I kind of hinted in the weekly update that Andre Yruretagoyena enjoyed his visit to Oregon. What I couldn't say, because we spoke off the record was that Andre told me Michigan's chances were slimming, and Oregon would happen soon.
So, tonight Andre committed to Oregon. His visits are done, he won't be visiting Michigan. He's a duck.
Thanks, TVH. It just means
That's disappointing, I had
That's disappointing, I had hoped the Roh link to Chapperal (sp? sorry, I've been drinking) would have helped us.
Fuck
Fuck
Edit: Earmuffs. Fuck. Shit Bitch.
Frank: Cock. Balls.
I'm....
I'm just trying to make a point, Frank. You don't have to celebrate it.
Tom VanHaaren I TomVH on Twitter I U Recruit I Email
Cock, Balls!
Cock, Balls!
Oh well.
On to the next one.
Thanks for the info, Tom. It makes sense, since his dad lives in the area. I don't blame him. The nice thing is, we are in good standing with several OL prospects. Hopefully, we'll pull some in soon to bolster our next class.
"In desperation there's that shred of hope; people who are down and not desperate are resigned." - Brian Cook
Oh hamburgers.
Well, best of luck to him.
The world looks better through maize mirror tint.
Is Zettel in play for us
Is Zettel in play for us still; do we lead, I mean to ask?
We need lots of bodies on the line, obviously. Among those bodies needed, though, we additionally need at least one of 'em to be a high-probability-future-star at OL. I think Zettel could be that.
"I have long thought that anyone who does not regularly - or ever - gaze up and see the wonder and glory of a dark night sky filled with countless stars loses a sense of their fundamental connectedness to the universe."
Oh well
I would've been more encouraged had Andre at least visited, but it's still a long way until Feb and as we've seen, a lot can happen (especially if we win).
Good work over there...
It goes to show what Phil Knight's donations for state-of-the-art facilities, a few decent seasons, and a well-executed spread offense can do. It also gives me even more hope for Michigan recruiting once they start winning again and the offense looks really, really good. A few wins and a few highlight reel plays every week, and Michigan will start pulling in top ten recruiting classes again.
I was lucky to visit Eugene
I was lucky to visit Eugene in April and there facilities were nowhere near as good as I thought the would be. The tour included the stadium, museum area, indoor building and weight room. Let me just say that M's facilities are very good. Now what we need are some wins. Good luck to AY and there is a long time before signing day.
For those that haven't seen their facilities.
http://www.oregongridiron.com/facilities.html
"... never forget that Ohio is still a four-letter word."
-Bob Ufer
few decent seasons
Oregon's been pretty good for the last 15 or so years, they were the top pac-10 team before Carroll got to USC and now with him gone, Oregon could go back to being the top team. And they haven't always run the spread under Belotti, though Kelly could be a pure spread coach
damnit..
Well that news just killed the good buzz I had going tonight
"I think Hoke has changed the tide on the rivalry. Hell people in Ohio are starting to believe him. Never in a million years I would have thought that. Selling Michigan jerseys is a good start."
FACT
Drunk mgoblogging is the number 1 cause of double posts
"I think Hoke has changed the tide on the rivalry. Hell people in Ohio are starting to believe him. Never in a million years I would have thought that. Selling Michigan jerseys is a good start."
Thinking OR may become the flag bearers for that conference
Unlike Lane Kiffen, I think the loss of t.v. exposure, bowl games and recruits is going to hurt USC. Let's face it, no one like to play for a team that has just been hit with major sanctions. OR had already toasted USC a few times, and Kiffen is no Carroll.
They have state-of-the-art facilities(as do we), and a new coach who seems to be the real deal. For a number of years I thought CAL would move forward to become a major player outthere, but they seem to come short of expectations annually. I think the Ducks could go on a very long ride of PAC 10 dominance.
In this particular case though, the young man always hinted that the distance between his school and home would be a major factor. That h.s.has already given us two players we probably wouldn't have nailed w/o this staff, so I'm optimistic for the future.
Met a kid at the 18U USA
Met a kid at the 18U USA Baseball tournament yesterday named Wallace Gonzalez (6'-6", 229 lbs, Covina California). One of my players knows him and told him afterward that he is USC bound to play Wide Receiver.
Dang, I wish he'd told me that before I met the kid, I would have asked about the sanctions just to see what the kid has to say. (I will if I see him again today.) [Edit: says on Rivals he is a three star, and it doesn't look like he's committed yet.]
I think the bottom line is, the kids in California grow up dreaming USC. Like Texas in Texas, USC gets to cherry pick the very best, and Calironia has a lot of very good prospects. A penalty like this in lesser fertile recruiting ground, would be much more painful. Now USC recruiting just becomes even more exclusive for a while ...
The more likely scenario is for Kiffen to really suck.
Damn, that's...
...disappointing, but in the end, not too surprising. It seemed from the start he was looking to USC and Oregon and Michigan was a curiousity piece. USC's penalties likely clinched the deal for Oregon which had the advantage of proximity to his dad.
And to think that I'd put so much effort into learning how to pronounce his name -- ee-yur-A'-tha-goy-YE'-na. That's ten minutes I'll never get back.
Best of luck to Andre and may we meet on the Rose Bowl field in the near future.
LSA '89 - MBB Natl Champions, Big 10/Rose Bowl Champions | @MGoShoe
I believe he hinted a month ago about the Pac-10
He said somewhere the he liked the west coast schools better. Best of luck to him and I hope he keeps his eyes open the rest of the year. I wonder if he re-opens his recruitment if the Ducks keep putting players in jail and they stumble out of the gate. A fast start for us and issues in Quackadise might give us a chance to get him on campus.
That being said, time to press Posada and Miller for some positive news in OT recruiting. Zettel and Ryan Kelly are OG and OC prospects. Is Posada an OT or is he interior. Is there anyone else besides the kid from up north that we are seriously looking at right now?
Thanks to Tom for the updates and for respecting the kid's wishes to stay quiet. Tom takes some of the sleeze out of recruiting that you see on some other sites. Nice to see someone doing it the right way.
Posada is an OT. Could play
Posada is an OT. Could play OG.
I doubt Ryan Kelly would be a center. If he's really 6'5", that's abnormally tall for an OC.
Other OL we're recruiting:
Paul Gaughan, Nick Martin, Ray Ball, Jordan Walsh, James Elliott to name a few.
Damn
Good thing I never learned to pronounce his name.
Christ in me arise and dispel all the darkness.
Yrur...Yrureteg...Yournotgonn
Yrur...Yrureteg...Yournotgonnaplayhereanymoreanyway. I'm going to miss him, best of luck in Niketown.
TomVH: best poster on M Go Blog
your content makes this site. not sure where we would be without your inside info.
know that I will hang myself if you start posting about soccer!
Michigan Man
Trying to prove your point about points?
The world looks better through maize mirror tint.
Couple of recruiting/OL recruiting observations
First, I wanted to agree with most folks that TomVH's recruiting updates are awesome.
Second, I am wondering whether the Rodriquez regime's spread-plus offense may be undercutting what I always considered to be the the longtime strength of Michigan recruiting: The ability to bring in the nation's BEST pro-style players, particularly on the offensive line.
I know that the system worked at West Virginia recruiting players who were mostly one level below those garnered by Michigan, OSU, Penn State and Notre Dame, but is it possible that the offensive system of the current regime is limiting the school's ability to get as many four- (or even five-) star OL recruits as other longtime national powers?
Of course Florida seems to do just fine recruiting the best linemen for its version of the spread, and maybe it's an unanswerable chicken-or-egg question about whether the recent performance downturn is hurting recruiting or less-than-stellar recruiting is hurting performance.
But when I see traditional rivals signing more players and the scouting services and ESPN.com rating Michigan commitments as inferior to those of schools they'll have to compete against (ND and OSU, in particular), I wonder how long it will take to reverse the recruiting disadvantage.
It may be possible for talent recognition (spotting diamonds in the rough), strength and conditioning efforts (Barwis), a superior offensive system and great practice AND game coaching to overcome recruiting disadvantages, but I would suggest that Michigan's strongest attributes (history, stadium, uniforms, academics, campus and school environment) are so powerful that the school shouldn't be in a position of having to overcome rivals' recent recruiting advantages. In other words, Michigan should be a top five recruiting school each year, or close, and the coaching advantages should result in top five on-field performance every year, and MNC participation a few times every decade.
I quit reading after
Rodriquez
sorry about that
lol sorry for typo; still early for me
boo ya!
uh huh uh huh
Michigan Man
I believe this is the new
I believe this is the new k06em01.
He already admitted he...
...just recently created a new account after his previous identity was negbombed into oblivion.
LSA '89 - MBB Natl Champions, Big 10/Rose Bowl Champions | @MGoShoe
Wonderful
and FWIW there are a bunch of new accounts lately, all commenting the same threads.
The world looks better through maize mirror tint.
I....
I will be honest, I skimmed most of your post. However, I think if this coaching staff has proved anything with recruiting so far, it's that they have an eye for offensive linemen.
They are dealing with losses, speculation, and negativity everywhere, which will always have an affect on recruiting. Someone like Florida, who you mentioned, has National Championships to help with theirs. Just because "we're Michigan" doesn't mean that we're going to still get the top recruits. These kids were around 4 years old when Michigan won the National Championship in '97. They say things like, "I grew up watching Braylon Edwards." (think about who you grew up watching, and compare that to theirs).
To go back to the linemen thing. There's no point in recruiting the best "pro-style" linemen, because we don't run a pro style offense. Rich Rodriguez, and his staff, like a certain kind of linemen that fits what they need. So far, they've pulled in Pat Omameh, Taylor Lewan, Michael Schofield, Elliot Mealer, etc. In my opinion, their o-line recruiting is one of their strong points.
Andre's commitment had less to do with Michigan, than it did with him wanting to stay close to home. It sucks we didn't get him, but distance is a hard thing to sell.
Tom VanHaaren I TomVH on Twitter I U Recruit I Email
Thanks, TomVH
Thanks, TomVH for the response, and, of course, I defer to your expertise.
I remember last year when Michigan had some hope of landing Seantrel Henderson, and thinking that he was obviously a "pro-style" prospect. Maybe there are just some guys (5- or some 4-stars) who can play OL in any system?
The offensive line certainly has the potential to gel into one of the conference's best this year.
Dude, you really believe a
Dude, you really believe a team from a state that produces few top-level recruits each year should be top-five every year and play for a national title "a few times every decade." Please tell me that was hyperbole. Texas, USC, and Florida haven't maintained that level over decades and they have the best recruiting situation going. They've all had great runs, but Texas was mediocre in the 80s, Florida was mediocre or worse before Spurrier, and USC struggled throughout the 90s.
No team can expect that level of sustained success. Michigan has the best winning percentage of all-time at .737. That isn't even Top 10 each year...
agreed...
Maybe the family connection was a real deciding factor. Best of luck to Andre Y and hopefully the young men Tom VH has identified in the process will make a great decision.
If the haters don't hate you then you're doing something wrong. - David Cone
I was looking forward to
I was looking forward to screaming at announcers who butcher his name.
Thanks for the update Tom
Quick question for you Tom. Any updates on AZ OG Cyrus Hobbi?
Oregon has Nike $ and incredible facilities
and could dominate the Pac10 for the next few years if they figure out the qb mess
Surprising
Oh well; too bad for him we're gonna drown the ducks when we right this ship.
Dissapointing
But at least he didn't go to Notre Dame, or some other team that doesn't put last names on their jerseys, that would be truly dissapointing.
Posted from my Dell Venue Pro
"There will be blood on the field and it won't be mine" - K
Thanks, TVH. It just means that it's time to find the Michigan men at OL.