Hello: Carter Dunaway Comment Count

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Carter Dunaway (R) with his brother, 2015 walk-on Jack Dunaway.

Michigan picked up its first commitment of the 2017 class last week in Birmingham (MI) Brother Rice tight end Carter Dunaway, who was offered while visiting for the spring game and didn't wait long to make his decision.

It's not surprising Dunaway jumped at the chance to play for Michigan. His father, Craig, played tight end under Bo Schembechler. His brother, Jack, is a preferred walk-on defensive end in the 2015 class. With former high school teammates Alex Malzone and Grant Perry also joining the program, Dunaway had plenty of motivation to make a commitment, and he told The Wolverine's Brandon Brown he didn't see any reason to wait ($):

"Obviously when I got the offer it was a big shock," Dunaway said. "I wanted to talk about it with my family and go over everything with them. After I was able to do that, I realized that I'm going to end up at Michigan anyway. Why prolong the whole recruiting process? I wanted to get it over with right now and focus on my high school season and get my goals straight. It was just a good time for me to get that done and go down there and talk to Coach [Jim] Harbaugh.



"I actually went to his office to tell him in person. He was actually at the Tigers game before I got there but he was just hanging out, talking with a couple of coaches. I went into his office and talked to him and that's when I committed."

Dunaway plans to do some recruiting of his own, especially in-state, now that he's made his decision.

GURU RATINGS

Scout Rivals ESPN 247 247 Comp
NR TE NR TE NR TE NR TE NR TE

Dunaway isn't ranked by any of the four sites, and there are very apparent reasons for this: he played a backup role on a senior-laden Brother Rice squad last season, to the point that there isn't any sophomore film freely available on him—it'd be short, anyway, as Dunaway had one reception in 2014. It's safe to say there's a lot of projection in this offer from Jim Harbaugh's end, with Dunaway's 6'6", 230-pound frame playing a significant role.

SCOUTING

As mentioned above, Dunaway wasn't a significant part of the Brother Rice offense last season, as he was stuck behind a pair of productive senior tight ends; Michael Roney and Dylan Fortin combined for 40 catches from that spot, and with Alex Malzone's favorite wide receiver, Grant Perry, accounting for another 105 receptions, there were only so many targets to go around.

Dunaway hasn't made a significant mark on the camp circuit, either. There's only a short video of him going through drills at last May's Midwest Elite Camp...



I have no idea what to make of this.

...and him giving a self-evaluation to GBW's Josh Newkirk afterwards ($):

Only a freshman, Dunaway put his talents on display this past Saturday in the Midwest Elite Camp. The 6-foot-6, 225-pounder was impressive, as he showcased good coordination and catching ability throughout the camp.

"I think I am doing okay," Dunaway said. "I have made a couple good catches. I'm working hard out here. I am going as fast as I can in every drill. So I think I am doing pretty well."

Right now, we have a frame and a legacy. We'll know a lot more this fall, when Dunaway projects to be a major part of a Brother Rice offense replacing six of its top seven receivers.

OFFERS

Michigan was the only school to offer Dunaway before his commitment. The Wolverine reported he had interest from Boston College, Michigan State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, and some Ivy League schools. Dunaway expressed interest in exploring the Ivy League; he should be just fine academically.

HIGH SCHOOL

I probably don't need to tell you much about Brother Rice, which won three straight state titles from 2011-2013 and has a long history of success, mostly under legendary former coach Al Fracassa. A trio of 2015 freshmen—Malzone, Perry, and Jack Dunaway—all come from the program.

STATS

Dunaway had one reception for nine yards in 2014.

FAKE 40 TIME

None listed.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

I mean, your guess is as good as mine here. Dunaway has the frame to be a solid in-line tight end who can handle the physical aspect of the position from an early juncture—he's already at 230 pounds with two full years of high school remaining. There's nothing to glean from his very limited on-field resumé except he wasn't such a precocious talent that he could jump a pair of trusty seniors, one of whom (Michael Fortin) landed a scholarship from Eastern Michigan.

It's still too early to even project the depth chart at tight end for 2017. Michigan will have a redshirt senior Khalid Hill, a redshirt junior Ian Bunting, and either a true junior or redshirt sophomore Tyrone Wheatley Jr. at the position, plus any 2016 tight end recruits that they bring in—Michigan will add at least one in this cycle. Here's an early guess at a redshirt for Dunaway, with any other projection not worth making based on the lack of available evidence.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Michigan will have a 2017 class, and Carter Dunaway will be in it.

Comments

Hannibal.

April 20th, 2015 at 3:45 PM ^

In Harbaugh we trust?

But yeah, man, I don't get it either.  This is really their Plan A tight end for 2017?  A guy who hasn't played?  Kid's dad and bro ended up at Michigan along with a couple of 2015 teammates.  Seems highly likely he would end up there too if we had waited a year to see if he could produce in live games.  A guy who has never played is going to play for a position coach who has never coached.  The only justification is "trust Harbaugh". 

pappawolv

April 20th, 2015 at 4:13 PM ^

you don't understand how this works.  He isn't the #1 TE bet for the year unless the head coach says he is "the number on TE on the board" which he can't...  As you have seen already hopefully is that Harbaugh moves people around, brings in 5th year talent and more importantly, he will have TE talent behind him and in front this player.  Perhaps Harbaugh feels that with whatever projection he has for depth for this position it is worth a calculated risk. 

Yeah, trust the coach and sit back and see what happens before you eat your own young

pappawolv

April 20th, 2015 at 4:02 PM ^

with what outsiders think of this fanbase at times... Pretty sure Harbaugh's decisions are based more on very experienced "eyes" and insight into athlete's potential then your primordial requirements of 1. has to have offers already 2. must have stars. 

This offer is an outlier and I think this coach has the pedigree to be trusted. 

Unless you are actually better at all of this than Harbaugh then I stand corrected. 

HateSparty

April 20th, 2015 at 5:28 PM ^

I sure hope if this kid performs well, develops into a D-1 caliber player and represents our great university with pride, you come on here with pictures of you eating lemons and be man enough to say you were an asshat for thinking you are smarter than some of the best football minds in the biz.




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Danwillhor

April 20th, 2015 at 6:53 PM ^

this is a fair debate point & one the board has had & should continue. Was he offered so soon due to being a legacy? Likely. I'd say absolutely. Is it crazy that ANY kid with exactly ONE HS catch is getting a scholarship to Michigan? You bet your balls! That is the most insane thing for me to digest. However, outside of all of that it's not as if we're taking about a senior in HS playing TE, standing 6-1 200 & running a 5.5 40. At 16 he's already physically what Harbaugh would want in a TE stepping onto campus as a college Freshman. I'm not big into "trust the coaches" but we're talking about one if the best in the profession. We simply haven't had that since the 90s. I'm going to trust Harbaugh until he proves that he is more concerned about giving Michigan a particular image/feel over wins. If Harbaugh keeps doing this after being happy with several 7-8 win seasons, I'll be with ya. Right now? For once I'm going to trust the coaches. It's basically an NFL staff again for the first time since Bo/Moeller. It's hard to get used to remembering that.

bronxblue

April 20th, 2015 at 3:33 PM ^

Well, considering this would be Harbaugh's second full class (stupid 2016 getting in the way!), AND as noted he's only a sophomore, AND the fact he played behind two seniors on a pretty stacked HS team, AND I'm guessing you (and most people here not intimately knowledgeable about Brother Rice athletics) didn't know he existed until this commitment was made, AND maybe, just maybe, a head coach who has won in college AND the pros AND who actually watched this kid do something on a football field, I wouldn't worry too much if this seems like a weird choice to you.

Seriously, why people come on these hello posts to basically shit on HS kids they've never met and know next to nothing about continues to befuddle me.  I'm not saying every recruit is the best and that coaches don't make mistakes, but jebus people he's 6' 230 lbs and can barely grow facial hair.  Let's hold off on the questioning a bit.

Avon Barksdale

April 20th, 2015 at 3:47 PM ^

Where did the other two kids go who were in front of him? This Brother Rice you speak of and are so knowledgable about must be putting kids in the NFL like Long Beach Poly. So a simple question, where are the kids who were in front of him going? Surely, they are elite SEC caliber TE's to hold off a stud Michigan offeree who has one career reception.

GotBlueOnMyMind

April 20th, 2015 at 4:13 PM ^

No, it just means that they, as seniors, were better than him, as a sophomore. It does not say anything about how good he will be as a senior, nor how high his ceiling is compared to theirs. It is likely that they were more polished blockers and route runners than him. Having the physical tools, as Michigan fans should know after the past 4-7 years, is not sufficient to be a good football player, the technique is just as, if not more, important. The coaches probably saw a kid will great measurables (and, from meeting with him, enough drive to improve) that could be molded into a better TE than the two guys ahead of him last year. For an example from our team last year: your argument is akin to saying that just because Miller started over Kugler, Kugler will never be as good of a Center as Miller was last year. Although that may end up being the case, it is indisputable that Kugler has better physical tools and a higher ceiling than Miller, and that is what the coaches are likely looking at in offering a kid like this.  

bronxblue

April 20th, 2015 at 3:49 PM ^

But at least when the complain about current-year players, there is a veneer of knowledge behind it.  But yeah, one of teh dumbest things that happened in college recruiting was the proliferation of ranking systems that just give ammo to people complaining.

Hannibal.

April 20th, 2015 at 3:58 PM ^

People aren't shitting on HS kids.  They are shitting on the coaching staff for what they feel is questionable judgement.  It's an important distinction to make.  There's nobody here who has anything personally against this kid and who wouldn't be delighted if he was our next All American tight end.  But this commitment stretches "trust the head coach" to new extremes that I didnt know existed. 

WolvinLA2

April 20th, 2015 at 4:49 PM ^

But doesn't it seem ridiculous to you that a random message board poster who has never seen this kid in person is questioning the judgment of Jim fucking Harbaugh? Doesn't that just sound nuts to you? In general, it makes little sense to question the judgment of someone regarding a subject they know WAAAY more than you.

This is like me questioning the judgment of a world rebound heart surgeon on his choice of surgery techniques.

pescadero

April 20th, 2015 at 5:57 PM ^

I don't know whether the kid will be good or bad.

 

I do know we could have waited a while before offering him and still been basically guaranteed to get him.

 

He may be a good pick up, he may be a bad pick up - but it's a buyers market and we bought way too unnecessarily EARLY.

WolvinLA2

April 20th, 2015 at 7:07 PM ^

These kinds of comments always blow my mind.  How in the hell do you know we could have waited a while before offering him?  People said the same thing about Levert Hill whose brother plays here, then he committed to PSU.  It's very possible that since Harbaugh offered him, other schools were close as well, and if we were his 12th offer instead of his 1st, who knows if we would have gotten him?  If come June he had offers from Wisconsin, PSU and Nebraska, he probably would have visited those schools over the summer and may have committed.  Sometimes kids feel slighted when the hometown school waits to long to offer.  

Point is - if you like a kid, take him.  Why wait?  Also, we get him recruiting for Michigan at all the camps he goes to and on social media for the next couple years.  There's always value in that as well.

bronxblue

April 20th, 2015 at 8:06 PM ^

So you know for sure that if Michigan showed up with an offer a year from now, after other schools have been recruiting him for months and created relationships and shown him real interest, he'd drop them like a bad habit and go Blue because his brother is a preferred walk-on and, I don't know, he likes UM's colors?  People around here talk constantly about the fickle, unpredictable nature of HS kids, yet assume that this only applies in certain contexts.  I'd rather a coaching staff offer kids they know and want than trust in the gods that the recruit will listen to them after "better" players (of which nobody in this thread has actually listed) have passed.

That's my issue with this line of thinking, and why this BS drives me crazy.

leftrare

April 20th, 2015 at 2:56 PM ^

Aside from getting this commitment, I think the best part of this news is that the Fracassa-to-MSU pipeline seems to have gone dry and Brother Rice is now a school in play for Michigan. It's about time!  Can anybody name any player from BR to come to Michigan and have any success in the last 40 years?

Waggle

April 20th, 2015 at 4:31 PM ^

Two names come to mind (within the past 40 years). Brad Cochran 81-85, captain and 1st team All-American in 1985, and Paul Jokisch 81-85, ranked the #1 recruit in the state in 1981 playing both football and hoops during his time at Michigan.

leftrare

April 20th, 2015 at 5:05 PM ^

I knew there had to be a few.  I think the MSU pipeline from BR has been pretty well established over, ok, 30 years, similar to Cass Tech and Wilcher  for Michigan and Glenville and Ginn for OSU.  Always a few exceptions to the rule in each case, but I think the exceptions are fewest when it comes BR and the stonewalling of Michigan.

 

Oh, and Waggle, you didn't really just come to the board today did you?

Waggle

April 20th, 2015 at 5:32 PM ^

Yeah... I've been following the site for years, and finally got around to creating an account. My son will play freshman football at Rice in the fall, and Brad is my brother-in-law. FH Harrison is another school that appeared to have a pipeline tunneled to East Lansing for years. Hopefully the recent recruitment of Funchess/Ojemudia and Malzone/Perry will help to flip that trend at both Rice and Harrison.

ST3

April 20th, 2015 at 3:09 PM ^

Craig Dunaway is the guy on the left with the mustache, who is being held up by some snot-nosed kid getting Rich Strenger's autograph.

Craig Dunaway

April 20th, 2015 at 11:44 PM ^

It's been quite an experience reading these comments. 

I thank those who've shared kind and welcoming words (YoOoBoLloBaugh, True Blue Grit, The Mad Hatter, et al.). And I appreciate those who acknowledge he still has two more years of high school to show more tangible merits (True Blue Grit, bronxblue). 

I also like the comments from HateSparty. (Or maybe I just like typing HateSparty. HateSparty.)

I understand those who doubt and question an offer to unproven talent (Danwillhor, The J Davis 1, pescadero). I realize you only have the best interests of the program in mind. 

To those who attribute Carter's offer to his legacy status (HarBooYa, Big Mike), I hope you realize that's just not the case. If that's all it took, brother Jack wouldn't be dipping into his 529 plan, as WolvinLA2 also points out.

And to those concerned about the dearth of offers, please understand if Carter didn't love Michigan so much, he would've looked around and collected who knows how many others. Instead, he's avoiding the strain of the recruiting process, staying close to home and going to school with his brother.

The truth is there aren't a whole lot of 6'6-1/2" 233# 16-year-old kids who can run and catch out there. And that happens to be exactly the type of kid Jim and Jay Harbaugh want playing TE. 
 
Sure, Carter's lucky he's so big. He knows that. One of the first things he said after getting the offer is that it didn't seem fair he would be offered and his brother wouldn't, even after all Jack has accomplished. 
 
He's lucky to have camped at Michigan, and had so much exposure to the program while his brother was being recruited. But he also knows that means he's got to work harder now than ever before. He's got a target on his back that opponents and even Michigan fans will see every time he takes the field. It will only make him better.
 
If you haven't met Carter or seen him play, I hope you get that chance soon. If not in the next 2 years, then in 2017 or 18, or whenever he gets to enjoy the privilege of playing for the greatest team in college football.
 
Go Blue Forever
 
 
P.S. ST3 - That's Doug James, who would later captain the '84 team (Team #105) next to Rich Strenger.

ST3

April 21st, 2015 at 11:40 AM ^

I recognized Strenger and then started looking for that mustache in the 1982 team photo. It had to be either you or James.

http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/fbteam/1982fbt.htm

I got a summer job through connections my dad had. There were some initial comments about me getting the job because of ST2, but the way I figured it, I was a straight-A student, so they were lucky to have me. But it was still up to me to prove the doubters wrong. Carter will be in a similar situation. He'll be motivated to prove the doubters wrong, and that will only make him a better player. I hope you stick around the board and post more often. I'd love to hear some stories about Tom Garrity and Jerry Burgei (a couple other guys in the front row of that photo.) They look about as unathletic as me, but they were starters and big contributors to that team. Burgei looks like he's about 12 years old in that photo.

 

BlueCube

April 21st, 2015 at 3:53 PM ^

It couldn't have been easy reading some of these comments. I avoided this thread because I thought people  were being unreasonably harsh. I hope Carter does use this as insentive and that he realizes that the comments aren't directed at him but are as a result of a love of Michigan and wanting to bring winning back to the program.

I look forward to seeing him in the future and thank you for your contributions in the past. I enjoyed watching you play.

Thank you for being here and responding with such dignity.

HarBooYa

April 22nd, 2015 at 3:27 PM ^

...on both of your sons.



To be clear, I totally recognize our coaches see something in your son to justify giving him a scholarship and, in my opinion, your son is absolutely NOT an "undeserving" legacy commit nor is your son's commitment a bad thing. Apologies if I was too heavy handed in my earlier posts. Thank you for putting that "extra something" the coaches see in this kid and for the grace and thoughtfulness of your response. If he handles college anything like you've handled yourself here, I am sure all of us other dads and sons will enjoy cheering Carter on as he finishes out his HS career, when he joins the university and he beats the living snot out of Sparty on the field. I am sure the tests of the upcoming seasons will show the larger world what the coaches and you see everyday. Good luck and thanks for holding posters like me accountable.

bronxblue

April 20th, 2015 at 3:38 PM ^

A decent pickup.  It's years away, but those physical dimensions alone show he could play the position.  Obviously limited stats to go by, but I assume the coaches say stuff in person/via their sources to make them believers.

RobSk

April 20th, 2015 at 5:02 PM ^

that you can assert that you KNOW this guy is a football nothing.

I mean, could he end up not being a valuable player for Michigan? Sure. But to be so confident that your judgement on such a difficult question is superior to a coach as accomplished as Jim Harbaugh is really bizarre.

         Rob