4* Linebacker Visiting this weekend!

Submitted by STAUDACHERBLUE on

Texas A&M 4* Linebacker Commit Leilon Willingham is skipping his scheduled visit this weekend with A&M and headed to Ann Arbor apparently. This came off a friends twitter account and also popped up on the rivals message board from another source.  Anyone have any info?

**Edit** TomVH talked to his coach at the bottom of the thread.

mgoblueballer

January 20th, 2011 at 12:50 PM ^

this, my friend, is good news.  I was just watching Bob Davie talk about how Greg Mattison is a great recruiter more than anything else. I wonder if Mattison is the one recruiting this guy. 

Ch125

January 20th, 2011 at 12:57 PM ^

Negged for being sarcastically negative? who would have thought.  We will soon return to landing 5* ESPNU 150 prospects, have no fear.  I do believe that Brady Hoke is going to do an excellent job closing this years class.  He certainly seems to know that we are lacking on the defensive side of the football, and he and Mattison are doing their best to right the ship.  Keep up the good work fellas

ChitownWolverine82

January 20th, 2011 at 12:55 PM ^

Sounds great.  Why wouldn't he want to take a look?  We have immediate need for someone, and our new DC has been coaching Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs for the last two years.  This kid already has some serious size.

PhillipFulmersPants

January 20th, 2011 at 1:35 PM ^

friends with a current freshman at A&M (this according to a CU buddy of mine who follows Buffs recruiting pretty closely). They grew up together, and this is one of the primary reasons he selected A&M originally. He may have unofficially visited A&M prior -- my friend wasn't sure.

Colorado's coaches are almost as new as Michigan's, so hometown school's staff doesn't necessarily have a relationship that goes back years, but they're on him.

Lot of people think he's the top player coming out of Colorado -- not a deep state for football talent, but has produced some good players here and there ...

912Jeff

January 20th, 2011 at 1:28 PM ^

After clicking on his rivals page I noticed he goes to Denver-Mullen, which is a top notch school that yields alot of FBS players. I know they have a great QB recruit next year in Cyler Miles, who had a good showing in San Antonio at the Army All-American combine.  I hope this puts us in the good graces of Mullen's coaches and prospects.

smokinrox

January 20th, 2011 at 1:45 PM ^

I live in Colorado Springs and Denver Mullen has an amazing football program.  They are coached by Dave Logan, former Broncos player, and they are a private school that attracts the best Denver has to offer.  Many of my friends, who have graduated from rival schools, don't appreciate his ability to "recruit," but they do produce most of the top talent in Colorado.  If you look at Rivals list of top 20 or 25 players from Colorado, you will find 4 of the top 10 are from Mullen.  I would love to see us build a pipeline at Mullen.  Dave Logan had good things to say about Michigan IIRC when Watson chose Michigan.

912Jeff

January 20th, 2011 at 1:54 PM ^

Its nice to hear that Logan has positive things to say about Michigan. I forgot Watson went there. I've been curious to see what Hoke will do with Watson this year. I wonder if he plans on sticking at DE or a possible move back to TE giving our lack of depth there.

ken725

January 20th, 2011 at 4:14 PM ^

I saw that video of him on Rivals.  I want him in our 2012 class.  I'm not sure if Hoke and Co. goes after him since he is listed as a dual-threat.  FWIW, I thought he threw the ball really well, but I'm no scout.

mmiicchhiiggaann

January 20th, 2011 at 1:06 PM ^

This is crazy, at this point getting anyone to visit is difficult. Especially committed top talent. Its amazing that these kids are from Texas, Cali, and now Colorado visiting. The net is large. I think we can expect a couple other huge names in the next week.

08mms

January 20th, 2011 at 1:08 PM ^

I'll take lots of very solid and exciting *3 and *4 recruits when we are in therory supposed to have a decimated recruiting class, a better than mediocre season next year, and a stellar recruiting class from the upswing.

TomVH

January 20th, 2011 at 1:11 PM ^

I just spoke to his coach who wasn't 100% sure yet if the visit was on. I'm supposed to talk to Leilon later today, but here's what his coach said.

He had a trip scheduled to Texas A&M, but one of my assistant coaches told me he cancelled that yesterday to set something up with Michigan. I haven't talked to him about it yet.

The (Michigan) coaches when they were at SDSU wanted to recruit him, but they felt that he was a little bit out of their reach. 

Colorado has gotten in late, he's visited ASU, Washington, and looks like he may visit Michigan.

He's an outstanding player, really athletic, great football instincts. He's about 6'3", 230 lbs, strong, great in the weight room. He'll be a really good player anywhere he goes.

Like I said I'm supposed to talk to him later, since he's in school right now. I'll keep you updated.

buckeyeh8er

January 20th, 2011 at 2:07 PM ^

I kind of wonder after everything that he has done for my sanity if I should maybe invite him to my wedding in a couple months.  without him it seems like I would have more time to fight with the bride.  Now I just talk to the computer

Umichmadness

January 20th, 2011 at 1:19 PM ^

 Targets (and highly ranked ones at that) are just starting to pop up out of nowhere and showing significant interest...great job hoke. I didn't know he had it like this!!!!

Sac Fly

January 20th, 2011 at 1:22 PM ^

.... how long it would take for some of the elite level prospects to start looking at us after the mattison hire, obviously it didn't take very long.