Thursday Recruitin'

BJ Daniels

Update 1/25: Added FL QB BJ Daniels, FL WR Martavious Odoms, OH OT Patrick Omameh. Linked to articles on FL QB Justin Feagin, MI DE Nick Perry, SC CB JT Floyd. There's also an extensive piece on Big Ten recruiting classes at ESPN; though ESPN's proven itself useless in the prediction business, their opinions on recruits' talent are an interesting data point.

Pryor articles: one two three four.

Removed PA WR Vaughn Carraway (dropped us).

Editorial Opinion: This is why SC CB JT Floyd sports a blue smiley on the recruiting board:

"I would definitely say Michigan fans will be happy, but I'm going to leave it at that," Floyd said after returning home. "I want to talk it over with my parents first, take this last visit (to Tennessee) and get everything squared away."

The UT visit is a downer, but that's as close as you can come to committing without actually committing. Since he's already very familiar with UT -- he committed to them as a junior, remember -- it's unlikely anything they can show him will sway his opinion.

One more for the "eeee Barwis" pile from Floyd:

"Just the vibe of the football players, I think they're excited about the new change," said Floyd. "Everybody's real anxious to get to work, and that strength and conditioning coach — he's one of the best in the nation. The players gravitate to him. I think the Michigan football program is definitely moving in a positive direction."

Eeee. Barwis.

That same article is kind of a recruiting roundup piece with quotes from Brandon Moore...

Moore, like Cissoko and Martin, has already committed to the Wolverines. He said he came away very excited about his future in Ann Arbor.

"They told me about how they use the tight end," he explained. "They told me he'll be flexed out sometimes, he'll be like the H-back position sometimes. They said that's how they're going to use me, in a position like that. It's kind of like the thing that I was doing at my high school."

...and Pryor...

The fans were real nice and the players I met seemed cool. I don't remember a whole lot of names, but they were nice. And Coach (Rich) Rodriguez has brought his entire staff with him from West Virginia, so nothing is going to change. That's the offense he wants to run, and he'd like me to run it."

...that aren't exactly chock full of news.

MI DE Nick Perry told the Detroit News what he told USC's Scout site over the weekend:

"I just liked the environment, the surroundings," Perry said of USC. "I was around good people there -- the players, the coaches. Yes, I feel I could fit in. The need for defensive ends is great there. They want me to come in and compete (for the position) right away.

"I'm not going to commit until signing day. They wanted me to, but they're not pressuring me."

Perry is really, really wrong about USC's "need for defensive ends" -- in this class and the last USC already has six commits at the position, including five-star Everson Griffen and four other four-stars -- but Pete Carroll has the super power mushroom version of whatever weird mind control juju Ron Zook is working. Perry will visit this weekend, at which point we'll have a pretty good idea whether or not the USC buzz was temporary and if Michigan can land him.

Quarterback continues to see names emerge, mostly in Florida. Two kids who would like to play quarterback but are mostly getting defensive back offers appear interested in Michigan but wary of a potential Pryor commitment. Justin Feagin, mentioned previously, is an under the radar sort who gets highly positive reviews from locals. He appears a realistic sort:

At first I had to tell Mom that everyone wasn't telling the truth," Feagin said with a laugh. "I mean, there are things that any coach will say to get you on campus and onto the football field. You have to know which ones are sincere and, of course, those who are just saying things to make it all sound good."

This is going to be a pretty stupid statement, but I like the kid's quotes a lot:

"The experience is demanding," Feagin said. "But I wouldn't change what I'm going through right now with anyone. This is the most exciting time of my life."

He sounds like the type of guy who works like a dog. As mentioned: stupid generalization.

BJ Daniels is the other name out there, and he seems like more of a thrower:

This season, the Lincoln coaching staff scrapped the more conventional offense of years' past for a spread attack designed to utilize Daniels' skills as a runner and a passer.

It turned out to be a pretty good idea.

Daniels tallied 3,456 total yards (2,552 passing, 904 rushing) by himself in leading Lincoln to a 10-2 record. ...

"This year I wanted to focus more on passing," Daniels said. "I didn't want to take off running as much, unless it was third or fourth down and we needed a first down.

"Passing is something that I wanted to do. Running is something that I can do. It's just an extra thing."

This highlight video shows a guy who scrambles around with an intent to pass:

He's got some shake, too:

Daniels is a four-star outside of the top 250 to Rivals and is most heavily considering Mem
phis and South Florida because he really wants to play quarterback. Michigan would seem a slam dunk over those two programs, especially with Matt Grothe returning for his junior year at USF, but the threat of Pryor looms large. Hopefully he'll wait to see what happens with him; I doubt USF can seriously pass up a guy like him if he wants to wait until Signing Day.

And then, right, Pryor. There are four articles above if you're interested, but only one says anything that isn't MOTS. It's from the Cleveland Plain-Dealer and the interesting passage goes like so:

A source close to Pryor said Wednesday that Batch has become the point person in Pryor's recruitment and that other connections from the Jeannette business community, like DeNunzio, are not involved. That's why, the source said, Tressel recently called Batch and asked him to come with Pryor to Columbus, though Pryor already made his official visit to Ohio State on Nov. 2.

It was unknown whether a second Ohio State trip will take place.

Pryor doesn't live with either of his parents, instead residing in Jeannette with his godfather, Willie Burns. Pryor said of Batch in his newspaper diary, "I trust him a lot. When I go on these visits, I think he'll know who's telling the truth just by sitting there and listening."

I'd like to emphasize the following is all speculative; given Pryor's public indecision speculation is all we have to go on.

"DeNunzio" above is a 78-year-old restaurant owner in Jeannette who was a prominent banker in town for 45 years; reading between the lines on "other connections from the Jeannette business community" is not hard to do. This falls into Ray Reitz's line about Pryor's "friends" needing to understand that Pryor must do what's best for him -- presumably to take the open starting job at a school guaranteed to run the offense Pryor was born to operate.

Batch has been at the head of the Pryor recruitment for a couple weeks now and hasn't met Jim Tressel; this worries Tressel and pleases me. I'm not exactly optimistic but maybe I'm less pessimistic now, especially since Pryor intends to take a couple more official visits.