MSU hires Curtis Blackwell (Detroit Max EX founder/owner) as Recruiting Coordinator

Submitted by trueblue262 on

This is a huge hire by MSU as far as in state recruiting goes.

Link- all over twitter

JT4104

August 1st, 2013 at 11:36 AM ^

will be interesting to see how instate recruiting goes now. he is a well known guy in the state and should have solid relationships with a lot of coaches.

detrocks

August 1st, 2013 at 11:47 AM ^

After getting walloped by Michigan and... good grief Western Michigan... in recruiting in the state, they needed something like this.   Blackwell should provide some good connections in Michigan-- not to mention helping out with other HS programs outside of the state that were sending kids to SMSB.  

gwkrlghl

August 1st, 2013 at 11:56 AM ^

but I can't get too worried about this. No one has been coming to Michigan because they're in love with a single coach or recruiter, we'll still do just dandy against MSU. Especially when they regress back to 6-6 every year and we're taking off.

Good hire, just not concerned for us

gwkrlghl

August 1st, 2013 at 12:30 PM ^

I just don't believe it's going to have a significant impact. Sure, he might wrangle in a few more top 100/250 guys...but it's still MSU. They had back-to-back 11 win seasons and in that time frame they saw Michigan's recruiting take off while theirs remained stagnant.

Half the 4 stars they've landed in the last 20 years are all Bulloughs anyway. There cant be that many of them left

Leaders And Best

August 1st, 2013 at 12:55 PM ^

doesn't mean it will be true. I think it matters for Michigan State but will have little to no effect in Ann Arbor. Michigan State needed a Director of Player Personnel/Recruiting Coordinator to keep up and not get left behind. He is their equivalent of Chris Singletary at Michigan or Mark Pantoni at Ohio State. When was the last time you heard a recruit say they picked a university because of those guys? These guys coordinate recruiting visits and get coaches the foot in the door by identifying prospects early through scouting and connections. In the end the program, coaches, and university have to sell itself. Non-coaching football personnel cannot recruit players off campus or initiate phone calls (at least until the NCAA rules change--got overrided this year).

I think this move helps MSU stay competitive in recruiting against the rest of college football's upper middle class. But I doubt it will affect Michigan much.

Leaders And Best

August 1st, 2013 at 1:38 PM ^

But I don't think Blackwell will be the reason a Detroit area prospect chooses a university. He will open the door for MSU to opportunities, but elite prospects are still going to choose to go to the best football programs. And add in the fact, most of the big time alumni ended up at Michigan, future prospects will probably look up to those guys. Unless MSU and Dantonio start winning championships consistently on the field, there is only so much Blackwell can do.

Here are some alumni of Maximum Exposure and an article from 247Sports:

http://247sports.com/Article/The-Maximum-Exposure-program-out-of-Detroit-shined-this-summer-81265

Malik McDowell

Damon Webb         Ohio State

Chance Stewart     Western Michigan

Deon Drake         Michigan State

Devin Funchess     Michigan

Aaron Burbridge     Michigan State

Mario Ojemudia     Michigan

Daron Brown     Northern Illinois

Brian Blackburn     Toledo

Shane Morris     Michigan

Jourdan Lewis    Michigan

Delano Hill      Michigan

Csonte York      Michigan

Khalid Hill      Michigan

David Dawson     Michigan

Dennis Finley    Michigan State

Desmond King     Iowa

Kevin Buford     Iowa

Danny Larkins     Toledo

William Rembert     Buffalo

Ruben Lile     Iowa

James White     Bowling Green

Leviticus Payne     Cincinnati

Ron Thompson     Syracuse

Dennis Norfleet     Michigan

Terry Richardson     Michigan

Anthony Scarcelli     Central Michigan

Devin Church     Northern Illinois

Hunter Matt     Eastern Michigan

gopoohgo

August 1st, 2013 at 12:03 PM ^

Curious as to how this will impact Michigan's recruiting efforts.

From everything I've heard, the current Michigan staff already has great inroads into various Michigan, Ohio high school coaching staffs.  Also, the current staff's recruiting philosophy of starting strong out of the gate gives them a lot of time to recruit a year ahead of the cycle (see 2015 class; 5 kids already, one a 4 star legacy, one clear 5 star WR, one 4/5 star RB).

The hire may stem the bleeding of the Northwesterns/Iowas/Purdues poaching Michigan high school kids, but I think there won't be too much of an impact in our head-head recruiting battles with Staee.

gopoohgo

August 1st, 2013 at 12:32 PM ^

So you think that a kid is going to be swayed by his 7 on 7 offseason coach more than his high-school coach or his future college positional, OC/DC or head coach?

Will take borges/mattison and Hoke over the 7-7 coach any day of the week.  And I think you're dumb if you choose Blackwell over our staff given their track record.

Sinsemillaplease

August 1st, 2013 at 12:36 PM ^

you should read the person's post you want to respond to. He said it won't affect head to head battles... and it likely won't. Nothing will. We'll always have the upper hand in-state. It's a built in advantage at this point. This is Michigan. Curtis Blackwell won't be selling Michigan. Sure it'll help MSU recruiting... but it won't tip any scales if they're recruiting against us.

detrocks

August 1st, 2013 at 1:07 PM ^

State needed to do something to improve their recruiting in-state.    As a state, Michigan doesn't have that much talent and with only a couple of exceptions, Michigan is getting who they want and State's getting leftovers and legacies.  In the last two classes, State's gotten very little in Michigan.   Out of their 31 recruits in '13 and '14, only 8 have been from Michigan.   Out of those eight, only four had BCS offers from schools other than State.   Importantly for us, only two had Michigan offers (Reschke and Finley-- which were both late offers and issued after they committed to State).  

In contrast, over the last two classes, we've recruited 11 players from Michigan, eight of whom either had or presumably would have gotten other BCS offers (I added Jourdan Lewis, who I assume would have gotten other offers if he hadn't committed early) and five of whom had State offers.

I credit them for adjusting and doing some nice work recruiting in Ohio and Illinois, but even those markets are getting more difficult for them as Michigan, Ohio State and Notre Dame are getting the best prospects.  The bigger problem for them is that they've lost several battles to up-and-coming programs like Northwestern and Kentucky.   If they start losing more battles to those guys, they're really in trouble

Dantonio has definitely upgraded their recruiting but I'm not sure where they go from here, even with Blackwell.

MichiganMan14

August 1st, 2013 at 1:26 PM ^

This will help them in recruiting. Recruiting is the lifeblood of football. I still dont think that Michigan will be losing out on top in state guys at a much higher rate. Situations mighy arise where we lose the occasional 250 guy based on playing time but the fact remains.. Michigan is a much bigger draw, deal and opportunity than MSU. A recruiting coordinator cannot change that.

Perkis-Size Me

August 1st, 2013 at 2:31 PM ^

Good hire for them, should help them out a bit but it won't be enough for them to out-recruit Michigan. At the end of the day, we just have a whole lot more to offer in terms of the whole package.



This does not concern me in the slightest.

x98

August 1st, 2013 at 3:49 PM ^

We were at king at the same time. This guy is great. I won't say he didn't need the money, he was already in a great financial situation. I wish him well at his new position. I recall Northwestern was recruiting him to play football, so I'm glad he has continued his dream to be a part of football in some capacity.

bacon1431

August 1st, 2013 at 4:05 PM ^

I don't think he will push MSU over us in instate recruiting, but he could help in keeping the instate guys that are choosing schools other than UM and MSU to stay home. Dantonio may have finally realized that recruiting is a big deal.

alum96

August 1st, 2013 at 4:58 PM ^

For those curious (as I was as I had to google), Singletary's background.  (I have yet to hear his name come up from Malik or Marshall or Harris or any other recruit as a key determining factor in choosing one school over another)



Chris Singletary

Director of Player Personnel


   Former Wolverine linebacker Chris Singletary is in his sixth season as the recruiting coordinator with the Michigan football program. He handles all of the team's recruiting efforts, both on-campus and out in the community.

   A three-year letterman at Michigan (1996-98), Singletary graduated in May 1999 with a degree in sports management and communications. He was a special teams standout and played in 36 career games.

   Following graduation, Singletary was hired by the International Management Group. He spent one year in IMG's basketball department before accepting a position as Director of Player Resources in the football department with Tom Condon. He worked for IMG for seven-plus years (1999-2006) before returning to his alma mater.

   A Detroit native, Singletary attended DePorres High School where he was selected to the all-state Dream Teams of The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. He listed No. 7 on The Detroit News Blue-Chip List as a senior.

   Singletary and his wife, the former LaToya Long, reside in Van Buren Township. LaToya graduated from U-M with a degree in electrical engineering.