Michigan Offers Delano Hill
According to a tweet from Allen Trieu, UM has offered current Iowa commit and Cass Tech DB Delano Hill. Could this be what Sam Webb's cryptic tweet was referring to???
Detroit Cass Tech safety and #Iowa commit Delano Hill offered by#Michigan http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&cfg=null&nid=5930016 …
December 12th, 2012 at 4:00 PM ^
I don't think this is who Webb was referring too, since Hill has been discussed a lot in the past, but I don't mind this move either....
Hopefully this offer doesn't have anything to do with McQuay, but Hill is no slouch
December 12th, 2012 at 4:00 PM ^
probably sam's cryptic tweet. this isn't good news for our safeties given the news that they already moved norfleet there.
December 12th, 2012 at 4:05 PM ^
Then and now.
December 12th, 2012 at 5:46 PM ^
elaborate please.
December 12th, 2012 at 5:57 PM ^
Not really sure, but I read today in an article which quoted Kovacs for bowl practice and mentioned Norfleet doing well at RB.
Kovacs said other young players who have impressed him are Norfleet at tailback, Jarrod Wilson at safety and Ross and Joe Bolden at linebacker.
Article was posted on Dec. 10th
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2012/12/wrs_amara_darboh_jehu…
December 12th, 2012 at 4:03 PM ^
Hmmmmmmmmmm
December 12th, 2012 at 4:03 PM ^
Only a fool would turn down the hometown Michigan wolverines for Iowa.
December 12th, 2012 at 4:07 PM ^
...or a safety.
Iowa safeties over the years have been better than Michigan's.
December 12th, 2012 at 11:10 PM ^
Yeah! Iowa City over Ann Arbor plus Iowa football tradition is second to none.
December 13th, 2012 at 9:26 AM ^
I didn't say that. All I said was that Michigan hasn't done a very good job of producing safeties in the past 20 years or so.
December 13th, 2012 at 11:19 AM ^
Jordan Kovacs. Brendant Englemon. Leon Hall.
That's all I got.
December 13th, 2012 at 11:30 AM ^
Hall was/is a corner. And Brandent Englemon was just a guy. Unfortunately, compared to a lot of other Michigan safeties in recent years, he's considered to be near the top of the heap.
December 13th, 2012 at 11:37 AM ^
By the way, Iowa's crop includes Tyler Sash, Amari Spievey, Charles Godfrey, Sean Considine, Bob Sanders, Matt Bowen... That's not a star-studded crop outside of Bob Sanders, but those guys are/were pretty good players.
And the best of Michigan's safeties - Ernest Shazor, Jamar Adams, Jordan Kovacs - are/were fringe NFL guys. Shazor didn't get drafted, Adams caught on a little bit with the Seahawks, and Kovacs isn't guaranteed of being picked in April.
December 12th, 2012 at 4:22 PM ^
You're kidding right? Iowa offered first and has stuck through thick and thin with him. Not to mention they seem to churn players, especially defensive players, who make NFL rosters.
Arrogance
December 12th, 2012 at 4:38 PM ^
Completely agree, he has every reason to stick with his commitment and Iowa definitely runs a good cover 2 scheme to help prep for the pros.
December 12th, 2012 at 4:58 PM ^
To play devil's advocate: it's not uncommon for players to commit to one school, only to flip when they finally get the offer from the prominent in-state school, especially when they have teammates going there.
But in this particular situation, Michigan has a great defensive coaching staff and is heading in a much better direction that Iowa is. Since Hill committed to Iowa, he has seen them lose to Central Michigan en route to missing a bowl. In that same time, he has seen Michigan slaughter Iowa and put together its second straight top-10 recruiting class. Hill has very little connection to Iowa outside of them being the first big time program to offer him.
December 12th, 2012 at 5:05 PM ^
It was the "fool" comment that rustled my jimmies
December 12th, 2012 at 5:09 PM ^
Fair enough, but I think that's mostly just rhetoric. Saying, "Only a fool can turn down such an offer" is a common expression, and does not literally mean everyone who turns it down is stupid. Obviously Iowa has redeeming qualities, but you have to admit that most kids from Detroit don't pick Iowa over Michigan when they have offers from both. Or kids from not-Detroit, for that matter.
December 13th, 2012 at 8:25 AM ^
and it's hard to believe any kid from Detroit would find Iowa un-interesting, with their vast cultural hubs and so many things to do there.
December 13th, 2012 at 11:05 AM ^
plenty of stuff to do in that picture. That is not to say that Iowa is better that UM, of course.
December 12th, 2012 at 5:14 PM ^
Iowa is also one of those big ten teams that is good in phases, and they're starting a down slope. Michigan is most assuredly on the upslope. Not arrogant, just watched some football this fall. Iowa had a new d coordinator this year. And they went 4-8. I stand by my statement.
December 12th, 2012 at 6:33 PM ^
and it doesnt hurt that when Ferentz worked for the Browns in the 90's he worked with Belichik, Pioli, Jim Schwartz and a whole lot of others I'm probably forgetting. He is held in very high regard by a lot of NFL coaches and front office people.
December 12th, 2012 at 4:07 PM ^
Yeah, I bet this was Sam's tweet. So what's the deal with the safeties? And how would this visit preclude another visitor? Are the coaches thinking McQuay is not coming here?
December 12th, 2012 at 4:11 PM ^
I get the feeling that the only people who might think McQuay will pick Michigan are Michigan fans...
December 12th, 2012 at 4:13 PM ^
Obviously, this is Michigan Fergodsakes.
December 12th, 2012 at 4:17 PM ^
are more optimistic, but I wonder how much if it is just disbelief that someone would pick Vanderbilt over Michigan and USC in the face of lots of evidence saying McQuay will do just that.
December 12th, 2012 at 4:21 PM ^
TomVH feels pretty good about our chances too
December 12th, 2012 at 4:40 PM ^
Of course he'd feel that way. Why would he want to tick off people that pay money for his content before he actually has to report McQuay is going to Vandy?
December 12th, 2012 at 4:47 PM ^
Gonna disagree with you that one. I've never gotten the impression that Tom panders to anyone. And I've never got the impression Tom is super optimistic about McQuay either. Certainly thinks we're up there, but as he's even said, McQuay doesn't talk to anybody hardly at all. Most stuff about McQuay seems like educated guessing rather than informed reporting at this point.
December 12th, 2012 at 6:03 PM ^
On Garnett, Kozan, and Diamond. He has done the same this year on LT. Look, as an "insider" it's better for business to keep hope alive unless you are absolutely sure that it isn't going to happen. What I've noticed the last several years is usually when Michgan goes from being in the top of someone's group to no longer being an option the recruit usually stops talking to Tom. Then Tom says something about how he doesn't have any new info but he still feels pretty good about it. Maybe he is just letitng the fans down easy but most likely it's just better for business to have Michigan in it for more players.
December 12th, 2012 at 6:34 PM ^
These are just attention-seeking teens!
/s
Agree with you completely, there is not nearly enough salt being applied to the insider info.
December 12th, 2012 at 6:51 PM ^
Yeah I remember Tom vehemently defending Rodriguez's recruiting on this site, to much applause, I might add.
December 12th, 2012 at 7:00 PM ^
Couldn't really speak on Kozan, but most national analysts had Diamond and Garnett pegged to Michigan last year as well except for the West Coast people who correctly predicted Garnett to Stanford.
December 12th, 2012 at 11:36 PM ^
I had a source on Diamond that was as good as any info Tom VH had short of asking Diamond himself. Brian Cook supported me in posting when I told him who my sources were. This source was better than 90 percent confident Diamond was coming to M and ruled out Auburn completely a week or more before Diamond announced. What happened? Only Diamond himself knows entirely as he didn't even tell people close to him that he spoke with every day. So I don't think it's pandering or playing things up for Insiders, I think that some recruits are just that unpredictable and change their minds a lot.
December 13th, 2012 at 9:22 AM ^
I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope.
-Bane
December 12th, 2012 at 7:35 PM ^
Couldn't all that just be that recruits change their mind all the time? Maybe recruit is telling Tom (or any analyst for that matter) that UM is on top, then a week later decides he wants to go somewhere else. Doesn't mean the analyst is pandering to the subscribers when they reported UM is on top. I don't really remember what Tom said on Kozan and Diamond, but I specifically remember Garnett. He was being his typical cryptic self, the abrubtly stopped talking about him for a week. Some poster called him out on it, and he said (paraphrasing) 'Ah, you caught that did you? Well somethings have changed, and I'm not nearly as confident in Garnett as I was before. UM still has a chance, but I can't call it now'. This was about a week before the announcement when even Sam Webb was confident in Garnett to UM. Afterward, didn't Garnett basically confirm just that. I was under the impression he had UM leading late until the very end when he decided on Stanford. VH has always been cautious with his information he puts out there. If you want to see pandering, check out anything Bucknuts' staff writers put out on recruiting, or whatever the hell Alex at Eleven Warriors writes about OSU recruiting.
December 12th, 2012 at 10:53 PM ^
You can make a prediction that a guy is coming here, then say he changed his mind when the kid doesn't. No one will ever "know" except the kid himself. It sorta makes the prediction kinda useless.
Part of being the "recruiting insider" is wading though the chaff that comes from the recruits. Otherwise, the existence of insiders is worthless (i'm sure many argue that anyway)
December 12th, 2012 at 4:21 PM ^
Agreed, just like the optimism over Green. Just don't see either one coming here. Glad the coaches are starting to figure out the backup plans and are making it happen with about two months to go rather than waiting on the all star games or after to be surprised. Maybe they learned something from the big whiffs at the end of last year?
December 12th, 2012 at 4:30 PM ^
I don't know why it's not unreasonable to be optimistic about Green. The guy just said we lead. Now, doesn't mean we'll end up actually getting him, but it's certainly fair to be optimistic.
December 12th, 2012 at 4:40 PM ^
Being optimistic is fine, just saying there're uncomfortable parallels with other close but not quite recruitments.
December 12th, 2012 at 5:21 PM ^
Well aren't you just a negative nancy.
December 12th, 2012 at 5:43 PM ^
Not at all. I just happen to think that Green is looking for another school that isn't a tire fire in the midst of a coaching change, isn't about to get destroyed by sanctions, and isn't called Michigan. Given that he initially drilled down to Auburn, Tennesse, and Michigan, then watched the other two schools implode and now seems determined to look around tells me there's something about Michigan that doesn't speak to him, which is fine. Not sure how any of that is flamebait or trolling.
December 12th, 2012 at 4:53 PM ^
I've never figured out why some people think having a music school means McQuay is a slam dunk to come here. He's never been anything more than a long shot.
December 12th, 2012 at 5:17 PM ^
Is a bit of an overstatement. There's enough evidence that would indicate he has more than just a passing interest in Michigan
December 12th, 2012 at 6:14 PM ^
Considering he took an unofficial and an official, I think he might be better than a long shot.
December 12th, 2012 at 4:08 PM ^
According to Allen Trieu, this is NOT the guy Sam was mentioning
December 12th, 2012 at 4:11 PM ^
I don't remember the coaches ever confirming northfleet's move to safety. Speculation...
December 12th, 2012 at 4:13 PM ^
The speculation rose from the bowl practice video right?
December 12th, 2012 at 4:14 PM ^
It all makes sense now, Norfleet's alter ego Northfleet is playing safety. Why didn't I think of this before??