Hello: Justice Hayes?! Comment Count

Brian

justice-hayes-nd

not so much

So this is a deeply bizarre thing: The Wolverine is reporting that Grand Blanc RB Justice Hayes has seen the snake oil and committed to Michigan just a couple days after dropping his ND commit.

I'm all UFRing this Wisconsin debacle and Tim is away from the computer tonight so the full "Hello: Recruit" post will have to wait for tomorrow morning but in brief, Hayes is a highly-touted RB in the same mold as Demetrius Hart, the #84 overall player to Rivals and #3 "all purpose back"—Hart is #1. ESPN has him a 4-star 79 and #22 running back. Scout has him a 4-star, the #14 running back and #118 overall player.

Literally everyone reading this post is thinking "can he play corner?" He's 5'10", so hypothetically, but everyone ranks him as a tailback and ESPN's evaluation doesn't mention defense at all, so even if he ends up switching it will be after a while. Hopefully by that point the secondary won't be Kosovo in pads.

Michigan was looking for a second RB in this class but people thought it would be Thomas Rawls, not Hayes. Michigan appears to have picked up a duplicate of a player they've already got but both guys are widely praised for their receiving talents and could bounce back and forth—this commit likely ends any thought Michigan will pick up a slot in this class.

More tomorrow from Tim.

Comments

Jivas

November 23rd, 2010 at 12:05 AM ^

I see this affecting 2012 more than 2011.  With Vincent Smith as a Sophomore right now and Fitz Toussaint and Stephen Hopkins as freshmen, if these two kids come in next year then we have the luxury of taking either 0 or 1 RB next year and focusing our 2012 scholarships on other positions.

Very exciting news.  Welcome aboard, Justice.

vaneasy2338

November 23rd, 2010 at 12:36 AM ^

but that just might be because Tony Jones was killing our secondary and I played safety so Hayes really wasn't on my mind. The kid seems very shifty. I think the TFL I had on him was the only time I encountered him in open space so its hard to say. He had one extremely nice cutback td run late in the game. Showed very good vision on that. Our cornerback wasn't really in that bad of a spot, but Hayes made him look bad.

mgoblue0970

November 23rd, 2010 at 12:56 AM ^

Substitue Evil for sweater vest; Lord for Michigan and you have Proverbs 28:5.

That's my bit of blasphemy for the day. 

Hopefully God is a MIchigan Man and has a sense of humor.

WolvinLA2

November 23rd, 2010 at 12:22 AM ^

Attention amazing Offensive Linemen:  Don't you want to play for a team with amazing ball carriers running behind you making you look good??  Don't you want to say that you played on the best offense in the country in college? 

Then Michigan is the place for you!  Come one, come all!

mgoblue0970

November 23rd, 2010 at 12:51 AM ^

This is great news.  Michigan should *always* get the in-state talent in addition to forays into Florida, Texas, and Ohio.  Are you listening Ronald Johnson?  Probably not.  But you get my point.

When you cannot keep your own talent, you end up like Rutgers or Penn State a couple of years ago.

TNWolverine

November 23rd, 2010 at 1:02 AM ^

WOW! This is great.  Hopefully no douche bags get on here and say, "when is RR going to recruit defensive players?"  shut that shit up already, he knows he needs depth and he is and will recruit defensive players. 

BlueinLansing

November 23rd, 2010 at 2:09 AM ^

owns the state in recruiting, this is great news.  Somehow we've been able to scrape up the leftovers and get #4, #5, #6, #9 and #11, with #3 still in the mix

 

MSU has loaded up with #1, #10, #12, #13, they've just been kicking our tails in this state.

/sarcasm

vegasjeff

November 23rd, 2010 at 6:47 AM ^

Adding Hayes to an already stacked RB group is a huge plus. With a great group of young QBs and WRs and improving OL depth, the offense looks awesome for the next few years.

Bringing in more than one quality player at a position is helpful as more than just a way to protect against injuries (or transfers, academic ineligibility, etc). It also ramps up competition, producing better starters and it also helps scout teams better test the starters.

Excellent addition.

Welcome, Justice!