Diamond and Gregory announcing together- bad for us?
ESPN ($) is reporting that teammates Jordan Diamond and QB Robert Gregory will both be announcing their decisions on February 3rd. Could this be bad news for Michigan? The only common team they have in their final schools is Arkansas. Assuming they have not made up their minds yet, this obviously could mean nothing-- but if Michigan had two recruits on their radar who were teammates and decided to announce together, I'd be pretty excited.
Considering his status as a prospect and how long Diamond has been discussed on this site, it is pretty impressive how he's kept everything so close to the vest. Hopefully Garnett's decision today will turn out well and (positively) influence the remaining recruits.
Diamond: Arkansas, Auburn, Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin
Gregory: Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota and Purdue
Reminder: Garnett decision set for 6pm Eastern
January 26th, 2012 at 10:33 AM ^
Their school always tries to get their kids all to 'announce' at the same time.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:35 AM ^
Or "he wanted to get paid and Urban wasn't having any of that" if you believe the Buckeye version of the story.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:48 AM ^
The best part of the OSU sanctions for us is not the bowl game miss or the reduced scholarships. It's the extra years of probation.
I think OSU / Meyer finally get that the world is watching and they need to stay clean across the board. I'm not saying that they would actually pay a player directly, but they can no longer look the other way while someone else does.
I hope this story is not true in regard to Diamond, but I like that Buckeye nation does not want even the perception to exist that they are cheating. Big change for them versus the "Everybody does it, it's no big deal" attitude of the past.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:51 AM ^
Personally, I don't think OSU fans care about that too much, they just came up with a delusional story to help with their butthurt.
But I do agree, love that they're on probation. Don't slip up, Urban!
January 26th, 2012 at 11:06 AM ^
the NCAA chooses to ignore the tons of evidence of Buckeye cheating over a 10 year period. No reason to think that will change, either from Ohio's perspective or the NCAA's.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:32 AM ^
of butthurt
January 26th, 2012 at 10:35 AM ^
My initial thought was that they are going to commit to Arkansas together. But their coach wanted Diamond to wait to commit so for extra exposure to his teammates. So they could be doing this together just so the QB gets some pub as well.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:35 AM ^
January 26th, 2012 at 10:37 AM ^
Aren't you supposed to be somewhere not following recruiting that closely?
January 26th, 2012 at 10:42 AM ^
It's common sense. It doesn't mean he does or does not follow recruiting closely.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:45 AM ^
I know, I'm just ribbin' him. He is looking at and commenting on a post about recruiting, after all.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:43 AM ^
January 26th, 2012 at 11:29 AM ^
I think he did a lot with plant breeding back in the day. Someone with a bio background can probably expand.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:52 AM ^
Do you mean Gregor Mendel?
January 26th, 2012 at 3:12 PM ^
That's Austrian Scientist Gregor Mendel. You mean the guy from Deal or No Deal.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:36 AM ^
...but am still holding out hope as I know the kid loves Blue.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:38 AM ^
Gregory is a 1/2 QB project and 1/2 WR
UM needs depth at QB; and could use another WR in this class. 2 birds 1 stone?
I would love to offer Gregory and redshirt him as a QB/WR; hope we never need him to take a snap at QB and as soon as Morris is up to speed switch him to WR.
And if he's a package deal with Diamond.... gravy
January 26th, 2012 at 10:43 AM ^
What? Tell me more please...
January 26th, 2012 at 10:52 AM ^
http://michigan.scout.com/a.z?s=162&p=8&c=1&nid=4662392
6'2 185 lb. "QB"
Scout has UM listed as "no interest". However, IIRC, Gregory visted 1 or 2 times with Diamond many months ago when Diamond came to UM to visit Bryant.
I remember there being posts about Gregory hoping for an offer... but obviously he never received one.
January 26th, 2012 at 12:04 PM ^
Gregory was more of a potential RR recruit as a QB/WR. My feeling is he probably wouldn't have got an offer either way and was more of a back-up plan/way to keep the school and their coach happy by at least showing interest.
January 26th, 2012 at 3:46 PM ^
he sounds a little like Fuller who we were recruiting for awhile. Maybe if we miss on a couple of the final 5, I wouldn't mind seeing us offer this kid and increase our depth at QB and/or WR and maybe increase our odds with Diamond.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:39 AM ^
Kids from the same school announce at the same time - all the time. For example, the kids at Good Counsel announce at the same time. A kid that we were in on last year announced for Iowa (forgot his name) and there were a variety of others who announced for other schools.
He may very well end up at Arkansas but this is not an indication of that....
January 26th, 2012 at 10:47 AM ^
Yup, I figured as much I just thought it would be a good discussion. If Terry Richardson and RJS decided to announce the same day way back when, I'm sure all of us would be excited.
I figured a board discussion that isn't about Bill Sheridan would be a nice change of pace.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:43 AM ^
that if Garnett commits to us, then Diamond goes to Arkansas. If Garnett goes to Stanford, then we'll get Diamond. However, I am not Sam Webb so what do I know.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:45 AM ^
Nothing. Next question please.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:45 AM ^
January 26th, 2012 at 10:48 AM ^
the day after stuff. Why not get the letter in ASAP?
January 26th, 2012 at 10:50 AM ^
I agree, has anyone heard any justification for why they are waiting until after NSD? If Diamond didn't have the reputation of being private throughout his recruiting, I would say maybe they wanted the attention. With so many recruits going for the last spots it seems that you would want your letters in as soon as your decision is made. Maybe they are just announcing then and are silently committing on NSD.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:02 AM ^
Well I do know that a local TV station has been filming a documentary on Diamond's recruitment. It is a large part of why the recruitment has lasted so long, and he is tough to read.
I had heard at one time that they were going to air the documentary the day he signed, so it may have something to do with when the TV station can air the documentary.
I haven't seen that confirmed by any means though.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:00 AM ^
This may not apply to Diamond, but I can see one reason to wait a day or two to commit. An example would be a recruit has narrowed his choices to two schools, A and B. School A is his first choice but isn't sure if it has a slot for him. School A won't know if it has a slot until some of its higher priority recruites make up their mind on signing day. School B has slots open and tells recruit we are willing to hold a slot for you for a couple days. In that case, I can see the recruit waiting to see whether School A comes available before making up his mind.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:48 AM ^
Gregory decommitted from Arkansas, no? Does anyone really think he'll re-commit to the Hogs? In light of that, I don't think it means anything that the two will announce at the same time. It doesn't appear they're attending the same school.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:51 AM ^
BWC did decommit and recommit to us so it is a possibility and with the other schools on his list I can definitely see him going to Arkansas.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:55 AM ^
In the future, please keep all relevant historical facts to yourself. It ruins my street cred.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:56 AM ^
because he thought it would be fun to take visits to nice places. His situation wasn't typical. It's fairly uncommon for a kid to decommit from a school and then recommit.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:52 AM ^
I think (insert commit name) will commit to (insert school with big CFB program) and (insert commit name) will commit to (insert another school).
But that's all based on Taco Bell's drivethru menu.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:55 AM ^
This is a little OT...but does anyone else think we should recruit Diamond's teammate Robert Gregory?
If this were a month ago, I'd say HELL NO. Just because we had so many prospects left.
However, this isn't a "we need a body and we can get to 28" type post. I know very well that you don't take #28 unless he can make an impact.
I think Gregory can, in fact, I first heard of him when Rich Rod was the coach and he was being recruited to Michigan along with Chris Bryant and Jordan Diamond.
All year, since Morris committed, I didn't think QB was a big need, and I still don't. HOWEVER, I think we can recruit Gregory as a QB and give him a legit shot there. If he doesn't pan out, he can play WR...
MORESO, we'll have Denard for another year and likely Devin for 2. Parts of the spread aren't going anywhere (or at least they shouldn't)...I think Gregory would fit a GREAT role of running some of the spread at QB while Morris is the starting QB. Even if it's some read-option and some QB Iso's like Denard. The he can go play WR for the rest of the game.
I love our hybrid Spread/Read-Option/Pro-Style attack, people call it "hybrid" but I think it's a MICHIGAN offense and I don't want to loose all of the versatility. We're hard to prepare for, Gregory would fit great, IMO, in a limited QB/mainly WR role. It would also be a little insurance, allow for the threat of trick plays, etc.
Something like Antonio Bass provided before he was tragically hurt.
I'd have no problem with Garnett, Grant, Reeves, Diamond and GREGORY filling out the class.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:24 AM ^
You love this offense? Did you watch the Sugar Bowl? I mean we had a few decent offensive games too, but that offense took a bigstep backward last year. I'm not sure this "hybrid" is a good thing. I'd love to keep the spread, but clearly that's not what Borges does. Probably time to move on.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:30 AM ^
I'd take this year's offensive production against good teams over last year's.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:34 AM ^
NSFMF, the offense scored more points this year than last, and more importantly scored more points against Big Ten competition. We had bad games in 2010, too. See MissSt, Ohio, Wisconsin, and MSU. To say that we took a big step back is not looking at the whole picture.
EDIT: But more to your point, yes, we should move on from our read option spread attack. We will continue to implement more West Coast stuff, especially once Denard leaves.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:44 AM ^
This offense did just as much as last year's offense that was in year 3...
I like the idea of keeping parts of the read-option parts of a spread and adding in a heavy dosage of prostyle.
I think Denard is 75% Read-Option/Spread, 25% Pro Style
Devin will be 50/50
Morris will be 25% Read-Option/Spread, 75% Pro Style
...my point about Gregory is that I think he can run or help with that 25% Read-Option/Spread when Morris is QB. Give teams a different look, pick up key 3rd and shorts by running the ball, allow for a WILDCAT formation where it's a backup QB that can throw the ball rather than two RBs trying to run the play.
I see a legitmate role where Gregory could have a package or two at QB and then play WR the rest of the game. We've done this in the past with Jermaine Gonzales and Antonio Bass...plenty of other teams around the country do this, it's just with a RB at QB and they call it the Wildcat. I don't think what I'm saying is far fetched.
Look at how Florida has used Trey Burton, that's as simple as I can put it. I think Gregory can be used like Trey Burton at UF.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:57 AM ^
Word on the Gopher recruiting sites is that Gregory is likely headed to Purdue, though of course nothing is ever for sure. However, as others have said, I wouldn't worry about this being an opportunity for them to both commit to Arkansas.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:58 AM ^
January 26th, 2012 at 11:03 AM ^
It's not just Diamond & Gregory. ALL of the Simeon kids will announce next Friday at the school. This is not an indication in any way that they are a package deal. This is simply a case of you and ESPN misinterpreting what's going on.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:04 AM ^
Who cares they are deciding the same day?? A lot of kids do this.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:17 AM ^
I'm not too worried about this. Arkansas fans would probably feel more pressure cuz they could miss out on two recruits, we would only miss out on one. And if Josh commits to us today it will be a lot less painful I would think.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:18 AM ^
Honestly, I have figured on Arkansas just because I would expect them to exploit advantages that Michigan wouldn't. I just don't expect Michigan to win head-to-head against mid-to-upper level SEC schools unless they have something obvious going in their favor.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:28 AM ^
It seems like it has been (for some time) between Arkansas and Michigan. His latest visit to Arkansas definitely seems to have helped Arkansas, as he raved about the visit. Then again, most recruits rave about their visits [exception: Yuri Wright's visit to Colorado....and he still committed there =) ] and, then again, Diamond has been a fan of Michigan for a while. I would bet $ that Gregory is Arkansas bound (given that it is probably his best offer...no offense Minnesota, Eastern Michigan) but I don't think that will affect Diamond's decision, unless he and Gregory are the best buds in the whole wide world.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:45 AM ^
While your offer to put money on Gregory is likely just your way of expressing confidence, if you are serious, I will take that bet. You can have Arkansas, I have the field.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:56 AM ^
sorry Gopher fan....=/
January 26th, 2012 at 12:16 PM ^
He does seem to be Purdue bound though. He decomitted from Arkansas already. Some say he may have been nudged to do so.