Former 2019 Michigan recruiting target, 5 star WR Kyle Ford in the portal
Hard core recruiting followers will remember that Ford was a top priority at WR for Michigan in the 2019 class. He was a 5 star jumbo wide receiver and Michigan who Michigan led for before he ended up committing to USC. Michigan ended up getting Cornelius Johnson so things actually worked out fantastically for the good guys.
Ford has dealt with injury issues going back to his senior year of high school and obviously never reached his potential with USC before transferring to UCLA and having an ok 2023 season with 220 yards receiving for a bad UCLA offense. He is now a grad transfer and just went back into the portal.
The 5 star days seem to be behind him but he could still potentially be interesting for Michigan as the big outside WR that we are currently lacking on the roster for 2024.
Can he coach basketball?
Leave that to NY.
No, but he can bang your wife!
Dafuq!?
Can he play basketball? We need those kind of guys, too.
Get him.
I’m from SoCal and watch the PAC religiously and lemme tell you Ford wouldn’t even sniff the field at UM. Maybe he could get some play due to his run blocking, but his general athleticism and ball skills are subpar.
Blocking?
Sounds like a fit.
Strange for a former 5 star recruit!
Maybe he could get some play due to his run blocking, but his general athleticism and ball skills are subpar
Do you think the lack of athleticism is due to his injury history or was he just a whiff by the recruiting analysts?
I do think he was a whiff but I think in part it was due to him being an early bloomer. I don’t think he’s gotten faster or quicker since HS and even then he was shockingly huge. He’s added even more mass and is kinda lumbering now, I’d liken him to a shitty Julian Fleming.
I would liken Julian Fleming to a shitty Cornelius Johnson.
Yeah that’s pretty fair. I guess you could say ford is just a really shitty CJ
Maybe if more people on the West Coast had watched the Pac religiously, there would still be a Pac. I had a born-and-bred Californian who is a huge Niners fan once ask me, "So what exactly is the Pac-12?"
Does he mind blocking?
Would love to see him back here for one last shot.
USC’s offense was - to my relatively uninformed eyes - a “just win your matchup” offense predicated on full Death From Above concepts. This led to some pretty scoring plays.
There’s two concerns here: 1) if he was capable of being the jump ball guy, you’d think he’d have been playing a lot, and 2) has he practiced complex route concepts? Michigan’s recent offensive schemes don’t require that your receivers be amazing, but you’re asked to do some hard stuff, including blocking some of the best LBs and DEs in the country…
He's a grad transfer and he's a notably large receiver, you say? This one actually makes a ton of sense for Michigan. Hope we pursue
So his former coach is now the OC at NILU; he's just looking to get a raise.
I'll allow it
Seems like we could use a receiver or three.
Seems like a perfect fit for Michigan in many ways. Hope it happens!
Can our collective afford him?
Why is it assumed that we need a "big outside WR?" CoJo might've met spec, but he wasn't used in that way much at all last year. Michigan hasn't generally been in the business of throwing jump balls. It still won the championship.
Sure, it would be nice to have Nico Collins on next year's team. I don't see why it's necessary for success.