Freep: McDowell, Harris and Marshall all visiting this weekend, not Webb

Submitted by GoBlue21 on
http://www.freep.com/article/20130220/SPORTS06/130219102/michigan-footb…
Three of the top five in-state players in the 2014 class will be on campus (No. 2, Detroit Cass Tech defensive back Damon Webb, a verbal commitment to Ohio State, and No. 4, Sturgis quarterback Chance Stewart, a verbal Wisconsin commit at a position Michigan has completed recruiting). No. 1, Detroit Loyola defensive end Malik McDowell, has been a regular visitor to campus and will bring his entire family along Sunday.

dothepose

February 20th, 2013 at 6:56 PM ^

This isn't saying he will be on campus. It's saying he is one of the top five players in the state. Because why would chance Stewart come to the game too?

This is from right after this paragraph you posted above.

"No. 3, Grand Rapids Christian wide receiver Drake Harris, is a Michigan State soft commit who is opening his recruitment after choosing to focus on football, not basketball in college. No. 5 is Southfield defensive end Lawrence Marshall, briefly an Ohio State commitment, but has visited Michigan State twice and will see Michigan this weekend after just three days as a future Buckeye."

WolvinLA2

February 20th, 2013 at 7:05 PM ^

It's not great for sure, but in the McDowell and Marshall sections, it clearly says they will be there.  The Drake Harris paragraph is vague. 

That said, it's not so terribly worded that I didn't know what was being said.  It said 3 of the top 5 would be there, and then immediately explained why the other two weren't coming.

Jon06

February 20th, 2013 at 7:14 PM ^

one of those

Edit: I failed to click 'Save' long enough that I was beaten to the punch. I'll just add that it's horribly written because, while the parenthetical thing tells you which two aren't going and why, it doesn't tell you that that's what it's telling you. You have to do too much work to infer from the context what the hell those words are doing there, which is generally not a mark of good writing. I mean, it's just a multi-clause sentence fragment about two people, who are not even the grammatical subject of the sentence, but who are, rather, the two people who are not, of the five people mentioned, the three who are the grammatical subject of the sentence. That's some seriously craptastic writing. To be fair, I think it trades on some convention about condensing information in a different kind of context, but it just doesn't work in journalistic prose.

WolvinLA2

February 20th, 2013 at 7:18 PM ^

I completely concede that this article should not be used as an example of good writing.  And I also admit that I needed to read through it a second time to see exactly what was being said.  You need to do more thinking than an article should require, but after a little of it one can figure out what is being said. 

Can we at least agree to change the title to be less misleading?  Maybe "Freep: McDowell, Harris and Marshall all visiting this weekend, not Webb"  That way it reflects the actual news from the article, and leaves off the misleading bit.

GoBlue21

February 20th, 2013 at 9:32 PM ^

With the following quote "it seems that you just suck at reading, or are being intentionally misleading" Why even post the first part of that sentence? I'm not the only one who was having trouble reading this article. That's one of the reasons the original title had a question mark.



But I hope it makes you feel better that I probably "suck at reading" since the article was so well written.

ND Sux

February 21st, 2013 at 7:19 AM ^

Nice recovery bro...seemed like you were snarkocharged at the start, but retreated.  I tried to bring you back to zero, but alas your negs must have been stacked two or three deep. 

I like to see newbies post on here (provided their not total douches), but they seem to get gashed the deepest if their entry isn't 100% perfect.  This time of year we need more contributions, not less.

Also, the dude's avatar is pretty awesome.

artds

February 20th, 2013 at 6:54 PM ^

Are we still recruiting Stewart as a second QB in this class? I know we're low on schollies. But odds are he'd have a decent chance (heh) to start at some point during his four years if he we part of this class.

Dizzo

February 20th, 2013 at 6:54 PM ^

McDowell, Lawrence Marshall, and Drake Harris will be on campus.  Those are likely the "3 of the top 5" Tim is referencing and he's noting the other 2 (who are NOT visiting by the way it's written) are Webb and Stewart.

Magnum P.I.

February 20th, 2013 at 6:59 PM ^

If we persistently announce this, maybe some Buckeye fans will bite and start trolling Webb's twitter, which will annoy him and cause him to decommit from OSU and verbal to Michigan. Keep it up, I say. 

CLord

February 20th, 2013 at 7:09 PM ^

Damon's gotta think this through.  Not going to Michigan to be "different" is like not accepting a promotion to CEO to be "different."  It's a no brainer. 

Michigan:

- is a far better school than Ohio State,

- has better football tradition,

- has recruited as well over the three years,

- has won more BCS bowls over the same time span

- is closer to home,

- has more of his friends there, and

- most importantly, has a coach in Brady Hoke who has proven himself far more trustworthy and reliable than Urban, who bailed on his Florida team after they started going south.

Damon's got the rest of his life to be different, but man, Michigan sure could do with his services now that we are back, and Borges and Mattison finally have their peaces in place.

Go Blue Damon!  It's not a consolation prize, it's THE prize.

The2nd_JEH

February 20th, 2013 at 7:16 PM ^

I hate this viewpoint. We don't know him. You hear recruits all the time say, "it was the right place for me". Maybe that's where he felt at home, maybe that's what for him best. Obviously I'd love to see him in a Michigan uniform, and hate that he's going to Ohio, but maybe that was where he felt at home.

OmarDontScare

February 20th, 2013 at 8:32 PM ^

In the worst Big Ten ever and with a horrible non conference schedule. Best non conference team they played was Cal who just fired their head coach.

Edit: Lest we forget Gorgeous Borges brilliant 2nd half gameplan v OSU. Lining up Denard as QB and running up the gut with our awesome interior OLine when everyone and their mother knew Denard couldn't physically throw

Bosch

February 20th, 2013 at 9:34 PM ^

As in maybe the age of prospective recruits?  As in born in the 90's and has to rely on others to inform him that Michigan used to beat OSU regularly?

I went to U of M in the 90's.  I remember that time fondly.  I also know that upcoming versions of The Game are going to be very competetive from both sides and Michigan will win their share.   But  I suspect that High School kids care more about recent history than results from a period that they have no recollection of.