Lawrence Marshall, Troll of the Year Candidate

Michigan's latest commit, Southfield DE Lawrence Marshall, was presumably headed to East Lansing before pledging to Michigan last weekend, according to virtually everyone who followed his recruitment. Another example of Brady Hoke's remarkable ability to change recruits' minds during their visits, right? Oh, no, it's much better than that, per Sam Webb ($) [emphasis mine]:

“I was thinking about committing (to Michigan) for like a month now, so I knew where I was about to go for a whole month,” Marshall said sheepishly.  “I just didn’t want nobody to know where I wanted to go.  I went up (to Ann Arbor today for a visit) and it was the perfect timing to commit.  I think I caught them by surprise. I don’t think they really knew that I was going to commit there today.”

Wait for it...

Now twist the knife ($):

One phrase Marshall has already been saying is that the "best players in Michigan go to Michigan". With that, attention now turns towards his strong-side counterpart and Detroit native Malik McDowell.

"I'd say Malik is that last part of the puzzle," he said. "Michigan is where the best players in the state want to play and he's the last one left. We'll be turning our attention on him and will try to get him to come on board with us because we're building something special here."

According to 247's composite rankings, Michigan has two of the top four in-state players in Marshall and (oh, hey) Drake Harris, with their sights firmly set on top-ranked Malik McDowell. The Wolverines also have the #9 player in Moe Ways. Michigan State has just the #6 and #7 players (Deon Drake and Byron Bullough) and no other commits among the state's top 25 prospects.

For comparison, Western Michigan now has the #5 and #8 prospects (Chase Stewart and Chukwuma Okorafor), along with 13th-ranked Jordan Van Dort. Only two uncommitted prospects remain among the state's top 13 players—McDowell and his high school teammate, OL Ka'John Armstrong, who's visited MSU several times but has yet to receive an FBS offer.

Where's the threat?

[Do I have to keep writing? I mean, that's the perfect place to stop. Okay, if you insist, hit THE JUMP for Chase Winovich's visit reaction, Jabrill Peppers running pretty fast, a look at the enormous foreign exchange student offered by Michigan, and more.]

Recruiting Visits With Taylor Lewan Are Very Taylor Lewan

PA LB Chase Winovich is Michigan's top target to fill the need at strongside linebacker, and with his recruitment winding down it appears this will be a classic Wolverine/Buckeye battle. Winovich made his last planned visit to either school (he visits Pitt next weekend, but they aren't thought to be serious contenders) over the weekend in Ann Arbor, and per Steve Lorenz he got quite the campus tour ($):

"We went up to Michigan on Friday," he said. "I got to meet Jake Ryan right away. I was sitting around with him and the coaches and we were just talking. Then all of a sudden Taylor Lewan came in and Zach (Chase's guest) and I went to Chipotle with the two of them and rode on the back of their scooters. They're really good guys and are awesome."

Winovich says a decision could come "could happen anytime" once he's done with his Pitt visit and that his third visit to Ann Arbor "definitely helped Michigan's case for me." While there's still a good chance he ends up at Ohio State, the Wolverines have made a strong late push. Winovich has talked up the importance of getting to know the players and fellow recruits at each school—on this visit, he also went golfing with Michael Ferns and Wilton Speight. If that's the ultimate determining factor in his decision, Michigan has done all they can, and it could very well be enough.

Importing Only The Finest In Small-Children Destroyers

Michigan's latest offer for the 2015 class went out to 6'5", 275-pound defensive tackle Hjalte Froholdt, a Danish foreign exchange student who's played one year at Warren (OH) Harding. The M Block has much more on Froholdt, who explained how to pronounce his name and discussed his uncertain and rather complicated timeline:

Being a sophomore currently, he's pretty sure he'll be in the United States next year for his junior year but he explained to me that the Danish school system is completely different from the American concept we are used to, so after next year the situation could get a little complicated.  He plans to live it out like this, he will finish his 10th grade year here, stay for his 11th grade year, and then return to Denmark for one final year of education before returning to the United States to attend college and play football.  I would assume there is a possibility it doesn't happen like that, but he assured me he will be going to college and playing football in the United States.

Not surprisingly given the above, Froholdt doesn't know when he'll make a decision, though he did say Michigan is his current leader—he also holds offers from Arkansas, Cincinnati, and Louisville.

Froholdt is making the transition to 11-on-11 American football after playing an odd form of 7-on-7 in his native Denmark. Video of 14-year-old giant Dane dominating a bunch of tiny Danes? Check.

MGoGChat:

Brian:  is he playing pop warner
me:  not entirely sure. but it's 14-year-old kids playing football in denmark, so the competition is probably... not so good.
that video is also two years old.
Brian:  i think he just likes sitting on six year olds
me:  that's such a weird league. 7-on-7 football with 3 linemen.
Brian:  i think that's eight man
like they do in iowa and such
me:  froholdt's high school coach said it was 7 in tim's article, but he may have been mistaken.
though looking at the film, I think it is 7.
Brian:  well ok then
me:  so he's destroying six-year-olds who have way too much space to cover.
Brian:  he just likes sitting on people
me:  yeah
Brian:  not that there's anything wrong with that
me:  not at all.
Brian:  all of his furniture is probably human shaped
me:  or was, at least.
Brian:  are you putting this in the recruiting roundup

Office IM conversations: where strange memes are born and punctuation is entirely optional.

Jabrill Peppers: Fast

Very, very fast:

Jabrill Peppers of Paramus Catholic blasted a state record 20.79, No. 5 in the state nation this season, to win the 200-meter dash in the United Division of the Big North Championships on Friday at River Dell.

Wait never mind you're slow get outta here:

"There was a shadow/body cast across the image that made it look like the runner was further in front than he was,'' said Lou Fraulo, the head of Fraulo Race Timing, who was working at another meet on Friday.

...

Fraulo said Peppers' time is 21.37.

"That stands as official,'' said Fraulo.

This all means that Danny Johnson of Rahway is still the state record holder in the 200 with the 20.93 he ran to win the Meet of Champions in 2001.

DON'T WANT ANYMORE. MASSIVE DISAPPOINTMENT. THIS IS ALL LIES. NOT A TRUE WINNER.

Da'Shawn Hand Headline Status: High School Prom

Take it away, 247's Keith Neibuhr ($):

Hand 'all over the place'

Well that's highly inappropri--

Of the top five, who stands out?

"I'm all over the place," Hand said.

Regarding a timeframe for making a decision, apparently there isn't one.

"When it happens, it happens," Hand said.

Oh. My bad.

Anyway, Hand says that despite a solid trip to Auburn recently, he's "not really putting them in the hunt or anything," so we're still dealing with a Michigan-VT-Alabama battle, most likely. He also said that Michigan's commits are recruiting him "harder" than those from any other school. Right now he doesn't have a timeline, won't name a leader, and has no set visits (though he plans to take a trip to Florida), so his recruitment could go in any number of directions from here, with Michigan almost assuredly in the thick of things.

Etc.

Per Scout's Michael Clark, Michigan is one of many schools to recently offer four-star NC DE Lorenzo Featherston, whose recruitment has blown up in the past few weeks ($). Featherston has yet to narrow down his list of schools and mentions the Wolverines among a large group of programs he'd like to check out over the summer.

MLive's Kyle Meinke talks to Tim Sullivan and Allen Trieu about the recent camp performances of wide receiver commits Drake Harris and Moe Ways. Lots of good stuff in there.

Five-star corner Adoree Jackson has a top four($) of Florida State, Florida, and... the two participants in the saddest bowl game of all time, Illinois and UCLA. At least UCLA is an in-state school for Jackson, but the Illini... yeah, I don't get it [ed-S: he's originally from Illinois, according to all the comments]. Anyway, he does plan to visit Michigan this summer, and I'm assuming as soon as Jackson watches a Tim Beckman-coached team his top four will look at least 25% different.

The latest in Football Coaches Should Probably Stop Using Technology... #beaverbarrage.