Willingham to UCF
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:05 AM ^
It's his life and his choice. I don't understand it, subjectively or objectively but I don't have a say in the matter.
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:06 AM ^
Good luck at Ucf and that tough Conference USA schedule.
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:13 AM ^
He can more likely play right away and get on the radar right away for pro scouts. Not endorsing that strategy given his choices but maybe that plays a part in his thinking.
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:21 AM ^
that you have a much better shot of getting drafted if your a subpar LB @ UM than if your a stud for 4 years in CUSA...
you'll also be a better player for going against real competition...
you'll have a real degree...
you'll make friends who will play in the NFL...
on & on & on & on & on & on....
February 3rd, 2011 at 11:22 AM ^
I mean, isn't Obi the 7th rand ILB according to ESPN/Mel Kiper?
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:15 AM ^
Let me get this straight.. this kid throws away a prepaid 180K education for UCF.
UCF.
Unless this kid's family is loaded, this is a titanically bad decision. I mean, kids are stupid but his parents.. that's just upsetting.
/ Here's to him proving me wrong.
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:22 AM ^
Yeah! It's all about money and nothing else! Screw that 17 year old kid!
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:36 AM ^
he's screwing himself.
But, like, he's totally going to be one of the 2% who make it to the NFL. And he'll most def be a first or second rounder, with an 8+ year career. So no worries.
February 3rd, 2011 at 11:37 AM ^
Because no one that's graduated from UCF has ever gotten a job, right? Some people just don't care that much about making millions. Maybe he feels comfortable with the school and thinks he'll actually like it there.
February 3rd, 2011 at 3:25 PM ^
I agree, besides, according to Harbaugh, Jim that is, M doesn't do right by their football players anyways.
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:17 AM ^
Its all about the hot ass that's walking around that campus. I'm not big on the new construction, generic looking buildings, and terrible academics.. but hot damn they have some fine looking females there.
February 3rd, 2011 at 2:33 PM ^
This is very true.
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:24 AM ^
Get a beast in this next class. Good luck to him. Go blue!
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:24 AM ^
On this year. Glad to have the guys committed to Michigan - welcome. Lets face the facts, the Coaches did the best they could but we all new that there was going to be limited upside to recruiting after DB's coaching change miss-timing
February 3rd, 2011 at 11:04 AM ^
We have a top 25 recruiting class, people!?! Granted, we lost out on Kris Frost and Dee Hart, but that stuff happens. It's over! Congrats to all the new recruits. Those who stay will be Champions!
February 3rd, 2011 at 11:13 AM ^
I'll keep the feedback moderate as credit should be given to any young man that chooses to come to Michigan and put himself through the academic and physical grind of the team; however....we did not fill our major needs at OL and DT. Needless to say, ALOT of work will need to be put in for us to be competitive for a B10 Title in 2-3 years.
February 3rd, 2011 at 11:15 AM ^
Just seems that some people are overstating the quality of it.
Hoke and co. did a great job of keeping players around, firming up (most) of the commits of existing recruits and filling out the rest of the class.
Is it a top 25 class? Rivals thinks so. Scout and ESPN don't. The point is that yesterday people were talking about how it was a potential top 15 class and that Hoke/Mattison had done a phenomenal job of bringing in talent which isn't necessarily true, at least not to the degree people are talking about.
You look at the guys Hoke brought in: Carter, Heitzman, Bellomy, Wile, Clark should all be good but with the exception of Wile are project/redshirt types. You've got Taylor/Bryant/Rawls who were all leaning blue before the change. The 2 big ones they brought in were Poole and Barnett. Barnett will get PT as a freshman and Poole could be a star once he gets some weight on him.
We also lost Fisher, missed out on Cooper and inexplicably lost Willingham to UCF when he was supposedly a silent commit.
TO STATE AGAIN: I'm very happy with the job they've done. Brandon put Hoke in an impossible position and as far I'm concerned Hoke deserves an A for the job he did. And that probably makes the class a B-. I'm not trying to trash anyone, it's just that let's not pretend this is a phenomenal class. It's a good one. Not too many immediate contributors (partly because we shouldn't need them) but a lot of players with star potential down the road. But not the world-breaking group of kids that people in the liveblog yesterday seemed to think it was.
February 3rd, 2011 at 11:46 AM ^
+1 for your thoughtful response but like I said, Yawn - exactly for the reasons you mentioned. I expect a dynamite 2012 class
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:31 AM ^
He visited Florida in the middle of winter and was able to do a compare and contrast weatherwise. He's also close with a guy going to UCF and there has to be an attraction to going to school with your friends. I know that weighed heavily with me when I was making some life changing decisions. While unusual to pick UCF over UM it's not that hard to understand. Best of luck to him and I hope he does well.
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:50 AM ^
YOU HAVE LOST ALL PRIVELEGES! YOU ARE
DEAD TO ME!!
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:56 AM ^
Good luck to him. I look forward to watching his UCF games on TV...
February 3rd, 2011 at 11:10 AM ^
George O'Leary, the guy who lost the Notre Dame job back in 2001, after it was discovered he lied on his resume about earning Master's Degree in Education from NYU, which was found to be false.
Everyone makes mistakes I guess.
February 3rd, 2011 at 11:24 AM ^
Wow in last 3 years we've lost recruits to Rutgers (Knight), Tulsa (Beaver), UCF (Willingham), and Wake Forest (Sousa). Never thought that would ever happen in a million years. Well I give props for Hoke for keeping class together and bringing in some good prospects, but time to see how he handles the X's and O's.
February 3rd, 2011 at 12:20 PM ^
I'm pretty sure Beaver and Sousa were basically told to look elsewhere.
February 3rd, 2011 at 12:09 PM ^
Good luck to the kid. But I'm guessing he's a little flaky, given the Texas A&M thing. And then the "silent commit" to M. And now CFU. Maybe it's a blessing.
February 3rd, 2011 at 1:20 PM ^
Were you saying the same thing about Barnett? Then, no.
February 3rd, 2011 at 1:16 PM ^
...means.
Let's say for purposes of argument that you are 18 years old, and don't have contact with many people with M degrees; you don't hear much about the school and its credentials. And let's say you're about football and not so much into academics.
Let's say you like it where it's warm, your family and friends don't really have a lot of college experience, and your dream in life is to play football. You haven't heard much about Michigan's academics, and it's possible that's just not important to you.
In such cases, you may be looking at the world a little differently from the academic whizzes who would be really excited about being accepted at Michigan. Or maybe, you've heard that everyone in your classes will be academic stars and you are concerned that the school work, combined with the athletic work, will be too much for you.
This may especially be true for an 18 year old football player. I'm not saying it's good, bad, or indifferent, but people are different from each other, and have different goals and aspirations.
I wish all these young men the best of luck, and I hope they're happy with their choices down the road. That's all that counts, at least for me.
February 3rd, 2011 at 1:29 PM ^
I hate recruiting.
February 3rd, 2011 at 1:37 PM ^
Willingham's small ego wouldn't fit in at U of M.
February 3rd, 2011 at 2:06 PM ^
But another thing to turn away from College Football and sign up for UFC...
February 3rd, 2011 at 2:33 PM ^
Im a lifelong Michigan fan but went to UCF. I would rather see him come to Michigan but I can see why he went to UCF. Their facilities are second to none and they have built a lot of buzz after their best season (beating Georgia) with a freshman quarterback. They have a lot to build on
February 3rd, 2011 at 2:53 PM ^
I guess he doesn't like the cold. : - /
Good luck at UCF, Leilon.
February 3rd, 2011 at 4:59 PM ^
Denver Post article provides Willingham's side of the story:
But [Rayshon] Williams' presence, Willingham said, really wasn't a factor in his decision. "That was just something that came along with it," he said. "When I made my decision, I took football and Rayshon out of the picture. I took that coaching staff down there out of the picture. None of that's guaranteed to be there. Ray's not (guaranteed) to be there. The staff might not be there. I just thought about where I felt comfortable going to school for the next four to five years."
In retrospect, it's pretty clear that his "silent commit" to Michigan shouldn't have been taken that seriously:
Mullen AD Tony Schenbeck said Willingham committed to each school after each of his official visits. When it came to signing, though, "I just felt most comfortable at UCF," Willingham said.
February 3rd, 2011 at 6:39 PM ^
This is exactly why I no longer follow recruiting as closely as I used to. You used to be able to take a young man at his word. A commitment on a recruiting weekend should ALWAYS be interpreted as "I had a good time".
February 4th, 2011 at 3:48 PM ^
Let's see, his last 2 visits were first to a place where it was about 10 degrees. His second was to a place where the sun was shining and it was probably 55-65 degrees warmer. I wonder if that had anything to do with it.