A Couple Quick Recruiting Notes EDITED
Cal's DL coach Tosh Lupoi has left to go to Washington. In the last ten minutes alone, Shaq Thompson, Aziz Shittu and Jordan Payton have all tweeted that they might be looking elsewhere. I'm not sure if Michigan sits anywhere with any of these three right now, but perhaps this could lead to some doors reopening.
2013 OH CB Cameron Burrows will announce his decision this Thursday. We've offered and there may be some interest, but most believe he's all Scarlet and Gray.
I just caught these coming through my feed and both have an effect on us, so I thought perhaps they were worth discussing.
EDIT in the "OMG recruiting is like People Magazine" fashion: Allen Trieu of Scout tweeted that Michigan targets Ethan Pocic and Ty Isaac were among the MVPs at the Core 6 Showcase today. Also of note was Logan Tuley-Tillman, who showed up in a Michigan jacket less than 24 hours after visiting Urb in Columbus yesterday.
January 16th, 2012 at 4:08 PM ^
Well, I think you're underselling Cal a little bit. Berkeley (not Oakland, big difference) is a great campus near a great city (SF). NorCal has great high school football (the Bay Area and Sacramento) and a lot of kids like being close to home. It's also a very good school academically, and has put a number of guys in the NFL recently (DeSean Jackson, Jahvid Best, Discount Doublecheck).
Cal has been option #2 in a very talent rich state for the last decade, and they still have the weather to attract out of state kids who want to come to CA but don't have a USC offer. Maybe Lupoi is doing something shady, or maybe he's just good at promoting something that's not all that tough to sell.
January 16th, 2012 at 4:18 PM ^
January 16th, 2012 at 4:21 PM ^
Seriously. Aaron Rodgers obviously sucks in the postseason now. What good QB ever loses playoff games?
January 16th, 2012 at 4:25 PM ^
January 16th, 2012 at 4:48 PM ^
It seemed to me as though you were implying the Packers lost because of Aaron Rodgers, while making a joke out of a hilarious series of commercials.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:24 PM ^
January 16th, 2012 at 5:36 PM ^
The Raji commercial is hysterical. His face while performing the dance is a crack up. Best commercial in the set, IMO.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:55 PM ^
LULZ SUPERBOWL MVP AND 2ND MOST PASSING YARDS IN A PLAYOFF SEASON TOTALLY SUXXXXXXXXXXXX
January 16th, 2012 at 4:47 PM ^
Agree with you, WolvinLA2, except on one point, Cal academics. Cal is the best public university in the nation.
January 16th, 2012 at 4:58 PM ^
I agree that Cal is outstanding, I'm sorry my superlative wasn't superlative enough. I didn't mean for "very good" to mean "but not outstanding."
However, it's not the best public school in the country, it's third at best. All bias aside (as if that's ever possible) both UVa and Michigan are better schools than Berkeley. Berkeley is probably the hardest public school to get in to in the country and may have the brightest student body, but that's more a result of location than the quality of the education. Michigan is much wealthier and has better faculty than Berkeley. Michigan is also a more popular school for international students, which says a lot when you take location into account.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:44 PM ^
Without a doubt Michigan is in better financial shape than Berkeley, but who says Michigan has the better faculty?
Or is more popular with international students?
While we all know Michigan is better, those are claims I've never heard objectively made before.
January 16th, 2012 at 6:22 PM ^
Michigan's faculty is much more recognized than Berkeley's. You'll have to look that up on your own though, because I don't have time to dig that up just for this discussion.
As far an international students go, 4% of students at Berkeley are from abroad, whereas 6% at Michigan are. That doesn't seem like a lot, but it's 50% more at UM, a school much less accessible to international students (most of whom are from Asia) than a school on the West Coast in a major international metro area.
January 16th, 2012 at 7:11 PM ^
January 16th, 2012 at 5:31 PM ^
Cal is in the Bay Area but it's on the other side of the water. If by close you mean it take an hour without traffic, then yes, it's near SF. Berkley is a nice place, but Cal is right up against crappy Oakland. This is not an Ann Arbor - Detroit comparison. Hamtramck, maybe. But yes, nicer than I made it out to sound. :)
I have mixed feelings about Cal being the #2 option. Sure, they're arguably #2, but that's only because USC is #1 and everyone else is an OK #2. UCLA, Stanford, and Cal have all been relative equals over their last 15 years: Cal is 91-91, UCLA is 106-90, and Stanford is 93-95. National programs like Notre Dame, Michigan, and Florida might be the #2 in California for that matter.
Now, getting to Lupoi - I agree about Bay Area football producing tons of talent. California, in general. Lupoi isn't grabbing just Bay Area guys, though. Last year, when he won Rivals Recruiter of the Year, he pulled three guys from North Carolina. Just search for an article about Keenan Allen's recruitment last year as an example of Lupoi's big-name signees reaking of foul play.
I don't want this post to get too lengthy, but the point of my initial post is there's a lot of smoke here and nobody seems to think there's a fire. And maybe I'm wrong, saying fire when it's just a Halloween smoke machine Tosh bought that high school recruits really seem to like.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:33 PM ^
If by close you mean it take an hour without traffic, then sure.You are vastly overestimating the width of the bay. Driving from Berkeley to SF takes 20-30 minutes without traffic. By public transportation, also about 20 minutes.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:44 PM ^
Maybe it's me - and I spent a summer in San Fran, so a decent amount of time but by no means a lifer - everyone vastly underestimates the amount of time to get anywhere in the Bay Area. Also, 20-30 minutes hinges on no traffic, which is rare as hell in the Bay Area.
20-30 minutes seems like on-ramp to on-ramp more than location to location, but I digress.
The point of my story is that Cal is a great school that is not a football factory that is not located in that cool of an area (can we all agree on that?) relative to schools that have the recruiting odds much more heavily stacked in their favor and despite this Tosh Lupoi is vastly exceeding his expected value for recruiting.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:57 PM ^
Most Cal students would just take the BART places, in which case, the 20-30 minutes to get to SF sounds about right.
I would also disagree about the location. Nice hills, nice weather, 20 mins from a world class city, campus is easy to get around on foot, etc, etc.. Just avoid the south end of campus/Berkeley late at night.
That being said, even if the location is cooler than any Big Ten school, the atmosphere on Saturdays sucks. People just don't care about football that much.
January 16th, 2012 at 6:18 PM ^
Haha I do love the BART. It was always a lonely trip to the airport, though. Sad face.
January 16th, 2012 at 6:58 PM ^
But it's a great campus for frisbee golf. And a great Saturday outing to Marin county--Stimson Beach or Mt. Tamalpais is always available. Even a lowly grad student living in the beat-up married student housing in the Albany mud flats on San Pablo Blvd can dig Berkeley. Great place, gorgeous campus. Hard to beat.
January 16th, 2012 at 9:06 PM ^
Agree with the stadium atmosphere comment. I went to two games while I was a grad student and sat on those rickety wooden bleachers and said no more. I know they are just now finishing a renovation, but their stadium circa 2006 was like a rundown high school stadium. Unless the game was against USC or Stanfurd, the four corner sections were always covered with a gigantic SBC tarp. WTF can't even fill your own stadium?
January 16th, 2012 at 4:10 PM ^
If you read any of the Oregon boards,you'll realize that Cal is the most corrupt program in the NCAA (or so they say).
January 16th, 2012 at 4:14 PM ^
"Hello, Mr. Pot? this is Dr. Kettle. I'm afriad I have some terrible news... you're black."
January 16th, 2012 at 4:14 PM ^
Oh, the irony!
January 16th, 2012 at 5:28 PM ^
I once attended a game at Bizzerkely. I remember nothing at all about the game, but I watched the sunset over the Pacific with the whole sweep of the bay and the penisula in the foreground, including the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge. I can do without the sprouts on everything, but what a stunning location they have. Hop on BART and you have San Francisco. Pack up your gear and hike in Yosemite. Ski the Sierras. Golf on seaside links.
There is a funding crisis in California that is hurting their public universities, though.
January 16th, 2012 at 4:05 PM ^
Cam was at ohio state yesterday, my money is on them.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:51 PM ^
...and their money is on Cam, by now.
January 16th, 2012 at 8:11 PM ^
Cam and illegal benefits just sounds so natural.
January 16th, 2012 at 4:17 PM ^
Did we even offer Shaq Thompson? Doesn't look like we did unless his rivals page is off.
January 16th, 2012 at 4:35 PM ^
We were in his top 8 (?) I believe once he decommited from USC
January 16th, 2012 at 5:03 PM ^
Hoke and company wanted to make sure he was really interested and not just looking to come for a free game. Shaq didn't seem to have a problem with it and said he would visit after the season and never did. I guess we'll see if he is sincerely interested.
January 16th, 2012 at 4:39 PM ^
Wasn't Paayton an option at one point? That may have been nothing more than chatter, but just wondering.
Beyond that, I expect most of these kids to stick around - sure, a national program like ND, UM, MSU may poach one, but otherwise these kids seem like CA kids.
/ wait for it...
January 16th, 2012 at 4:45 PM ^
January 16th, 2012 at 5:05 PM ^
Stop the MSU disrepesect until we beat them on the field?
January 16th, 2012 at 5:14 PM ^
In this instance, nope. They claim to have adopted a more "nationwide" recruiting strategy. Uhh, right. So when almost two-thirds (9 out of 14) of their commits so far are from either Michigan or Ohio (and there's one from Indiana, so that's 10 out of 14 from states touching Michigan), how is that considered a "national" recruiting strategy? That is definitely worth making fun of, regardless of recent history.
January 16th, 2012 at 7:06 PM ^
Yes, because performance on the football field is the only variable distinguishing the two as universities...
January 16th, 2012 at 4:44 PM ^
Shittu eliminated Michigan during the summer, didn't he? I don't see him coming back into play for us.
January 16th, 2012 at 4:47 PM ^
he never committed to USC.
January 16th, 2012 at 4:52 PM ^
...and Ethan Pocic, here are a couple of pertinent tweets from today:
@JoshHelmholdt Great looking group of prospects out here at the Core6 Showcase. Logan Tuley-Tillman is thicker than I pictured
@SamWebb77 Impressed with ethan pocic. Most fluid lineman here. That's saying a lot with logan tuley-tillman in the house
January 16th, 2012 at 5:13 PM ^
Somewhat related, but probably not worth its own thread...
Twitter noise about Gunner Kiel switching to Notre Dame.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:18 PM ^
From whom? Twitter had him as a silent commit to ND right up until he announced for LSU.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:18 PM ^
rivalsmike Mike Farrell
January 16th, 2012 at 5:31 PM ^
January 16th, 2012 at 5:34 PM ^
Plus there's a very good chance that the Lupoi departure will push Arik Armstead and maybe his brother to Notre Dame as well. (Irish fans think it's a lock now in fact). Hell of a turnaround for that class, after they lost two major commits in a week.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:34 PM ^
There is also this:
I'm hearing that Kiel rumors of backing out of LSU commit and considering ND aren't entirely off-base but things aren't ironed out yet.
(No clue how to make Twitter C&P look pretty.)
January 16th, 2012 at 5:37 PM ^
Further: (Regarding an LSU meeting, not ND meeting.)
All I know on the Gunner Kiel situation is that there is a 3 p.m. meeting with early enrollees and Kiel is not in attendance, per a source.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:47 PM ^
And from the LSU side: (I told my ND/Packer friend about this because she's super depressed after last night, and she's filling me in on every detail)
Spoke to another source close to #LSU just now and they still expect Kiel to end up there. This has become insanity.
January 16th, 2012 at 6:55 PM ^
Is there anyway that he is related to Yuri Wright?
January 16th, 2012 at 5:16 PM ^
Payton was really high on us at one point and we were expecting him to commit until he visited ND and pushed back his decision like three time before eventually committing to cal. Is there really any chance of regaining his interest and even if there is do we have room for him in this current class with two WRs already committed? Other than Payton I don't specifically remember either having a huge interest in Michigan. Although that would be a great suprise to have Shaq be a suprise on signing day.
January 16th, 2012 at 5:35 PM ^
There's no way Shaq commits without at least visiting.
January 16th, 2012 at 6:42 PM ^
Not to be a dick, just to hold onto some hope.