Noah Spence in no hurry, but looks like Penn St. is the team to beat

Submitted by Six Zero on

Here in central PA, there's obviously no bigger name involved in college football recruiting than Noah Spence.  Personally I've never seen a local kid catapault himself so far onto the top of all the myriad recruiting lists.

At any rate, the local paper ran a story about Noah's recruitment, quoting his father in the process.  Among the notable tidbits:

  • He is going to announce at the UnderArmour game, and no sooner
  • He has built a strong rapport with Larry Johnson Sr, and thinks very highly of JoePa
  • He is taking unofficial visits this weekend to North Carolina and NC State (I'm assuming this is mixed in with a family vacation or something)
  • He has put together a short list of seven schools at this point
  • And, sadly, there is no mention of UM at all in the article.

I've said it before, but I don't think this will happen for us, especially with all of the DE recruits we've already locked down.  I'm hoping he'll at least save one of his official visits for us, perhaps for the ND game.  I would love to see a change of heart, because he's the real deal, but I have a feeling he'll be lined up against us in a white helmet in the years to come.

Six Zero

June 28th, 2011 at 11:41 AM ^

I've certainly been following his recruitment closely, and may have thrown a response or two onto one of Tom's posts about him, but this is certainly the first topic I've created about Spence.

I'm not sure I've ever created a topic about a recruit before, to be honest.  Usually they're about t-shirts or the burgeoning wedding logo industry.

Steve in PA

June 28th, 2011 at 12:23 PM ^

I remember saying at the time this kid was as close as I could imagine a lock for PSU.  He's only about 1-1/2 hours away up Rt322 from home.  Also wants to study Kineseology which is one of the big programs @ PSU.

Six Zero, didn't know you were also in PA.  I thought it was just me and Hackney in the middle of the state.

jg2112

June 28th, 2011 at 11:37 AM ^

And guys like Noah Spence are why Brady Hoke already has recruited Magnuson, Braden, and Bars. Bring it Noah, it'll be fun to watch.

mmiicchhiiggaann

June 28th, 2011 at 11:42 AM ^

It seems like all the big recruits either want to play for Michigan or join the "leaders" division. I am thankful we don't have to compete with PSU and Wisco on our side of the bracket-they are really cleaning up.

Magnus

June 28th, 2011 at 11:43 AM ^

According to Rivals, our staff has pretty much stopped recruiting Spence.  Not because there's anything wrong with him, but because we have good options who are looking hard at coming to Michigan (Washington, Wormley) and four DEs already committed.

UMaD

June 28th, 2011 at 11:50 AM ^

But yeah, it's not a position of emphasis anymore, obviously.

Spence can pretty much name his school, and he does sound like an intelligent kid, but its interesting that he frequently mentions academics, yet is going to choose (assuming it's PSU) based on proximity to home, relationships, comfort, etc.  A lot of kids seem to pay lip service to academics, but ultimately make choices for other reasons.

For this reason, one of my favorite recruits is Eric Olson.  He said he valued academics, only looked a high level academic schools, and ultimately chose Northwestern over better football schools like UM.  For a guy who rejected Michigan, he's up there with Kyle Dodson on the likability index for me.

sheepdog

June 28th, 2011 at 11:53 AM ^

I talked to my brother this morning - a die-hard OSU fan and bucknuts subscriber.  He was saying that a recruiting analyst and site contributor (like a Tom VH equivalent) was saying that  a few (don't know who) recruits were commiting to other schools in the Big Ten, including Michigan, to save a spot.

They are actually waiting to see what the penalites will be with OSU come October, and if they are not too severe, they would de-commit and commit to OSU.

Not trying to stir anything up, but has anyone heard of anything like this?

Michael Scarn

June 28th, 2011 at 12:04 PM ^

How dare you suggest anyone is a "TomVH equivalent"?! Such things just don't exist.
<br>All kidding aside, even if there are recruits doing that, I feel pretty confident it won't matter anyways because the penalties are going to be enough to keep those kids elsewhere.

redhousewolverine

June 28th, 2011 at 12:41 PM ^

The only real guy we currently have taken away from TSIO is Strobel who seems to love UofM, so I doubt that part about Michigan. He also had mainly top tier academic places (ND and Stanford) as his finalists besides UofM (and excepting TSIO), so he seems to value the academics which he will find at UofM. Most of the other Ohio commits we have are either guys Ohio wasn't recruiting (Brown because there are a half dozen elite DEs in Ohio) or guys they were going to offer a scholarship to if they missed their first targets (Ringer, Bolden). They all seem to love UofM, so unless Kalis or someone else is committed to UofM (I don't think Wormley would qualify since most TSIO analysts I have seen thought he was a Michigan lean before the infractions) we don't know about and this guy does, I doubt the entire credibility of his story. Pittman is the main one I could see who could change back to TSIO if the punnishment is not bad. Depending on what Washington and Stanford do, they could be kids doing likewise, but currently both are uncommitted.

mackbru

June 28th, 2011 at 12:32 PM ^

None of the recruits we've beaten out OSU for seem the least bit inclined to defect. Most committed to M before OSU went into major meltdown. And Strobel made it pretty clear he prefers Michigan.

sheepdog

June 28th, 2011 at 12:40 PM ^

I am not sure who he was refering to since the only UM commits with OSU offers are Ross, Richardson and  Strobel.

Ross and Strobel are solid and although TRich has made some interesting comments lately, nothing to indicate he ever favored OSU.

Idaho Wolverine

June 28th, 2011 at 12:45 PM ^

 

decommit and go to tsio I’m not bothered at all. That's their choice to make, and I would rather lose them as recruits if they are not 100% committed to going to Michigan. 

Hannibal.

June 28th, 2011 at 12:50 PM ^

I'm not worried about anybody decommitting to Ohio State.  By signing day, the only thing that will probably be settled is who the coach will be.  But penalties from the NCAA won't be final yet.  Look at UNC.  John Blake got busted almost a year ago, along with the players taking improper benefits, and they aren't even close yet. 

MichiganWolf

June 28th, 2011 at 2:14 PM ^

We still have a chance to land him.He wants to visit (said in a later interview) And adolphus washington and stanford also want to commit at the under armor game.So we should still have at least two spots left by that time. very unlikely but still possible