Da'Mario Jones Commitment Offers More Hope With Late Interest/Scholarship
This week Da'Mario was visited by Bama, Georgia, Florida State, UCLA, and Staee. UCLA offered and supposedly if he'd have shown any kind of interest the others would have too. This may quell some of the negative thoughts on the WR recruiting by the staff.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:04 PM ^
Brady Hoke cant close on elite skill players.
January 31st, 2013 at 9:53 AM ^
When he can spot them before anyone else?
What is quite interesting is the late interest by all of these top notch schools. Most surprising is UCLA who has completely rejuvinated itself with Mora at the helm vs their last Neuheisel. I wonder if Mora is using Antler spray?
January 30th, 2013 at 4:04 PM ^
January 30th, 2013 at 4:04 PM ^
dude has a bitchin' name
January 30th, 2013 at 4:04 PM ^
and visits no less. Mr. Jones must have some serious talent that goes beyond his 3 star rating. Can't wait to see him in the Maize and Blue.
January 30th, 2013 at 10:13 PM ^
He is like Calvin Johnson, only faster and with better hands.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:04 PM ^
Georgia and MSU apparently extended him scholarhip offers as well during their visits
January 30th, 2013 at 5:38 PM ^
I work with a member of the family, so I can offer a little insight on the offers. UCLA, Michigan State, and Georgia did offer. Alabama told them they would have if he would entertain a visit. Whether they would have come through? Who knows. Florida State also wanted a visit.
Why now? He is a kid who moved around a few times and didn't hit many camps or combines.The offense he plays in, nor did his QB shocase his skills. Sometimes good players just slip through the cracks. I know a coach who's team went up against Da'Mario this year , and told me after he pledged to Michigan that they stole one.
January 30th, 2013 at 6:40 PM ^
Alabama during his time at Michigan. I think everyone is a bit gun shy after the RR era when we were supposed to trust the coaches on a possible reaches. Looking for big things from Da'Mario.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:05 PM ^
All in all this is a good sign the coaches do a good job of evaluating talent early and getting those kids.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:09 PM ^
Jones committed to Michigan during the 2012 season. How did they evaluate his talent early in this case?
This is more of a case of Georgia, UCLA and MSU recognizing they badly need a WR, pulling up commit lists on Rivals, and throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:11 PM ^
January 30th, 2013 at 4:18 PM ^
Didn't Miami under Coker admit to doing exactly this?
January 30th, 2013 at 4:32 PM ^
Yes, and many laughs have been had at the expense of Coker.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:50 PM ^
do in fact seem to know who the highly ranked kids are. Hoke and others have mentioned that during pressers about recruiting. So they at least look at the rankings, even if they don't use them
January 30th, 2013 at 4:55 PM ^
Being aware of them is one thing; using them to decide who to recruit is another.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:48 PM ^
January 30th, 2013 at 5:13 PM ^
The knock was that he would just follow Nick Saban around and offer defensive players that Alabama offered.
January 30th, 2013 at 8:20 PM ^
Sounds pretty good to me.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:24 PM ^
January 30th, 2013 at 4:13 PM ^
What about Alabama and Florida State? You're being naive if you think these school will just drop in on any player if the need is there. Why waste your time this late in the process unless it's worth the risk/reward?
January 30th, 2013 at 4:19 PM ^
January 30th, 2013 at 8:21 PM ^
Makes you wonder if we aren't doing this as well . . .
January 30th, 2013 at 5:07 PM ^
January 30th, 2013 at 4:35 PM ^
This may
[synonym of quell]
[synonym of doubts]
of the staff's ability to
[pick one from: close, recruit elite players, recruit skill players, recruit WRs, recruit in Ohio, out-recruit OSU, out-recruit EVERYONE, beat Ohio, beat MSU, sell t-shirts]
I'm just sayin', this meme that everything positive they do disproves some negative perception about them just shoehorns this weird kind of insecurity into every post. On top of that, I don't even think the alleged doubters exist half of the time, like here for instance.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:15 PM ^
Dude's got wheels and skill. Doesn't look like a 3 star in his highlights.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:22 PM ^
Seriously - can you tell me who does "look like a 3 Star" in their highlights? Isn't that sort of the point - to take a group of plays, cobble them together and present the player to the world as the 5 Staringish 5 Star ever to get 5 Stars?
I mean if the best you can do is look like a 3 Star in your own highlights shouldn't you drop the excercise alltogether and hope others will just remember you in a better light?
January 30th, 2013 at 4:32 PM ^
Derrick Green. Wish I had a Mgopoint for every time someone said Green's video is not impressive.
January 30th, 2013 at 5:44 PM ^
January 30th, 2013 at 4:33 PM ^
Yes, there are plently of people that look like 3 stars in their video. While their highlight tape is supposed to make them all look like 5 stars, a lot fail.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^
Lots of guys look like 3-stars in their highlights. People just look at the wrong things - the touchdowns, the tackles, etc. There are lots of high schoolers who score a bunch of touchdowns and don't do jack squat in college. A mediocre running back with a good offensive line is going to score a bunch of touchdowns, but that doesn't mean he's fast or powerful or elusive.
January 30th, 2013 at 5:10 PM ^
so do you think jones deserves more hype than three stars?
January 30th, 2013 at 5:38 PM ^
Not really. I think a high 3-star ranking should be about his ceiling.
January 30th, 2013 at 5:47 PM ^
so if you think he'll be the best of the three WR commits this year, do you project the other two to have a mid-three star ceiling?
January 30th, 2013 at 5:49 PM ^
I think the other two are solid 3-stars. That doesn't mean I think they'll have bad careers, but they've both got some big hurdles to clear, in my opinion.
January 30th, 2013 at 10:28 PM ^
they have a good shot at being better than Jeremy Jackson?
I sure hope so
January 30th, 2013 at 7:02 PM ^
that his ceiling is higher than a high three. I'm thinking an All Conference-type player.
January 30th, 2013 at 7:05 PM ^
Well, I certainly hope you're right that he's an all-conference talent, but those schools can miss on guys, too. I think he's a 3-star because he needs time to develop, not because of his ceiling. The higher rankings generally go to the guys who can make an earlier impact.
January 30th, 2013 at 7:09 PM ^
top 15 programs persuing a recruit is a good sign of a recruits potential.
January 30th, 2013 at 7:11 PM ^
I certainly think it's a good sign (unless he flips, and then it's a bad sign), and as I said, I think Jones is the best of our WR bunch.
January 30th, 2013 at 5:10 PM ^
What happened to Jill? You left her for that?
January 30th, 2013 at 5:18 PM ^
January 30th, 2013 at 5:28 PM ^
Very shapely.
January 30th, 2013 at 5:38 PM ^
My third grade kick ball highlights were pretty impressive but unfortunately, I fizzeled out during junior high. I think it was lack of work ethic that doomed me. Plus I started to notice girls on the playground.
January 30th, 2013 at 10:13 PM ^
Be glad you made it that far. I was the star of my fifth grade team but turns out that was the peak of my career. When you start chasing money, drugs and bitches as an 11 year old, it's all downhill from there. No regrets, though.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:23 PM ^
He does look very good in the videos- but WR is so hard for me to judge on high school highlights- so many schools have poor DB's that it is so hard to tell what is serious talent and what is just being better than weak talent on D for WR...
Interesting to see one of our lower rated guys get such big-time looks especially after being a commit... Some coaches have a great eye for high end talent who are not highly ranked recruiting-wise. I know people are quick to say Hoke can't get elite WR talent- but give it some time for the first few recruiting classes to get some experience to see if he does have an eye for these types of guys- I think its way too early to be upset about WR recruting. Plus, with his recruitng skills its saying al ot that WR elite talent is one of the main problems...
January 30th, 2013 at 5:45 PM ^
I imagine one of the things that could be working against UM in recruiting battles for WR is that the offense has not featured the WRs much. UM hasn't had a 1000 yard receiver since Manningham in 2007 and I bet recruits (and opposing coaches) point to this as an example of the offense not being friendly to elite receivers.
January 30th, 2013 at 4:45 PM ^
It seems tough to evaluate based just on these highlights. I mean he doesn't really even run a whole lot of routes. His normal 'route' is 'run fast past the DB.' Good in high school, but that won't fly in college. However, he does seem to locate and adjust to the ball well. One thing to remember is that rankings often take into accout how physically ready a guy is; and in his case, he looks like he needs so weight (kind of like Chesson did). So I can definitely see why he's 3-star, but that doesn't mean his upside is low. Certainly if that 10.8 40 time (which is probably a JR year time) then he brings some welcome speed to the WR class especially with a 6'2" frame.