The Opening Awards - Jake Butt and Jourdan Lewis make All-Tourney Team
The Opening just released the awards for the weekend event. Jourdan Lewis won the Skills Challenge competition, and Lewis and Jake Butt both made the 7on All-Tournament team.
The full list of honors:
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The all-tourney 7-on-7 team from #TheOpeing: O.J. Howard, Larenz Bryant, Jaylon Smith, Jourdan Lewis, Ryan Green, Max Browne, Jake Butt..
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(all-tourney continued): Cam Burrows, Matt Thomas, Ryan Switzer and MVP Torii Hunter Jr.
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#TheOpening offensive line MVP is Denver Kirkland.
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#TheOpening defensive line MVP is Eddie Vanderdoes.
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#TheOpening defensive line one-on-one MVP is A'Shawn Robinson.
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#TheOpening offensive line one-on-one MVP is Ira Denson.
#Nike+ Skills Challenge Champion goes to Jourdan Lewis (@jourdanjd)
7on All Tournament Team (Jake Butt rocking the M Swag shirt...nice):
Jourdan Lewis with Shane Morris & Laquon Treadwell:
Jourdan Lewis in action:
Jake Butt:
And don't forget, even though he couldn't put on pads, Taco Charlton tied for the most DL one on one wins. This class is really stacked.
On a side note: That A'Shawn Robinson guy was unstoppable... truly destroyed his opponents in the one on one drills. (He's the guy who tied Taco Charlton for most one on one wins.)
Shane would probably have been second team QB if they had it as well. And if Taco and Dawson had been able to pad up, and Bosch been healthy, I'm sure they would have contended for awards as well. Great showing by Michigan committs.
What was the Nike+ skills challenge? I don't remember hearing about it during the week, but happy for Jourdan Lewis for winning it, whatever it is.
Surprised they didn't include Treadwell. Thought he proved himself very nicely.
I get more and more excited everyday for the '13 class. It seems like these kids are standouts at every event they compete in, and having Shane help recruit has been essential to maintaining such an unbelievable group. Not to mention how awesome it is to have the class pretty much wrapped up in July. Just think, once September rolls around, we can forget about recruiting and just focus on the games! (Although I'm sure 2014 recruiting will intensify by then..)
Listen, our recruits represented well. I'm really looking forward to those wanting to play for Michigan. I know recurits are young, still trying to make a decision that best fits them, etc. etc..... but if you want to come to Michigan, you know it's because you love the school. Period. This year is going to be a great season. I don't care what the anaylsts say. Michigan is rising (Alabama is at it's peek) and will make it's fans proud.
I'm saying this not because I'm biased but because it's been a long time coming.
/s
There were a few of them on Team Alpha Envy, with mostly A&M and UCLA commits, but they reportedly missed their last game after following Shane around all day and then complaining about everything he did.
Good one, but thanks, I have to clean coffee off my monitor. /s
Shane Morris is the one on the left, I believe.
But seriously, it's LT.
I'm pretty sure that's Scott Sypniewski on the left.
Looks like our fake field goal passing play is in good hands.
Treadwell posing with future teammates, me like
Is this where Mike McCray was all weekend?
By the way, Nike Football has some awesome pics of the players on their Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/usnikefootball?sk=photos
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151910085635721.873896.57460905720&type=3
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151906653285721.873452.57460905720&type=3
Where was Alvin Bailey? I think I only saw his name come up once in the 3 days of open threads. Did those re-tweeting not repost tweets regarding him? Or was him pretty much invisible to the tweeting analysts?
I don't remember seeing a lot of analysts tweets referencing him, but I thought he was all over the place (from what I saw on tv). I don't remember him making any amazing/outrageous plays, but every single game his team played he came up with quality and timely catches it seemed. Tonight in the semi's (I think?), I believe he had two (!) touchdown catches called back (on the same series) because his QB held on to the ball too long. He is very quick and seems to have a nose for being in the thick of things. Impressed.
I think he actually had a solid tournament. His roster was loaded with talented WRs (Steven Mitchell and Sebastian LaRue) and may have been overshadowed by Mitchell at times, but he made some big catches for his team over the tourney.
He was great in one-on-ones. He was pretty good in the tourney, too, but it seemed like Browne was looking elsewhere. Browne liked to hit his checkdowns, and it always seemed like Bailey was running up the seam.
Get so much credit this weekend? Every analyst seemed to repeat that he was checking down to RBs the majority of the time and a few mentioned that they weren't sure if the arm strength to stretch the field was there.
He doesn't have a cannon, but he has a pretty strong arm. I think he also has the lead in decision making and accuracy. He's not perfect, but he was the best there and perhaps the best in the country.
You bring up a couple criticisms of Browne, but just as many criticisms - and more - could be stated about all the other quarterbacks.
Massington n stringfellow were both really good too. Lewis is a baller
They already have 3 4-star WRs in their class. Treadwell would be the highest rated recruit of the four, but I don't see that as an attractive situation.