recruiting roundup
ole miss
shea patterson
van jefferson
pj fleck
daniel faalele
michael barrett
jalen goss
tommy tremble
jarrett patterson
deontay anderson

Monday Recruitin' Is Still Waiting Comment Count

Brian

Rather thought we'd have a hello post by now

The watched pot in which three potential Ole Miss transfers has failed to come to a boil and boy do I regret this metaphor right now but not as much as the people slowly cooking to death. What?

Anyway: QB Shea Patterson, WR Van Jefferson, and S Deontay Anderson all took in Michigan's comeback win over UCLA. All are expected to end up at Michigan, per Sam Webb and the rest of humanity with an opinion. You should be "amazingly optimistic" about Patterson per Webb; he also has a gut feeling about the other two but "red tape" is going to hold things up a little bit. Anderson will commit to Michigan, per Andrew Vailliencourt, but is waiting to announce until Michigan gets his transcripts and officially admits him. Vailliencourt tracked Anderson down for an interview; he remains optimistic that he and his cohort will be immediately cleared:

Although not officially declared eligible yet for next season, Anderson is highly confident that he will be cleared for next season — as well as both Patterson and Jefferson. The three share a lawyer.

“I’m very optimistic about it,” Anderson said. “We’re still waiting to hear from the NCAA, but they’ve been on our side the last couple weeks about it, so I don’t have any doubt in my mind.”

Jefferson is the only Ole Miss guy who made it up who has not been the subject of a direct assertion he is coming, pending transcripts. He is definitely gone from Ole Miss, per 247 Rebel guy Ben Garrett. And Webb is asserting that you should be optimistic. He's probably in; just not official.

BTW, Garrett is asserting that seven guys are absolutely gone from Oxford with another four on the fence. Greg Little is not one of them. Alas. He's just going to play out his last year and head to the draft posthaste, it appears, and doesn't want to muck around with maybe being eligible or maybe not.

Dual commit Thursday?

26_7769811
Thursday will be big for headline writers covering M and ND

GA TE Tommy Tremble has set an announce date. Folks who read the header will be unsurprised to find that it is Thursday. Tremble's coming off a visit to UCLA. The Bruins, UGA, Michigan, and Notre Dame are the finalists. Michigan is confident, per Lorenz. Tom Loy says he thinks it's Notre Dame, but it's close. Georgia is just a hat on the table; Tremble's dad was a UGA safety who had a cup of coffee in the NFL. It doesn't seem like UGA has a spot for him.

An enthusiastic gent like Loy thinking it's close is a good sign for Michigan. Meanwhile on the podcast I asked Steve if Michigan might sacrifice a third TE in this class to make room for the Ole Miss transfers. He shot that down, noting that Michigan is going after Tremble very hard. He didn't tip his hand as all in an interview with Rivals.

Also committing Thursday—maybe—is GA ATH Michael Barrett. Per Josh Newkirk, Barrett wants to commit on the 14th, his birthday. Wiltfong has a CB in for Michigan; Barrett is apparently deciding between an ATH offer from Michigan and a QB offer from Georgia Tech. Because he's a GT QB, man:

Michigan's been pursuing Barrett for most of the recruiting cycle—here's an early June post from Lorenz that asserts he's at the top of Michigan's board at RB.  Barrett shouldn't be looked at as a late sleeper Michigan is forced into taking because of misses elsewhere. They've got two backs in the class, they've been after this kid for months. They just like him. He could end up at RB, as a Jaylen Samuels-style H-back, viper, linebacker, or even safety.

Other uncommitted officials

Michigan also hosted two OL over the weekend. Barrett's teammate and GA OL Jalen Goss came up and geared up...

...and still kept everyone in the dark. Nobody's talked to him since. Or before, really. He's a ninja.

What we do know: at 6'7", 275, Goss is in the Frey mold as a big, rangy, athletic tackle. He decommitted from Florida in June. (Prescient.) Since he's been to Auburn multiple times and just set a late January official to Miami.  Just based on his visit itinerary—nothing outside of the South except Michigan—this one seems like an uphill battle. If Barrett does commit his pull might be Michigan's best shot with him.

ASU decommit and CA OL Jarrett Patterson is a more likely bet. He's more or less down to UCLA and Michigan. Brandon Huffman caught up with him after his visit, which he said the usual positive things about when not implying that Arizona State players live in a cloud castle with bouncers:

"What stood out most was the football players even spend time with regular students," said Patterson. "Everyone is interconnected and the players are all laid back guys."

UCLA is this weekend and Patterson will decide between the two schools in January. Patterson sounds like a late riser and possibly a candidate to play early:

Sun Devil Source’s Chris Karpman called Patterson “one of the polished performers at this stage of development,” and added, “the coaching that Patterson is getting at the high school level leaps off the film and is going to make for an easier transition to college football than the vast majority of his peers.”

I'd imagine Michigan would take both him and Petit-Frere.

""They're going to need a bigger boat" –Ace Anbender" –Brian Cook

I promised Ace that I would Michael Scott him about this development, the biggest Happy Trails of all time.

The impossible dream has died and committed to Minnesota, where he will team up with Vic Viramontes as PJ Fleck tries to assemble a team comprised entirely of weird MGoBlog recruiting obsessions. No doubt he's trying to arrange a LEVITICUS PAYNE transfer as we speak.

Etc.

Name alert: 2021(!) instate OL Rocco Spindler. You may remember Marc Spindler from his Lions days; that's his dad.

Baumgardner talks to MI OL commit Jalen Mayfield.

FL QB commit Joe Milton dropped almost 100 spots in the latest Rivals revamp; he now sits 189th. Can't argue with that given his stats. Happy trails to CA S Bryan Addison, who picked UCLA. At least now when someone picks UCLA over Michigan it makes some level of sense. Losing guys to Jim Freakin' Mora was a drag.

Michigan will practice at Berkeley Prep in preparation for the Outback Bowl. Berkeley Prep is the home of former Michigan kicker Garrett Rivas... and five star FL OL Nicholas Petit-Frere.

Comments

umbig11

December 11th, 2017 at 12:48 PM ^

Not only for 3 of the Ole Miss Rebels, but for Tremble, Patterson, and Barrett. if not 5, let's make it all 6! Tremble appears to be choosing between ND and the Wolverines and academics actually matter to this young man.

Joined: 07/21/2010

MGoPoints: 115573

mgobaran

December 11th, 2017 at 12:56 PM ^

The only thing I don't like is that with roughly six spots available in this recruiting class, all six kinda fills up our spots. And there are still some names on that board we need to focus on getting. More names remaining than the decommit rumblings. And that rumbling is one we want to hold onto as well. 

If scholarships get tight, are we looking at bad press again for shady recruiting tactics? 

Joined: 09/12/2012

MGoPoints: 22811

cozy200

December 11th, 2017 at 1:37 PM ^

Hey so I know you're super plugged in and all the info you give is always so great.  I guess I just have one question in general

Any idea how the staff feels about this year overall and what changes may occur? 

Obviously it was a big dissapointment but when I see stuff like a wildcat formation that no one uses anymore or play action on 3 and forever, it just seems to me that when they had to get creative it was either not there or it was so obvious they weren't used to it that it always looked horrible.  They looked lost at times.

I guess I'm more curious about coaching shakeups, or decision tree changes.  I'm sure I'll get negged and this might be so redundant around here but I don't visit as much as I used too so, eh.

Thanks!

Joined: 01/02/2011

MGoPoints: 2430

Fezzik

December 12th, 2017 at 12:01 AM ^

Yes, great post. Another thing that bugged me was why did we run zone read so much, especially going into the season with Speight? He is zero threat to keep it. This needs to be a run pass option with a quick seam/slant or WR in the flat.

Joined: 09/11/2015

MGoPoints: 5552

BryRich3

December 11th, 2017 at 12:49 PM ^

Barret looks like a college player already. I'm sure he will excel at whatever position he plays. With early signing period coming up do we know how many will sign early yet ?

Joined: 12/09/2016

MGoPoints: 248

Mr. Sandman

December 11th, 2017 at 1:06 PM ^

One thing a lot of people overlook in getting the outback bowl bid is the fact that we will be playing, practicing and gaining exposure in the state of FL and it's nice to see coach take advantage of that by choosing very deliberately that high school. That's why the sparty hate is so comical; it's misguided. This will continue to create inroads with HS programs in the state of Florida and throughout the Southeast

Joined: 12/03/2017

MGoPoints: -56

Farnn

December 11th, 2017 at 1:13 PM ^

Is there any concern with the three transfers and further imbalancing the class sizes?  Michigan already has a small 2018 class and big 2016/2017 classes.  Taking transfers over freshmen seems to exacerbate the class imbalance.

Joined: 07/07/2008

MGoPoints: 12788

dragonchild

December 11th, 2017 at 1:44 PM ^

We're bringing in the QB to increase competition, but that also increase the chances of an eventual transfer.  This is not inherently a bad thing; QBs transfer for playing time which means at worst we lose a backup that we wouldn't have had otherwise.

We're bringing in a WR after a huge WR haul last year.  This again means that someone is likely to transfer for lack of playing time, especially since WRs compete with TEs for snaps in this offense.

As for safety, we're thin to the point of starting guys with iffy tackling by default and Brown will frequently play three safeties, so it's a spot that will seldom have excessive depth.

Point is that even if these guys essentially increase the 2017/2018 classes, at least two are playing positions where we both need depth now AND will have too much depth later.  So at least two have a very high chance of getting the fifth year "firm handshake".

Joined: 10/13/2011

MGoPoints: 60917

True Blue Grit

December 11th, 2017 at 1:21 PM ^

It just amazes me someone that good is only a 3* and also doesn't have more offers.  Plus he's one of the most versatile looking athletes we've seen being recruited in a while.  

Joined: 01/21/2011

MGoPoints: 32373

dayooper63

December 11th, 2017 at 4:22 PM ^

When Spindler was on WTKA (Pre-Valenti) he had Spielman on and they talked about "team building" while they were Lions. One of the competitions was who could hold their eyes open the longest while looking into the jets during a whirlpool set to high.

I a summer job working in the Deli department of Whole Foods in Rochester and he would come in all the time. He ordered 5lbs of Proscuitto di Parma ($19.99 a pound back in the day). I had it weighed out and tagged when he looked around, asked if I had it weighed yet. I shook yes my head and he grabbed a handful and shoved it in his mouth. He then looked at me and said "Don't tell my wife, she's just around the corner."

The guy was a riot.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 715

maize-blue

December 11th, 2017 at 1:26 PM ^

"red tape"

Sam Webb said this morning that he would bet on UM getting 2 of the 3 Ole Miss transfers. All three were a good possibility. 

Joined: 01/10/2013

MGoPoints: 44662

Mr Miggle

December 11th, 2017 at 4:41 PM ^

nearly a month ago. I'll be shocked if the NCAA lets a case get to court. I think it's as close to 100% the players will be eligible as you can be with the NCAA involved.

This is not a battle the NCAA wants to fight. It's easy for them to waive the standard eligibility rule because of the special circumstances. It wouldn't apply more broadly and they'll make that clear. Go to court and their entire rule could get challenged. That may happen someday. When it does, the NCAA will not want to be saddled with Ole Miss type behavior on their side of the case.

Joined: 10/07/2010

MGoPoints: 47649