andrew sprague

I guess we'll just have to get used to the first guy on the board saying yes. Andrew Sprague's rankings may not say this, but the people who brought you Zak Zinter and Andrew Stueber are all saying Michigan had one name circled above the rest in tackle prospects, and the guy that name belongs to said he's enrolling it at Michigan.

This is big. Okay, yes, literally. But if you asked me what I want to see in a tackle prospect's hello post it's a 6'8" multi-sport athlete who's flying up the rankings and has every kind of evil pawing at him. This one was odd, however, as several major programs that really really seemed to want him didn't bother to, you know, offer Sprague a scholarship. Alabama was trying to lure him into their lair. USC waited until March. Notre Dame, whose former OL coach Harry Hiestand was in constant contact, held out until Hiestand retired a few weeks ago! Sure, Nebraska came out of the depths for an action scene, and Mizzou was crawling around calling him "Precious" all cycle, but the really big powers all seemed as put off from Sprague as they were obsessed with him.

Geez lady, just say no thank you.

Everyone has their theories—it may be they believe a terrible power has been growing in the East, and the only way to stop it is to prevent Sprague from linking up with OL-U. It also may be that he was still in basketball shape when he made the camp rounds last summer. Anyway, Michigan has him now, so let's go cover all the land with a second darkness.

GURU RATINGS

That's a big solid top-250 four-star, with the two sites you want to be higher on a guy saying he's more like a top-150 four-star. You may also note the weights: ESPN has a snapshot of Sprague as a sophomore, On3 and Rivals are using his Hudl measurements. The oddball is 247, which has Sprague already up to 290, which is backed up by his coach.

The deltas are also very positive. Sprague jumped 100 spots up the 247 rankings and went from a 90 to a 92 in their March re-rank. Rivals, the site that tends to stick to their initial impressions through re-ranks, moved him up 16 spots in their latest one. He was at #249 out of 250 (and 250 pounds) when the Class of 2024 debuted, moved up to #234 when they doubled their list in June. On3 was always a believer; Sprague debuted at #106, and the 36 spots he's fallen since are all due to the normal discoveries over a the course of a junior class. ESPN had him #198 when they put out their initial Junior Top 300, and only moved a bunch of SEC recruits over him in November.

[AFTER THE JUMP: The ideal tackle prospect.]