Scouting Report: Jabrill Peppers
Like, "where should we put ALL OF our freak athletes?!"
I am certain the coaches have seen all the film we've seen (and more) and have no doubt noticed the showboating. I think it obviously doesn't both them much and/or they've talked it through with him and said "That's not gonna fly here/at this level". I'm sure Jabrill knows the expectations at Michigan and we're still most likely his #1 choice
* If* Jabrill Peppers announces his decision to enroll at Michigan, there may be some questions about why he transferred to a different high school during the middle of his sophomore year.
After he was voted as the U.S. Air Force National Sophomore of the Year for his performance at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, New Jersey (the nation's top-ranked high school football team after the 2011 season according to USA Today), he surprised a lot of people by transferring to Paramus Catholic.
At the time, Paramus Catholic wasn't considered on the same level as the other three major Bergen County, New Jersey Catholic schools' football programs (Don Bosco, Bergen Catholic of Oradell and St. Joseph Regional of Montvale). BUT, Paramus Catholic has something that those three other schools don't have -- girls (although that was not given as his reason for transferring.) http://www.northjersey.com/sports/Bosco_star_Jabrill_Peppers_says_hes_transferring_to_Paramus_Catholic.html
* Tempted to say, "When", but leary of jinxes.
He wanted to go to a normal high school. Don Bosco is basically a sports prep powerhouse in NJ so it doesn't have much of a high school atmosphere. I can understand why he would want to just be in a normal HS environment instead of staying at Don Bosco.
FYI - in case you don't know, Don Bosco basically takes the best prospects from other towns throughout the state of NJ. Then it trains them and pushes them into D1 programs (used to be mostly Rutgers and Penn State, but it's getting more national now).
There's going to be a ton of speculation on why he transfered, and only Jabrill really knows why. I know he did say that he just wasn't happy at Bosco. Had nothing to do with sports, but rather he had friends at Paramus that he felt closer to. Also mentioned Paramus' academics, but I have to think that all elite private schools in the area are pretty good academic institutions as well.
He has great grades, and was being recruited pretty hard by Stanford, and had Northwestern and Notre Dame offers. People seem pretty comfortable with that side of things.
You have a great career in politics ahead of you, since you have obvious ability to blow thin air up into a mysterious potential scandal.
He transferred because he didn't like the kids and stuff there. It didn't have much to do with football since he went to a worse football school compared to the Big 4. Some of my friends said he didn't want to go to those schools because he didn't want to make a bigger deal out of it since they're rivals with one another. That's what I was told and I believe it since we all kinda hate one another.
Neither "flamebaiting" nor "weird/sinister motives" nor implications of "political scandal" were intended. I’ll accept that the post should have been more carefully worded.
Better editing would’ve included: Despite any questions about his reasons for transferring from Don Bosco Prep to Paramus Catholic that may be raised by the schools that don’t gain his commitment, by all accounts, Jabrill Peppers appears to be a high-caliber young man who will fit in well at his chosen college.
Lesson Learned: Never assume that a post on MGoBlog linking to an article that mentions questions about a high school student-athlete’s decision to transfer to another school – even if that article includes the student-athlete’s answers to those questions – will be sufficient to properly express the reasons for the post.
There are some days when I feel like Costanza, Lord of the Idiots
Does anyone notice how wide open his teammate is at 5:25 in the highlight video? Just thought it was kind of funny how Peppers made a contested diving catch when his teammate didn't have anyone within 20 yards of him
By the way, a few people have asked recently about Touch the Banner's 2013 Season Countdown. The first post will be up on Sunday (2 days from now).