rbgoblue

June 13th, 2011 at 2:04 PM ^

except that he's not... the kid blew up to 280+ lbs when he got to MSU and moved from WR to TE to FB, and at none of those positions did he play a meaningful snap.  i wonder if his career would have played out differently at UM?

turtleboy

June 13th, 2011 at 2:17 PM ^

He was back at WR this spring and listed as 235+ and he hasn't played for 2 reasons, he sat an entire year as a redshirt, and then they changed his position twice. Will Campbell hasn't played many meaningful snaps at DT but that doesn't exclude him from starting this year. Not many sophomores get meaningful time anyways. He may just not want to play for sparty, or he may not be good. I don't know, but neither do you. He may be worth a look.

4godkingandwol…

June 13th, 2011 at 1:10 PM ^

... I can't help but feel he got a raw deal by people who did not have his best interest in mind during his recruitment.  One can never know if things would have turned out better at UM (we've had our fair share of 4-star troubles), but his recruitment still ticks me off. 

ChasingRabbits

June 13th, 2011 at 1:19 PM ^

First of the Detroit Southeastern kids to go to MSU.  The story goes something like this...  He was all set to declare for UM, but the weekend before the Monday press conference his coach/teacher (name escapes me) takes him up to MSU (without the family's knowledge) where Izzo promises a spot on the Bball team blah blah blah...  He surprises everyone, his family included, by anouncing for MSU on Monday.   Same coach sends a couple more kids to MSU and one away from UM to OSU, then gets job in the film room at MSU. 

 

  

oriental andrew

June 13th, 2011 at 1:20 PM ^

here is a clif's notes version:

http://michigansportscenter.com/2007/08/what-happened-with-fred-smith.h…

 

As you all probably know by now, Detroit Southeastern wide receiver Fred Smith picked Michigan State over Michigan yesterday. The news of this stings really for various reasons. First, Smith is a great player and Michigan went after him hard. Second, he ended up at Michigan State, meaning the Wolverines lost a recruiting battle to their rivals. Finally, Smith was a U-M lean all week until things drastically changed over the weekend, leading to this eventual bad news for the Maize and Blue. I won’t get into the details of everything that happened, but here’s the basics. Smith took one more visit to Michigan State on what I want to say was Saturday (not completely positive) and things began to change. Despite his family being decided on Michigan at a Saturday dinner, Smith went from being a heavy lean for Michigan to being 50-50. After calling around, the wide receiver was also told that he could play basketball if he wanted at Michigan State, meaning Tom Izzo was in contact with Smith one way or another. At this point, the 50-50 mindset started to switch to an MSU lean, but Smith still wasn’t positive it appeared. When Sunday rolled around, the 6 p.m. announcement was actually off at one point I believe. Just as they had before though, things changed again and it was put back on. By then, Smith was set on MSU and made it official by publicly making the decision. As I said, losing Smith to the Spartans stings. He luckily isn’t a make or break recruit since Michigan has pretty good depth at wide receiver, but you never want to lose a great player either.

switch26

June 13th, 2011 at 1:30 PM ^

at least we don't have a list of players who transfer from MSU, like the obsessed freaks at RCMB..

 

 

markusr2007

June 13th, 2011 at 1:32 PM ^

that Fred Smith didn't end up a Wolverine years ago.

MSU has had a talented depth chart at WR for the last 2 to 3 years.  Michigan too has built up deep roster at thse positions.   Not an easy situation.

Looks like both Indiana and WVU will really be chucking the pigskin around with their new HC's. Both might be interested in Smith's services.

bronxblue

June 13th, 2011 at 1:56 PM ^

Best of luck to the kid. Based on what I heard during his recruitment as well as the stories that came out afterward (see below), feels like he was used by his HS coach to get a better job.

Magnus

June 13th, 2011 at 3:26 PM ^

In a few years, I'll be curious to see The Other Brian's take on all the in-state recruiting shenanigans that took place and how well they played out for Michigan and Michigan State.

So far I'm not too upset about the guys we've missed out on.