Da'Shawn Hand Decision Day: Primer
Rivals #1 overall player for the class of 2014, Da'Shawn Hand, announces his decision today. As most of you all know, he's narrowed his choice down to Alabama, Florida, and Michigan. So if you're trying to figure out how to pass the time until his announcement this afternoon - besides refreshing the MGoBlog browser tab every 15 seconds - below are some links that might fill said time.
Commence with wild speculation.
Da’Shawn Hand’s announcement will be broadcast and streamed live
TIME: 12pm ET
TV:
NBCSports Network (220 on DirecTV, 267 Time Warner)
INTERNET LIVE STREAM
Rivals
His Announcement Promo is here
Da’Shawn’s Twitter
@TheHand54
(If you’re really creepin’ this post shows you that his statements on academics aren’t just for show...)
Scout’s Rachel Klein will be at the announcement
@RKleinFOX
Rivals is expected to have recruiting analysts Mike Farrell and Adam Friedman there
@rivalsmike
@RivalsFriedman
DA'SHAWN'S RECRUITING PAGES
RIVALS PROFILE
Position #1 , State #1, National #1
SCOUT PROFILE
Position #2, National #10
ESPN PROFILE
Position #2, State #2, National #6
247 PROFILE
Position #1, State #2, National #5
247 Composite Rankings
Position #1, State #1, National #4
Highlights
Hudl Page
Video interview from 2012 with some highlights. (I know the rule on B/R stuff, but this seems legit)
Senior Highlights From Rivals
Mike Farell Sit Down with Da’Shawn from 10/26/2013 ($$)
WASHINGTON POST DOCUMENTARY
The Washington Post followed Da’Shawn’s senior season on the field and throughout the recruiting process. You can find all the webisodes here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/firstand17/
A few of particular interest.
EP 3 – Under The Lights Highlights his official visit to Michigan.
Here is the first-hand account of that trip from mgoblogger, Canzio
EP 9 – Then and Now Of note, Da’Shawn has a female kicker on his team.
EP 10 – A Rising Tide - Focusing on his trip to Alabama. Also of note towards the end, his coach is talking to Mike Farrell of Rivals about which school he might choose. UM's Coach Manning visits and his high school coach is seen talking to Manning after the game.
EP 12 – Down To The Wire – His recruiting trip to FL...and plenty of Michigan stuff throughout. The girl kicker gets a tackle, and Da’Shawn gets a suit.
On Da'Shawn's visits to UM he was blown away by the sports marketing professor, Mark Rosentraub. Aka "Professor Needs A Raise." Crain's Detroit has a profile here.
FINALLY
If you want to know which school he chooses before he makes the announcement, click here
If Hand picks Alabama or Florida:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6MYf6ZXY40
If Hand picks Michigan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y643qtpEkqU
GO BLUE!
November 14th, 2013 at 6:35 AM ^
I hope that he selects Michigan
November 14th, 2013 at 10:39 AM ^
Deploy... The PUPPIES!!
November 14th, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^
And look at their floppy ears!
What's recruiting, again?
November 14th, 2013 at 10:58 AM ^
Maybe is it this.
November 14th, 2013 at 11:13 AM ^
Michigan turnovers, sacks, and other negative yard plays? I think it'd do everybody a lot of good.
November 14th, 2013 at 12:22 PM ^
and it had the song Sail by AWOLNATION playing over the video. I about pissed myself.
November 14th, 2013 at 6:40 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 6:52 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 7:31 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 8:55 AM ^
I never thought of that, because all 5 stars are alike........come on man, let some people on the board have a little excitement. Besides MBB thats about all we have right now.
November 14th, 2013 at 9:18 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 9:12 AM ^
AP behind our line right now and he isn't going to look like a star. Stop being an idiot and let's just see how he does in a year or two once we get our line figured out.
November 14th, 2013 at 9:16 AM ^
Are you trying to suggest he's a bust all of 9 games into his freshman year running behind one of the worst Michigan offensive lines in anyone's memory banks?
I actually think he's looked pretty darn good so far. He gets a lot more YAC than Fitz does
November 14th, 2013 at 9:25 AM ^
I agree with this and have little clue why their are so many pessimistic comments about him. Must be the larger frustration seeping into rationale thought and the fact he does not score a touchdown on everyplay despite his lineman playing the role of matadors and the other teams loading up 8 in the box. Folks, he is falling forward for 3 yards in most instances and he barely plays. Devin and Fitz, our other two runners, are now losing yards on what looks like half of their carries. Maybe its just me but the eyeball test implies that he is going to be a very solid back for us.
Also not sure why D. Smith is not getting any carries, he looked good running the ball in his only action against CMU. I am bullish on these two...I think they are going to be pretty devastating by the time their junior years roll around.
November 14th, 2013 at 9:25 AM ^
I agree with this and have little clue why their are so many pessimistic comments about him. Must be the larger frustration seeping into rationale thought and the fact he does not score a touchdown on everyplay despite his lineman playing the role of matadors and the other teams loading up 8 in the box. Folks, he is falling forward for 3 yards in most instances and he barely plays. Devin and Fitz, our other two runners, are now losing yards on what looks like half of their carries. Maybe its just me but the eyeball test implies that he is going to be a very solid back for us.
Also not sure why D. Smith is not getting any carries, he looked good running the ball in his only action against CMU. I am bullish on these two...I think they are going to be pretty devastating by the time their junior years roll around.
November 14th, 2013 at 6:45 AM ^
I love how everyone's so down on Green. Hard for freshmen to contribute in a big way. Let's get the kid today and then give him a year or two to become what we would all like him to be.
November 14th, 2013 at 6:47 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 6:49 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 6:57 AM ^
Very nice primer indeed. Quite comprehensive.
It looks like the prediction page on 247 is about 88% Michigan to 11% Alabama with a sole analyt going with the outlier in Florida. Granted, several of these predictions have not been updated in months, so take it for what it is worth. If it is any approximation, however, then hopefully we are celebrating around 12:30 PM or so.
November 14th, 2013 at 7:49 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 6:58 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 9:52 AM ^
so he had an awesome post done weeks ago?
November 14th, 2013 at 7:04 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 8:36 AM ^
Are you saying that other schools have had larger crowds than Michigan?
November 14th, 2013 at 8:55 AM ^
soon...
November 14th, 2013 at 9:15 AM ^
but which schools do you think are most likely to exceed Michigan's attendance?
PSU, Tennessee, and OSU have the next three largest capacities.
According to the attendance figures on ESPN:
Tennessee played in front of 102 K against Georgia. PSU played in front of just under 108K against Michigan, and OSU had just under 106K against Wisconsin and PSU.
Supposedly there were over 112K here against Nebraska. We're sure to have at least than many against OSU. Unfortunately, a sizeable number of them may be OSU fans if we lose the next two road games.
November 14th, 2013 at 9:42 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 9:40 AM ^
I think he is referring to that ridiculous idea of playing a football game at that race track. It takes some fluke idea to beat M's record.
November 14th, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^
....and actual attendance are not one in the same.
Old Michigan Daily article explaining how Michigan attendance is calculated
I have a suspicion that, for example, on October 19th, 2013 Ohio State may have indeed had a higher attendance than Michigan.
Iowa played at Ohio State. Indiana played at Michigan.
Ohio State's recorded attendance was 105,264. Michigan's was 109,503... 400 short of capacity. I was at the Indiana game and I can tell you that there were thousands of empty seats. I can't vouch for OSU's attendance but it's not hard to imagine that they were packed in after winning back to back games against ranked Big Ten opponents.
The price of attending a Michigan game is not in line with the product being sold. Empty seats are going to be more and more common over the next couple of years, unless we see drastic improvement.
November 14th, 2013 at 11:00 AM ^
I'm sure OSU had empty seats as well. Even for marquee games, there are always some ticketholders who don't show up. Iowa really isn't considered a marquee opponent right now, either.
November 14th, 2013 at 11:14 AM ^
We spectacularly gave away a game against Penn State the week before and were playing Indiana. OSU just won at then #16 Northwestern, beat then # 23 Wisconsin the week before, was ranked top 5 in the country and was playing a team that generally puts up a fight.
I don't pretend to know actual attendence at both stadiums but I do know there were visable chunks of empty seats at the Michigan game, especially in the student section. I wouldn't be at all surprised if actual seated attendence was around 100,000. OSU also likely had spme empty seats. However, I'm thinking that there probably was a decent market for unwanted tickets for their game. Ours? Probably not so much.
I just don't think we should be confidently rolling out the "You are part of the largest crowd watching a football game anywhere in America today" comment when 10% of the seats aren't filled.
November 14th, 2013 at 11:19 AM ^
You are overthinking this. Our announced attendance was the highest in the country. Ergo, we had the right to call it the "Largest crowd watching a football game anywhere in America."
All sporting events - even huge ones like the Super Bowl - have some no-shows. I've read about this before. The average turnstile count of a typical "sellout" sporting event generally works out to between 90 and 95% of capacity. For the Super Bowl it's higher but still closer to 95% than 100%.
November 14th, 2013 at 11:43 AM ^
Just don't think we could lay claim to the largest attendence on that particular day. If OSU's attendence was 95% of capacity and ours was 90%, they would have been near the same. I suspect the discrepency was greater. That is all.
November 14th, 2013 at 7:06 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 7:17 AM ^
The Good Guys and Go Blue. Buckle up everyone!
November 14th, 2013 at 7:18 AM ^
TheHand54: Biggest day of my life today! Comeout n get something to eat at my house afterwards at 4pm My family is having a cookout. Anyone is invited!
WiltonSpeight: @TheHand54 I'm coming, save some food for your QB!
November 14th, 2013 at 7:30 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 10:07 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 7:51 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 8:05 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 8:10 AM ^
is a very dedicated troll, or a very unstable person who truly hates the team he roots for. Check his posting history
November 14th, 2013 at 9:18 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 9:39 AM ^
But it doesn't really matter. If you are an unstable fan and it's been ten years of negativity for you, it's probably time to throw in the towel
November 14th, 2013 at 11:22 AM ^
just scrolled through the posts for this person. I hope he/she is a troll, because if not, this person has serious issues. This Board is so depressing lately. They know it is just sports, right? very sad.
November 14th, 2013 at 8:31 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 9:30 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 10:26 AM ^
You are correct in a sense. But incorrect in another sense. Michigan Football owes everything to its fans. But that's on a collective level. It owes nothing to an individual fan beyond actually showing up for an individual game for which that fan has bought a ticket. That is it.
November 14th, 2013 at 7:52 AM ^
November 14th, 2013 at 7:55 AM ^
I give up, who?