Ross Douglas (4* CB) commits to PSU; Scott Orndoff (3* TE) decommits from Wisconsin
Ross Douglass (4* CB from Avon Ohio), who had interest in MI, committed to play for PSU tonight.
247Sports breaks Penn State's second commit of the day. Avon (OH) High CB Ross Douglas comments on his pledge. bit.ly/zPvrts
This is Penn State's second commitment of the day along with 4* QB Christian Hackenberg. Good start for Tom O'Brien at PSU. Nice to see a couple of Big Ten teams recruiting well early.
In related B1G news TE Scott Orndoff has decomitted from Wisconsin. He's sceduled to visit UM March 16
- TE Scott Orndoff talks about his decommitment from Wisconsin, and how Michigan factors in: insider.espn.go.com/blog/colleges/…
February 29th, 2012 at 8:33 PM ^
Orndoff would be a good pick up to round out our TE recruiting.
It's surprising he's not rated by Rivals, but that shouldn't last long. He has offers from M, MSU, Wisconsin, BC, Pitt, Virginia and WVU. That's not a 5-star offer list, but it's a high 3-star at least, especially considering how many schools don't use TEs nowadays.
February 29th, 2012 at 9:23 PM ^
Who is supposed to better between Orndoff and Matuska? Both are listed at 6'5 240 by at least one site.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:08 PM ^
It's a tough call, Matuska has a good offer list too (Illinois, Nebraska, ND, Oklahoma), but I don't think we've offered him yet, so that leads to believe the coaches prefer Orndoff. However, I don't think we can go wrong with either, they seem to be comparable prospects.
Oh OK, his Rivals page doesn't reflect that then.
#6 in Ohio is pretty bold, considering the talent they have. Is that above Butt? I can't imagine they have two TEs in the top 6.
EDIT: After doing a little more research, 247 is really high on Matuska as well. #7 player in OH and #6 TE nationally. For comparison, they have Orndoff as a middle of the road 3-star and #23 TE nationally. Also, I noticed the other Heuerman boy is one of the nation's top TE. I'm surprised the coaches aren't going after him.
Matuska is at #22 in Ohio for scout, but both of 247's ratings have him in the top 10 (the 247 rating, and the "Bucknuts" rating).
Heuerman has some great offers, but is said to be a heavy Buckeye lean.
That makes sense since his brother is there, but I don't know how attractive that offense is to TEs.
It looks like the Heuermans are like the Borens - Dad was an M athlete and all his kids played football for the Buckeyes. Makes me sick.
Anything is more TE friendly than Tressel's offense. Hernandez won the Mackey award under Meyer (with 68 receptions), so I would say his offense is relatively TE friendly.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:18 PM ^
Agreed, Rivals should have him ranked. Other than Breneman, Orndoff is arguably the best TE left on our board.
As for the decommitment, there's nothing snake-oily about this one whatsoever.
Joe Rudolph, the assistant that recruited Scott Orndoff at Wisconsin, left the UW program. His departure is Orndoff's motivation for decommitting from Wisconsin.
February 29th, 2012 at 8:34 PM ^
Are these PSU first two commitments?
February 29th, 2012 at 8:43 PM ^
February 29th, 2012 at 8:43 PM ^
Looks like he got tired of waiting around for OSU and/or Michigan offers. Penn State is clearly the highest profile offer he had [EDIT: I guess Tennessee could argue otherwise]. I think the coaches are very adament in that they want a 6'0"+ corner at this point.
February 29th, 2012 at 8:44 PM ^
I'm glad to see this happening more and more. It used to be OSU would be choosy early, knowing they could offer most any senior in Ohio who proved out late and know with a fair degree of certainty they would come running. Now those guys are going elsewhere. Not only does it deprive them of the potential talent, but it will force them to take more risks with early offers.
February 29th, 2012 at 9:33 PM ^
NSD is 11 months away, not 11 days. How about we just accept that he might have actually wanted to go to PSU?
February 29th, 2012 at 8:40 PM ^
Good to see PSU haul one in, especially from some high-caliber competition (the QB).
February 29th, 2012 at 10:54 PM ^
Yeah...for the record, this isn't flamebait. I'm actually excited for them. I'm glad when other Big Ten teams do well, and I'm glad when we get high quality kids to pick us over SEC teams. Penn State needed a big time QB and it looks like they got one. Does sincerity require any other elaboration?
February 29th, 2012 at 10:57 PM ^
Someone got angry and decided to show it by negging every post on this thread. I'm going through and plussing every non-obvious-trolling post, regardless of content, to make up for it, which is about all you can do when this happens.
February 29th, 2012 at 11:04 PM ^
Well...haters gonna hate.
I really think PSU deserves to suffer for awhile.
February 29th, 2012 at 8:44 PM ^
6'5" 240lbs... I like his size.
MANBALL
February 29th, 2012 at 8:53 PM ^
Rivals lists him as 6'6" 245. Even more MANBALL.
February 29th, 2012 at 8:49 PM ^
February 29th, 2012 at 9:14 PM ^
Urban is still a little bit behind the curve in recruiting connections. He doesn't have relationship with the Ohio coaches yet. Meyer hasn't had time to properly scout out the players in Ohio just yet. I think he's going after topflight national players and flashing the rings first while he is still developing his ties to Ohio schools and evaluating the lesser heralded players. Hoke already had ties to Ohio schools only being a few years removed from his Ball St. position. Hoke was also already in some of the 2012's recruits while he was at SDSU. Meyer is going to be just fine, he's going to have plenty of players.
The Ohio coaches may not be happy now, but if OSU is successful in their first year, all this "neglecting Ohio" chatter will disappear.
Having said that, I think that while he's a great recruiter and coach. I think his glaring weakness is talent evaluation. That's the only thing that will hold him back from Tesselizing the border.
February 29th, 2012 at 9:46 PM ^
February 29th, 2012 at 9:52 PM ^
I hope your kidding when you say he doesn't have then connections in ohio? I guess all that time he spent living in ohio, playing for UC, grad assistant at Osu, and Head coach at BGSU never got him any where. In all honesty, the 11w group says he has only offered ELITE kids going to evaluate the state later and just try to get out and pull in there mega class... he sounds like the anti-hoke. Hoke wants to go Michigan, Ohio, Midwest, then all around. Urban seems like hes going Elite everywhere and then come home for the kids to finish his class. kind of weak if you ask me. I would hate to be a second priority if I was a recruit.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:03 PM ^
Yeah it may suck to be a clear second choice- but if that's the team you want to play for and grew up rooting for you take it and don't worry about how you got it.
It's kinda like Norfleet with UM.
It could definitely work for Meyer. Most Ohio kids love OSU- and if they get the offer many take right away. SO if its late in the game and they have the chance to play for him and join what will likely be a top class of course many kids will take it.
I do agree though it may help UM who will always hit Ohio up early- where many kids will commit before OSU offers or shows much interest when OSU may have been trying to fill out with better national talent to come back and get those kids- it may make OSU get 3* talent on their midwest backup plan instead of 4* if we get those top guys early.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:14 PM ^
February 29th, 2012 at 10:21 PM ^
Wouldn't that make him a good example of a backup plan for M?
February 29th, 2012 at 10:09 PM ^
There was quite a bit of discussion a while back on mgoblog about how Ohio recruiting is kind of a zero-sum game between UM and our rival to the south. Point being, if you sign a player out of Ohio, then not only are you improving your own team but you are likely hurting your opponent.
If Meyer wants to go after the elite national talent, I am sure he will get his share--just like Rich Rod got players out of Florida. But in taking players from all around the country, Meyer won't really be hurting Michigan at the same time--since few of those recruits would likely be deciding between "them" and "us."
February 29th, 2012 at 10:58 PM ^
He hasn't recruited Ohio extensively in years. He hasn't made the rounds to all the high schools. I'm not saying he's without roots to the region. But he definitely isn't as well-connected with the pulse of Ohio high schools presently as Hoke.
My expectation is that they'll swing for the fences nationally and after that try to pick the leftovers in Ohio or try to snakeoil who is already comitted. But starting with the 2014 class, they'll target a bit more Ohio guys earlier because they will have been exposed to them during the 2013 recruiting cycle.
Whats kind of weak is the self-serving knocking that Meyer is getting from alot of the "intelligent" M fans..... did you all already forget what Meyer did to close last years class? It was as impressive as ours for this year.
We all want Meyer to fail, but at least quit being delusional. Hoke is killing it, but Meyer will too. A true Michigan fan quietly admires Ohio, after we slap them. Our programs our so similar that when we childishly criticize them for things that aren't true, then we become the chumps.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:03 PM ^
They have four of the top 7-8 (depending on the service) players in the state committed to them, and are in on many others like Courtney Love, Malik Zaire, Ben Gedeon, Shelton Gibson, etc. I think people are overreacting based on Michigan's fast start. Meyer is from the area and has always been an excellent recruiter. He knows what he's doing.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:22 PM ^
I don't think anybody's questioning that. Nobody said he wouldn't get top talent in Ohio. Nobody even said he wouldn't get a lot of Plan B talent from Ohio. I think people are simply saying that the more competitive the recruiting is in Ohio, and the earlier talented kids without OSU offers are committing, the better it is for us.
Everyone knows Meyer will wind up with a top class, unless he has some pretty protracted failure on the field for a few years. There's still a difference between Ohio recruiting well and having their pick of the litter every year.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:59 PM ^
This is a two time national champion coach, who evidently has two of his former QBs currently starting in the NFL and who made big plays in the NFL playoffs. We should just worry about the haul at UM. Our fast start opens up options for other kids to play at other schools, but I do hope your wrong about him knowing what he's doing.
This is starting to sound suspiciously like the "Rich Rodriguez is ignoring HS kids from Michigan" meme that Spartys and Old Guard fans loved to promote. I have a feeling Urban is going to get pretty much any kid he really wants from Ohio and if he passes on a 4 star here or there to snag a 5 star from Texas, California, or Florida, that's probably going to end well for the Bucks.
February 29th, 2012 at 11:07 PM ^
Really? He already has 4 of the top 6 players in Ohio according to scout. Add Dymonte (and they will) and that will make it 5 of the top, and they have a real shot at Smith also. So yeah, keep being delusional.
February 29th, 2012 at 8:56 PM ^
not highly rated but with the offer list he has i'm sure that'll change
February 29th, 2012 at 9:11 PM ^
which means i can make the rounds of Pittsburgh HS football. I think Breaston was the last Pittsburgher.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:04 PM ^
He may have been the last big time M player from Pittsburgh, but Cullen Christian was from there, so is Paskorz. There have been a couple others, but I can't recall right now.
February 29th, 2012 at 9:49 PM ^
I hope he doesn't commit to us. I'd hate to do that to Bielema. Hoke should be a gentleman about this.
February 29th, 2012 at 9:56 PM ^
February 29th, 2012 at 10:18 PM ^
It's sarcasm.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:55 PM ^
I knew it was too bold to leave out the /s. I've learned my lesson. All jokes from my end will now be explained and qualified in detail.
February 29th, 2012 at 10:19 PM ^
Every other B1G school that recruits well (especially Penn st) makes it tougher for Urban Myer
February 29th, 2012 at 10:48 PM ^
That's not necessarily true because not all schools are competing from the same pool of players. Some schools will recruit for a certain style (RR looking for slot receivers) and some stay local (home state/region) and some have certain areas they recruit heavily (RR and Florida).
So Big Ten schools that recruit Ohio players, and recruit top 250 recruit levels will definitely impact OSU. But lots of the Big Ten schools don't seem to overlap much with OSU. I think UM and PSU are the biggest factors for making recruiting tougher for OSU. Then MSU and Wisconsin to a lesser degree. The other schools will fight over a small number of recruits but largely don't seem to impact OSU too much.
February 29th, 2012 at 11:08 PM ^
Scout has him as the #26 player in Ohio, Bucknuts has him at #38. That's MSU, and now PSU, territory.