Opening Day 1: Top 10 Defense (Darrin Kirkland)
The competition got underway at The Opening today with a NIKE Training Camp which featured drills and one-on-ones. Scout's staff compiled a top ten for the day.
Other names you might recognize include 5-Stars Byron Cowart & Iman Marshall. Allen Trieu had this to say about Kirkland:
Darrin Kirkland - Linebacker, Indianapolis (Ind.) Lawrence Central Kirkland, a Michigan commit, has worked hard on his ability to run and move in space and that was on display today as he was one of the top linebackers in coverage. He could run with backs and did a nice job playing the ball in the air, coming away with a couple of interceptions.
I only saw a few clips, but Harris looked really good both in the clip of his straight line speed as well as his foot speed and elusiveness getting around some LB who I beleive was a UM target (forgetting his name). He looks pretty danged good.
Harris was up against Osa Masina in that video.
was the one to get juked badly by Jordan Scarlett in the vine that got posted a lot yesterday.
And Malazone didn't make the first 11 rankings of the Elite 11 either, not that it means much, especially with Difler.
important is how he fits into Michigan's system and I assume Nuss feels he can do the job.
Malzone received a lot of praise for his grittiness, essentially. Not exactly the most resounding praise for a QB, although I guess it could be worse.
Like Aaron Craft
Hopefully he doesn't develop the matching rose cheeks too ...
The praise he's getting though at least seems to indicate he belongs in that group at least; plus the things they like there aren't always the best on-field attributes. Dilfer tends to like cannon arms more than anything in these events and I remember a year or two ago one of the eventual final 11 guys was having a really bad day so they threw him out on the last pressure drill that he did well on and immediately they shot him up and completely ignored the rest of his bad day.
It's grain of salt and all, it would just be nice for one of our QBs there to actually make the final 11 for a change.
I thought Dilfer was a check down guy. The reason Shane didn't make it
He hates Michigan commits, that's got to be it!
Speaking of Jordan Scarlett, he committed to Miami yesterday. They already have a commitment from a RB we're recruiting (Dexter Williams), so perhaps that might have an effect down the road.
Dexter Williams was expected to go elsewhere for quite some time now. Not even sure why sites have him on the miami commit list. I read about a month ago with some direct quotes from him, and it sounded awful for Miami. There was another top BCS school he was really, really looking at. It was USC or LSU or some top program like that.