill said. “Coach (Jim) Harbaugh and the coaching staff stand out. I also like the tradition and they’ve always been a top football program.

“I had a talk with (defensive coordinator) coach (Don) Brown. Coach Brown really sold me on their defensive tradition.

“He talked about how they feel they could develop me as a player and how they could use me in the defense. He said they like my versatility. I’m ready to go up there and see what they have to offer.”

McNeill maintains NC State leads the pack, while Virginia Tech is also in his top group and Florida State is lurking. That said, it's always good to be the school the causes a prospect to rethink his timeline. This one should get interesting if/when McNeill makes it to campus. Getting back into contention with him is big for Michigan, which is in contention but not the outright leader for their top defensive tackle targets in the 2018 class—adding McNeill back into a target group including Tyler Friday, Michael Thompson, and Rick Sandidge makes it that much more likely they'll land at least one coveted DT.

I continue to recommend against watching his sophomore highlight video.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]

Weekend Visits: Just Hoops Again

If it hasn't become totally apparent that Michigan is loading up the MSU and OSU games with football visits, this is the second straight home game that M doesn't host any notable football visitors. (There may be some 2020 kids on campus. I do not care yet.)

After 2018 prospects Ignas Brazdeikis and Justin Ahrens had strong official visits last weekend, John Beilein and his staff will host four-star MD SG Noah Locke for the Air Force game.

Locke was the best outside shooter in this summer's EYBL, draining 64 of 141 attempts (45%) over 21 games for Team Melo. While he's undersized for a two-guard at 6'2", he has an obvious fit in Beilein's system. Locke has taken officials to Ohio State, Providence, and Xavier, and he has one more lined up to Florida after this weekend's visit.

2019 Updates: Belleville Duo Plan To Visit

Scout's Allen Trieu caught up with Belleville head coach Jermain Crowell, who told him that top-100 2019 prospects Devontae Dobbs and Julian Barnett will make their way to campus this season—quite possibly twice:

"I know they're going to a Michigan game. I know they're going to Michigan-Michigan State game here. There are two big games at Michigan they're talking about going to (note: we assume the other is Ohio State). And I know they both love Michigan State, so I think they'll be going back there."

Crowell spent most of the article praising the job Ohio State has done recruiting those two, so the general outlook here hasn't changed; Michigan has ground to make up.

After a visit to Ohio State, four-star 2019 FL OT Michael Tarquin gave Bucknuts's Bill Kurelic a top four of sorts:

The Buckeyes aren’t alone in wanting Tarquin. The 6-foot-5 and 290-pound tackle has 17 scholarship offers including Ohio State, Florida State, Miami, Clemson, Auburn, Michigan, South Carolina, Tennessee, Michigan State, Arizona State and Texas A&M.

“Ohio State is extremely high on my list,” Tarquin said. “I’d say they are at the top with a few others. Miami, Michigan, and Clemson is also high.”

His Crystal Ball currently has three Miami picks and a Michigan State pick that, uh, probably should be flipped to someone else.

Speaking of the Crystal Ball, 247's Steve Wiltfong put in a Michigan pick for 2019 four-star MO WR Marcus Washington. Wiltfong also has a Michigan pick in for Washington's Trinity Christian teammate, top-100 2019 ATH Isaiah Williams. Both have already been to campus before.

Comments

Mr. Yost

September 15th, 2017 at 12:10 PM ^

This DT recruiting cycle is confusing as heck. You get coached by the best DL coach in the country on a P5 defense that's attacking and one of the top 10 in the country 2 years running. There's immediate playing time to be had and we're putting guys into the NFL at a higher rate than ever. We should have guys lining up to play DT for us next year.

Joined: 07/25/2011

MGoPoints: -9898220

dragonchild

September 15th, 2017 at 12:28 PM ^

I'll bet there's no shortage of 3-stars that would be ecstatic to play at Michigan, but Michigan would only take them as walk-ons.  Not that that's bad; that's how we got Ryan Glasgow.

The four- and five-stars have their choice of P5 programs.  And among them, Michigan doesn't hand out six-figure paychecks to players, requires you to play school, and isn't keen on un-recruiting high schoolers.  And that's all before very reasonable things like distance and family situations and connections and such.  And then there's always Alabama.  And playmaking DTs don't grow on trees to begin with.

So we're looking for high-upside, 290-pound (give or take) high schoolers who are clean enough to avoid the SEC cesspool, Harbaugh enough to embrace the challenge of Michigan, and (outside Michigan) don't have roots growing deep into the local soil.  I don't know if any given year there are enough kids like that to form a line.

Joined: 10/13/2011

MGoPoints: 60912

ak47

September 15th, 2017 at 1:39 PM ^

Michigan isn't losing that many players because of people being paid and academics, those are lazy easy excuses. They sometimes struggle in recruiting because of geographic factors mostly since most kids stay close to home and because the schools they are competing against have had more success during the time these kids have been alive and watching football. 2 years of success doesn't magically erase Michigan being ass from 2007-2013, i,e. when most current recruits were growing up.

Joined: 05/05/2011

MGoPoints: 33614

grumbler

September 15th, 2017 at 8:05 PM ^

Michigan isn't losing that many players because of how the team played when these kids were in middle school, that's a lazy easy excuse.  Michigan struggles in recruiting because a lot of the really good players grew up in the shadow of good programs (at least, as seen by their family, neighbors, friends, etc) and the ones willing to leave home have lots of enticing prospects (plus others that have a cashback program).  Michigan is seen as a rather cold and foreboding place in a lot of the country, and coaching, facilities, and tradition can only counter that to some extent.  These kids are looking at the future, not the past.  The uniforms, the Big House, the winning percentage, and number of wins may get them on campus, but only when they see a brighter future at Michigan than they see elsewhere will they be back to stay.

Joined: 08/17/2011

MGoPoints: 14112

rainingmaize

September 15th, 2017 at 2:34 PM ^

First off, I'm not going to fault a kid for wanting to stay close to home, which appears to be the case with McNeil and Thompson. Second, guys like Sandridge and Friday are being so heavily recruited by a multitude of schools that some kids just simply need time to sort through it anf figure out what they want. Plus, none of this is taking into account whether or not the player's personality will fit into the team culture.

Joined: 04/13/2010

MGoPoints: 10458

FatGuyTouchdown

September 15th, 2017 at 12:14 PM ^

our dear friends from Ohio, 5* Penn State Decommit, Ohio State megalean Micah Parsons has received balls to Cloudy and Nebraska(?!?) after the Oklahoma game in which he and 5* prospect Jackson Carman questioned keeping Barrett in over Haskins. Carman is also been giving strong Clemson vibes during his whole recruitment. 

High 4*/Borderline 5* recruits S Jaiden Woodbey and LB Teradja Mitchell have picked up a lot of steam to Oklahoma and Florida State post committment.

Two more top 100 players, S Josh Proctor out of Oklahoma, and QB Emory Jones out of GA, have been rumored to be less than 100% in their commitments and open to possibly staying closer to home. 

Obviously Ohio State is still recruiting like an absolute power, and I would still expect them to keep 3/4 of the guys already committed, but it just seems like bad vibes around that program right now. A big criticism of Urban Meyer's time at Florida was the longer he was there, the more the entitlement and player favoritism kicked in. Just something to keep an eye on over the next couple months leading up to the last weekend in November. 

 

Joined: 09/07/2014

MGoPoints: 14126

Squash34

September 15th, 2017 at 2:03 PM ^

I think you should have worded the last paragraph differently. Like: "Odviously OSU is crumbling, and Meyers is losing control of the program, just like he did at Florida." Sure, your comments about them them still going to recruit at a very high level is accurate, and I think they still land one of the non committed 5 stas who spoke out on Twitter. But reading comments ending with osu's eminent demise being near is far more fun for me. And I'm a bite selfish like that.

Joined: 09/13/2016

MGoPoints: 3062

lilpenny1316

September 15th, 2017 at 12:41 PM ^

TBH, if I was a HS sophomore and good enough to already get letters, I'd probably do what I could to go to UM games for free.  I don't know what the experience is like for those kids, but I would've just been happy with entrance into the stadium.  Then again, when I was a kid I used to envy the other kids clearing out all the plastic cups in the stands after the games.  Just getting in the Big House, game or not, was a thrill.

Joined: 11/19/2009

MGoPoints: 61836

Maison Bleue

September 15th, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^

Surprise! Tarquin's MSU crystal ball is from Sean Sherer. This makes me feel better about our chances and better about the chances he most definitely does not end up at MSU. He is the homerist of the homers.

Joined: 11/30/2012

MGoPoints: 23298