Scout 300 released for 2017
Scout jumped into the rankings fray for 2017. (247 Sports already posted their initial rankings, and Rivals' will be posted next week, I believe.)
Anyway, Scout released them in two phases, the top 100 (LINK) and the complete 300 (LINK), and I extracted the guys with Michigan offers.
As far as players in Michigan go, here they are so far:
#25 Donovan Peoples-Jones, WR, Cass Tech
#116 Ambry Thomas, CB, King
#126 Josh Ross, LB, Orchard Lake St. Mary's
#194 Ja'Raymond Hall, OT, Oak Park
#216 K.J. Hamler, WR, Orchard Lake St. Mary's
#239 Allen Stritzinger, RB, Warren De La Salle
#266 Corey Malone-Hatcher, DE, St. Joseph
#269 Hunter Rison, WR, Ann Arbor Skyline (MSU commit, no Michigan offer)
The two in-staters with Michigan offers who are not on the list are TE Carter Dunaway (commit) and S Jaylen Kelly-Powell.
I think 2017 will be a really strong year within the state. And I hope Michigan can gain some momentum during the season in order to sway a lot of these guys to pick the good guys.
I believe we are favored for Ross, Hall and Malone-Hatcher. I think DPJ is a toss-up, Thomas is an early MSU lean, and I have no idea on the other dudes.
We're out front for Stritzinger (and Kelly-Powell). Hamler is probably an MSU lean, too. Otherwise, I think you're pretty accurate.
I'm assuming OSU, ND and MSU are going to be the primary contenders alongside UM for these kids.
What combination of these kids would you consider a "success" for instate recruiting next year?
I guess I don't really understand the question. It all depends on what you mean by success. I mean, I would be glad to have them all in the 2017 class. I don't really think any of them are "must haves" because generally I don't think one player makes or breaks a program. Harbaugh is showing in the 2016 class that he can go find players from all over the country.
Yeah you nailed it really. We are fairly well established leaders for Ross, Hall, and CMH. We also lead for Stritzinger. We may have a slight lead now with DPJ due to his recent visit and dad being an alum, but he's so coveted that it's anyone's game right now. JKP has been close to the chest but it's probably an in-state battle. Hamler and Thomas are State leans.
Kelly-Powell outright named Michigan his leader.
That's great news. I admittedly have not been paying as much attention to 2017 as I should be, hard for me to think a whole class ahead outside of the top-top names. thankfully we have you around.
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Eh, only dweebs are paying a ton of attention to 2017 recruiting right now. I just happen to belong to that category.
It says a lot about the state of football in Michigan when only seven players from the state make the list of top 300. It would be interesting to see the breakout by state.
I don't think it's that noteworthy. 300 divided by 50 is 6. Granted, there are states that don't produce a ton of talent (Montana, North Dakota, Maine, etc.), but there are also states that produce lots of top-flight kids (Florida, Texas, California, Alabama, etc.). So if Michigan has 7 kids on the list, that's right about where it should be.
Michigan has about 1/30th of the country's population, so given a totally random distribution, you'd be talking about 10 out of 300. So 8 is pretty expected.
I agree with Magnus - I think 7 is pretty solid. Take a look at the population of michigan relative to the country and that's probably an accurate proportion. And it's not like anyone has ever tabbed MI as a super strong football state to begin with.
It's actually at least eight. Hunter Rison is ranked #269 and plays at Ann Arbor Skyline.
Yep, forgot about him.
Thanks for sharing Magnanimus. That's great news! Great time for our state to have a strong class the definitive year everyone will see Michigan rising and MSU getting back to where they usual are.
Is Peoples-Jones the highest rated WR from Michigan since Charles Rogers?
I see what you did there
Ronald Johnson was the #8 overall player in 2007. And he was the #1 receiver to Rivals.
Did Michigan recruit him at all?
Yeah, but USC got him in a sign-and-trade deal for Donovan Warren.
List got me curious about state per-capita rates. Michigan is at 0.8 top-300 player per million population. Ohio is at 1 top-300 player per million population. I know Ohio is deeper but I would have expected a bigger gap at the top, too.
Other interesting per-capita numbers: Texas even with Utah (!) at 1.7 per million, California lower than I'd have guessed at 0.8 per million, Louisiana at 2.4 per million, Alabama at 2.7 per million, and Georgia apparently lapping the field with 3.4 per million.
Also, because I am a homer, I have to point out that this year Maryland is at a pretty dang strong 1.3 top-300 players per million population. Suck it Ohio.