Big Ten Recruiting Class Rankings 12-26-10

Submitted by Tim on

As usual, new commit means we hit the front page. Action since last rankings:

12-19-10 Iowa loses commitment from Mika'il McCall (false alarm from the recruiting sites).
12-20-10 Illinois gains commitments from Dondi Kirby and Kenny Nelson. Minnesota gains commitments from Grayson Levine and Marcus Jones. Nebraska loses commitment from Tevin Mitchell. Wisconsin gains commitment from Devin Gaulden.
12-22-10 Illinois loses commitment from Tyler Marcordes.
12-24 Michigan gains commitment from Matt Goudis. Minnesota gains commitment from Drayquan Crawford.

Big Ten+ Recruiting Class Rankings
Rank School # Commits Rivals Avg Scout Avg ESPN Avg
1 Ohio State 19 5.76 3.79 79.26
2 Notre Dame 19 5.68 3.47 78.68
3 Nebraska 17 5.69 3.35 78.50*
4 Michigan 15 5.65 3.40 78.40
5 Michigan State 16 5.64 3.25 76.69
6 Wisconsin 20 5.60 2.85 73.75
7 Iowa 18 5.58 2.83 74.82*
8 Illinois 24 5.48 2.50 71.83
9 Indiana 18 5.53 2.67 75.22
10 Northwestern 13 5.54 2.77 76.69
11 Minnesota 18 5.50 2.39 69.71*
12 Penn State 8 5.50 3.13 75.86
13 Purdue 12 5.46 2.17 72.60*

Rivals rankings are on the "RR" scale, which is on a scale from about 5 to about 6.1. Unrated prospects are given a 5.1 rating, on par with the worst of any Big Ten commit last year. Scout is on the 5-star system (unranked players earn 1 star), and ESPN uses grades out of 100 (unranked is 40 or 45, except JuCo players, who aren't included in the average).

Full data after the jump.

#1 Ohio State - 19 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Michael Bennett DT OH 6.0 4 80
Braxton Miller QB OH 6.0 5 82
Kenny Hayes DE OH 5.9 4 79
Steve Miller DE OH 5.8 5 84
Ryan Shazier LB FL 5.8 4 81
Nick Vannett TE OH 5.8 4 80
Chase Farris DE OH 5.8 4 79
Brian Bobek OL IL 5.8 4 79
Evan Spencer WR IL 5.7 4 81
Jeremy Cash S FL 5.7 4 80
Ron Tanner S OH 5.7 4 78
DerJuan Gambrell CB OH 5.7 4 77
Devin Smith WR OH 5.7 4 78
Jeff Heuerman TE FL 5.7 3 80
Joel Hale DT IN 5.7 3 79
Chris Carter OL OH 5.7 3 78
Conner Crowell LB MD 5.7 3 78
Tommy Brown OL OH 5.6 3 78
Antonio Underwood OL OH 5.6 3 75

No change.

#2 Notre Dame - 19 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Stephon Tuitt DE GA 6.0 4 80
Matt Hegarty OL NM 5.9 4 83
Ben Koyack TE PA 5.9 4 81
DaVaris Daniels WR IL 5.8 4 81
Eilar Hardy S OH 5.8 4 79
George Atkinson III S CA 5.8 4 79
Jarrett Grace LB OH 5.7 4 78
Anthony Rabasa DE FL 5.7 3 81
Tony Springmann OL IN 5.7 3 78
Josh Atkinson CB CA 5.7 3 78
Everett Golson QB NC 5.6 4 80
Conor Hanratty OL CT 5.6 4 76
Ben Councell DE NC 5.6 3 78
Brad Carrico OL OH 5.6 3 77
Cam McDaniel RB TX 5.6 3 77
Bennett Okotcha CB TX 5.6 3 76
Jalen Brown CB TX 5.5 3 78
Matthias Farley CB NC 5.5 3 77
Kyle Brindza K MI 5.4 3 79

No change for the Irish.

#3 Nebraska - 18 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Aaron Green RB FL 5.9 5 85
Tyler Moore OL FL 5.9 4 78
Bubba Starling QB KS 5.8 4 81
Jamal Turner QB TX 5.8 4 81
Charles Jackson CB TX 5.8 4 81
Ryne Reeves OL NE 5.8 4 79
Ryan Klachko OL IL 5.8 4 78
David Santos LB TX 5.8 3 79
Zach Sterup OL NE 5.8 3 78
Daimion Stafford S CA 5.8 3 NR
Kevin Williams DT OH 5.7 3 79
Max Pirman LB OH 5.6 3 78
Daniel Davie S NE 5.5 3 75
Givens Price OL TX 5.5 3 75
Taariq Allen WR TX 5.5 2 75
Nicklas Sade K NC 5.4 3 78
Aaryn Bouzos CB CA 5.4 2 76

Tevin Mitchell drops Nebraska.

#4 Michigan - 15 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Demetrius Hart RB FL 6.0 4 80
Justice Hayes RB MI 5.9 4 79
Blake Countess CB MD 5.8 4 80
Brennen Beyer DE MI 5.8 4 79
Kellen Jones LB TX 5.7 4 79
Jake Fisher OL MI 5.7 4 77
Dallas Crawford CB FL 5.7 3 80
Delonte Hollowell CB MI 5.7 3 79
Chris Rock DE OH 5.6 3 78
Jack Miller OL OH 5.5 3 78
Tony Posada OL FL 5.5 3 78
Desmond Morgan LB MI 5.5 3 78
Greg Brown CB OH 5.5 3 77
Antonio Kinard LB OH 5.5 3 77
Matt Goudis K CA 5.4 3 77

Wolverines pick up Cali kicker Matt Goudis. Now that they have about the same number of commits as Michigan State, and better averages all around, they pass MSU in the rankings.

#5 Michigan State - 16 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Lawrence Thomas LB MI 6.1 5 80
Donavon Clark OG OH 5.7 4 78
Darien Harris LB MD 5.7 3 79
Taiwan Jones LB MI 5.7 3 78
Roger Williamson CB OH 5.7 3 78
Ed Davis LB MI 5.7 3 77
Arjen Colquhoun S ON 5.7 3 76
Connor Cook QB OH 5.7 2 76
Onaje Miller RB MI 5.6 4 78
Joel Heath DE OH 5.6 4 76
Jack Allen OL IL 5.6 3 78
AJ Sims CB GA 5.6 3 78
Mark Scarpinato DT WI 5.5 3 76
Damon Knox DE MI 5.5 3 76
Trae Waynes CB WI 5.4 3 75
Paul Lang TE PA 5.4 3 68

No change for Sparty.

#6 Wisconsin - 20 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Jake Keefer LB WI 5.8 4 78
Austin Traylor DE OH 5.8 3 78
Melvin Gordon RB WI 5.7 3 79
Sam Arneson TE WI 5.7 3 78
Jesse Hayes DE OH 5.7 3 78
James Adeyanju DE IL 5.7 3 77
Mike Caputo LB PA 5.7 3 77
AJ Jordan WR OH 5.6 3 79
Derek Watt LB WI 5.6 3 77
Eric Steffes TE WI 5.6 3 77
Austin Maly TE WI 5.6 3 76
Terrance Floyd CB FL 5.6 2 77
Devin Gaulden CB FL 5.5 3 78
Ray Ball OL OH 5.5 3 77
Jordan Frederick LB WI 5.5 3 75
Darius Hillary CB OH 5.5 3 75
Derek Landisch LB WI 5.5 3 74
Frederick Willis WR WI 5.5 2 NR
Tyler Marz OL MN 5.5 2 NR
Kenzel Doe WR NC 5.4 2 75

Badgers pick up Devin Gaulden.

#7 Iowa - 18 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Jordan Walsh OL IL 5.8 4 79
Rodney Coe RB IL 5.8 4 79
Austin Blythe OL IA 5.8 3 79
Ray Hamilton TE OH 5.8 3 79
John Raymon DE PA 5.7 3 78
Torrey Campbell RB FL 5.6 3 78
Riley McMinn DE IL 5.6 3 77
Jake Rudock QB FL 5.6 3 78
Marcus Grant WR MA 5.6 3 76
Dan Heiar OL IA 5.6 2 NR
Melvin Spears LB TX 5.5 3 79
Henry Krieger-Coble TE IA 5.5 3 78
Nick Law CB MD 5.5 3 77
Cole Fisher LB NE 5.5 3 74
Jake Duzey TE MI 5.5 3 73
Mike Orloff LB MA 5.5 2 70
Austin Vincent WR TX 5.4 2 73
Jacob Hillyer WR TX NR NR NR

Mika'il McCall didn't actually commit to the Hawkeyes last week, that was a false alarm for the premium recruiting sites.

#8 Illinois - 24 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Dondi Kirby S PA 5.8 3 79
Clint Tucker DT IL 5.7 3 79
Patrick Flavin OL IL 5.7 3 75
Matt LaCosse ATH IL 5.6 3 78
Zeph Grimes S SC 5.6 3 77
Chris Boles OL OH 5.6 3 77
Reilly O'Toole QB IL 5.6 3 76
Carl Williams CB FL 5.5 3 77
Josh Ferguson RB IL 5.5 3 75
Chris O'Connor DE IL 5.5 3 75
Tony Durkin OL IL 5.5 3 74
Ralph Cooper LB SC 5.5 2 78
Henry Dickinson LB TN 5.5 2 NR
Jeremy Whitlow WR OH 5.5 NR 74
Nick North CB FL 5.4 3 76
Scott McDowell OL IL 5.4 3 75
Ted Karras OL IN 5.4 2 77
JT Thornton CB FL 5.4 2 77
Marquise Mosley WR TX 5.4 2 74
Daniel Rhodes TE NC 5.4 2 73
Kenny Nelson DE MI 5.4 NR NR
Hunter Wells OL IL 5.3 3 NR
Justin DuVernois K FL NR 2 70
Jordan Frysinger WR NY NR NR 73

Illini continue their recent hot streak picking up Dondi Kirby and Kenny Nelson. Whitlow picks up a 2-star rating from Scout. Tyer Marcordes drops the Illini.

#9 Indiana - 18 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Zack Shaw LB OH 5.8 3 76
Cody Latimer WR OH 5.7 2 73
D'Angelo Roberts RB IN 5.6 3 77
Jake Reed TE IN 5.6 3 77
Jalen Schlachter OT MI 5.6 3 75
Ralston Evans OL IN 5.6 3 74
Tre Roberson QB IN 5.6 2 76
Forisse Hardin S KY 5.6 3 74
Bernard Taylor OL MI 5.5 3 76
Nick Stoner S IN 5.5 3 74
Kirk Harris OL KS 5.5 2 77
Kyle Kennedy LB IN 5.5 2 76
Mark Murphy S OH 5.5 2 75
Kenny Mullen CB IN 5.4 3 74
Shafer Johnson DT MI 5.4 3 77
Jay McCants WR OH 5.4 3 75
Mike Replogle LB OH 5.4 3 74
Donte Phillips DE WI 5.4 2 74

Hoosiers lose OH S Nick VanHoose to Northwestern. CJ Robbins, who decommitted from Indiana a couple weeks ago, also picked the Wildcats.

#9 Northwestern - 13 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Christian Jones WR TX 5.7 3 81
Shane Mertz OL NJ 5.6 3 79
Jack Konopka OL IL 5.6 3 79
Zack Oliver QB LA 5.6 3 78
Jarrell Williams CB IL 5.6 3 76
Matt Frazier OL IL 5.6 3 75
Max Chapman DE FL 5.6 2 78
Mark Szott TE IL 5.5 3 77
Geoff Mogus OL OH 5.5 3 75
CJ Robbins DE IL 5.5 3 75
Cameron Dickerson WR NJ 5.5 2 73
Nick VanHoose DB OH 5.4 3 74
Treyvon Green RB TX 5.3 2 77

Wildcats pick up a pair of Indiana decommits in OH DB Nick VanHoose and IL DE CJ Robbins.

#10 Minnesota - 17 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Tommy Olson OL MN 5.7 3 79
Max Shortell QB KS 5.6 3 74
Quinn Bauducco LB CA 5.6 3 74
Peter Westerhaus TE MN 5.6 2 76
Josh Campion OL VA 5.6 2 NR
Kyle McAvoy OL IL 5.5 3 79
Jephete Matilus LB FL 5.5 2 77
Mike Moore LB TX 5.6 3 77
Luke McAvoy OL IL 5.5 3 75
Devin Crawford-Tufts WR MN 5.5 2 74
Russell Haughton-James OL FL 5.5 2 74
Foster Bush OL WI 5.5 2 70
Cameron Brown WR TX 5.5 2 74
Samuel Oyenuga CB TX 5.5 2 NR
Grayson Levine S MN 5.5 2 73
Sam Rohr TE WI 5.4 3 74
Marcus Jones CB NC 5.4 2 NR
Drayquan Crawford S FL NR 2 NR

Gophers pick up a couple low-rated guys.

#12 Penn State - 8 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Shawn Oakman DE PA 5.8 4 77
Angelo Mangiro OL NJ 5.7 4 81
Ben Kline LB PA 5.7 3 78
Jordan Kerner DE PA 5.5 3 77
Allen Robinson WR MI 5.5 3 72
Kyle Carter TE DE 5.4 3 76
Matt Zanellato WR VA 5.3 3 76
Anthony Alosi OL NJ NR 2 70

Matt Zanellato gets a 3-star rating from Scout.

#13 Purdue - 12 Commits
Name Position State Rivals Scout ESPN
Taylor Richards CB FL 5.6 2 77
Russell Bellomy QB TX 5.5 3 78
Robert Kugler TE PA 5.5 3 78
Brandon Cottom LB PA 5.5 3 76
Akeem Hunt RB GA 5.5 3 75
Michael Rouse DT IL 5.5 2 73
Doug Gentry RB TX 5.5 2 76
Shane Mikesky WR IN 5.5 2 73
AJ King WR FL 5.5 NR 75
Randy Gregory DE IN NR 2 NR
Sterling Carter TE CA 5.4 2 NR
Akeem Shavers RB TX 5.4 NR NR

Carter and Shavers get 5.4 ratings from Rivals.

Football
Big Ten
2011 Recruiting

Comments

PhillipFulmersPants

December 26th, 2010 at 8:37 PM ^

as a punter, and will likely exclusively be a punter. There was some talk of him hitting some kick-offs in practice as the other guys were struggling to get the ball deep with any hang time. Hopefully Goudis remedies that.   Brendan Gibbons was the FG/KO guy signed two years ago. Much ballyhooed out of high school in FLA. Redshirted. And then ... well as you might have guessed, things didn't go so well for any michigan place kicker this year outside of practice -- neither the scholarship kicker or the walkons.  

Joined: 01/06/2009

MGoPoints: 4222

jg2112

December 26th, 2010 at 10:47 PM ^

Pooh pooh kickers and the special teams all you want. The special teams were a direct cause of at least two losses, and led to the floodgates opening in a third loss. Had the requisite detail been paid to special teams this year, we probably wouldn't see these letters

CC

on every other thread on this message board.

Joined: 11/24/2008

MGoPoints: 9925

Logan88

December 27th, 2010 at 9:02 AM ^

Genuine question: Which games do you feel were lost (at least two IYO) because of poor special teams play?

My recollection of the losses:

MSU -- critical TO's (2 INTS in the end zone) and a horrible overthrow by Denard

Iowa -- TO's (-4 TO margin in a 10 pt loss)

PSU -- McGloin'd

Wisconsin -- Blown-out by much better team

OSU -- Blown-out by much better team

Joined: 01/05/2009

MGoPoints: 8078

jg2112

December 27th, 2010 at 10:35 AM ^

Remember the team's comeback against Iowa? Well, Michigan helped stop it in its tracks due to terrible kickoffs. From Brian's game recap:

 

    • Michigan kicks the ball out of bounds TWICE in the fourth quarter, giving the Hawkeyes the ball on their own 40-yard line. The Hawkeyes score on both ensuing drives (one touchdown, one field goal). IMPACT: argh.

    Michigan lost by 10, recall. Special teams helped directly lead to the loss. Iowa's average starting position was its 34. That's easy.

    Second, Penn State. After they scored to go up 21-10, Gallon steps out of bounds at the 2. Michigan has a 20-second drive, then McGloin gets the arm punt TD at the end of the half. Back = broken.

    But if you felt the back didn't hurt that bad, it was truly split in half when Fitzgerald had the late hit in the 4th quarter. Penn State turned that drive into 3 points.

    Ten points, or, the margin of victory again.

    Finally, if Michigan had lost the Illinois game, it would have been because Illinois wasn't forced to go on a scoring drive starting any worse than their own 40 all day long.

    Seriously, go look at the box score. Illinois, on every scoring drive, started at their own 40 or better.

    Fix the special teams and Michigan would have been 9-3 this past year. I'm convinced of it.

    Joined: 11/24/2008

    MGoPoints: 9925

    PhillipFulmersPants

    December 27th, 2010 at 11:19 AM ^

    were not good this year, and certainly would have helped a lot if they were just average. Few would argue with you there. But I don't necessarily think that's a reflection of "didn't pay requisite attention" to them. It's a stretch for me to think the coaching staff hit some other facet of the game at the expense Special Teams. Reports seem to indicated that FG kicking was actually pretty good on practice field, for example.  I don't think there's much you can do as a coach other than run the things in practice that have been successful in the past, and RR's special teams historically have been pretty good. Sometimes it just comes down to kids executing on the field. Manyof the special teamers -- returners, kickers, coverage guys -- were pretty young this year (or walk ons like Broekhuizen). The overall lack of depth on the team dictacted a lot of this, I suspect (not being able to put Stonum back for many returns, for example).  It's curious to me that we understand and are relatively forgiving of the young guys (or walkons) on offense and defense who make mistakes. Few would chalk it up to not paying enough attention to detail on the coaches part. I don't why it would be different for special teams.

    Joined: 01/06/2009

    MGoPoints: 4222

    jg2112

    December 27th, 2010 at 11:35 AM ^

    There are over 100 players on the Michigan team, at least 80 were on scholarship. Enough with the lack of depth argument. That might have been valid in 2008, but for it to be an issue in the third year of a coach's program reflects on only one guy.

    Further, the special teams coordinator is Tony Gibson, the same Tony Gibson who screwed up Michigan's defensive back recruiting in the 2010 cycle (Dorsey over Parker, Grimes or Knight? Good call), and the same Tony Gibson who seems mighty repellent to quite a few of the defensive backs who have passed through Ann Arbor since 2008 (really, isn't it amazing the number of cornerbacks who have gone off the rails since Gibson has shown up?). He became the ST coordinator in 2010, and the unit turns into the worst group of kickoff and return specialists I've ever seen. Gallon can't catch punts (who do you think made the call to keep sending Gallon back there instead of Dileo?), Gibbons can't kick, the return teams can't keep opposing teams inside their own 35. Further, the best player on his special teams gets suspended for the most important game of the year (a true cutting off the nose to spite the face situation). Effect of that? An 18-yard punt which led to OSU's first TD, and a craptastic kickoff which led to a return TD.

    What is most annoying, however, is that the special teams are treated as an afterthought while the coaching staff has 3 guys on gameday that do nothing but pay attention to the QB position. One of RR, Magee or Smith is undoubtedly expendable at this point, because if Michigan doesn't fix its special teams, even if the defense improves in 2011, there is no way this team will compete for the conference title.

    Joined: 11/24/2008

    MGoPoints: 9925

    Tim

    December 27th, 2010 at 11:58 AM ^

    "Dorsey over Parker, Grimes or Knight?" is absolutely inaccurate. They wanted Sean Parker, he just chose to stay close to home at the end of the day. They didn't choose anyone over him. Same story with Rashad Knight and Rutgers. 

    You could make an argument that maaaaaybe Grimes was pushed out of the way in favor of Dorsey, but uh, dude: he was kicked out of school after one semester. It's not like he's a freshman All-American for Ole Miss. Not to mention Calvin Magee, not Tony Gibson, was the lead recruiter for Dorsey.

    If you want to just make stuff up to support your argument, feel free. That doesn't mean it has basis in fact.

    Joined: 07/08/2008

    MGoPoints: 13040

    mgoSk

    December 27th, 2010 at 1:16 AM ^

    Well there's no way to know how good this class actually is. If you want to go by a services' ranking system, here's a link for Rivals which has a tab for the current class back to 2002's class.

    http://rivals.yahoo.com/michigan/football/recruiting/commitments/2011/m…

    I think this class obviously had more potential had RR's status been known, but given the circumstances, a nice class in my opinion, especially with the likely additions of Zettel and Frost.

    Joined: 06/09/2010

    MGoPoints: 1387

    jg2112

    December 26th, 2010 at 11:19 PM ^

    Recruiting kids, and properly developing them, are two distinctly different things.

    They certainly aren't negligent regarding the former, but I'd say their lack of any specialized coaching wrt special teams is in fact negligence.

    I don't want to break out the relevant comparison, but wait - yes I will. Guess which 11-1 team in a BCS game has a special teams coach, and guess which team had a top 15 special teams ranking this year?

    Joined: 11/24/2008

    MGoPoints: 9925

    Don

    December 27th, 2010 at 1:58 PM ^

    It's astounding that Michigan could be so blind to the necessity of having a dedicated ST coach who isn't distracted by having other coaching duties.

    Two other schools whose special teams coaches are distracted with other coaching responsibilities are Oregon and Auburn. Obviously, that has been a huge problem for them. Amazingly enough, I just checked Ohio State's official football website, and it doesn't even list "special teams" as a responsibility for any of their coaching staff. That has to be a big part of their terrible season this year.

    But most surprising is the fact that the program that has had by far the best ST performance over the last 10 years or so, Virginia Tech, also does not list any coach with special teams responsibility. Beamer himself is directly involved, according to many articles written over the years, but there is no reference to his ST work on the Va Tech football website.

    Nobody should assert that the ST performance by UM over the course of the RR era has been remotely good overall, but to attribute it to a lack of a dedicated ST coach who doesn't do anything else is an oversimplification that ignores factual reality.

    Joined: 06/30/2008

    MGoPoints: 148237

    willywill9

    December 27th, 2010 at 9:15 AM ^

    Is it unusual for Penn State to only have 8 commits at this point?  What's going on there?  They've been way behind for a while now, I expected a flood of recruits to have committed by now; goes to show you, I know damn near nothing about recruiting.

    Joined: 09/22/2008

    MGoPoints: 13162

    Third Down Guy

    December 27th, 2010 at 11:16 AM ^

    Getting a kicker is huge!  RR has had so much drama surrounding him since the _hio State loss and he is still getting these kids to come here.  D Hart is only a commit if RR is here!  RR has to stay at least one more year....

    Joined: 01/24/2010

    MGoPoints: 48

    Indiana Blue

    December 29th, 2010 at 10:56 AM ^

    Isn't this is B1G Ten recruiting ?    Didn't ND give the B1G Ten "the finger" when asked to join ?   Who gives a shit about ND ?

    Sorry for the redundant questions !   ND sucks !!

    Go Blue !

    Joined: 09/19/2010

    MGoPoints: 5677