2024 in-state safety Jacob Oden committing on Thursday
Class of 2024 safety Jacob Oden, from Harper Woods (MI) Harper Woods, is committing on Thursday at 6:00 p.m. He released a top five of Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Penn State, and Tennessee. He's a 4-star, the #17 athlete, and #160 overall.
Right now all six crystal ball picks on 247 are in favor of Michigan.
January 31st, 2023 at 10:36 AM ^
I’ll be committing February 2nd at 6pm on @CBSSports @AllenTrieu @ChadSimmons_ @adamgorney @SWiltfong247 pic.twitter.com/R971tVe9ws
— Jacob Oden 4 ⭐️ ATH (@JacobOden4) January 31, 2023
January 31st, 2023 at 10:38 AM ^
will hopefully be a nice pick me up after the harbor loves us, doesnt love us.. drama. or, ideally, icing on the cake
January 31st, 2023 at 10:43 AM ^
Honestly I'm not too worried about losing Harbor to another school. It sounds like he's only half-committed to football and doesn't have a set position either. I could see him focusing on track for his first year and a half on campus and then he might bolt for the NFL after year 3 since he's a five star talent. If that's the case, I doubt he has much impact on the field.
January 31st, 2023 at 10:53 AM ^
yeah, but for a long time we were told that we were at the top for him, only for that interest to seemingly wane over time.
Agree that his mind seems to be focused on track. But if we claim that jimmy loves guys who love football and he put the full court press on for harbor, then we can't have it both ways..
To your point, he'll do his track thing and whatever, but I can see him in the portal when he decides to get serious about football.
The reason we want him or guys like him is that we want to keep raising the level of athleticism on the team. Need more guys with high ceilings to compete with Georgia etc..
January 31st, 2023 at 12:21 PM ^
"for a long time we were told that we were at the top for him"
What's interesting is that the normally very optimistic Sam Webb has never issued a crystal ball predicting that UM would land Harbor. I listen to TMI virtually every morning and I've never once heard him give a verbal prediction that Michigan would land him, either. The most optimistic he's been is saying at various stages that Michigan is in a leading position, but he's always been careful to say that it's a snapshot view in time during the process, not a prediction of an eventual decision.
Over the last month he's been candid about Oregon being a threat, and lately USC and Maryland being legit contenders too.
Given that Sam isn't shy about making predictions if he feels the evidence is there to warrant it, I think it's reasonable to surmise he doesn't have a strong sense of what Harbor's intentions are, and is far, far away from any of his "gut feelings."
Ultimately I think this means Harbor has been playing things pretty close to the vest so far. We'll see if there are any late-breaking crystal balls before he announces tomorrow.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:15 AM ^
If Jim Harbaugh wants him badly, then Michigan fans should probably want him badly. Michigan has done a good job of identifying talented players, and I don't think they would spend this much time on resources on a player if they didn't truly believe in what he could bring to the table.
January 31st, 2023 at 1:37 PM ^
Not a lot of dudes with that size and speed walking around this planet. I for one would love to have him on this team. What a weapon he could be no matter what side of the ball he plays.
January 31st, 2023 at 2:14 PM ^
Let me be clear, I think it would be better to have him on the team than not. I just don't think he's as necessary or would make as big an impact on the field for Michigan as we would all hope.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:23 AM ^
and? i don't know why people are being so nonchalant about missing out on a top talent. If we only get one real year out of him then so be it. You need talent coming out of your ears to win it all. I'm sure we'll be fine without him but people acting like he isn't a priority for michigan is head scratching.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:31 AM ^
It is copium. We will be fine without him. He would be better on defense. He is still priority and we need elite playmakers and he has a chance to be one.
January 31st, 2023 at 12:11 PM ^
People are questioning whether he is fully committed to football. That's fairly important at the D1 level. No one is doubting the raw talent.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:26 AM ^
Even if he doesn't pan out like a 5 star is projected, I still want the recruiting battle win for a 5 star
January 31st, 2023 at 2:43 PM ^
If he doesn’t get after football his first year or two he won’t be bolting to the NFL after three years. He might have talent but he still needs a lot more development before he could play at the highest level.
It would be nice to pick him up but I do agree if he doesn’t choose us it’s not a huge loss He really wants to run in the Olympics and that is a huge goal. One I hope he attains. But to do that he really needs to put in a lot of work in the next year so who knows if he will ever really be a factor in football
January 31st, 2023 at 3:30 PM ^
Right, he'd end up performing at a Willie Gault/Renaldo Nehemiah level. Defenses love to tee off on track guys playing football.
January 31st, 2023 at 8:14 PM ^
I know nothing about track. From what I've read, though, he's a longshot at best to make the Olympic team. Sort of an odd path he's talking.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
#ThreadJack
January 31st, 2023 at 11:39 AM ^
I've seen drama only from concern trolls. As far as I can see UM has had "hat on the table" status the whole way. I'd admit that the Harbaugh home visit is interesting, but it's a reasonable dice roll even if he's personally never declared Michigan his leader. (That's been done only by subscription baiters.)
January 31st, 2023 at 1:03 PM ^
Someone on Twitter posted a screenshot from the Maryland 247 page basically saying that it's now an NIL arms race. The Harbor family has gone back on what they previously said and hired an agent who went with them on the Oregon visit. They liked Oregon's pitch, which was basically that Harbor would be a Nike athlete, but SC has the biggest NIL deal on the table right now. The post also said that Michigan has basically taken itself out of his recruitment late in the game because it's become an NIL bidding war
January 31st, 2023 at 1:12 PM ^
"NIL won't be a big factor" is the new "I care about academics."
January 31st, 2023 at 1:27 PM ^
At one point in time Harbor said he cared about academics and that he didn't care about NIL because he would get it anywhere he goes. I think that was before teams started throwing millions of dollars at him
January 31st, 2023 at 2:02 PM ^
I thought he had, we got a 2 for with this one!
January 31st, 2023 at 1:52 PM ^
Bingo. At best it's disingenuous.
January 31st, 2023 at 10:54 AM ^
Seems like it’s only a matter of days/weeks that Jadyn Davis will be dropping as well. Then the real fun begins.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:05 AM ^
To be fair, people have been saying this for months. I still feel good about him, but it's odd he's waiting so long
January 31st, 2023 at 11:37 AM ^
It's odd that he waited to commit while waiting for the Harbaugh and Weiss situations to play out? No it isn't.
January 31st, 2023 at 8:15 PM ^
Um, the Harbaugh and Weiss situations have played out.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:06 AM ^
What’s the crootin’ scuttlebutt on Davis now? I can’t keep up. Does he love us? Yes, no, maybe so?
January 31st, 2023 at 11:09 AM ^
another quaalude, he love me in the morning
January 31st, 2023 at 11:13 AM ^
The new QB coach (Kirk Campbell) has been in contact and they hit it off pretty well. Michigan still has a good chance unless more crazy stuff happens.
January 31st, 2023 at 12:08 PM ^
Yeah about that crazy stuff. Still no signed extension and Mike Florio had a crypic tweet this morning regarding Jim and the Broncos.
It's been radio silence since Santa and Jim expressed their undying love for each other and all things Michigan. And even though people here are largely dismissing it, the fact that Harbaugh took an in-person meeting with the Denver ownership group last week is NOT a good sign at all.
I will feel much, much better when we announce his new contract has been signed.
January 31st, 2023 at 12:13 PM ^
If I was Davis I wouldn't be committing to Michigan until he has a new contract announced. He doesn't need to as he's a 2024, and i'm sure the other schools he has been visiting are negative recruiting the shit out of UM right now. Not that a verbal commitment for 2024 is binding or anything but while i don't doubt that we're the leader there still as of this moment, the longer it goes the more time there is for someone else to get in there and make headway. He seems to be tiring of the recruitment process, and i know most schools are selling him on being the "anchor" of the class to lure in his classmates so i think he wants to commit soon. Feels like delay is related to the Weiss/Harbaugh issues
January 31st, 2023 at 9:13 PM ^
Maybe they should have a joint signing.
January 31st, 2023 at 12:50 PM ^
Seems to me the M will NOT be signing Harbaugh until the NCAA thing is wrapped - hence the declaration from both parties that he is “committed” since a signed contract might take a while.
Until he is signed NFL teams will continue to nose around and per your cited tweet, Harbaugh remains one of the best sources of free clicks out there so these will keep happening.
That makes the most sense to me anyway…
January 31st, 2023 at 1:00 PM ^
FWIW another NFL insider, Ian Rapoport just said on the Pat McAfee show that Harbaugh is still very much in play with Denver. He said what I've been saying, that until there's a signed contract extension at Michigan, Harbaugh remains the best option for any NFL team looking for a HC.
January 31st, 2023 at 1:02 PM ^
Schefter said the exact opposite.
January 31st, 2023 at 2:21 PM ^
Wasn't Rapaport one of those guys saying the famed "Oakland is still in play" line years ago? Pretty sure he was.
January 31st, 2023 at 5:08 PM ^
oh you're losing that dollar mGrowOld.... there's no two ways about it.
January 31st, 2023 at 1:34 PM ^
I wouldn't put much stock in Florio; as for the in-person Denver meeting at this point it's pretty clear the Broncos aren't attracting anyone and may have thought they could try to razzle-dazzle him in person but by all accounts that didn't happen. And honestly, all of these meetings feel like they should be taken with a shaker of salt given how fluid definitions and purposes wind up being of these meetings. And as a professional courtesy it would be off for Harbaugh to not talk to someone he previously interviewed with given how few jobs there are in the NFL and how he really doesn't know what the future holds. It was only 2 years ago that people were dying to kick Harbaugh to the curb.
Given the movement we've seen with recruits and guys returning I don't think the state of a new contract matters much; he's make good money now and him and the school have publicly discussed him returning. They probably are negotiating pretty hard now in part so they don't have to go back to this process in a year or two; Harbaugh has had now 3 different contract negotiations in 3 years.
January 31st, 2023 at 2:19 PM ^
I see you're still clinging to that dollar like your life depended on it. XM is going to have to pry it from your cold, dead fingers!
January 31st, 2023 at 8:16 PM ^
He's already under contract, and the Broncos have hired a coach. There's literally nothing else standing in the way of Harbaugh returning.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:05 AM ^
Come on down.... Odin, the great magician!
January 31st, 2023 at 11:08 AM ^
Oden seems a little old to make a big difference. I am waiting for his kids Thor and Loki to declare. Talk about a couple difference makers...
January 31st, 2023 at 11:13 AM ^
Also, his peripheral vision is somewhat lacking.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:16 AM ^
Fuck Loki. Wears green far too much to be trusted
January 31st, 2023 at 11:16 AM ^
Loki is a bit undersized but is deceptively athletic and also hela cunning. Thor has the power and reach you'd want as a left tackle but I think actually projects better asgard.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
You got me with "actually projects better asgard".
Well done.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:38 AM ^
It was a long setup, but worth it in the end!
January 31st, 2023 at 1:50 PM ^
Kinda like Ragnarok.
January 31st, 2023 at 2:03 PM ^
I've been playing FIFA 23 with my kids lately, and for some reason, I read this with that British announcers voice. Seems like the exact thing he would say after a bunch of passes and finally a goal.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:28 AM ^
Loki gives off serious "Little Brother" vibes. Perfect fit for Sparty.