Updated 2014 ESPN 300 rankings out; Michigan at #6 overall
Version 3 of the 2014 ESPN 300 is out. In the overall team rankings, Michigan fell three spots to #6, but I'm not even worried. Everybody ahead of us has class sizes bigger than ours (Miami, Tennessee, and FSU are all over 20 already), and it's obviously still a long way from signing day.
I don't have historical data, so no context for where our recruits are ranked, but here's where they are in this latest edition:
2. Jabrill Peppers
72. Drake Harris
76. Bryan Mone
112. Lawrence Marshall
118. Ian Bunting
122. Juwann Bushell-Beatty
123. Michael Ferns
128. Wilton Speight
146. Mason Cole
But I think his length gives him more upside. If ESPN believes that he is likely to live up to his potential, I can understand it more. Plus Cole is an interior player, and we all know how the sites rank interior guys relative to guys that can potentially play OT.
In general ESPN seems fairly forgiving of techinque in high school linemen and ranks primarily on potential physical tools, Bushel-Beatty has the frame. They did the same thing with Tuley-Tillman, basically assume he'd end up in perfect shape.
"JBB has the potential to be a good B1G starter, while Cole has all conference potential." How do you know that? We have no idea - we have not seen any of these kids play a single college game. What "potential" did you have for Eric Fisher coming out of HS? This is all educated guesswork - by this analyst or any.
If you go up to the level of the school, it's remarkable to me how stable the Big Ten team class ranking here were until recently anyway. Going back almost to the beginning of the month, you have four straight rankings where we're #1, Ohio State is #14, Penn State is #19 and Northwestern is #22.
On the 20th of July, Northwestern falls one position and all others are constant. On the 24th, we fall to 3rd, Ohio State and Penn State are still #14 and #19, and Northwestern is #23. Now that they've expanded to the Top 40, we fall to #6, Ohio St. is now #11, Penn St and Northwestern are unchanged, and we see Nebraska and Wisconsin at the bottom of their list.
Incidentally, these rankings would be fairly consistent with the Big Ten class rankings at Rivals, where Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Northwestern, Nebraska and Wisconsin represent the upper half of classes in the Big Ten there as well.
How did we get 50 comments in and I'm the first to comment that UVA has 2 top-10 recruits?
UVA!!!!
Where's Wahoo Wolverine when you need an explanation?...
And why is that, Mrs. Bunting?