Friday Recruitin' Says Thanks But No Thanks

Today's recruiting roundup takes a look at who is—and just as importantly, who isn't—going to be on campus this weekend. Also discusses: new offers in both the '13 and '14 classes, expected future visitors, and a couple of TEs coming off the board.

Seatbelt: Fastened

All week, there have been strong indications from wide-ranging sources that this weekend would bring in at least one commit for the Wolverines, and the picture is beginning to clear up a bit. First, let's go over the weekend visitors:

• Joliet (IL) Catholic RB Ty Isaac—offered, top RB on the board.
• Massillon (OH) Washington CB Gareon Conley—offered, Michigan leads, and though he denies being ready to commit, rumors are still flying ($, info in header).
• Damascus (MD) WR Zach Bradshaw—offered.
• New Lenox (IL) Lincoln-Way West OL Colin McGovern—offered, but aware Michigan is full at O-line. Is visiting anyway, because this is Michigan, fergodsakes.
• Washington (DC) Gonzaga CB Devin Butler—offered, told GBW he "wouldn't be afraid to pull the trigger early," if he's comfortable with a particular school ($). [EDIT: Butler is visiting later this month, not this weekend. My bad, y'all.]
• Cincinnati (OH) LaSalle CB Jaleel Hytchye—not offered, though that reportedly will be discussed when he's on campus; if he gets one, he says Michigan will shoot to the top of his list ($).
• Novi (MI) Detroit Catholic Central DE Dylan Roney (2014)—sophomore teammate of Matt Godin and Wyatt Shallman. Will be interesting to see if he gets an offer this early in the process.

That's quite an interesting group, especially at cornerback, and the intrigue deepens with Isaac when paired with the knowledge that (1) Shane Morris will be on campus, undoubtedly putting on the full-court press, and (2) Warren (OH) Howland RB DeVeon Smith is visiting on March 17th, and there have been multiple indications that he's strongly considering a commitment. We'll see if that latter bit of news affects Isaac's timetable—there is no timetable—and if Smith commits, whether the coaches would be comfortable potentially taking both players. With Wyatt Shallman's ability to play DE, I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

Perhaps bigger news than the list of who's on the visitor list is who's not on the visitor list. The coaches seem very confident that Ben Gedeon will be blue in the near future, as they turned away four-star linebackers Alex Anzalone and Shane Jones, both of whom were planning weekend visits before being told the position group is full. Gedeon visited last weekend and is mulling over his decision. He may not be mulling for much longer. (Note, to head off the inevitable question: I don't believe this changes the situation with E.J. Levenberry at all. The coaches have maintained they'll take two linebackers and reserve an extra spot for him as one of the top overall prospects on the board.)

One player deciding this weekend who probably won't be choosing Michigan is Rancho Cucamonga (CA) CB Chris Hawkins, who hasn't visited Ann Arbor and will decide on Saturday between the Wolverines, Stanford (the prohibitive favorite), Cal, UCLA, Oklahoma and Notre Dame ($).

Offers, Future Visits, Etc.

Michigan put out a few offers recently, including one to the massive son of a former NFL offensive lineman:

• Mesquite (TX) West Mesquite four-star WR Eldridge Massington received offers from Michigan and Notre Dame this past week ($, info in header). He had planned on making a spring decision, but he now wants to visit Ann Arbor and is pushing back his timetable to accomodate that. Interest is high.
• 2014 Detroit Loyola DE Malik McDowell added the Wolverines to his offer list—now at two, along with Syracuse. McDowell is already 6'5", 260 pounds as a sophomore and came away with top honors from the recent Elite Big Man Camp.
• 2014 Suwanee (GA) Peachtree Ridge OL Orlando "Zeus" Brown, son of the late NFL offensive lineman Orlando Brown, picked up a Michigan offer on Tuesday. He is, in a word, titanic: Rivals's Keith Neibuhr said he's 6'10", 360 lbs., while Scout weighed in with the utterly conservative figures of 6'7", 340. Brown already holds nine offers, including Alabama, Auburn, Notre Dame, and USC.

Sam Webb's latest at the Detroit News is on Murrieta (CA) Vista Murrieta five-star LB/S/RB Su'a Cravens, who reiterated that he will take one of his official visits to Michigan. He also gave an idea about his current timetable:

"I'm going to take my time," he continued. "I don't know if I'm going to do the hat thing like most guys do in those February games, but I know I'm going to commit my senior year. I'm not going to commit too early so I don't have second thoughts about where I want to go. I'm a man of my word, so once I commit somewhere I'm going to stick to it. Before I do, I'm going to be sure of it, so it'll probably be my senior year."

Distance, he says, will not be a factor, which is obviously good news for Michigan fans. Cravens's cousin, Upland (CA) four-star DE Joe Mathis, told Tremendous that he'll also take an official to Ann Arbor, and he'll take it at the same time as Cravens. Talented family, that.

Other players interested in visiting: Vienna (GA) Dooly County five-star DT Montravius Adams, one of the top overall prospects in the country ($, info in header). Akron (OH) Firestone WR Kevin Gladney, who's looking to visit in April and told ESPN that Michigan holds a slight edge in his recruitment ($, info in header). Richmond (VA) Hermitage RB Derrick Green wants to visit Ann Arbor on the 18th of this month ($); we'll see if those plans change depending on what happens with Isaac and Smith, since Green is planning a signing day decision. Ft. Lauderdale (FL) St. Thomas Aquinas DE Joey Bosa, one of the top DEs in the country, told 11W's Alex Gleitman that he's looking to visit Michigan this spring.

Happy trails to a pair of tight ends in Jacob Matuska, who committed to Notre Dame as a DE, and Durham Smythe, who pledged to his home-state Texas Longhorns. Top-ranked TE Adam Brenemen makes his decision tonight and seems almost certain to head to Penn State, so you can mentally remove him from the board, as well. Assuming (safely) that Breneman goes elsewhere, Michigan has just two offers out to uncommitted TEs in New Orleans (LA) Edna Carr's Standish Dobard and Pittsburgh (PA) Seton La Salle's Scott Orndoff. Dobard seems like a long-shot to pull out of SEC country, but Orndoff has expressed strong interest.

Quickly: TTB runs down the new Scout 300 for 2013. Chantel Jennings goes over Michigan's D-line options ($). The DetNews tracks down an "NCAA expert" to tell us what we already knew: the Roundtree/Demens/McCray Twitter thing is a non-issue—I honestly only linked because of the picture.