Friday Recruitin' Says Thanks But No Thanks
Today's recruiting roundup takes a look at who is—and just as importantly, who isn't—going to be on campus this weekend. Also discusses: new offers in both the '13 and '14 classes, expected future visitors, and a couple of TEs coming off the board.
Seatbelt: Fastened
All week, there have been strong indications from wide-ranging sources that this weekend would bring in at least one commit for the Wolverines, and the picture is beginning to clear up a bit. First, let's go over the weekend visitors:
- Joliet (IL) Catholic RB Ty Isaac—offered, top RB on the board.
- Massillon (OH) Washington CB Gareon Conley—offered, Michigan leads, and though he denies being ready to commit, rumors are still flying ($, info in header).
- Damascus (MD) WR Zach Bradshaw—offered.
- New Lenox (IL) Lincoln-Way West OL Colin McGovern—offered, but aware Michigan is full at O-line. Is visiting anyway, because this is Michigan, fergodsakes.
- Washington (DC) Gonzaga CB Devin Butler—offered, told GBW he "wouldn't be afraid to pull the trigger early," if he's comfortable with a particular school ($). [EDIT: Butler is visiting later this month, not this weekend. My bad, y'all.]
- Cincinnati (OH) LaSalle CB Jaleel Hytchye—not offered, though that reportedly will be discussed when he's on campus; if he gets one, he says Michigan will shoot to the top of his list ($).
- Novi (MI) Detroit Catholic Central DE Dylan Roney (2014)—sophomore teammate of Matt Godin and Wyatt Shallman. Will be interesting to see if he gets an offer this early in the process.
That's quite an interesting group, especially at cornerback, and the intrigue deepens with Isaac when paired with the knowledge that (1) Shane Morris will be on campus, undoubtedly putting on the full-court press, and (2) Warren (OH) Howland RB DeVeon Smith is visiting on March 17th, and there have been multiple indications that he's strongly considering a commitment. We'll see if that latter bit of news affects Isaac's timetable—there is no timetable—and if Smith commits, whether the coaches would be comfortable potentially taking both players. With Wyatt Shallman's ability to play DE, I wouldn't be surprised if they did.
Perhaps bigger news than the list of who's on the visitor list is who's not on the visitor list. The coaches seem very confident that Ben Gedeon will be blue in the near future, as they turned away four-star linebackers Alex Anzalone and Shane Jones, both of whom were planning weekend visits before being told the position group is full. Gedeon visited last weekend and is mulling over his decision. He may not be mulling for much longer. (Note, to head off the inevitable question: I don't believe this changes the situation with E.J. Levenberry at all. The coaches have maintained they'll take two linebackers and reserve an extra spot for him as one of the top overall prospects on the board.)
One player deciding this weekend who probably won't be choosing Michigan is Rancho Cucamonga (CA) CB Chris Hawkins, who hasn't visited Ann Arbor and will decide on Saturday between the Wolverines, Stanford (the prohibitive favorite), Cal, UCLA, Oklahoma and Notre Dame ($).
Offers, Future Visits, Etc.
Michigan put out a few offers recently, including one to the massive son of a former NFL offensive lineman:
- Mesquite (TX) West Mesquite four-star WR Eldridge Massington received offers from Michigan and Notre Dame this past week ($, info in header). He had planned on making a spring decision, but he now wants to visit Ann Arbor and is pushing back his timetable to accomodate that. Interest is high.
- 2014 Detroit Loyola DE Malik McDowell added the Wolverines to his offer list—now at two, along with Syracuse. McDowell is already 6'5", 260 pounds as a sophomore and came away with top honors from the recent Elite Big Man Camp.
- 2014 Suwanee (GA) Peachtree Ridge OL Orlando "Zeus" Brown, son of the late NFL offensive lineman Orlando Brown, picked up a Michigan offer on Tuesday. He is, in a word, titanic: Rivals's Keith Neibuhr said he's 6'10", 360 lbs., while Scout weighed in with the utterly conservative figures of 6'7", 340. Brown already holds nine offers, including Alabama, Auburn, Notre Dame, and USC.
Sam Webb's latest at the Detroit News is on Murrieta (CA) Vista Murrieta five-star LB/S/RB Su'a Cravens, who reiterated that he will take one of his official visits to Michigan. He also gave an idea about his current timetable:
"I'm going to take my time," he continued. "I don't know if I'm going to do the hat thing like most guys do in those February games, but I know I'm going to commit my senior year. I'm not going to commit too early so I don't have second thoughts about where I want to go. I'm a man of my word, so once I commit somewhere I'm going to stick to it. Before I do, I'm going to be sure of it, so it'll probably be my senior year."
Distance, he says, will not be a factor, which is obviously good news for Michigan fans. Cravens's cousin, Upland (CA) four-star DE Joe Mathis, told Tremendous that he'll also take an official to Ann Arbor, and he'll take it at the same time as Cravens. Talented family, that.
Other players interested in visiting: Vienna (GA) Dooly County five-star DT Montravius Adams, one of the top overall prospects in the country ($, info in header). Akron (OH) Firestone WR Kevin Gladney, who's looking to visit in April and told ESPN that Michigan holds a slight edge in his recruitment ($, info in header). Richmond (VA) Hermitage RB Derrick Green wants to visit Ann Arbor on the 18th of this month ($); we'll see if those plans change depending on what happens with Isaac and Smith, since Green is planning a signing day decision. Ft. Lauderdale (FL) St. Thomas Aquinas DE Joey Bosa, one of the top DEs in the country, told 11W's Alex Gleitman that he's looking to visit Michigan this spring.
Happy trails to a pair of tight ends in Jacob Matuska, who committed to Notre Dame as a DE, and Durham Smythe, who pledged to his home-state Texas Longhorns. Top-ranked TE Adam Brenemen makes his decision tonight and seems almost certain to head to Penn State, so you can mentally remove him from the board, as well. Assuming (safely) that Breneman goes elsewhere, Michigan has just two offers out to uncommitted TEs in New Orleans (LA) Edna Carr's Standish Dobard and Pittsburgh (PA) Seton La Salle's Scott Orndoff. Dobard seems like a long-shot to pull out of SEC country, but Orndoff has expressed strong interest.
Quickly: TTB runs down the new Scout 300 for 2013. Chantel Jennings goes over Michigan's D-line options ($). The DetNews tracks down an "NCAA expert" to tell us what we already knew: the Roundtree/Demens/McCray Twitter thing is a non-issue—I honestly only linked because of the picture.
March 10th, 2012 at 12:15 AM ^
Oh yeah, it's not a concern for me. I'm aware of the fact that he won't have to play right away and will have the opportunity to redshirt and be ready. I was more speaking to why he might be considered underrated.
I'm not saying he isn't underrated (double negative. Pardon me.), but it blows my mind that a kid at one of the biggest football schools in Ohio can be overlooked to an extent.
If I can make it to a few of his games next season I will. I'm pretty sure he matched up with Kevin Gladney (UM offer) of Firestone last season. I want to get out to the McKinley game as well. Also the Buchtel game.
Some stats from last season from Massillontigers.com
25 total tackles (20 unassisted, 10 assisted, 2.5 for loss)
3 receptions for 10 yards.
3 punt returns for 39 yards.
4 kickoff returns for 142 yards.
4 interceptions for 101 yards.
1 sack.
Massillon plays Firestone again this year. I'll be there to see how he does against a good WR.
You're making the assumption that recruiting sites are better evaluators of talent than our coaching staff.
Your prerogative to make that assumption, but I think most people would tend to side with the coaches instead.
Here's the thing. Keep reminding yourself that, depsite your ability to read top-250 lists, the coaches have a lot more info than you do. They've done a lot more research on this than the sites have, and they know exactly what they're looking for. They also know better than we do about which recruits they have a good shot at and which ones they don't.
I promise you that Hoke and his staff will do whatever they can do bring in the class that they feel is the best. If they recruit an unranked guy harder than a 4-star, that should be more telling to you than what Rivals thinks - especially this early in the process.
From Ace's last link: OMG, what could be so funny on Tree's phone?
They're probably reading a comment by Dantonio about how he recruits nationally and isn't worried about the success Michigan is having on the recruiting trail right now.
Holy shit they're as big as chocolate chip cookies! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
...and Roy is reacting to the pic Erin Andrews just sent Dilithium (ala Bret Favre).
of Urban Meyer's dick
I think I read he wanted to commit closer to signing day, and now seems all in a rush to committ. I usually would write off a guy who hasn't been on campus, but he does have a relationship with Hoke from SDSU, and it's not like Stanford's or Notre Dame's classes are have filled up in a way that would create a sense of urgency.
I still don't give it a high probability, but I wouldn't be surprised if he goes blue this saturday. He can always back out after he's been on campus. He can't unseat Conley or Butler if they pull the trigger before him, however. This class is filling up so fast that top 100 4 stars can't even wait for the spring game before being forced to make a decision.
If he does go blue, it'll be because of Hoke and his exceptional ability to form genuine relationships with people.
Hawkins has all but stated that he's going to commit to Stanford.
If Gedeon does commit, is it a fair assumption to say O'Daniel and Hutchings are out? With a spot held for Levenberry, there may not be room for the other two. I know O'Daniel's plan is to wait until an all-star game, so maybe without Levenberry he get the spot, but I'm not sure he would be comfortable being a backup plan. Man, Coach Hoke problems...
That's the vibe I get - a yes from Gedeon means no Hutchings or O'Daniel.
Is there a double meaning here? Feels like I'm missing something, and I also got the impression that the symbol gives the indication we are paying these guys. Not trying to be buzz killington, but they don't make sense to me. Can someone explain?
A ($) after a link means it's an insider or paywalled article. Michigan is not in the business of paying recruits.
Is there a page that explains all the abbreviations and symbols used on this blog somewhere?
under MGoboard or the About tab at the top of the page. There's some stuff in there...
If your serious, they mean it's an article that you have to be a paid member to read. Rivals, Scout, ESPN Insider, etc...
It means the article is paywalled.
When a position group fills, like Michigan's ofensive line, does the school formally pull their offer to players that they offered based on that position? Or do they leave them open in case someone decommits? A brief overview would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Their are no formal offers to pull right now since all the offers are verbal until September when written offers can be issued.
It's a grey area no matter what. Michigan has offered 112 kids according to recruiting sites but many of those offers are conditional and a good chunk of them would be non-committable at this point.
The kids and coaches are really the only ones who will have a true sense of what their exact offer statuses are.
Michigan informs the players when they talk to them that the position group is full and they wouldn't take the player's commitment. This has happened with all the offensive linemen at this point—for instance, McGovern has acknowledged that he knows Michigan wouldn't take him right now, but he wants to come visit anyway just in case circumstances change down the road. The players are kept informed about what's going on.
don't tell me he's still growing...
He's shrinking.
You're both incorrect. He wakes up each morning at a random size that's in no way correlated with the previous day's size. It's crazy.
Because of quantum mechanics, we can only know his size and his 40 time at any given moment, but not both.
can you imagine if he woke up to get ready for The Game and he was all "oh shit...COACH...today is one of those days where i'm only 5'4, 135"
That would be bad for our OL for sure, but if only his size fluctuated but not his strength, that would be incredible for our wrestling team.
March 10th, 2012 at 11:27 AM ^
but can you imagine an 8'6 675lb LT? We would have an equal shot at that happening on any given day, right?
Trolling?????? What the hell?
More unsolicited WolvinLA advice: The best way to get people to neg your posts is to bitch about people negging your posts. Also, you have very few points and you said some trolly things today, like "WTF 3-stars we only want guys Rivals says are good." I'm paraphrasing, of course.
Don't bitch so much, don't let it bother you, and you'll be fine.
Don't show weakness. It stinks. Like dog poop. Don't take anything too seriously, and you'll be fine.
I think we should wait for a more high profile CB.
March 10th, 2012 at 11:34 AM ^
Are you serious? Maybe I missed the sarcasm. WHat do you want to do, wait for the 5 star CB's?
March 10th, 2012 at 12:36 PM ^
The first thingi thought when i watched his film a few days back was how much he looked like Breaston. Those strides along with the way he kind of rolls his hips in a change of direction it is unreal how comparable the two are.
that we would turn two LB's away (Anzolone and Jones) based on the possibility that we are full at that position. However we have McGovern visit when we are indeed full at that position. Interesting scenario.
We didn't turn away Anzalone and Jones. We told them we were full at the position, and they chose not to visit. We also told McGovern we were full at offensive line, but he chose to visit, anyway.
March 12th, 2012 at 12:02 PM ^
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