The Levenberry prediction/decision open thread
While there are just as many factors that say he'll choose us as there are that he'll choose FSU, I'm going to say I think he goes FSU by a whisker, unfortunately. Two reasons: first, we don't offer a Criminal Justice major, which according to Tim at Rivals he very much wants to major in, and second, all of his Dad's comments, while absolutely glowing about Hoke and Michigan, kinda sound to me like what the Bachelor says about the girl that comes in second: "she's an amazing girl, absolutely fantastic, she has big things ahead of her and some lucky guy is really going to be fortunate to get her." Not that I know (ahem) anything about the Bachelor, my wife must have told me about that...
/hope I'm wrong
/trying not to jinx
I thought Hoke and Co. paid a visit to his school yesterday.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:11 AM ^
I predict a long 4 hour thread with a site crash at the end. Would love to have him go Blue but if not best of luck to E.J.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:12 AM ^
April 24th, 2012 at 11:13 AM ^
I think Levenberry would be a nice get, but with our depth at LB in these classes, he doesn't feel huge to me.
My gut says this is a Garnett all over again.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:14 AM ^
In the event we don't get him, that gives us a "hit glass in case of emergency" scholly doesnt it? who can the coaches go after instead?
April 24th, 2012 at 11:22 AM ^
I've got a poll up at Touch The Banner, and so far 73% think he'll choose Michigan, 25% think FSU, and 1% think Oklahoma.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:38 AM ^
Much more optimistic over there than here. Except for the handful of confused voters who think that Oklahoma is a vaible option.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:55 AM ^
and I'll raise you one
Alchemy
ENGINEERING!!!!
you engineers, always gotta be whiping put your particle colliders.
Yup, not impressed. Now give me a Levenberry collector or something like that and I will be happy, particle collider...not so much.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:24 AM ^
Everyone keeps talking about depth at LB, but I think that EJ's ability to play the SAM is a big deal. Sure, McCray will probably be slotted at the SAM, but there is the chance that he outgrows the position and slides to DE or a hybrid role. This could leave a big hole, as many of our recently recruited LB's are more WILL or MIKE LB's. I think Levenberry's ability to play both the SAM and MIKE would be a nice luxury to have and would truly strengthen the overall depth of the LB's as a whole.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:53 AM ^
Jake Ryan - RS Soph
Cam Gordon - RS Junior
I thought RJS was coming in as a SAM, and as you say, we have McCray. 4 deep with quality talent is pretty good in '13, relative to the last several years. Ojemudia is an option as well, though he's coming in as a WDE.
Besides, in a pinch I think we could move Beyer back or Bolden out there and be just fine.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:25 AM ^
But, But Farrell said he's going to FSU, he knows better than that 73%
April 24th, 2012 at 11:27 AM ^
Well, those are mostly Michigan fans visiting Touch the Banner, so the poll results have to be taken with a grain of salt...
April 24th, 2012 at 11:26 AM ^
I thought I read UM coaches visited his high school yesterday?
April 24th, 2012 at 11:27 AM ^
FSU and Michigan visited his school yesterday.
April 24th, 2012 at 12:25 PM ^
Maybe Hoke pulled a Saban and said the offer only stood if he committed right then. /s obviously
April 24th, 2012 at 11:27 AM ^
after his comment about the alleged lack of enthusiasm of northern school fan bases.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:34 AM ^
If you read Farrell's article on Rivals, you can see he favors FSU. Levenberry starts his pro's on FSU with his Crimonalogy Program he wants to major in. His words:
"It will come down to getting a degree first, playing for a conference title and playing for a national title."
April 24th, 2012 at 11:28 AM ^
Over/Under: 200 posts in this thread come 4 pm.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:30 AM ^
I'll take the over. we are crazy people. plus I can post a bunch to win the bet.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:32 AM ^
Definitely over.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:56 AM ^
I think we'll be at 200 in the next hour...Definitely the over!
April 24th, 2012 at 12:37 PM ^
I'll take over. We have 2 and a half hours before he even announces.
Plus you can plan all of the well wishers posting their respective last tearful goodbyes wishing him good luck or when he chooses UofM random posts that will resemble......
I KNEW IT ALL ALONG MIKE FARRELL, YOU'RE JUST A FUCKING HATER!!!! YOU SUCK!!!!
or
COACH HOKE POINTED AT HIM AND HE KNEW THAT HE WAS BLUE!!!!!!!
April 24th, 2012 at 11:32 AM ^
April 24th, 2012 at 11:34 AM ^
I'm with Farnn on this one. Seeing Farrell miss on this would be an added bonus to pulling in Levenberry. I'm pretty sure he even said FSU was Levenberry's leader a month ago and E.J. corrected him on it. Let's hope he's wrong again.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:34 AM ^
About three year's ago who would've thought that we would be talking about someone of Levenberry talents as just a luxury?
Damn, I don't miss 2008-2010!
April 24th, 2012 at 11:35 AM ^
A few weeks ago I would have been really disappointed if he picked FSU. Now it appears that instead of being a borderline 5*, he's likely a generic 4*, it won't sting as much if he heads south.
Like other people said, we have good depth at LB and we'll likely land two or three more studs in 2014.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:36 AM ^
psychology I'm seeing here today. We all thought Garnett was a lock - now most are thinking FSU for EJ. The only logical conclusion one can draw from these two totally unrelated situations is that EJ will choose Michigan. The choice is clear.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:41 AM ^
I hate the bachelor. Grrr.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:47 AM ^
He has been FSU since day one. I expect no change today.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:50 AM ^
It would be awesome if he commits today. However if he doesn't commit best of luck to him, but 2012 and 2013 recruiting classes so far still have me jackin' it in San Diego.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:56 AM ^
i understand no one wants to get there hopes up, but Levenberry is a need to me yes we are going to have 2 nice years of LB hauls but look before that we had no depth and you can never have to many LBs. I think Mattison wants to eventually have a rotation system, like Bama or Lsu they have highly rated guys sitting the bench and seeing little action example Saint-Dix, Depriest, so theres not much dropoff on rotation plus you give these guys times to be college ready and understand the system instead of forced into freshman action. I want to get to the point where most of our freshman redshirt and because there not needed right away. Also if every highly rated recruit panned out FSU and Texas would win championships every year and there not even close IMO.
April 24th, 2012 at 12:02 PM ^
That's still not the definition of "need." We have 11 linebackers scheduled to be on the roster for 2013. Levenberry would give us 12. You can't go 4-deep at every single position. If you did, you'd have 88 scholarship players plus specialists.
April 24th, 2012 at 12:23 PM ^
To add on to that- many of our linebackers have positional flexibility between either MLB and WLB or SLB/WDE so you can go 4 deep without needing 12 players.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:58 AM ^
Despite my mini-tirade yesterday on the Bosa "good luck' thing - I do think it's acceptable for members of this board to wish EJ good luck even if he doesn't chose Michigan today under the pretense that, based on my calculations - there is only a 1.73% chance of Michigan playing FSU in the next 4/5 years. That, and his dad said we're probably going to win a NC in the next 4 years.
April 24th, 2012 at 12:46 PM ^
I won't rehash the things that may or may not be negative about Bosa, since most of those tend to be based on a) his sweet picture on Twitter/Rivals and b) a couple of tweets...
But Levenberry and his family have been nothing but respectful and complementary to UM during this whole process. He deserves good thoughts regardless of his decision...
April 24th, 2012 at 12:13 PM ^
I have a sneaking suspicion that EJ will go FSU, and many of our other top targets will choose other schools other than Michigan. It feels like this happened last year, too. We came hot out of the gate and secured a great class, but kind of limped towards the finish line and lost out on some elite talent and playmakers.
Feels like we are setup for the same thing again this year. Don't get me wrong - I am still thrilled with both '12 and '13 classes and I am expecting big things from these guys - but it would be awesome to cap off the recruiting season by actually securing some of the elite guys that wait until later in the process.
It's like a really good movie that starts with an awesome action scene at the very beginning, but is basically drama and dialogue throughout the rest of the film. It starts out really strong, and kind of tails off from there, but overall still a good flick due to that great beginning scene.
Can't think of a good example right now, but you get my drift.
April 24th, 2012 at 12:23 PM ^
but people dont' like hearing things like that, so I predict you'll get negged.
April 24th, 2012 at 12:34 PM ^
Thanks for proving his point!
April 24th, 2012 at 12:50 PM ^
He predicted YOU would get negged. You didn't. He made no predictions about whether HE would be negged.
April 24th, 2012 at 12:56 PM ^
at some point we should have a meta post about why it is nearly impossible to express opinions other than EVERYTHING IS 100% AWESOME without getting negged. Of course, such a post would itself get negged.
As evidenced by the "trolling" label this post has received.
You can disagree without being disagreeable. Rational, well-articulated arguments are rarely negged, regardless of how un-rosy the opinion.
He who says "I worry about our interior defense. We lost too much production and leadership with Martin and RVB, and Big Will still hasn't shown he can be the answer in the middle" will invoke a discussion, but won't usually be negged.
He who says, "BWC is a bust, and our D-Line is gonna suck cause all teh good players left. Thanks a bunch, RichRod" will be negged.
That negs do basically nothing. They don't affect your point totals, and they only affect your 'karma' if you pile up a bunch of them, and even then, karma doesn't really do much. Voting mostly serves as an easy way to gauge public opinion on your post.
Self-fulfilling prophecies fulfill themselves selfishly.
April 24th, 2012 at 12:57 PM ^
I actually got negged, too. I went from a 2 to a 1 when he was negged, and just recently back to a 2 again. Good times.
There is a guy who negs PGB on sight. But while individual posters may vote you down purely because they disagree, Almost all of the people around here are pretty reasonable.
Okay, MOST of the people around here are pretty reasonable.
Would you believe MANY of the people around here are kinda reasonable?
Final offer: Some of us aren't total pains in the ass?