Maurice Linguist: popular in Tennessee. The first of two four-star Tennessee DBs to drop today was Taylor Groves. Let's play the feud!

GURU RANKINGS

ESPN has not evaluated Groves yet; the two sites that have are looking at a relatively big divide. 24/7 thinks he's a safety inside the top 200; Rivals has him a fringe four-star WR.

[After THE JUMP: scouting, video, and no otters]

SCOUTING

Groves is a long, rangy WR/free safety sort who most schools were recruiting for offense. Ed Orgeron's take, as relayed through Groves:

"He told me I'm a deep ball threat, I'm a big receiver, long, athletic and I can go get it … We're going to stay in contact and I'm going to try and get the receivers coach on the phone as well and build that relationship with him." …

"I've become a better route runner over this past offseason and one thing I've really tried to put a focus on," Groves said. "I want to be able to run every route on the tree so I'll do different cone drills, work on being more flexible with my hips through a bunch of different exercises." 

Per Rivals's Chad Simmons only three of his offers were on D but he's clearly got some appeal there:

… big athlete with long arms, great instincts, and his ball skills consistency jump up when breaking his tape down. … great size, he is an athlete, he is going to add more weight and muscle to his frame, and he is a commitment Michigan fans should be excited about.

And those teams recruiting him at safety include all the heaviest hitters:

"[Coaches] think my best path to the NFL is at defensive back because of my ballhawking skills, length and the way I tackle. Most of the colleges are looking at me at receiver though."

There are handful of schools that like him at defensive back.

"LSU wants me at free safety. Clemson sees me as a safety, but they haven't offered me yet. Ohio State and Alabama like me at defensive back as well."

LSU apparently changed its mind about offense.

His 7-on-7 (I think?) coach:

“…so versatile, he’s so long and fast, he has an extra gear, he has a lot of length a lot of people don’t have. His ceiling is very high and I think he can be an elite free safety because he has that gear to cover so much ground and has those long arms. Great ball skills with him being an offensive guy that also plays receiver. Will be a very easy transition to the defensive side with his ball skills.”

Wiltfong praises his "quick twitch, leaping ability and ball skills." He was also a very good basketball player, averaging 21 points per game as a sophomore—he didn't play this year due to an injury.

OFFERS

Groves picked up a suite of early offers last July, including LSU, VT, Tennessee, Ole Miss, A&M, and Arkansas. Notre Dame and Michigan followed up in late January. Depending on who you listen to, Ole Miss and Notre Dame thought they had the inside track before Mo Linguist fired up the sincerity machine.

HIGH SCHOOL

Groves is the first player from his high school to land at a D-1 school in the Rivals database. An article from the Robertson County Connection describes Cross Plains as a place with "less than 2,000 residents, a handful of stoplights and two mom-and-pop restaurants."

STATS

As a sophomore Groves had 49 catches for 739 yards; on defense he put up 57 tackles and seven interceptions. His team got in a full season this year, but Groves got hurt. In five games he had 694 all-purpose yards, 55 tackles, and two interceptions.

FAKE 40 TIME

Groves doesn't have a combine 40 on record, which allows for some truly eyepopping fake 40s. He claimed a 4.38 in an article from an LSU site, which gets 4/5 fakes. One of his trainers told Steve Wiltfong that he "runs low 4.4, mid 4.4s on a bad day"

VIDEO

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

We haven't see what Michigan wants to do with their safeties in the new regime yet so it's hard to project his fit. I am just a guy on the internet but his film above really looks like a big, rangy high-point maven of a receiver. He's got these big loping strides and is clearly downshifting so that his noodle-armed QB can get him the ball, and then he takes to the skies when the ball arrives.

This is almost exactly like Brad Hawkins, who turned in a post-grad year full of spectacular leaping catches before getting shipped to safety; Groves is longer and skinnier than the relatively compact Hawkins. Pending some real 40 numbers, he may be significantly faster.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Michigan will continue to chase defensive backs in quantity; this won't have any effect on Michigan's pursuit of in-state five-star Will Johnson. More important going forward is the way this recruitment developed. Michigan was not on the radar until a week ago, and then it was game over thanks to Mo Linguist:

“Coach Mo called and had one of the realest conversations I’ve ever had and then he offered me,” Groves told The Michigan Insider. “It was just really amazing. (He told me) that he can help me reach every goal that I want, including school, and how he loves every aspect of my game and wants to make me a Wolverine.

"I’ve only talked to him that one phone call, but I can already tell that he really cares and a coach that will do everything he can to make me the best man and football player I can be."

Linguist just yoinked a couple of four-star kids out of a recruiting ground Michigan has not done a ton in, historically, and closed on them in record time despite a near-total lack of existing connections to Michigan. (2021 LB recruit Junior Colson is about it.) If the new theory of Michigan football is recruiting first, second, and third this is an early indicator there will be payoff from it.