2015 ESPN 300
The World Wide Leaders has updated their top 300 2015 football recruits
Michigan has quite a few targets on the list. Our highest ranked verbal is Garrett Taylor who is the 10th ranked CB
Tyree Kinnel is the 13 ranked safety
Shaun Crawford is the 10 ranked athlete
http://m.espn.go.com/ncf/recruiting/recruits
April 17th, 2014 at 11:07 AM ^
247 just released their first 2016 rankings yesterday. I'm skeptical that sophomore year rankings will correlate all that well to college success, but they're interesting nevertheless.
http://247sports.com/Season/2016-Football/CompositeRecruitRankings?Inst…
Erik Swenson, Michigan's only current 2016 commit, is at #233. No prospects from the state of Michigan are in their top 100, though five of them made the list (Martell Pettaway, Daelin Hayes, Lawrence Gordon, Thiyo Lukusa, and Jalen Martin).
April 17th, 2014 at 11:10 AM ^
*Tyree Kinnel not like Jimmy Kimmel.
April 17th, 2014 at 11:12 AM ^
but ESPN rakings? I think I'll line the bottom of our bird cage with that rag.
April 17th, 2014 at 11:22 AM ^
ESPN does a decent job in basketball recruiting, but I've always found their football rankings to be suspect compared to Rivals and 247.
April 17th, 2014 at 11:37 AM ^
That's fair, but it's still another data point worth looking at. Everyone thought they were crazy for having Christian Hackenberg as their #1 QB in 2013, but that proved to be correct after not too long.
April 17th, 2014 at 11:41 AM ^
There's no way that anything has been proven - or anything close to proven - about the 2013 QB class. Most of those guys haven't seen the field yet given that they just finished their true freshman seasons. Hackenberg happened to have an opportunity because of Penn State's depth chart (an opportunity that other guys at other schools didn't have). He played reasonably well, but there's a long, long way to go for that QB class.
April 17th, 2014 at 11:47 AM ^
You're right, proven is probably not the best word to use. But Hackenberg took the reigns and looked very good for a true frosh, whereas Max Brown, who rivals had as their top QB, wasn't even part of the QB controversy between two inexperienced RS sophs, neither of whom looked very good.
You're exactly right that who ends up being the best QB in that class is still up in th air, but ESPN's guy is certainly the leader at this point. My point was that ESPN rankings aren't worthless, and in some cases they hit where the other services miss.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:01 PM ^
That's fair and I agree about not writing off the ESPN rankings. I still don't see Hackenberg as "certainly the leader at this point," just because we have so little information about other guys. Cooper Bateman could be awesome - or could develop into an awesome QB - but was stuck behind AJ McCarron at Alabama. Who knows what he (or Shane Morris, Max Browne, Jalin Marshall, etc.) would have done at Penn State. Plus, these guys have a lot of development and football ahead of them. Whoever is best now might not be close to best when it really counts.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^
Yes, that's true. I suppose I overstated it the first time, but my only point was that their rankings aren't that far off, if they are at all.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:10 PM ^
leader doesn't mean he won. CH had the best freshman year so it's fair to call him the early leader.
Also, for being Rivals #1 QB, Max Browne still hasn't been able to grab the starting QB job at USC. They just named Cody Kessler their starter and he still has two years of eligibility left. If Ricky Town proves to be a star, then Browne might not get much PT at all there.
April 17th, 2014 at 11:42 AM ^
I'll concede that its not bad to consider, but over general principle I tend to reject the four letter network's input because of their extreme bias.
April 17th, 2014 at 11:53 AM ^
At least back when they had that Wolverine Nation thing, I actually think ESPN's football rankings were biased in Michigan's favor. Michigan fans were paying for that site and you don't want to disappoint paid subscribers. (Plus, they were employing guys like Tom who would naturally spend more time seeing and writing about Michigan recruits.)
On the other hand, I think the 247 rankings do some very fishy things, too (as, I'm sure, do the Rivals and Scout rankings). For example, Bucknuts is a big 247 site, and a whole bunch of prospects saw a sudden, enormous jump in their ratings after committing to OSU. Similarly, RCMB is part of 247, and while MSU was getting a lot of shit for not having many 4-star football recruits last year, 247 was giving a wildly disproportionate number of MSU commits their lowest 4-star rating (i.e., everyone around the 3-star / 4-star border somehow just happened to end up barely on the 4-star side of that line).
April 17th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
And although its difficult not to get caught up in the rankings race and being happy for the most 4* or 5*...I've tried to do a better job of watching films on recruits and then understand the level of competition they play against. A star ranking is somewhat subjective, but as they say...the film don't lie. I'm trying not to get caught up in stars and class rankings, although I find myself doing just that from time to time. Hopefully the MGoCommunity can help keep me grounded.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
Don't get me wrong... I have no idea how to watch prospects' film, so I rely almost entirely on recruiting services and offer lists. I think they contain a lot of information. They're just far from perfect (and far from unbiased).
You couldn't be more wrong about WolverineNation having even the slightest impact on their rankings. The two groups were completely independent and having more Michigan commits in their top 150/300 was a total non factor.
Didn't we love ESPN rankings in 2014?
Yeah, but it's a new year!
Now we can go back to hating them.
April 17th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^
that's no small thing
April 17th, 2014 at 11:54 AM ^
even recruit, bro?
/its been so long since hello: anyone
April 17th, 2014 at 12:02 PM ^
We have 5 2015 commits. As a percentage of available spots, that's probably pretty close to average right now. OSU only has 3, for example. Same with MSU, and one of them is Jayru Campbell, who is probably a tenuous commit.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:13 PM ^
You'd think so, but I'm not so sure. If Dantonio does still offer him a scholarship, then he'll get labeled as "trying to help a young kid from a tough area get a 2nd chance." We'll see if he pleads out and gets assault on his record if that offer still stands.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:20 PM ^
We'll see. Campbell just got re-admitted to Cass Tech. I don't know how you body slam an employee and are allowed to walk back through the doors of the same school, but whatever.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:38 PM ^
There is always a second chance...
did the security guard get to keep HIS job?
Garrett wasn't that long ago.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:19 PM ^
I broke down the ESPN 300
http://www.touchthebanner.blogspot.com/2014/04/espn-300-for-2015-update…
and the 247 Sports rankings
http://www.touchthebanner.blogspot.com/2014/04/top-247-for-2016-release…
from the perspective of Michigan offers/targets.
doesn't look too good QB wise for us. Is the 2015 247 list any better?
A lot of the top QBs are off the board already. And the ones that are left don't have much interest in Michigan. With QBs committing really early in the process, changing OCs probably hurt us a bit on getting a commitment from a top QB. Michigan will most likely have to get lucky with a late rising prospect, or take a flier on a project QB.
the kid looks talented and obviously has solid future prospects but its about time they dropped that dude cornell from #1 spot. not knocking him at all, hed be great sign for um, but the nations overall #1 player typically screams cant miss. guess i just did not see that kid standing head and shoulders above the rest of the pack like peppers/fournette or clowney or that ole miss DE or some of the other jump off the screen talents of years past. nice to see um kids ranked up there. crawford move kind of makes sense i guess since hes undersized, listed as an athlete and also already committed...all 3 often lead espn to drop players. bottom line though - um currently has 3 athletic DB commits with diverse skill sets and all of whom can run and tackle. and no doubt nice to see #1 kicker