OT: Sparty lands first two 2012 verbals.

Submitted by Bosch on

Zach Higgens: Guard out of Ohio.

Riley Bullough: Safety out of TCSF.

Normally, this is not boardworthy, especially when neither were being courted by Michigan, but you may notice that Riley is the brother of Max Bullough.

Dantonio is a genius.  You certainly don't want punish a player (other than forcing him to miss the first two practices) for getting arrested for his role in a fight during spring break and eluding police when his brother is in line to be your first commit for 2012.

 

MetricSU

April 30th, 2011 at 10:58 PM ^

"Talk is cheap." Maybe U-M better beat MSU once in football in the next year or two before the incoming recruits have to worry about "ass kickings." Of course, those incoming recruits can't ask current the current MSU players what that feels like, since very few of them actually know.

Sorry you've never actually attended a class at MSU. You've probably never even been to East Lansing, except maybe on a football Saturday.

JBE

May 1st, 2011 at 1:29 AM ^

Once the recruits attend an event in East Lansing - educational or sporting - they will understand the mediocre history of a university chocked full of cowfolk and familiar with ass kickings.  

The incoming athletes will enjoy a night of making love to, and then eating cows, followed by a screening or two of a historically dominate instate rival dropping knowledge and touchdowns on an overwhelmed and outmatched MSU team during an exciting 4th quarter.  After these screenings, the alumni, coaches and recruits will cheer, because, truly, these are spartan victories, despite the actual score.     

In the classroom, the professor will almost teach the students to read.  No kidding, I know.  This will be a very sharp MSU graduate class mind you.  By the end of the semester most the students will be able to sound out Hop on Pop in full.  The semester will indeed be grueling, with a hard twenty minutes of book learnin taught by a valiant, semi literate educator, which, in turn, earns tenure.  There will be a goat in the front row that really knows its stuff - the animal will neah something that sounds eerily close to Derrida, and there will be a tooth or two in a couple mouths, so overall the students will have the good fortune of experiencing a university truly on the rise.  

 

go16blue

April 30th, 2011 at 1:41 PM ^

Im glad MSU is the one getting the 3 stars again, while we seem to be getting only 4 stars as of late. I know this isnt much different then it was a year ago, but it still feels nice.

719Yoop

April 30th, 2011 at 2:00 PM ^

Well that's cute Sparty finally put a few kids on the board. Benny McGowan looks like a pretty good player, I'm not too sure about the other two though. MSU makes a living off of 3-star prospects though so who knows. 

Farnn

April 30th, 2011 at 2:06 PM ^

I just clicked on one of the profiles, and from the header font, I can't tell if that is Sporton digest or spartan digest.

Jon Benke

April 30th, 2011 at 2:27 PM ^

Braden has Michigan State and Wisconsin.

Ringer has a weird list - I'll give you that, for how high Scout has him .. I like Scout, and have the past few years.

Stacey has a MAC list, but helped us land Joe Bolden.

It's never a bad thing to have two kids from Cincinnati.

Irish

April 30th, 2011 at 3:07 PM ^

you're splitting hairs, how does a big ten bottom feeder elevate a recruit's profile?  Wisconsin and MSU are the biggest names on that list, maybe throw BC in there, and they both belong to Braden.  Mcgowan has UCLA and Iowa, there isn't a difference

Irish

April 30th, 2011 at 8:15 PM ^

I am comparing 3 UM commits to MSU's only 3 commits, if they're supposed to be mac level players wouldn't they be the bottom of the class?  It doesnt make them bad players, but they are being defined by their offer lists which may or may not even be correct to begin with.

Its funny watching people discount another teams commits, while celebrating their own with the same traits.  

readyourguard

April 30th, 2011 at 10:11 PM ^

Cousins was the ultimate "MAC level offer" guy.  He's done alright for himself.

Frankly, I hate that term.  Every team has it's share of higher and lower rated players.  There's been as many high school All-Americas that have failed as there have been 3 stars that have had great success.

Bodogblog

April 30th, 2011 at 6:29 PM ^

Hence the "sorry dad I'm not going to your alma mater"?
<br>In any case, McGowan was a little higher than Stacey on Scout, but we never offered him. And we offered everybody. But good luck to this kid, looks like he was a M fan at one point (at least based on internet chatter).
<br>http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/tomvh-nike-sparq-results
<br>

MetricSU

April 30th, 2011 at 11:06 PM ^

Iowa and UCLA. Bullough from Iowa and Wisconsin. Higgins from Northwestern and West Virginia.

Dantonio seems to be doing just fine with exactly this kind of recruit. Last time I checked, the games are actually played on the field, not on the rivals or scout sites.

BTW, did you notice the GPAs of these three MSU verbals? 3.8, 3.8, and 3.5. And, at MSU, they'll be allowed to choose a major on their own.

FitzTou10

April 30th, 2011 at 2:21 PM ^

Sparties, the reason they didn't have any commits up until now is because Dantonio is going after plan A kids since they have limited scholarships available. It's nice to see their plan A kids are MAC level.

bronxblue

April 30th, 2011 at 2:56 PM ^

I've read how MSU is such a big-time program now - remember, B10 co-champions and all - that they don't need to offer kids unless they "earn" it.  But when you can nab a kid with offers from Cincy and Louisville, you just have to.

/s

All snark aside (I mean, UM has some good kids but I'm sure people could say the same things), it will be interesting to see how MSU recruits this year.  The last image most people have of them is being curb-stomped by an okay Alabama team, and as we've seen with other programs one great year doesn't usually turn recruits over in droves.  This is when Dantonio will earn his pay if he can leverage a good year into a legitimate base, especially in Ohio with OSU going through everything.  We saw UM needs to take advantage and start making inroads in Ohio - which seems dumb to me, since UM always recruits reasonably well there - but Ohio is where virtually all of MSU's top-notch talent comes from, so a weaker OSU will pay huge dividends for them if they don't fall on their faces.

Magnus

April 30th, 2011 at 4:18 PM ^

They lost three games.  And they still killed Michigan State.

Sure, I agree that Alabama underachieved.

And Michigan State overachieved, too.  We're still waiting for the first MSU player to get drafted, aren't we?

EDIT: Not anymore...with the 185th pick, Greg Jones was selected by the Giants!  Maybe he can shoot himself in the leg while he's in New York.

SpartanLove

April 30th, 2011 at 4:32 PM ^

I do try to come here for normal conversation about MSU/UM stuff.  I know you are just trying to flame me and all but Greg Jones getting drafted in the 6th doesn't really have an impact on the Alabama game.

Alabama had an outstanding team. They may have had their own issues that I have absolutely no clue about but it's clear that Nick Saban is a good coach and he has built himself quite a resume. That team was/is stacked.

Not sure why I get neg'd on here other than maybe my name?  Seems odd. Perhaps I should go to a different UM board?

RBWolverine

April 30th, 2011 at 4:52 PM ^

Some people will neg you just for having a pro-MSU name, which I don't think would be different on any message board on the internet.  If your name favors a rival of the team whose message board you're on, you're going to get some negative feedback. 

But people on here will be open to reasonable arguments, it just depends on your tone.  Not like you're getting negged heavily right now, and people aren't exactly slamming you.  Participate in the discussion respectfully and most people will be respectful back, as they are with Irish.

RBWolverine

April 30th, 2011 at 4:43 PM ^

The point I understand Magnus to be making is that the argument that Alabama's record was not indicative of the quality of their team can also be extended to MSU.  They overachieved.  They were not as good as their record would indicate, while Alabama was better than their record would indicate.  So MSU fans will say, "hey, that was a really good Alabama team," but others will say, "hey, that was not that good an MSU team." 

And the lack of drafted Spartans (not that UM is doing any better) suggests that they overachieved.

Waters Demos

April 30th, 2011 at 7:20 PM ^

For someone of your status and reputation, I'm amazed that you'd say something like this about a player who has, time and again, demonstrated himself to be a high character football player and a good kid. 

Your posts have, in my mind, always been above this kind of crap. 

fatbastard

April 30th, 2011 at 5:48 PM ^

be the case if RR were still coaching.  He's not last time I checked. Whole different Mgomojo now.  Not only that, but you've got first class coaches here now and if you have a kid looking at an in-state school and coaching or education is a consideration, well there isn't really much of a choice at all.

WestSider

April 30th, 2011 at 6:56 PM ^

Alabama was loaded and explosive offensively and defensively. Any post to the contrary is just way off base. To get out on Auburn like they did, and then collapse, was a strange happening. That was one team who was capable of beating any team in the country, but had some unfortunate shit happen in their losses. Sure they are responsible for an odd loss record, but to refer to them as an "okay" team is b.s.