Johnathon Hankins Announcement Tomm
The Detroit Southeastern folks have been trying all day to get Hankins' announcement organized for tomorrow (Tuesday) at halftime of Southeastern's basketball game, and they just got everything in place for that to happen. Now, Michigan was supposed to be in-home with Hankins tomorrow night, but that will obviously not happen and like I said in chat yesterday it is looking likely this goes in OSU's direction with the timing of this announcement.
Per rivals
January 5th, 2010 at 8:51 AM ^
Campbell is also better than Hankins at essentially every aspect of the defensive tackle position.
ANY type of offer they gave to Hankins in the summer, he was going to try to commit. And then RR would've had to turn him down. Gee, I wonder how that would've played out...
"RODRIGUEZ HUMILIATES RECRUIT WITH FAKE SCHOLARSHIP OFFER"
[/Freep]
OSU "offered" him in the summer too, and they wouldn't have taken him then if he tried committing, either. They had the luxury of being able to do it, though. UM didn't. How you can even argue this is beyond me. A day after they offered him, THREE coaches were in his high school setting up a visit that happened that weekend, because once again, and you conveniently ignored this part of my post, Hankins was completely different his senior year than he was at UM's camp in June. I'm not talking a few pounds, either.
I'm not speculating or theorizing here, I'm telling you what happened. UM addressed and dealt away with any issues the Hankins family had with the late offer. They made it very clear that they absolutely wanted him after watching his senior film. And then his coach stepped in and poisoned the entire situation, because that's what he does. He did it with Fred Smith, he did it with Gholston, and he did it with Hankins. Two of those kids grew up Michigan fans. None of them ever had a chance to come here. The "reservations" Michigan's coaches had about Hankins weren't there anymore. Simply put, you don't offer a scholarship to a kid if you don't view him as a viable contributor to your team. Especially when you don't have the luxury of gambling because your job security isn't exactly stable.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:01 AM ^
What circles do you travel in? UofM program, HS coaching world, or other?
January 5th, 2010 at 9:21 AM ^
are you really mad about here, michigan losing out on a player or because his sparty coach is douche???
January 5th, 2010 at 9:36 AM ^
I love your stuff OB, but I have some questions about your conspiracy.
1. Where is Dantonio in all this?? MSU will have a ton of schollies open and Dantonio doesn't want a guy OSU and Michigan wants? Is there more to that part of the story?
2. Why did this douchbag all of a sudden step in? If he is how you portray him wouldn't he have been pushing the anti Michigan stuff since Hankins was a Sophmore and not let it get to this point.
3. How exactly can this guy exert this much influence? If I wanted to go to Michigan and Michigan called me up I'd listen. I understand sometimes these kids doon't have parents or their parent doesn't know much so their coaches have some influence, but it sounds as if he has both parents and they are in favor of Michigan. I hear a lot of talk about coaches steering kids, but it just doesn't make sense to me. I can see downplaying certain schools, but once the coahes establish a relationship and you make visits and they meet your family, how does 1 guy standing on your driveway saying beware of Michigan change your decision. Boy I really love Michigan and Coach RR, but my coach said Michigan does blank...... so I'm not going. Wouldn't you call RR and ask him about whatever allegations he is throwing out there about Mich. I've never been in the situation so I don't know, but it sounds silly.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:46 AM ^
1. Not sure. Maybe MSU had/has the same reservations UM had, maybe he doesn't fit the type of DT they like, maybe they don't need another DT (I'm not sure what their numbers are like there).
2. Simple answer. He stepped in all of a sudden because UM came on like gangbusters all of a sudden. There's no point in badmouthing Michigan to a kid or his parents when they're not actively recruiting him.
3. Your guess is as good as mine. I've tried to get a solid answer on how he can control these kids' recruitments so much (keep in mind, he's not even the HEAD coach at SE), but no luck. It could be as simple as the coach simply having the absolute trust of the parents and players to handle the recruiting.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:45 AM ^
It sucks losing Hankins if he does commit to OSU, and it stings double because it is to Columbus, but I respect that RR and staff told him to shape up and he did and he got better offers than what he had as a result of it (I believe Fl and OSU came into the race after the summer?).
Even if it means us losing out on him, Hankins is in a better position now to succeed at the next level than he was last summer. Good for the kid and hats off to RR for giving a good, honest assessment even though we lose out on the kid.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:08 AM ^
Why would Rodriguez have had to turn him down in the summer? You answered that question yourself:
a) He's not an elite DT like Campbell, Floyd, etc.
b) He was out of shape
So, in other words, the coaches weren't in love with him. There were a bunch of other DTs they had offered before then, and if they had received a commitment from any of them, Hankins never would have received an offer. If Jay Guy committed, there's no offer for Hankins. Same goes for Floyd or Thornton or Hailes or Cann or Rome or Heimuli, maybe even Beachum.
Hankins was a BACKUP plan. And yeah, you're right that they really wanted him, but that was only after virtually every other option fell through. So excuse me if I'm not crying over losing Michigan's Plan B - actually, more like Plan K - option.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:25 AM ^
Okay, I think we're on the same wavelength now. (And this answers GOBLUE4EVR's question): I'm slightly disappointed that we're missing out on Hankins simply because there's nobody else on the board at NT, and we needed a NT. But I'm borderline furious that this guy has put the kaibosh on us again at Southeastern.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:15 AM ^
The whining about Johnathan Hankins on this thread is just insane. Noone here was going to see him playing in a Michigan game until 2012 at the earliest, and OMG MELTDOWN.
He's not coming - whoop dee doo. Michigan can find a walk-on this year to fill his redshirt year place, and then sign a DT next year and the team will be fine.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:56 AM ^
Yeah, there was an insane amount of whining, but there was also a really good conversation between Other Brian and Magnus, which was very nice too see. Hopefully, there will be more more substantive conversations in the future.
(Note: I didn't neg you.)
January 5th, 2010 at 9:19 AM ^
I agree with most of your post, but walk-on 300-pounders are rare. We're not going to be able to replace Hankins with a walk-on. That will have to come from a scholarship player this year or next year.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:01 AM ^
(Note - this comment isn't really directed at you; more so just thinking out loud). It's not easy to pull a 300-pounder as a walk on, but I just watched a game last night where Boise State played a 0 star 300-pound freshman defensive tackle that they pulled out of our friggin' backyard (Michael Atkinson). Who just played pretty darn well in the Fiesta Bowl as a freshman. It's not easy, but there are guys like that out there.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:11 AM ^
played HS football in windsor, which doesn't have the best talent... i grew up in windsor and i only know of 6 or 7 kids that got scholarships to D-1 schools.
the best person to ask about this kid is Lupe since he played HS football in windsor. Lupe how good was this kid? i read that he played for the ravens also.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:33 AM ^
His nickname "Canadian Bacon" is pretty effing awesome too
January 5th, 2010 at 12:33 PM ^
Yeah, I know he's from Windsor and that they don't have a lot of talent that comes out of there. My point was more so that a lot of these players do exist and are under the radar for exactly the reasons you mention.
January 5th, 2010 at 12:57 PM ^
Atkinson did play for the Ravens, along with pretty much any decent player ever in Essex County. I do know that his teammate back at at Catholic Central Tyrone Crawford was the better player but had to go the JUCO route. He went to Bakersfield College in Cali and is now a 4-star beast DE and headed to Boise State to play alongside Atkinson.
Crawford- http://boisestate.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=1&pr_key=103605
http://boisestate.scout.com/a.z?s=336&p=8&c=1&nid=4311011
January 5th, 2010 at 9:43 AM ^
I understand your frustration with Archie Collins. I'm just not all that upset about Hankins. So I get what you're saying. I wasn't arguing the truth of your statements - I was just arguing whether it was a big deal or not.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:52 AM ^
OSU recruiting followers have considered him locked up for awhile now. Florida seems to be making a late push, though...Interestingly, OSU offered Hankins before offering Floyd...I get all of this from a friend of mine who follows OSU recruiting closely, so take it for what you think it's worth.