Thursday Recruitin' Carries Extra #2 Pencil
Welcome: Garrett Taylor
Michigan gained their fifth commitment of the 2015 class on Monday in VA CB Garrett Taylor, the third prospect from the talent-rich Richmond area to commit to U-M in the last three classes (joining Derrick Green and Wilton Speight). Sam Webb has a lengthy (and free) post-commitment feature on Taylor that covers his relationship with Roy Manning, scouting quotes from his coach and a Scout analyst, and the visit that drew him to Michigan:
“We got to go to the school of business… the Ross School of Business, which is really great,” Taylor reported. “The professor toured us around, which was really great. I’ve never had that before. So we toured around, saw the classrooms and stuff like that. It was really personal. We obviously toured all the facilities and the football facilities are great. We got to see all the resources they have in terms of their Glick Fieldhouse. That was big to see a full indoor field, especially with the weather. They go over there sometimes and to have that as a resource is really good. We got to see the weight room. Then we met with Shari (Acho), the head lady of all the academic support so that was great to see. We got a tour of the academic side. You’ve definitely got the support of the tutors and everything like that to make sure that you’re on track academically. It was awesome. It was awesome! It really felt like they wanted me to be up there.”
After reading that quote, it probably shouldn't surprise you that Taylor tweets things like "properly equipped for the SAT tomorrow" with a pencil-on-paper emoji and photo of his already-laid-out TI-83, pair of sharpened Ticonderoga #2s, and pack of old-school erasers. Coaches and reporters alike laud Taylor for being a great, personable kid; Michigan's landed another prospect who fits the proverbial Pattern™.
As for how his commitment affects the class moving forward, Scout's Michael Clark provides some details ($):
After landing Taylor, the Wolverines are done at cornerback in the 2015 class. Now, the staff will turn their focus towards landing one more safety. Top targets include Whitehouse (Texas) and Texas A&M commit Justin Dunning, Dallas (Texas) South Oakcliff’s Prentice McKinney and Evans (Ga.) Lakeside’s Rashad Roundtree.
Many have asked how Taylor's commitment impacts Michigan's pursuit of five-star NJ CB Minkah Fitzpatrick. It already looked like Fitzpatrick would end up elsewhere before Taylor's commitment—Alabama, Florida State, and Ohio State are the three schools currently generating the most noise in his recruitment, and Michigan hasn't been mentioned in a while. With a small projected class containing two blue-chip prospects already slotted for corner, I doubt U-M is a serious player in Fitzpatrick's recruitment going forward.
[Hit THE JUMP for details on a couple recent offers, an update on Justin Hilliard, and more.]
Michigan Offers Hayes, Williams
Michigan offered 2016 Orchard Lake St. Mary's ATH Daelin Hayes, cousin of U-M RB Justice Hayes, when he visited campus last weekend, and Brandon caught up with him to get the offer reaction. Hayes is a RB/LB recruit whom the Wolverines offered as an outside linebacker, and Brandon likes Michigan's chances at this early juncture:
Hayes and I spoke for a few minutes off the record and let’s just say he really likes Michigan. He’s definitely not in a hurry to commit, but Michigan will absolutely be in it for him until he makes his decision. He speaks with Coach Singletary once or twice a week and will continue to do so throughout his process. Having an older cousin on the team isn’t hurting either.
Michigan is in his top six, joining Michigan State and Tennessee among schools that have offered; Hayes also likes Notre Dame, Penn State, and UCLA, three schools that haven't offered him yet. Even if he reels in big-time national offers, though, expect his interest in Michigan to remain very high; this quote he gave to Scout's Allen Trieu is particularly illuminating ($):
"The Wolverine offer is one of the offers I really wanted since day one," he said. "Take away football from the equation, and you're getting a great school where you can better yourself through education. You get the best of both worlds. Take away football and you still have a Michigan degree to fall back on."
He added, "That carries more weight than a school like Alabama, where it's strictly football. I'm not saying Alabama is a bad school, but Michigan carries more weight."
[opens up Crystal Ball] [predicts Michigan]
The Wolverines also offered 2015 four-star SC RB Ty'Son Williams, per 247's Steve Lorenz ($). Aside from a Georgia offer last November, Williams's recruitment has started pretty slowly for a recruit of his caliber, and right now he's still in the exploratory phase:
The last couple weeks, Williams has been on unofficial visits to Georgia and South Carolina, two schools that many believe may be the potential leaders for his services. Because his recruitment is just starting to take off, he's only now developing an idea of what he's looking for from his suitors.
"I really am looking for how the coaches coach their players and how they interact with both each other and the team as a whole," Williams said. "I want to be at a place I feel comfortable too and of course I want to get the ball. There's not a certain kind of offense that I want to play in as long as they know how to use their running backs. Pro-style or spread doesn't really matter to me."
Williams definitely looks like a recruit to put in the "wait and see if he visits" category.
Justin Hilliard Update
Michigan recently hosted 2015 four-star OH LB Justin Hilliard, one of their top overall targets in the class, for what he described as a "great" unofficial visit to Scout's Dave Berk—Hilliard added that the Wolverines are among the schools currently standing out to him ($):
Just a few weeks ago Hilliard said Notre Dame would be one of his top schools when the time comes to trim down his offer list. Where do the Wolverines stand following his visit last weekend?
“I would say Michigan is right up there with some other schools,” he said. “I like the school itself as it’s a great academic place and a live campus. Ann Arbor is also a great city and I stayed overnight when I was up there last time.”
He's also a big fan of Michigan's photoshop work, apparently.
Etc.
Four-star CT TE Chris Clark will take a visit to Michigan despite his recent commitment to North Carolina, according to Brandon.
Vust a jery bad typo, OSU.
I always wondered how much of that was motivated by athletic concerns - certainly doesn't seem to hurt!
Don't you mean employee concerns?
to take advantage of athletes, thanks to BISB quoting a guy who wrote a book. I wonder: if it is so meaningless, why does almost every HS athlete who visits Michigan use the term, give credence to the idea of student/athlete, and think about the academic side? Don't they realize they are football employees that we want to make money off of?
Maybe I am the only one, but havent I been reading that Hoke&Co left 3 or 4 on the table for the 2014 class? Why is 2015 going to be a small class? Shouldnt it be the average, 20 players, plus the 3 or 4 we left on the table?
Magnus will be able to give you the exact information or look at Touchthebanner on the bottom left of your screen.
But I believe it was suppose to be 13 due to graduation and Hoke didn't use 2 (???) this 2014 cycle. So the 2015 class can be 15 members without anybody leaving and all RS juniors are granted the 5th year elgibility.
However, attrition always happen and some RS players will choose to leave football and go into the professional world. So I imagine this class is projected to be like 17-18.
9 graduating + the 4 they banked = 13 currently available for 2015
Here's the scholarship count
http://touchthebanner.blogspot.com/2014/03/2014-scholarship-count.html
According to the depth chart by class on this blog, it says this class is currently slotted for 12, before attrition. We have 2 open scholarships, and 10 seniors leaving, that makes 12. Naturally there will be some attrition, but likely not enough to get it into the 20 range.
EDIT: I figured out the discrepancy between this site and Magnus's site, and I think this is correct. Magnus still lists Graham Glasgow as a walk-on and as not talking up a scholarship, and MGoBlog lists him as a scholarship player, which I believe he is. If Glasgow is counted, we have a class of 12 at current.
Correct. Glasgow came in as a walk-on, so I'm listing him as a walk-on until an undetermined time in the future. It's tough to say which "walk-ons" are on scholarship at any given time unless it's announced.
They banked two from last year. Hoke should use those two scholarships to reward a couple of walk ons. There are several reason why these classes are so small.
1. Not as much arbitration as everyone originally thought. Apparently a Michigan education goes along way life. Whom would have thought that? Oh that right we did.LOL
2. No one is leaving early for the NFL.
3. Hoke give out1- 4 year scholarships instead of 4-1 year scholarships. So the school can't pull their scholarship if the kid is not playing well after one year.
I am just as frustrated as you are with these small class. Next year's class will be just as small as this year's. It's hard to build a championship team when you can only take 13-16 kids a year. Hell USC and PSU are still on NCAA sanctions and still get to take more kids then UM.
I completely disagree with your last point. It is not hard to build a championship team with small classes. It's the years immediately after large classes that are tough, because it means a large proportion of your team is young. After two years of 15-ish classes, we will only have 30ish underclassman, and the rest experienced guys. That's how you build a champioship team.
Most year in the Pete Carroll era at USC, he took between 16 and 20 kids in a class.
EDIT: And next year's class will not be as small as this year's. We have 17 kids listed at juniors right now, meaning the 2016 class will be replacing them. So unless a lot of those guys leave within the next year, the 2016 class should be back to 20+.
I respect what your saying but you can not compare UM and USC. USC was getting all the elite talent in California and winning NC back then. So having smaller classes was ok for them.
Why does recruiting class size matter? If anything, larger classes hurt you, as we've seen recently. We signed two very big classes back to back and it left our team very young. If you consistently have small recruiting classes, it means you are redshirting a lot of guys and retaining guys as well. Those are good things. If you have big recruiting classes, it means you're not retaining your talent.
Come on. If you are extolling the Michigan education then you should probably do it in an educated manner. I think you are looking for attrition, not arbitration. Once all the money making sports unionize in a few more years then we may see arbitration cases involving college athletes, but not yet. Also, it is who, not whom when the pronoun is in the nominative case, as it is in your sentence. If you say who when you should say whom you just sound dumb. If you say whom when you should say who, you sound dumb and pretentious.
"Hell USC and PSU are still on NCAA sanctions and still get to take more kids then UM."
I fail to see the point of this statement. Are USC and/or PSU going to be championship teams in 2014? Should we be striving to be like them? We're pretty much on par with PSU right now, and USC just fired their old coach for underachieving.
Anyway, there's more than one way to skin a cat. You can take in 30 players a class and cut the ones you don't want anymore (like Alabama), or you can retain your players and try to keep them around until their fourth- or fifth-year guys. The latter direction is obviously where Michigan is headed. We'll just have to see if the plan works out or not.
I know I am getting old but when did they begin to allow bringing calculators to the SAT?
I don't know the answer.
I just want to emphasize that yeah, you're old.
Pshh scrub status. #89orDie
Michigan is ACT country. The 89 is banned on the ACT #84ordie
Is he going to be a Ross Preferred Admit? That sounds awesome! Best of luck to him trying to balance the business school and football!
March 31st, 2014 at 11:49 PM ^
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