TomVH: Three New Offers in Ohio
Michigan passed out three new offers recently, and they were all from the state of Ohio. The two featured in the previous link are ATH Austin Traylor, and Nick Vannett. First up, Traylor.
Austin Traylor
Defensive End, Tight End
6'4, 215 lbs.
Columbus, Ohio
Traylor has been rising up a lot of lists lately, and now holds offers from Michigan, Arizona, Boston College, Cincinnati, Kansas, MSU, West Virginia, and Wisconsin among others. Considered an athlete, Michigan is recruiting him for defensive end/outside linebacker.
I haven't narrowed down my list yet, but I'm definitely interested in Michigan. I plan on trying to make it up there this summer. - Austin Traylor
Being from Columbus scares me, so we'll have to see how this pans out. His highlight tape is pretty impressive, or else I guess it wouldn't be a highlight tape.
Nick Vannett
Tight End
6'6, 230 lbs.
Westerville, Ohio
Vannett has over 30 offers, so just trust me that his list is impressive. He's a junior tight end that's 6-feet-6 inches, and 230-pounds, so it seems pretty natural that he has so much interest. The fact that he's that big, and boasts a 4.8 forty time is pretty impressive.
There have been rumblings that he already committed to Ohio State, which he denies. Sometimes where there's smoke, there's fire, so I wouldn't get too excited about this one. His highlight tape is here.
Ryan Kelly
Offensive Line/Center
6'5, 270 lbs.
West Chester, Ohio
Kelly is a national recruit, and has a really nice offer list, headlined by Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Tennessee, and Michigan among others.
Kelly's offer from Michigan just came in recently, as you can see by the tweet below.
Michigan has offered Lakota West junior OL Ryan Kelly
Mike Dyer
MikeDyer
Kelly also recently accepted an offer to play in the Under Armour All American game. If I might add, the UA game has gotten a lot of really good athletes to accept an offer to the game this year. They're creeping up on the Army game as far as talent goes, especially this year. I can't figure out if this is an early roster list, or not. If it's not, a lot of those names have committed to play in the game, as well. Anyway, Kelly's highlight video is right here.
Wow, it sure is nice to see the big TE getting some love .. IMO Michigan needs to pick up a TE this year with good speed and size so we can continue to have that threat for years to come ..
Tom: what's your read on the staff's approach to the TE position. I see the occasional offer, but I know this offense can be run without one. Are they trying to incorporate the position more or just going after guys that are too good to ignore?
I have just one question for you:
That Lakota West school sure pumps out a lot of talent. Ryan Kelly sounds like he would be a great pick-up, but he'd probably be a guard.
As for a TE, I don't know if we're ever going to have a TE like we used to, but I think RR will use an athletic TE more often, maybe a guy not quite as big as we're used to but faster. I wouldn't be surprised if a guy like Ricardo Miller or Jeremy Jackson bulk up and start playing a TE type role.
Ryan Kelly will be at the Big House BBQ
Good to get him on campus.
Premium link: http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=162&f=1088&t=5966519
he's like 6'2 and 205 lbs plus he's got the agility and speed to play WR. it would be, IMO, in jeremy jackson's best interest to bulk up to play TE though because he just isn't fast enough to be anything more than a red zone threat
"Agile" and "speedy" are not words I would use to describe Ricardo Miller. He's pretty clunky, in my opinion. He's going to have to make his mark by running good routes, holding onto tough catches, and blocking.
Well I'm going off the MGoBlue roster, but that has him listed as 6'4" 212, as an early enrollee. A summer of Barwis on his frame and he could realistically be around the 220 mark as a true frosh. Maybe he redshirts, maybe he doesn't, but he's going to need to make some strides on the depth chart to warrant much PT.
I agree that he would be our typical Joppru style TE, but maybe more of along the lines of that TE from Wisconsin the last couple years, I forgot his name. I could see him playing an athletic TE role at about 235 once he's been in the program a couple years. Based on all the young talent we'll have at WR, and how many catches the slots get, that might be his best way to get touches.
Which they call the "Motion W" in Madison as opposed to the "Crest" or the academic W that's on the side of the fieldhouse at Camp Randall. I've seen it used by Warren-Harding and a handful of others. I can't think of one h.s. in Michigan that uses it. Rumor was that Alvarez "borrowed" it from somebody else, uninvited, when he put it on the Badgers' helmets.
Whitehall does IIRC. The "W" is white and the helmet is red. RVB played there, I believe.
Great update Tom and I still feel Ray Hamilton is still the man we want at TE and I would love to get Kelly in this class too.
Does OSU want to take 2 TE's in this class? I know they use a TE more than we do, but it might not be important enough to take 2 in the same class.
they use their tight ends like a 6th OL. idk why vannett would go there if he wants catches
They want 2 TEs
I think Ryan Kelly may be a hard get for Michigan. His family have been Cincinnati season-ticket holders for many many years, and one of his good friends, Kevin Schloemer is an incoming freshman at UC in the fall. Cincinnati seems to be his top choice, but who knows. He would definitely be a great get for Michigan. He has huge upside.
Definitely would add him to the class. Being recruited by Alabama, Florida, and Florida State scares me though.
Also - based on how many OL OSU has already taken in this class, we should have a good shot at any OL from Ohio that's left, and there seems to be a number of them.
I doubt Vannett's mom will let him go to school outside the city limits, let alone the state. MSU is supposed to be a player here as well but I haven't been following him since ND stopped recruiting him.
Having a productive TE in this offense would simply be a luxury...if we could use our tight ends like Mizzou did a few years ago (Chase Coffman I think his name was?) then our offense would just be downright ridiculous. I think Koger could be the guy, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
That said, the more we can dip into the Ohio talent pool, the better. I'd love to get any of these guys. Defense and O-Line, come on down!
I am a new contributor to MGoBlog, so go easy on me if I break any rules of posting etiquette.
As an Ohioan who went to the University of Michigan from 2006-2010, I encountered more than my fair share of suspicion when I told people where I was from. It really got to me at times, but I discovered the secret of holding my chin up and proving people wrong, one by one.
I'm just so happy to see that recruits from Ohio are being treated just the same as recruits from anywhere else on the messaging board. This is not something you would see coming from Ohio State fans talking about a recruit from the State of Michigan, unless they're named Justin Boren. (As a matter of fact, based on my own experiences in the University as a Student, I can only imagine the kind of crap Boren has to deal with, being an Ohioan who went to Michigan and then transferred back to Ohio State).
T2
Here's what it boils down to: You can't choose where you're from. You can choose where you go to college.
You made the choice to come to UM, which makes up for your Ohioness. These kids all have the same shot at redemption.
By my count (probably off by 1 or 2) 13 guys on the spring roster hail from Ohio. That's about 15% of the team. I'd guess that percentage is about what it's been for many, many years. A lot of great football players come from the state of Ohio, and any number of great Wolverines crossed the frontier, just like you. Charles Woodson and Bo Schembechler, to name two.
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