Hilliard, Cornell and Boykins all set to announce on Wed....

Submitted by O Fo Sho on
Do we have a shot at anyone other than Boykins?? Could be a fun day!

Eastside Maize

June 29th, 2014 at 1:01 PM ^

And I know we will have a small class but I don't see why stopped recruiting Cornell. We have Pipkens, Wormley,Mone,etc. but we don't have consistent playmakers at DT. The DL is the soft underbelly of the D.

denardogasm

June 29th, 2014 at 1:11 PM ^

The interior Dline is also the youngest group on defense.  Other than Pipkins they're all freshmen or sophomores, and correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Pipkins miss all of last season so he's likely to get a redshirt and thus be a shophomore as well?  Wormley I think is in a similar boat having only begun coming back fully from his injury towards the end of last season.  I'm not worried about the interior.  Also it seems to me Cornell would be a lot better served by slimming down to stay on the end rather than pulling a Craig Roh and straining to maintain a large enough size to play the next size position up.  That's neither here nor there though.

alum96

June 30th, 2014 at 3:21 AM ^

Both Wormley and Henry showed me enough that they will pan out ... to at least be good potential All Big 10 2nd team type players.  Henry might have a motivation issue per what the coaches did to him in spring but he is a young guy.  When you see those guys flash as underclassmen you see they should progress nicely.  We saw similar things very late with Gedeon in the season so I'm confidant all 3 of those guys will provide us a nice level of play - not sure the ceilings.  As they add "man strength" they should all be very good players.

Poggi still a baby so we'll see if he flashes this year.  Strobel and Godin I'd really like to see something out of them this year but best case ... well not sure.  I think it was Strobel who got hurt early last year from something minor and then just was shelved all year... and we could have used him if he was even adequate.

Mr Miggle

June 29th, 2014 at 3:53 PM ^

so it's clear they're recruiting positions first, talent second. That's one of the problems with having small classes. I've also wondered what Cornell's rating would be as a DT. Will he look as good as he did at WDE?

alum96

June 30th, 2014 at 3:25 AM ^

"We stopped recruiting..."

It's a 2 way street.  Settle never had any real interest here - he came to UTL2 along with Hand and that was about it for his interest.  If Hand didn't bring him I doubt he would ever have seen our campus. Cornell was a stronger interest but it is obvious our play on the field last year hurt with him as it did with Malik and Hand.  

IMO Sam Webb's stuff about "too fat, doesnt fit for UM anymore" is a smoke screen to save face for a kid we were high on once and "cooled" on us.  (being facetious with the too fat comment)  There was nothing in the film from Dec 20 to May 20 or whenever we "stopped recruiting him" to suddently change UM's assessment of his play ... because his season ended in November.  Pretty clear he was not coming here so there was no need to waste time recruiting him/

Mr Miggle

June 30th, 2014 at 7:09 AM ^

But you are making my point about nothing happening in their assessment in his play. At some point we simply stopped recruiting DTs for this class. If Settle showed a lack of interest, they didn't reach out to anyone else, at least as far as any reports I've seen. My guess is that they were pleasantly surprised with the position group in spring practice.

BlueCube

June 30th, 2014 at 7:28 AM ^

reliabile source. I don't think you can dismiss his statement with no proof. It's also supported by facts. Cornell was coming for a visit and they told him not to bother coming. What other reason is there for that? Mrs. Hoke was making a pot roast for dinner and Brady wanted the day to prepare? There was nothing to be lost by letting him visit and seeing how it went.

Cornell gained a lot of weight and it was bad weight. Magnus mentioned in this thread that he felt he was over rated and it's very possible the staff saw he was losing mobility or just that there were better options to suit there needs.

RationalBuckeye

June 30th, 2014 at 7:49 AM ^

Settle was/may still be having problems with his grades. OSU stopped recruiting him under that condition, and he visited again to try to renew the staff's interest but it doesn't appear that he's getting what he needs to done to show that he can handle business off the field. If I had to guess, I'd say UM would back off for the same reason.

LSAClassOf2000

June 29th, 2014 at 2:35 PM ^

As others have mentioned, we probably have nothing to worry about here in the sense that we're likely to bat 0-for-3 with these particular recruits, but at least with Jashon Cornell, the choices are supposedly between Iowa, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan State. Miles Boykin will be choosing between Michigan State, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri and Notre Dame. I believe - and I can't find the article I read before - it was Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa and Notre Dame for Hilliard. 

poseidon7902

June 30th, 2014 at 9:52 AM ^

Behind the paywall at ESPN they have Hilliard and Cornell both going to OSU:  

 

The Early Offer is RecruitingNation's regular feature, giving you a dose of recruiting in the mornings. Today's offerings: While many people will be enjoying a little time off this week, college coaches chasing five-star linebacker Justin Hilliard and five-star defensive end Jashon Cornell are putting in overtime to convince them to come to their school before both prospects make decisions at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday on ESPN.com. Both players say they want to play together in college, so what are the chances one school ends up 10 stars better Wednesday? 

Hilliard's final five 
Hilliard will pick from Alabama, Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State, and he's done a very good job of trying to keep people guessing on where he's going to end up at. Over the past few days, he's tweeted picture after picture of all of his final schools and even engaged fans by asking them where both he and Cornell should end up. However, sources indicate Ohio State and Notre Dame are the two front-runners, especially after he loved his unofficial visits to both campuses two weeks ago. 

In the past, St. Xavier has been a school where the Buckeyes have had mixed results. But with the Buckeyes needing additional depth at linebacker, the relationship with Kerry Combs -- a former high school coach in Cincinnati -- and the fact that Ohio State is on the upswing in the Big Ten and nationally, look for Hilliard to end up in Columbus. 

“There was a point where I thought Iowa might be able to pull the upset and get him,” one Big Ten recruiter said. “And you can't ever discount Notre Dame with Ohio kids, especially in Cincinnati. But after he kept taking visits to Columbus, it became pretty clear to us Ohio State is where his heart is set on.” 

Cornell's final five 
Early on this seemed like a slam dunk for Notre Dame. Players from St. Paul (Minn.) Cretin-Derham Hall just don't go anywhere else. But as time wore on and his name got more national recognition, Cornell opened his eyes to more programs across the country before gravitating back to the Midwest and focusing on Iowa, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Penn State. During that time, Cornell's relationship with Hilliard also blossomed. After initially meeting a Iowa's camp before their sophomore year, the two quickly grew closer and closer through the recruiting process. And as Hilliard's mind began to shift to Ohio State, so did Cornell's. 

“Ohio State has done the best job of recruiting him,” the Big Ten coach said. “I've said it for years that Larry Johnson is one of the best recruiters in the country, and I think he'll prove it again by closing on Jashon. He's got Jashon convinced that he and Justin can be like Terrell Suggs and Ray Lewis playing on the same defense.”