Thursday Recruiting Is Adjacent To IMG
A trip you may have heard something about is ongoing
Michigan is indeed spending a week at IMG's campus in Florida. They're not allowed to talk to the recruits since it's a quiet period, but there is much discussion of it anyway. Steve Wiltfong ran down Michigan's many targets at the school* this morning. Much of it is a recap, but of note is a new crystal ball in Michigan's favor for FL OL Cesar Ruiz. Ruiz is the nation's top center to many.
Wiltfong also reports that DC by way of IMG LB Jordan Anthony is "strongly considering" M. He's a new name to me, and a four star guy. LB Dylan Moses is still waiting on an offer as Michigan tries to get a signal it's worth their time; 2018 DT Taron Vincent projects to be a big timer and Michigan is up there for him.
Both Ruiz and Hainsey recently participated in a local Rivals camp, during which they impressed:
Robert Hainsey outchea winning. #rivalscamp https://t.co/46EsB9P6gd
— Tim Sullivan (@TimS_Wolverine) February 27, 2016
After Sullivan reported that both guys justified recent moves up the Rivals rankings with their performance; one or both could end up breaking into the top 100.Cesar Ruiz finally loses a rep, but immediately gets revenge. #rivalscamp https://t.co/7kJKI30ALC
— Tim Sullivan (@TimS_Wolverine) February 27, 2016
*[Wiltfong continues to say that Michigan's 2017 class will be "considerably smaller" than the 28 or 29 guys Michigan just recruited. I have no doubt he's relaying information from the Michigan staff, but even so I think they're going to get up there. Michigan has 17 scholarship seniors and that'll probably bump up to 19 by fall with Glasgow and Kenny Allen. A totally normal rate of attrition would see them get to 25.]
Spring game visitors start firming up plans
FL OL Robert Hainsey and Ruiz will be there, and FL CB Elvis Hines plans on joining them.
Also this gent:
Florence (Ala.) 2017 safety J'Marick Woods told me he plans on visiting #Michigan for their spring game on April 1st pic.twitter.com/QEE5qeNvYN
— Brice Marich (@BriceMarich) March 3, 2016
Woods has offers from Kentucky, Tennessee, and VT in addition to Michigan.
Lorenz reports that CA CB Deommodre "Clamp Clampington" Lenoir will also visit and may decide before football season; Lenoir and FL CB Stanford Samuels appear to be Michigan's top two targets at corner.
CA OL Brett Neilon has set a visit for the spring game and has a top five of M, UCLA, Cal, Duke, and Washington. Allow me to take a brief break from this all-out saloon brawl with Washington mods to assert that M has a very good shot at winning a recruitment against that group.
The complicating factor: USC and Stanford have not offered but Neilon continues to mention them. His dad, brother, and two aunts all went to USC, so… yeah. Neilon noted to MGoFish that he was at a Michigan satellite camp a year ago.
PA S Collin Smith also plans on visiting; hasn't been a whole lot of chatter about him but he does have an offer.
Quick hits
- FL CB CJ Cotman has a top five of M, OSU, Ole Miss, TCU, and Florida. Cotman was high on Michigan early. He's planning on a Signing Day decision.
- OH TE Matt Dotson will visit next weekend. He sounds completely wide open.
- AL LB Monty Rice fielded an offer recently and says he will visit; his top list is one that suggests this is an uphill battle: it's M, UGA, Auburn, South Carolina, and Ole Miss. He assured Rivals that Michigan will have a shot and the chances he visits M are "very high" whether in spring or for an official.
- CA DE Jaelan Phillips is a top 100 guy who recently fielded an offer; interested, will visit, wide open, late decision, etc.
- MA RB AJ Dillon has a visit set up for the 22nd. He's the grandson of a notable Notre Dame player and liked FSU growing up.
- Florida leads for FL OL Kai-Leon Herbert.
- TX DT Damion Daniels fielded an offer, is interested, etc. He said his interest was an "8 out of 10".
- CA OL Wyatt Davis has no leaders and no list; he has tentative plans to visit M.
- Ditto for CA WR Terrell Bynum
- Ditto for GA DT Emanuel McNeal.
Happy Trails
Pioneer LB Antjuan Simmons committed to Ohio State rather out of nowhere; he'd just gotten down to 11-ish schools. Guess Michigan's delay in offering stuck in the ol' craw.
Etc.: FINE, I'll mention at 2019 player if he says Michigan is his leader, as FL DE Ge'Mon Eaford does Also he goes to Deerfield Beach. That helps the case for a mention. Touch The Banner scouts the in-state class.
Since IMG is such a sports factory does anyone know of athletes there who are committed to Michigan's various other teams? I ask because I know of one for lacrosse, Zach Schwartz, who is an Ann Arbor kid in the 2017 class.
Any for soccer, track, tennis, golf, baseball, basketball?
No, but I can tell you that OSU already has verbals from CB Marcus Williamson and S Isiah Pryor from IMG, both of which are in the top 50 overall for 2017.
It means Ole Miss has already got to him.
Is Damion Daniels related to 2016 TX DT Chris Daniels?
Not that I know of, no. Damion does have a brother named Darrion who plays football at Oklahoma State, though.
Flip in '17, position of need
I wouldn't be surprised if he flipped, but the delay in offering him makes me think Michigan might not go all-out to get him. He's a good prospect (I like him more than the recruiting sites do) and would fit well at the SAM spot, I think, but the coaches seem to have their eyes on other guys.
How is an actual LB a good fit for our SAM spot at this point? I thought that position was dead and being replaced by the HSPs of the future.
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I find it interesting that the link to the TTB article is directed to the MGoFish website, and not the TTB website.
Is there a reason for this? Doesn't seem right that MGF would get the clicks and not TTB.
MGoFish and TTB exchanged posts. He wrote a post for my site, and I wrote a post for his. So the link is indeed to the right place and attributed the right person/site, although the title is a bit misleading.
I am guessing that the discrepancy in projected scholarships for 2017 could be explained by the act that Harbaugh is leaving room for some of these preferred walk ons to become scholarship players?
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but with a guy like dylan moses, shouldn't you offer anyway (barring academics)? simmons is an example of "why wait" if you think the kid can play (and espeically if he a consensus top 10 player) and LB a huge position of need
Harbaugh and Co. are not stupid, they must have a great reason to not have offered the kid. Maybe they feel he is not serious about coming here and justs wants to "collect" a Michigan offer since we/Harbaugh have been getting plenty of publicity nationally.
i guess i dont understand the significance of an offer. youre at IMG, even if the kid doesn't come or isn't likely, not offering top talent has a perception (making in roads at school, other recruits watching, ect). the flip side i guess would be "losing" out on a kid you knew you were never gonna get.
thanks for the reply
I thought we have like 200 offers out already.
he felt we were giving more attention to other WRs. Perhaps the staff does want to make it clear to their top targets that they are just that. With all the offers going out lately, I haaven't noticed any to WRs. Magnus will know if I'm wrong.
The only 2017 WR we've offered lately is Tee Higgins.
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There are still only 30-40ish players who play in games. And 85 scholarships. It's not our of the ordinary to have 1-2 guys mess up either legally or academically each year, have 1-2 transfer for playing time, etc. There was attrition under Carr, despite Michigan being good and stable, some attrition is normal.
Also the team is full of upperclassmen starting, so younger guys see starting spots are gonna open up in the future and will be less likely to transfer.
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The ongoing Washington mods thing is the second-best part of the recruiting posts (after of course the barnstormin', top-recruit-gettin' Michigan Wolverines).
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For my own mental sanity I try to not to follow recruits until the previous year has been inked, so I'm just now starting to figure out who the 2017 guys are (unless you're a big in-state guy like DPJ or a Peppers or Gary level prospect). I've never heard of many of the guys in the post and am wondering if we could add their overall ranking? Is that too much to ask to begin to sort out which guys are most sought after? I'm sure in a few months I'll have it down, but I have no idea who these guys are yet.
I tend to take a similar approach to recruiting and also have the feeling that it is difficult to get started on each class. I understand that we could simply look up the recruits on 247, rivals, etc. But I agree that the composite rank next to the names at this juncture would be helpful. It just seems like I'm reading a lot of random names at this point without having much thought on the news itself. The roundups are consistently my favorite read on the blog, I just struggle to get into them when it's early in the class.
"Eating great food with our brothers."
I can't wait for this season to begin. It feels like Jim will be plundering the unprotected shores of our opponents.
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