DT Prospect Greg Kuhar
Reviewing our list of prospects for 2012, I became curious about Greg Kuhar. He is really the only prospect among the 100+ without any other top offers. He has an offer from Toledo and an offer from us.
That says to me that he is a player that Michigan sees something special in. So I decided to review and here's what I found:
When Kuhar was offered TomVH posted that he was a wrestler. Not only is he a wrestler, but he is ranked number 1 in Ohio for the heavy weight division and number 7 nationally (BTW - 4 of the 6 players ahead of him are seniors). He was second at the 2009 Cadet Nationals in freestyle, fourth in the state tournament at 285 pounds as a sophomore with a 35-9 record, and he is the 2010 Junior Nationals Freestyle National Champion for the 285lb weight class. He is wrestling this weekend in the state championship and he and his team are favored.
In football, he's a two-way player on both oline and dline. His team improved from 4-6 in 09-10 to go 15-0 in 10-11 and finish ranked 1st in the state and 2nd in the country. He is really good friends with Kyle Kalis, an Ohio State commit and Michigan offeree, and they have talked about playing together.
According to TomVH, Greg is a slight OSU fan while his Dad is a big Michigan fan. When I think of a wrestler at DT, I can't help but think of MIke Martin. I'm intrigued by his potential. Assuming he pursues football instead of college wrestling I think we have a good chance that he will wear the maize and blue.
Let Hulkmania run wild.
Or is it Hokemania!!
good info...Hoke knows what he is doing...I like the similarities to Martin
Jeremy VanAlstyne.
Something about wrestlers playing DT intrigues me. Leverage can work wonders when everyone is big and strong. I would be excited if this kid comes to Michigan.
Let's not forget one Terrance Taylor.
I remember (but can't find) an article about Mike Martin arriving as a freshman and he and Taylor talking about who was the best wrestler on the team.
All the former wrestlers that I am aware of have been very good to excellent DTs at UM.
They include: Rob Renes NT (1999), Terrence Taylor (2008), and Mike Martin.
I do believe that they are the masters of leverage and know how to use it on the football field.
I'm guessing he will be a wrestler somewhere.
You can add Ron Thompson to that list. He only has offers from Toledo and Syracuse. He is listed as a WR on rivals and that might be a reason he has not received many offers. We are recruiting him to play TE which would make him a lock to redshirt because of his size.
Reports from the camp in Ann Arbor said that he caught everything that was thrown his way. I would be happy if he committed.
Maybe his wrestling ranking is the reason he doesn't have top offers. Perhaps other schools know something - that maybe he plans on wrestling at the next level therefore schools aren't offering him since he's not likely to play football.
That being said, someone needs to remind this kid that if things work out, life after college tends to be a little more lucrative for football players than wrestlers.
However I am kind of freaked out at what memebers of this blog can find on HS kids. I have accepted job offers that have done less of a security check then recruits on MGoBlog.
If he's really that good at wrestling, I wouldn't be surprised if UM let him pursue both. The seasons don't overlap that much, and the training he gets in each sport would help him in the other. That way, if he's an upperclassman and he sees that he's not getting much of a shot at one, he can commit full time to the other, and Michigan has a very good wrestling and football program.
However, most guys who are very good at football and another sport, pick football to play in college. In football you're a celebrity, you're on national TV (and a lot of people are tuning in), you perform in front of a hundred thousand people and you get to befriend future NFLers. In most any other sport, you're a college athlete, but not those other things.
That's the thing about wrestling. In the season you have to cut weight to wrestle at. I don't think it would be good for our DT to be cutting weight half the year instead if putting it on through lifting.
In heavyweight's cases, that's usually not a lot of weight to drop if he's already an athletic guy. It would be different if he was trying to come down from 330. But he wouldn't be in that positioin in the first place. He could definitely pursue both at M.
Assign him a jersey number, coach.