BBrown: Quick Update on Alex Malzone

Submitted by Brandon Brown on

I talked with Alex a little bit tonight after his name has been heating up on the recruiting trail and he is starting to get a good feeling with the Michigan coaches.

Malzone has been in regular contact with Coach Borges and the offensive coordinator told Alex that the staff was considering 5-10 QB's for offers in the 2015 class. They are taking it very slowly and want to find the exact guy to offer.

Malzone couldn't tell me any specifics as Borges didn't mention them to him, but I feel pretty confident that most or all of the names outlined in the 2015 QB article would be among that group.

Malzone feels like if he keeps playing how he has been, and the coaches like what they see when he throws live he might be offered.

To me this situation sounds exactly how Wilton Speight's recruitment went down. Lesser known guy, showed the skill set the coaches liked, coaches went in and watched him throw in person, offered, commitment.

I don't know if it will happen that way with Malzone, but the coaches seem to like him quite a bit and he's basically in their backyard so he's a kid to play close attention to.

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Losher

October 8th, 2013 at 8:09 PM ^

Does it mean anything that he has no other big ten offers and no offers other than low MAC? I mean it is early but there are some prospects who have a multitude of college offers already and could be better fits for the program both internally and in the long run recruiting wise. I just dont see him being the next one in line to get an offer but we have seen the coaches pass up Cornwell for Speight so who knows what will happen

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WolverineFanatic6

October 8th, 2013 at 8:33 PM ^

Obviously this will come off as not trusting the coaches but when you have 2 top end QB's essentially saying an offer = commitment and you're honestly considering this kid... I have no words.

Joined: 10/29/2012

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alum96

October 8th, 2013 at 10:08 PM ^

I think he is just a positive kid, who is excited getting interaction with a dream school.  The coaches have 5-10 in mind, and they tell that to all 5-10 they are talking to.  They are going to essentially offer 1, and it seems the way they like to work at this position versus all others is they only offer someone who will take.  And seemingly take immediately.  There is no rush for Malzone. 

Wilton seems to be like a competent but not elite QB prospect, I hope I am wrong - this last game where he threw at under a 50% completion rate as a HS Sr makes me wonder even more, whatever the competition.  So it makes me have more angst about the 2015 offer since in some ways I feel it has to hit, and hit pretty big to bridge the Shane to 2015 QB gap. I have never studied Hackenberg but I doubt he had games as a senior where he threw for sub 50% completion rates.  That said Wilton loves the school and the minute was offered, jumped.

UM should be gunning for a top 5 QB in the country, that is the pedigree of the school... Oregon, OSU, and a few other top end schools run different systems so are competing for different style of QBs....so other than competing with the USC's, Alabama's, Stanford's and a small few others UM should be in the mix for a very small sliver of pro style studs.  We never know how these kid turns out and for all we know Malzone becomes the best QB of this class ... or becomes an average dude in college - who knows.  But there do appear to be 2 very highly rated guys who would love a UM offer, so it will be interesting to see who gets it.  Such a tough position, you really cannot miss on it very often as a coach or it can set back your entire team.

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2014

October 8th, 2013 at 10:23 PM ^

TomVh corrected the stats, he didn't throw under 50%. It's an arbitrary stat regardless. You need to have receivers capable of catching the balls that are thrown to them. We won't know until he gets here what he's capable of, but his collective work I've the last year had been impressive.

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alum96

October 9th, 2013 at 3:19 PM ^

Rosen seems to be the 1 exception.  My gut is they felt very high on Rosen and thought with an offer and the usual "Michigan magic" they could get him to convert even if at first he was lukewarm but it appears this is just a kid who already has his mind set unfortunately.

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WolvinLA2

October 9th, 2013 at 10:05 AM ^

Alum96 - have you seen any other stat lines for Speight this year, other than the one that was incorrectly reported here (he was actually 39-67)? He's been lighting it up. He has thrown 18 TDs to 4INTs on the season. Keep in mind that in HS football, a number of incompletions are on the WR - bad routes, drops, etc. he has been throwing it like crazy and only has 4 picks, so accuracy is clearly not a big issue.

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alum96

October 9th, 2013 at 3:18 PM ^

Ok I didnt see the corrected state line, just the original one which made me scratch my head.  As for the "you need able WRs" - his WRs seem to be able to catch in the other games so I doubt suddenly for this 1 game they had 8 drops.  Anyhow good to see the stat line was better than originally reported.

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UMICH1606

October 9th, 2013 at 4:46 AM ^

The definition of who is top flight and who isn't is always in the eye of the beholder. That is the beauty of scouting. Take Settle for instance. Some places have him rated the #1 prospect in his class in the entire country. Webb had reported a couple of times that the staff believes he is quite overrated that high. Hence no offer as of yet. It is all a matter of opinion.

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Wolfman

October 9th, 2013 at 2:46 PM ^

if graded out equally to their Southern or Western competition. If it were not for MSU taking a kid Carr passed on, I think Dantonio would not be nearly as popular in E. Lansing as he is today. You never know which one will make the difference. We obviously have a better chance at landing the better prospect simply due to our national percepton. However, I would never pass on a Bullough, Piersen from the U.P. or any of the other kids simply by geographical location.  That kid Wheatley turned out pretty good too, aye?

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WolvinLA2

October 9th, 2013 at 9:57 AM ^

WolverineFanatic - how do you know those top flight QBs are really better than Malzone? Dillman is more athletic, but I don't know that he's a better passer. There is more evidence in your favor, but how many people have watched both kids throw in person? A lot of times the kid who is "better" 2 years before he gets to college doesn't end up being better. Last year everyone was up in arms about offering DaMario Jones (whose only other offer was CMU) and Channing Stribling (whose only other offer was NCSt). But Stribling has already shown he can play and Jones is getting more PT (and hype) than any other frosh WR. These coaches have a lot more to go on than most. When it seems like they're doing something crazy, that's usually not the case.

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maize-blue

October 9th, 2013 at 9:52 AM ^

I think Malzone is a decent player. But he is probably a 2nd/3rd option guy at the moment. The coaches probably want to stay in contact with him in case their other options don't pan out and he is probably someone they know they could get to commit if they pursued hard enough.

Joined: 01/10/2013

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bubblelevel

October 9th, 2013 at 11:47 AM ^

"If" this was ever to come to fruition UofM would have Cleary (UofD), Morris (DLS), Moores (CC), and then Malzone (BBR).  BTW - Shane's understudy at DLS this year is damn good too.

 

P.S. Gardner was technically in this league for a bit as well

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