Rayshaun Benny Crystal Ball Flip
Just submitted by 247's Allen Trieu from Michigan to MSU. 4*, in-state DT recruit who had been 100% projected to Michigan. Announcing his decision on November 9th. Sam Webb posted that he'll be submitting a crystal ball for Benny to MSU later this afternoon too.
There's also some smoke that 3* WR commit Andrel Anthony might be joining MSU's class now as well, so things are going pretty great. /s
Crazy how one game can change so much.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:37 PM ^
This is the type of shit that happens when you don't take rivalry game seriously. We've lost recruits to OSU after losing to them and we're going to lose in-state guys to MSU as well when this happens. Who knows where we stand with Donovan Edwards now
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:48 PM ^
Zach Harrison is the perfect example of this
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:58 PM ^
Zach was more than the game. Zach was not an Urban fan. But the change and the assistant moves scored it.
November 2nd, 2020 at 4:22 PM ^
Lol the “we didnt really wanna win the in state rivalry game.”
MSU had decent talent and better coaching. Michigan did the best they could and it wasn’t good enough. MSU was on fire.
People here have been claiming that the players don’t take the OSU game seriously enough either. So dumb.
November 2nd, 2020 at 5:21 PM ^
Are you serious? MSU has putrid talent and statistically bad coaching. They're a straight up bad football team. MSU wasn't on fire. Lombardi barely completed 50% of his passes and their running game was mediocre at best. The only reason they won this game is because our CBs are trash and our coaching on both sides of the ball is stubborn and they hit a handful of big play passes against us. Stop making excuses for this staff
November 3rd, 2020 at 9:53 AM ^
That "putrid" team just waltzed in, danced with our girls, stole our lunch money, flipped off the coaches, and danced out.
How many deep balls did Milton hit?
How many big runs did we have?
How many sacks were there?
Who was the more disciplined team?
Stop making excuses for the team--no one took MSU seriously, including, it appears, yourself.
November 2nd, 2020 at 5:05 PM ^
I’m surprised UM lost to MSU but this year was always going to go poorly. If you look at the 247 team talent composite UM is all the way down to 18th. That’s the lowest of the Harbaugh era. They were near the top 5 in 2016. There’s a saying in politics when it comes to elections “it’s the economy stupid” and same can be said here “it’s the recruiting stupid”.
November 2nd, 2020 at 7:08 PM ^
MSU is ranked 35th with a grand total of nine 4 stars. The average rating for Michigan would be MSU's 10th highest rated player. Without digging too deep, outside the top 5 or 6 players on MSU's rosters the rest wouldn't even be rated in the top half of Michigan's roster. The problem is youth. The talent on this years team, based on the ratings, are mostly all young players.
November 3rd, 2020 at 8:45 AM ^
Nah it’s a talent problem just look in the secondary it’s all three stars except for Dax.
November 2nd, 2020 at 7:16 PM ^
Well, there goes DT recruiting for this class. I’m sure there are some 250 pound “diamond in the rough” two star DTs in the New England area!
November 2nd, 2020 at 7:41 PM ^
Nua effect.
November 3rd, 2020 at 7:52 AM ^
That would actually be better than our current DT recruiting. 250 isn't actually terrible for a possible DT recruit. Benny is 275 and he's tall, 6'5".
November 2nd, 2020 at 11:29 PM ^
I seriously doubt Edwards will commit to us. Waiting for the dong punch and then all the harbaugh fanboys will say that he always wanted to leave the state, something, something....
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:38 PM ^
JFC
This makes the inexplicable offensive and defensive coaching strategies in the MSU debacle even more infuriating. We lost far more than just the game.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:40 PM ^
We lost far more than just the game
The MSU game is always more than just a game. It's in-state momentum, perception, and bragging rights for a whole year for the staff in recruiting
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:47 PM ^
I guess so, but if a kid was holding out committing to a team until the UM-MSU game and was a 100% lean to UM then he really wasn't all that inclined to go to Michigan.
Credit to MSU for a good game but my guess is a guy like Benny was already heavily pointing toward MSU (see his various "they're talking about my brand" comments) and just took this as an easy out. I don't blame him and wish him luck if he does, but I think people are reading too much into a single game (or these predictions weren't ever that strong and we all sort of ignored it).
November 2nd, 2020 at 4:15 PM ^
Trieu and Webb said the results of the game turned him green.
November 2nd, 2020 at 4:28 PM ^
And it's not just THAT they lost it's HOW they lost, by turning in such a garbage performance. And "Harbaugh on the hot seat" is going to be a thing now on the recruiting trail.
Time for a change.
November 2nd, 2020 at 7:23 PM ^
And you can bet "Harbaugh on the hot seat" will be used against every team recruiting against us, I wouldn't be surprised to see other staffs try to raid the kids that are already committed to UM.
November 2nd, 2020 at 5:10 PM ^
Again, if a single game turned Benny then he was already leaning toward MSU and just needed an excuse to pull the trigger. And honestly, he's been making a lot of noise recently about how MSU was getting his attention.
Again, Webb and Trieu are inclined to make narratives out of flips because, frankly, they were wrong about Benny until about 12 hours ago. I'm not saying they are looking for rationalizations but this sure feels like one.
November 2nd, 2020 at 6:59 PM ^
Thank you
November 2nd, 2020 at 10:34 PM ^
Wasn't Benny supposed to announce about 4 weeks ago but delayed his decision? Many thought that was a red flag at the time and it looks like we now know why.
November 3rd, 2020 at 9:37 AM ^
Trieu and Webb are recruiting experts who do this for a living. You’re a random fan on a blog trying make and excuse for UM shitting the bed again.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:58 PM ^
always going to be dangerous for your dt recruits to see what you do with the last two high-level dt recruits. at least here, anyway.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:39 PM ^
Holy shit, best year for in state talent I’ve ever seen and Harbaugh is going to miss on everyone. What a complete and utter failure. This honestly feels like the beginning of the end of the Harbaugh era. He never took recruiting seriously enough or rather hired coaches who didn’t and now he’s paying the price. I’m shocked Nua and Zordich still get a paycheck.
November 2nd, 2020 at 4:15 PM ^
a.k.a. maizen whack-a-mole.
November 2nd, 2020 at 4:28 PM ^
Yep, spells and smells like it to me too. Maizen/1982Miller/arttatern/1982kenmil/etc., at $5 per attempt
November 2nd, 2020 at 4:38 PM ^
He’s not wrong though. People can choose to ignore him if they like, but for those of us that don’t follow recruiting as closely, I appreciate him being direct with our deficiencies.
November 2nd, 2020 at 4:45 PM ^
Though he isn't wrong this time, Maize is an opportunist who shows up with a new username after every Michigan disaster, then far worse yet proceeds to shit on the Hello threads of new recruits
If this proves to again be him, he's gone. A quick look using my mod buttons shows that he opened up two accounts with slightly different usernames just over an hour ago, shortly after Seth blocked his "artattern" account.
Redflags, anyone?
(Edit @5:25pm---I just blocked his alternate "1982kenm" account. The "1982kenmil" account is being closely watched.)
November 3rd, 2020 at 7:15 AM ^
I don't understand why Maizen needs to be censored. He has a point of view that is not unreasonable. If he's not engaging in ad hominem or other inappropriate behavior, what's the issue?
November 3rd, 2020 at 12:52 PM ^
EVERY. SINGLE. ACCOUNT. Maizen has used over the years has crapped on new commits in their "Hello" threads, especially if they are 3 stars or lower, even some of the 4 star recruits.
These young men and their families read this. Other prospective recruits read this. They deserve better, this blog's readers deserve better. The vast majority here seem to agree.
If derailing those threads isn't inappropriate behavior by Maizen, then what do you call it?
I don't know that "1982KenMil" is definitely Maizen but I am suspicious that he is, as are apparently Seth, Ace, and I believe, LSA. But I do know that 1982KenMil is the same poster as 1982Miller, who was banned for trolling and exhibiting very Maizen-like traits just months ago. I also know that when he opened his new account yesterday he simultaneously opened a shadow account, which is no doubt a red flag.
Right now I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt but a very short leash.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:39 PM ^
Should add that Steve Wiltfong, Sam Webb, and Josh Henschke have all officially switched from Michigan to MSU.
November 2nd, 2020 at 4:00 PM ^
I would say that given those names, this one is all but wrapped up and the kid is going to MSU.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:39 PM ^
I have a hard time believing Benny's decision was based on a single game; if so then so be it.
Anyway, look forward to everyone freaking out forever.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:42 PM ^
Zach Harrison was all Michigan until OSU blew us out. One game can impact perception and ruin ruin recruiting momentum
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:50 PM ^
I've seen people say this but is there any evidence? I always thought Harrison liked Michigan but his family was against it heavily (due to where they lived in OH), and it seemed unlikely he'd actually wind up at Michigan. Because by this same logic Michigan destroying ND last year should have sprung Spindler to Michigan and yet...here we are.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:51 PM ^
Michigan fan lifer here. I live in Columbus (I know). Harrison was never, ever, ever going to leave the state to play for us. He played High School ball literally 5 -10 mins (depending on traffic) from Ryan Day's doorstep in Powell/Delaware. It wasn't happening, no matter what went down in The Game that year. He was under a huge amount of pressure - peer, personal, and collegiate - to stay local and commit to OSU. That was the lock of the century for OSU.
It was as locked-up as Antjuan Sim- oh, nevermind.
November 2nd, 2020 at 4:02 PM ^
Harrison was considered by many to be leaning toward Michigan. Once it was announced that Urban Meyer was going to retire, everything switched. Once Zach shared that he was going to share his college choice live, in front of his high school (in a suburb of Columbus), it was definitely over.
I think Harrison and his family were leaning Michigan's way until Meyer retired. I think it was mostly due to the Zach Smith fiasco. Maybe I'm wrong and this is revisionist history? That's just the way I recall everything progressing at the time.
November 3rd, 2020 at 7:29 AM ^
Al Washington did a great, great job with ZH. And M was definitely a strong option. That said, I'm not sure anyone can say who was the choice prior to the Game (other than ZH). He really like Larry Johnson, too.
As for the 2018 game, ordinarily I'd agree that one game doesn't change a recruit's mind, but man. That game was a program(s)-entrenching eye-opener. I'm not sure ZH could realistically look at M and think that they'd be the better program while he was there.
Urban Meyer retiring was also a factor, but probably overstated. And, in the end, Ryan Day poached AW, so ZH ended up getting pretty lucky.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:48 PM ^
Well I take it your aren’t around a lot of high school aged kids
November 2nd, 2020 at 8:19 PM ^
What's so hard to believe here? MSU may very well end up with a better W-L record, they for sure out-coached and prepared better than us and honestly the Harbaugh ship may finally sink after this season regardless of our results. It's all there and high school kids notice this shit. How do you sell last Saturday as an upward trajectory to future players?
Fuck - Losing recruits to OSU, Bama and Clemson is one thing but when a MSU team that had nothing going for them looks like a better option for recruits than UM, solutions need to be offered up pretty damn fast.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:41 PM ^
Hire Jeff Scott from USF, former Clemson Offensive Coordinator.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:50 PM ^
I don't know much about this guy, but according to his Wikipedia page his brother is an assistant professor of surgery at Michigan. So we have that connection going for us. However Scott is 1-5 at South Florida so it might be a tough sell.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:58 PM ^
we need the guy from Iowa State. ..Campbell?
November 2nd, 2020 at 4:16 PM ^
He is 1-5 at South Florida.
Are you fucking nuts?
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:44 PM ^
But I was told one game won't change a recruit's decision
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:44 PM ^
Seems a bit flaky based on one game, especially since MSU lost to Rutgers last week. And could very well be a 2-6ish team.
But I can't blame them for not wanting to be here.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:46 PM ^
That's the way I'm seeing it. It's not that maybe he likes msu so much as he dislikes UM that much.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:47 PM ^
This. Sparty did, in fact, lose to Rutgers.
I'm gonna get some IPA and watch some football next weekend and see if the world returns to it's axis.
November 2nd, 2020 at 3:51 PM ^
We went from thinking Michigan was going to be a train wreck this year, to thinking we finally had an elite team with a top QB, to thinking the entire program is on the verge of collapse, all in about an 8 day period.
I know it's hard to fathom right now, but this used to be the norm. Great Michigan teams- I'm talking top 5- would inexplicably lose to TERRIBLE MSU teams.
Is there anything outside of one win in which nobody on Michigan's team looked like themselves that would have you believe that MSU is actually about to resurrect with the unexpectedly great Mel Tucker?