Verlon Reed commits to Ohio State
You may be asking, who the hell is this and why should we care? Well this is a lowly rated QB/S recruit that just committed to the ohio state buckeyes in a year they have very limited scholarships to give out. What the hell is jim tressel doing?! He just offered a kid with an offer sheet similar to horrible players like ray vinopal and carvin johnson. Oh wait, carvin johnson became good because he got rated by the recruiting services and attracted the attention of lsu.
http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/recruiting/tracker/player?recruitId=8289…
http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=3861093
Ok, parts of this message have now been removed. They weren't directed at the mgoblog community at large but instead a vocal minority that has hated on some of our recent commitments. To the former, sorry for the tone. To the latter, the removed portion still stands.
Enjoy the rest of your hump day!
December 16th, 2009 at 1:42 PM ^
I agree with your general premise, if not your profanity.
December 16th, 2009 at 1:46 PM ^
there might be small children out there reading this!
December 16th, 2009 at 1:46 PM ^
Don't know who that's directed at, but "thank you sir may i have another".
December 16th, 2009 at 1:47 PM ^
Is he white and gritty? Because if he's not, I don't see why you're being sarcastic. Makes no sense if he's not white and gritty.
December 16th, 2009 at 4:35 PM ^
So the question is: Is it better to be gritty, gutty or scrappy?
The Scout dossier on Vinopal:
Ray Vinopal
Strengths
Gutty
Gritty
Scrappy
Areas for improvement
Size
Speed
Agility
In my book, he's a 4 star.
December 16th, 2009 at 4:46 PM ^
Vinopal certainly does not lack speed. I'm pretty sure they saw a white guy and profiled him.
I know track speed doesn't necissarily translate to football speed, but...
Vinopal led off the 4x100 relay the WON DII state meet in ohio last year.
http://www.ohsaa.org/Sports/tf/2009/results09.htm
December 16th, 2009 at 1:48 PM ^
Similar to the QB situation for them last year. Need quarterbacks for the future, missed out one some, so they signed a QB/Athlete for depth.
December 16th, 2009 at 1:55 PM ^
This is something that has been discussed a million times over the past few weeks. Why do you feel the need to start another thread on the subject (thus bringing it up yet again) and preach to me in a manner even my parents never did.
As I said, this has been discussed before. From all the threads I have read on the topic, it seems the general concensus is that people shouldn't come down on specific recruits. Yes, some used to talk about a specific recruit in a negative way, but that has cleaned up over the past couple of weeks once it came to light that some recruits might be combing these boards.
I guess I can say your point is a good one, but it has already been made 100 times in the past couple of weeks and in a much nicer tone. After reading yours I feel like I just got out of the principals office.
December 16th, 2009 at 1:59 PM ^
At this time yesterday I would have welcomed this but someone finally noted in a post, and I had no idea, that apparently Mike Hart and even Pat White were not highly rated coming out of HS.
December 16th, 2009 at 2:03 PM ^
Obi Ezeh was a 3 star!
Wait a minute...
December 16th, 2009 at 2:48 PM ^
overrated
December 16th, 2009 at 4:20 PM ^
For the three free yards the ball carrier gets before Obi reacts to the play.
December 16th, 2009 at 2:06 PM ^
Was Zoltan even rated? I mean, he's the Space Emperor of Space.
December 16th, 2009 at 2:07 PM ^
"They deserve your support."
Who isn't supporting them? Everybody is supporting Carvin Johnson, Ray Vinopal, etc. Everyone wants them to succeed. And if a rare person says something that's seriously out of line, those people are quickly admonished.
Since that's out of the way, saying that a guy isn't a great player isn't a horrible thing. I've said this before and I'll say it again: If we declare a moratorium on saying negative things based on a recruit's scouting report/video, then we should also cease saying positive things based on those scouting reports/video. You can't have it both ways. We're not all going to agree on whether a recruit is good or not.
I hope Ray Vinopal is the next Ed Reed.
However, my brain tells me that he's not going to be a great college player. I think he's a special teamer and a career backup, but I'll be perfectly happy if he proves me wrong.
December 16th, 2009 at 3:30 PM ^
This.
December 16th, 2009 at 2:12 PM ^
...that "these kids have been thoroughly evaluated by UM's coaching staff and are future wolverines," and that "they deserve []our support." In fact, I think these assertions are painfully obvious. But I disagree that "support" is the same as never questioning or criticizing what the coaches do on the recruiting trail (or elsewhere). Look, this is a sports blog. If we are to simply defer to the coaches' judgment on every recruiting decision, then, well, there isn't much point to us commenting on recruiting at all. And I don't see why these arguments wouldn't extend to all things football (playcalling, etc.). I think most (intelligent) commenters on this blog understand very well that the coaches know more about football and are in a way better position to evaluate talent and call plays. But part of being a sports fan is discussing and questioning and second-guessing this kind of stuff. Thats part of what makes it fun. And thats part of what coaches and players have to deal with.
I personally have never written (or considered writing) anything negative on this blog (or anywhere else) about Johnson, Dileo, Vinopal or anyone else. And comments that amount to personal attacks on them should not be tolerated. But a comment like 'why did we offer a 2-star nobody else has offered when we only have X number of scholarships left and are pursuing these other guys' strike me as perfectly legitimate questions to ask (I understand that some comments on this board may have gone way beyond this). I have to imagine that the recruits in question know that they will have the fans' full support when they get here (if they don't--if they take that kind of stuff personally and feel unwelcome or something--don't you worry about how they will hold up under the pressures of playing football at Michigan?).
December 16th, 2009 at 2:23 PM ^
Mrs. Lovejoy said it best...
December 16th, 2009 at 2:30 PM ^
Sorry if this has been posted before.
December 16th, 2009 at 2:41 PM ^
A couple more for your viewing pleasure (not tech-savvy enough to inbed the video. My apologies):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHKTE75dgE4&feature=PlayList&p=5209FBB95…
All-time favorite:
December 16th, 2009 at 2:25 PM ^
Are you k06em01/The Fifteenth/Jamal Crawford/Nick Saban? In all seriousness though, we aren't 12. (at least I don't think we are.)
December 16th, 2009 at 2:35 PM ^
Was the founder and lead guitarist for 80s funk-metal band, Living Colour. That's why Tressel wants him. Don't be fooled by the sweater vest. Tressel rocks hard and he rocks funky.
Oh wait. Verlon. Not Vernon.
Never mind.
December 16th, 2009 at 3:11 PM ^
I was hoping we could get that guy so he kick out some Cult of Personality during the Circle of Terror...
EDIT....beaten to the Living Colour punch...
December 18th, 2009 at 12:03 AM ^
I just checked out some highlights on rivals.com of this recruit. He isn't half bad. He had so many highlights just in that one game. He throws the ball with some zip on it and with pretty good accuracy. They showed one deep ball that was on the money. He looks really fast and elusive while running the ball. Overall he could be an underrated recruit like Troy Smith.