Hello: Terry Richardson Comment Count

Tim

Though it seemed for a long time like Michigan would not acheeve dream of landing the top in-state trio of LBs Royce Jenkins-Stone and James Ross and CB Terry Richardson, fear not: Richardson sealed the deal today, completing the triumvirate.

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GURU RATINGS

Scout Rivals ESPN 24/7 Sports
4*

#10 CB
4*, 5.8

NR CB, #195 Ovr
NR CB, 150 Watchlist 4*, 97,

#3 CB, #31 Ovr

There is a machine hidden somewhere deep in Detroit that pumps out 5-9, 160-pound cornerbacks, and sends them to Cass Technical High School. Terry Richardson is the latest model, following Boubacar Cissoko, Dior Mathis, and Delonte Hollowell.

Richardson was a 2-seed in Sam Webb's March Madness recruiting column for the Detroit News. Allen Trieu on Terry's game:

The question with him is the size. He stands 5-9, 162 pounds, but he is an excellent football player with great instincts and excellent ball skills. His extensive offer list is proof that many of the top programs in the country have seen enough to say, 'We can overlook the lack of size.'

For the record, Michigan has commitments from 1-seeds James Ross and Royce Jenkins-Stone, 2-seed Devin Funchess, and 3-seeds Matt Godin and Mario Ojemudia, and is in good position with a couple other prospects. Michigan State has commitments from... none of the top 16. The report on Richardson is almost the exact same as the three DBs before him: excellent skills, except he's really short (he was a combine-verified 5-8 in 2009, but that's 3 years before he enters college, too). Trieu says he has the best ball skills of the Cass Tech lineage. Sam also profiled him in the fall:

"He's a natural at corner," said Scout.com Midwest regional manager Allen Trieu. "He has tremendous instincts to go along with the quickness and hips to turn and run with receivers. He also has great ball skills. His main weakness is size. I'd like to see him add weight this offseason but his tackling this season has been solid despite that."

Terry's been putting on weight, as he claims he was only 130 pounds(!) as a sophomore:

"I believe last year I was around 130, and right now I am at 165," Richardson reported. "I feel way stronger. My press coverage is looking a lot better. That is something that I just cannot wait to work on this summer during camp season — being more physical in press coverage."

Moving along, Terry talks about himself on his Scout profile:

“I’m a big play guy. When we need a big play, I’ll come through and make it happen. I’m also smart and I can read routes and know what the offense is doing. I’m also always very composed and don’t get rattled. I want to be more explosive and get in and out of my breaks faster. I’m working on being more physically fit and getting stronger.”

Playing intelligently and building strength are HUGE needs for short DBs. Terry is a certified short guy. The only question about Terry is whether he can do those other things well enough to counter sub-optimal height.

It's relevant because all Cass Tech DBs are the same, so check out Brian's Delonte Hollowell profile for the general vibe on Terry, as well. Aside from the differences noted above, Terry is also a liiiittle bit taller than Delonte, and listed quite a bit faster.

OFFERS

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Allen gave a little love to his offer list above, and here is a small sampling of schools who aren't too worried about Terry's height to offer: Alabama, Iowa, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, and USC. All of those schools have put guys into the league at the position in the past couple years.

Other offers include Arizona State, Cincinnati, Indiana, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Toledo, and UCLA. This is not some under-the-radar prospect. He had interest from Florida, Miami, Oregon, and Tennessee, and if those schools had extended offers, this would be as exciting a prospect as there is in this class.

STATS

The Scout profile provideth:

Terry Richardson finished his junior season with 35 tackles and 12 interceptions on defense. Offensively, he caught 12 receptions for around 400 yards and five touchdowns.

Richardson had four interceptions, 16 breakups and 20 tackles as a sophomore.

Not bad. Cass Tech ran a spread offense of sorts (though Royce Jenkins-Stone got his share of carries at fullback), and Terry got a few receptions on that side of the ball. Defensively, the Technicians don't play a lot of teams that throw the ball much, and I wouldn't be surprised if those stats are a little... exaggerated.

FAKE 40 TIME

Scout says 4.5, but none of the other sites have listed 40 times. Considering his Scout profile also lists a combine-verified 4.64 (actually not bad with laser timing), I'll have to give two FAKEs out of five.

VIDEO

Youtube highlights:

You can also catch a couple glimpses of #9 in last year's Cass Tech FNL feature, where he impressed me a bit more than 2011 Michigan commit Delonte Hollowell.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Terry seems like a great corner, but on the other hand, Michigan has plenty of talent in the pipeline. Courtney Avery will be but a junior in 2012, and Blake Countess's class (also including Greg Brown, Tamani Carter, and Raymon Taylor) will just be sophomores or redshirt freshmen. Considering Terry is just a skinny little guy, a redshirt year is probably in order.

Following such a redshirt year, special teams time as a redshirt freshman is the expectation, before the graduation of Courtney Avery and Terrence Talbott opens up a starting spot, for which he'll compete alongside whichever younger guy doesn't take the Woolfolk/Floyd starting spot in 2012.

I would guess Terry has a good chance at that spot, assuming natural development, or he at least gets a chance in nickel packages (though it seems Mattison's current plan is to play a bigger safety type in the nickel). By the time he's an upperclassman, Terry should be getting plenty of time in the rotation, and be a possible all-conference type in his final two years.

Though his size may limit him in the NFL Draft down the road (assuming he's not done growing - don't forget he won't even be in college for another 18 months), he still has enough other skills to be selected after the first round.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

I am shaking in my shoes trying to figure out what other defensive back is going to commit within the next couple days, because I sure don't have the "comes in pairs" post ready to go for another guy (although Shane Morris and Matt Godin started to break up the position-by-position lockstep).

You know the story by now - DT, RB, OL, and WR are the remaining needs. A QB would be very nice, but is no longer imperative, and the remaining slots can go to the best prospects, regardless of position

Comments

detrocks

May 19th, 2011 at 9:29 AM ^

Welcome to Michigan!   Awesome to see Terry go Blue.    Can't wait to see how this class ends up given the way that we've started.

RedfordUofMfan

May 19th, 2011 at 9:37 AM ^

My brothers officiated one of his games and came away extremely impressed with Richardson.  The opposing team refused to throw to Hallowell's side, so Richardson feasted, having two interceptions.  The kid's got swagger as well.  He almost had his third Int. on the opposing team's sideline.  Richardson looked at the coaching staff and boasted, "Oh, man.  I almost had me a pick 6!"

I also had the pleasure of officiating a Harrison game this year.  I vividly remember talking with my crew during halftime, and many of the guys were asking who this Funcess was.  He had two very impressive touchdowns.

Hoke is really starting to impress me.

ish

May 19th, 2011 at 9:44 AM ^

this kid will lead the B1G in interceptions one year.  you can see from his film that from his sophomore year to his junior year, he went from being able to be close enough to breakup/prevent a WR from making the catch to just plain getting there before the WR.

michgoblue

May 19th, 2011 at 10:23 AM ^

Hoke really is a monster recruiter.  He and his staff are single-handedly relegating MSU to CMU status by taking up literally EVERY SINGLE good recruit in the state. 

This is the most optimistic I have been about the future of Michigan football since 2006.

myblueheaven

May 19th, 2011 at 11:01 AM ^

great pickup Congrats to you T Rich, we know you will make everyone proud. Great job recruiting the state of Michigan and Ohio by Coach Hoke and co the country is definitely taking notice. What recruiting war? we're dominating that junior college in east Lansing and with the Shane Morris commit it looks like its going to be a long 2013 for them, full of Smiles and Cries!!!

WolvinLA2

May 19th, 2011 at 11:11 AM ^

Last year, according to Rivals, the #10 class was ND, and they had a class of 23 with 2 5 stars and 8 4 stars - just as a point of reference.  Since it's unlikely we have a class bigger than that, we'll likely need 10 4+ star players to have a top 10 class.  Right now we have 5, according to Rivals. 

If we add 2 4 star OL, a 4 star WR, a 4 star CB/S, and another 4 star DL, we're almost there.  Adding a 5 star like Kiel or Dunn would go a very long way though.

MilkSteak

May 19th, 2011 at 2:35 PM ^

It was awesome and a lot of fun to begin with, then people started throwing bottles, and Syd left the stage. Hodgy got into a fight with a fan (skip to 1:50 to see it), and the show was over. They said there were still 4 or 5 songs left on the setlist, but with the bottles being tossed they just called it a night.

Sweatshirt was not there, but he did speak out that day through the New Yorker I believe. It's behind a paywall, but this article sums it up nicely.

I did escape with my life, but I did sustain a knee to the nose due to crowd surfers and bled a little bit, but what's an Odd Future concert without a little blood right?

 

 

Bodogblog

May 19th, 2011 at 11:12 AM ^

Great news on this commitment.  Lock those receivers down so your boys pick up sacks, then let them pressure the QB as you nab picks.  It's a Team thing

WolvinLA2

May 19th, 2011 at 11:44 AM ^

No doubt those two affect each other big time.  If we can build a front 7 who can stop the run, and DBs who can lock down receivers, we'll be an amazing defense.  It sounds like the DEs we're bringing in should give a good pass rush too - this could be an incredible defense in a couple years.

Now go Borges - you'll have the ball a lot, makes big things happen.

Bodogblog

May 19th, 2011 at 2:15 PM ^

the year for stopping the run, though probably not the pass.  Looks like GMAT will put 19 guys on the LOS to stop the run, even if it means leaving the CB's alone.  Avery and (pls,pls,pls) Woolfolk should make plays against weaker teams.  Have to expect mistakes from Carvin, and grit from Kovacs.

Downgrade run D if: Cam Gordon doesn't learn SLB quickly enough, we're on E at WLB, and BWC can't get more consistent.

Upgrade pass D if: Woolfolk can turn on that ankle, Kovacs improves to something better than grit (or is replaced by MROB), and Roh can finally get his pass rush home.

snowcrash

May 19th, 2011 at 11:15 AM ^

No prospect is a sure thing, but methinks at least the 2014 season will see Richardson and Countess locking fools down. Another nice pickup for Hoke and Mattison.

MikeUM85

May 19th, 2011 at 11:44 AM ^

"...Michigan has plenty of talent in the pipeline"

 

I had to stop and read that a few times.  Then I read it again.  There was a time, no, an era, when we would not only have thought nothing of those words, but would have littered our measley blog posts with outrage and doom if it were ever not the case.  But this has not been true for quite some time now.  To read this suggests the possibility that order is being restored.

Welcome, Terry.  

Thank you, Brady Brunch.

Wolverine 4 Life

May 19th, 2011 at 11:55 AM ^

T-Rich! Never imagined this kind of start for a first year head coach.. They are doing an awesome job of keeping the local kids in maize and blue.. I wouldnt mind seeing jarrod wilson pull the trigger in the days to come.. gotta love rubbing sparty's face in the dirt thus far in recruiting GO BLUE

JJB2

May 19th, 2011 at 12:09 PM ^

this was on a state board:

From what I've read scum is using fire sale tactics to get kids to sign. They've been saying "sign today or your offer will be gone if anyone else signs up". Kids fall for that crap.

** Coach isn't telling them that, they can figure that out themselves.

 

They're also all over the "Cass Tech is overrated" theme as well.  Wait until these kids get a couple years under Coach Mattison.

They are also mocking our new offense, based solely on the spring game, which of course was not stellar, but it's only spring.