2025 3* LB Mantrez Walker decommits from Michigan

Submitted by njvictor on September 11th, 2023 at 10:33 PM

After making a tweet a few months back that made it seem like this would be the eventual outcome, Walker has officially decommited:

https://twitter.com/MantrezWalker/status/1701420722537504906?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

247

Steve Lorenz posted on the 247 board when Walker made his initial tweet that the staff isn't exactly heartbroken by this and won't be pursuing him further.

Hopefully this doesn't impact the recruitment of Walker's teammate, Justin Baker, who I'm a huge fan of

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GLORY

September 12th, 2023 at 3:41 PM ^

Ewald seemed pretty locked in, even recruiting his teammate Zaquan Patterson.  The irony is that now that Patterson's a Miami commit, it seems like the roles have reversed.  Patterson is recruiting Ewald and FSU is also coming after him hard.  I still think we're in good shape, but it's never good to compete against both schools for a local Florida prospect.

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YakAttack

September 11th, 2023 at 11:55 PM ^

I'd assume so, based on his High School alone. An, in-state, top 400 player nationally from a school that pumps out high level prospects at the rate that Buford does? 

It's like a Glenville to OSU, or Cass Tech/West Bloomfield to Michigan situation I'd assume. But there are always Willie Henrys and DeWeavers, so who knows.

Especially with NIL. A core special-teamer at least.

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Jack Be Nimble

September 12th, 2023 at 3:38 AM ^

According to 247, he does not have a Georgia offer, and I would be surprised if he gets one. Definitely a good player, but the way Georgia is recruiting these days, they don't take many guys ranked where he is, unless they really disagree with the sites' evaluation.

Georgia leaves several in-state top 400 talents without offers every single year.

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JonnyHintz

September 12th, 2023 at 4:48 AM ^

It’s also incredibly early in the process to say “he’s a top 400 talent.” The sites are still focused mainly on the 2024 class and a large portion of the 2025 class either hasn’t been evaluated, or hasn’t been evaluated thoroughly. 
 

Walker has also seen a steady drop in the rankings, debuting in April as a .9105, and currently sitting at .8821. That ranking would put him at #583 in the 2024 class.

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Perkis-Size Me

September 12th, 2023 at 7:10 AM ^

I remember when he committed that I thought to myself “this is almost certainly not a kid who actually winds up at Michigan.” Not for any personal reasons, character issues or the like. Just seemed like one of those really early commits that just wouldn’t stick. 

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TeslaRedVictorBlue

September 12th, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^

When exactly did he represent the University of Michigan.  He was offered the opportunity to do so... and declined. Not a big deal, though recruiting remains in the crapper - unrelated to him specifically. Teams are cleaning up every week and we haven't see much in about 3 months. Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Okay, but then what.

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GoBlue1530

September 12th, 2023 at 2:27 PM ^

Less than 10% of the top 300 on the composite remain uncommitted. It would seem as if the early signing period has sped things up considerably, most classes appear to be 90%+ filled. Once Michigan had their 25th commit or so by early August you had to know that most of the heavy lifting was over and they weren't going to get 30+ kids. 

 

I'm not sure who everyone else is, because the last 2+ weeks you can look at 247 (since August 26th) there have been 8 commitments of 90 or higher rated kids, and Oklahoma has gotten 2, and none of the other six have committed to the same school. 

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TeslaRedVictorBlue

September 12th, 2023 at 2:56 PM ^

You do understand that this is a 2025 recruit, right? Kids ARE both committing and signing sooner. The last few guys they did get, by the way, were not the primary choices, so just getting a commit isnt a sign that all is perfect. 

It may be a slow drip of commits, but its there. Plenty of schools have picked up commits.. and though I suppose losing the 2 recruiting weekends is a big deal, those don't always yield commits for us.

There are plenty of players that the coaches seemingly wanted, that went elsewhere. If the smith twins leave.... 23 isn't looking like a "huge" class in October 2023 ... when signing day is 60 days away.

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GoBlue1530

September 12th, 2023 at 3:23 PM ^

I do indeed know that this is a 2025 kid, which means there's even less of a reason to have any panic. 

So let's look at the 2025 class, 30 of the 247 top kids in the class have committed. There's 14 months left before these kids are able to sign. Your statement that teams are picking up kids in the last few weeks is still, not a big deal. Once again, since Bobby Kanka committed to Michigan, there's been 8 kids in the top 247 in the 2025 class to commit, and Auburn is the only one who has gotten more than one kid. 

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