Jaleel Johnson to Iowa
This more or less broke last night, but Jaleel Johnson officially committed to Iowa today. He was considering MIchigan earlier in the process, but was down to Iowa and Michigan State.
This is a big blow for Michigan State. As of a week ago, they were pretty confident that they had him in the bag. With Danny O'Brien focusing on Michigan and Tennessee and rumors that Norfleet is looking down South a bit, Michigan State is running out of big names on their board. It's possible that the only blue-chip recruit they end up with is Se'Von Pittman, but MSU fans can't feel too confident about that commitment given some of his comments.
is too close to Michigan. Dantonio has a much better prospect lined up from Kuwait.
program over there. It was not only for academics.
What are some of his comments?
Not to be a dick, but I can't stand State and hope they have a few lean years of recruiting. I don't know where the animosity comes from. Maybe it was myriad of shitty fans yelling, one literally in my face, last year as we walked out of the Big House after we got our asses handed to us. Oh pissed was I.
were just very strange and unenthusiastic. For his sake, I hope it was just a case of him not enjoying conversations with the media, but it was incredibly odd. I'd be a bit surprised if that recruitment is really over.
While Pittman says his commitment is a big weight off his shoulders and he's excited to focus on his senior season with McKinley, he isn't going to close the door on his recruitment yet.
"I do want say I'm finished but then I don't because anything can happen," Pittman said. "I want to be at Michigan State and I want to be a Spartan but the process isn't over and things might change between now and the time for me to sign."
http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/blog?name=long_corey&id=6686824
(if he qualifies, that is.)
He got a little panicky about having a spot, tried to commit to Michigan, coaches told him to hold off, and he committed to state ASAP
The thought on the rumor mill being he is saving himself a spot at state in case we don't take him after his grades are final, or in case he doesnt get a better offer
can't find quotes though
According to Rivals, he has offers from Alabama, Florida, Auburn, ND, Tennessee, WVU, and TSIO. That is a pretty good offer sheet. You are probably right about wanting to snag a spot somewhere, but if academics were the problem at UofM, then they still will be a problem at MSU, since I believe we both share the NCAA standard for admissions (not entirely sure though).
I think the question is whether he has committable offers from those schools.
The rumor was that Michigan declined his commitment because the coaches didn't want to take Pittman, who might not qualify, and lose a spot that could go to Wormley or Washington.
I'm guessing the same holds true for some of those other places (although MSU might just have been preferable to places like OSU and West Virginia).
Our admission standards are significantly higher than sparty.
I remember the last time we talked about Pittman (after his commitment), the Ohio Graduate Test came up. One of the things that I theorized was that he might not have met the requirements of this test, but did meet the alternative pathway. If he did meet the alternative pathway and the clearinghouse would approve of that, then the concern regarding Pittman would be whether he could get into Michigan. I'm not sure if Michigan would accept the alternative pathway. State might though.
This is all speculation.
Our admission standards are significantly higher than sparty.Not for incoming freshman athletes. MSU used to admit Prop 48 partial-qualifiers, but the NCAA did away with them entirely. Now we admit the same types of HS student-athletes. We are, however, stricter when it comes to transfers (JUCO and otherwise).
Drat! here's denard smiling to make up for it:
This reminded me of Tommy Boy...
I have what doctors call, a little bit of a weight problem...
Or Brick from Anchorman:
"I'm Brick Tamland. A doctor will tell me that I have an I.Q. of 48 and am what some people call 'mentally retarded.'"
The person who was in my face was a cute little trashy drunk sparty chick. The thought to punch her in the face crossed my mind, but my wife would have been pissed as she was walking right next to me. My wife got mad enough to my response to her "GO STATE!" in my face, it was "Go fuck yourself."
Maybe I am taking football too seriously, but I don't think so,
You can never take Michigan football too seriously
That's like a viking wondering whether he has a temper problem- if you're wondering, that IS the problem.
Years ago at a M - MSU game this Sparty chick in front of me starting getting REAL mouthy whenever I'd yell anything about Michigan. I'm 6'5", 245 pounds and I think she was banking on me not wanting to spend several years in jail so despite my requests that she shut the fuck up she kept on running me and Michigan down.
So after about two quarters of her bullshit i tapped her gently on the shoulder and said she now had two choices. Choice one was to shut up and enjoy the rest of the game. Choice two was to keep running her mouth and watch me beat the holy living hell out of her boyfriend who was sitting next to her while she watched. She had no other options. He turned around...looked at me and then grabbed her by the arm and left. Just as she was about to say something again.
this rocks. I wish I would have been there.
Beautiful.. My best MSU beatdown happened after the game last year, as we were walking back to the dorm. Two MSU students, a guy and his girlfriend, jumped in front of my friends and me and shouted "GO GREEN!" I just stopped and asked him if the girl was his girlfriend. He said yes, so I responded with "I thought girls from Michigan state were supposed to be hot.."
Usually I think of things like that after I walk away, and that was one of the only times I can be proud of myself for thinking of it in time
I humbly request permission to rehash that comeback at some point?
After the OSU game 2 years ago, I was walking back with one of my friends and we happened to get mobbed by Ohio people who started (drunkenly) singing "We don't give a damn about the whole state of Michigan" and one of them asked us how it felt to know that our team was complete shit. My friend replied by asking them how it felt to know that their parents were siblings... Needless to say, they left us alone after that.
After last years game, I stopped by my friends house on the way back to mine. I have a couple of friends who transferred from MSU to Michigan living there with some other guys who transferred from MSU. My friends (although not particularly enthusiastic about football) are Michigan fans, while two of the other guys are State fans still. Suffice to say, there were a bunch of MSU students who came over for the game and the tailgate. I was depressed and talking to one of my friends when a MSU girl walks up and joins the conversation. She wasn't too bad about shoving the loss in my face, but she made a remark along the line: "Your QB was terrible today. Don't you usually have white QBs?" I was flabbergasted, and she amended, "I mean don't teams usually have white QB's?" I said are you saying black people can't play QB, to which she responded no. Instead of dropping it she says something along the lines: "We have a white QB. He is pretty good and pretty smart. Don't you have to be smart to play QB?" I said, "Are you fucking insinuating only smart white people can play QB and that black people aren't as smart as white people?" To which she said no again. I was so frickin pissed I said something along the lines that there are plenty of good black QBs and plenty of smart black people who have the ability to play QB. I didn't want to freak out, but another State guy had overheard the conversation, walked over, supported her, and she began to ask me another question about black and white QBs, so I just said fuck off idiots and walked away. She was drunk, but so was I and numerous other people who weren't making racist comments.
I sat right in front of McGloin's cousin at the Penn State game last year, and got an even bigger shock. This mouth-breather was so proud his cousin was getting the start (now that Bolden had a head injury), and when Penn St. came out gunning, he crowed "See what happens when you don't give the job to a n*****?"
I was shocked. The Penn State fans all around didn't say anything against him, but I think they were suitably stunned. When Denard ran in for his first touchdown I turned to him and said "Not bad for a black QB, huh?" and McGloin's cousin, livid, called me a rather tactless name.
The reason that game was my worse football experience ever (and I've been to some nasty ones) was not because I drove all the way from Pittsburgh to see us get creamed by a team everyone thought we would beat, but because that racist rat-bastard had the last laugh. I had to leave early.
God that would have been terrible. Having to listen to that ignorant and racist asshole rant about PSU football and Michigan sucking would have been unbearable. I hate fanatical and stupid fans. Ruins the competition for me. I can only imagine what it would be like to be in SEC territory.
"cute little trashy drunk sparty chick"
Too. Many. Contradictions. Cannot compute.
Good news for Iowa, bad news for MSU. I love it.
Iowa out-recruits the Fighting Illini in Illinois. Of course, that's okay for Zook because his experience with the Gators allows him to recruit nationally. /s
In Chicago-land, there isn't much buzz over RZ and the Fightin' Zookers. You either go to ND, Wisky, Iowa, NW (if you have the grades), Northern Illinois or elsewhere. Very few recruits mention Illinois.
RCMB Meltdown...it's a good one!
which I think is perfectly valid. They're coming off this great season, and they might land 1 of the top 10 kids in-state while getting swept for the top 3 kids at one of their feeder schools.
And their "national recruiting" isn't going any better. Pipkins is from Saginaw but doesn't even have MSU in his final 6. I think they thought Se'Von Pittman's commitment might start a wave, but they're not really in the top group for any big name guys. With recruiting generally moving to an earlier timetable, it might already be too late to turn this into the type of class they were expecting after sharing the Big 10 title.
is that outside of E. Lansing... nobody has gotten the memo, that MSU is a national recruiting power.
RememberKinnick said... Um... why is it a bad choice? Iowa just graduated 3 starters from their defensive line. All three were drafted including Clayborn in the 1st round. Iowa has been building quite the pipeline of defensive linemen into the NFL. I'd say it was actually a very wise choice.
And it wasn't exactly met with open minds and warm hearts. This is just one of a handful of responses:
You're asking an MSU board that's pissed off because 2 weeks ago he was on track to be a Spartan, why they think it is a bad choice?
Oh, Sparty.
Pittman's comments "were just very strange and unenthusiastic."
Is that any surprise when you try to commit to Michigan and we are full and you get stuck with MSU? I mean that is the word of what happened I am guessing it is true. :)
I would have been impressed had MSU gotten Jaleel Johnson I think he is going to be one of the Big Ten's best players in 3ish years. Nice get for Iowa
I have numerous friends that had the same reaction when they received their MSU acceptance letter days after receiving their UM denial letter.
/wompwomp
Iowa has done well up front lately. For a state that does not produce a whole lot of DI talent they have been able to persuade players like Adrian Clayborn (MO), Darian Cooper (DC) and no Johnson (IL) to come to Iowa City.
For a program that seems to have one good season every 3-4 years have been doing decent on the recruiting trail.
That being said, with the way this recruiting cycle is going I'm pretty sure that Hoke would be able to persuade almost any player deciding between being a Wolverine or a Hawkeye
I would have preferred that Johnson left the Big 10 altogether. I think that he's going to be a heck of player for the Hawkeyes.
I didn't know Sparty recruited outside the State of Michigan...? You know, because Dantonio and his staff "own the state."
Maybe the MSM will pick up on this story.
/Extra Thick Sarcasm
Hadn't you heard? Sparty is now a national program with national recruiting reach. Having now dominated Michigan recruiting for a decade or two, and getting everything they wanted (Se'von) out of the disaster at OSU, Sparty is goin' big time.They are gonna be touching up Fla, Cali, Texas, and La this season for many of the best recruits in the land. You'll see.
I would've preferred "All your DTs are belong to us," but seems like the coaches are in on a number of high caliber DTs. Jaleel looks a little raw, but very powerful and athletic. Glad he's going to Iowa and not MSU. Good luck to him.
Good luck to you, son. We shall miss your services in the trench warfare to come.
Smart move on Johnson's part. Had he gone to Michigan State, all his loved ones would have gotten boils, and his village would have been attacked by the guys from the Capital One commercials.
And people say recruiting doesn't matter...
Bad for Sparty is good for me.
Best thing about the RCMB meltdown: they're shrugging things off and sayong "On to O'Brien." And "I hope O'Brien wants to stay in-state." Someone mentioned "I think he's leaning towards Alabama and Tennessee."
They seem to have blocked out our existence.
HAHA! I was just going to post that. Hilarious.