Happy Jabrill Peppers day
The way Mich-fans are fawning over this guy is over the top. We've had several guys come in like this and not perform, so let's keep things in perspective. Having said that, I hope he is everything the scouts predict. Go Blue
Good point, Peppers probably won't come in and win the Heisman as a freshman like he wants. But the kid is so athletic, I think he'll be a solid contributor no matter where he winds up on the field.
I think it's worth having a little caution mixed in with your excitement when it comes to this type of thing. But if you can't get fired up over Peppers, you probably aren't the type to worry much about recruiting at all (which is fine, by the way... Just saying that as this stuff goes, this is just about as big as it gets.)
I like Peppers' upside as much as any recruit I can remember in quite a while. That's no guarantee of anything, but it will put a big smile on my face come 5PM.
and only your 77th one! If I couldn't see your count, I might have easily thought it was your 81st!
/s ...actually I agree with everything you said.
Henson, Woodson, and maybe Wheatley (I only say maybe because I don't know anything about recruiting rankings, but if it was today Wheatley would have been up there, he was a freak). All 3 of those worked out pretty well while they played for Michigan. Now I'm not going to put a Heisman in this kids hands right away, but worst case scenario for this kid (as long as nothing freakish happens off the field/injury) is a above average starter that you can do multiple things with. He's got about 4 positions he could be a great player at, he's bound to do something positive with his athleticism.
Yup - was thinking he was the best since Woodson myself. We had Burgess at #6 overall in 2003 and Mallett at #4 overall in 2007, but the talent in those years was pretty terrible (2003's #1: Ernie Sims, 2007's #1: Jimmy Clausen. 2003 had Reggie Bush and Lamarr Woodley, 2007 had Eric Berry).
I expect that everyone's lists will be some order of Fournette / Hand / Peppers in the top 3 spots when all is said and done. Crazy to think we will have one today and perhaps another later in the recruiting cycle. I am beyond excited.
There have been more than that. The 1998 class alone also contained David Terrell (#1 WR recruit in the country), Marquise Walker (#2 WR recruit) and Justin Fargas (#1 RB). That class was incredible on the offensive side of the ball.
Ty Law was a huge get out of Pennsylvania - I don't know what his specific ranking was, but he was a guy that everyone wanted. Marlin Jackson was pretty high up there, too.
Anthony Thomas was also really highly ranked - if not top 10, then probably top 20. Chad Henne was up there as well. It absolutely killed PSU fans to lose him. And of course there was Ryan Mallett.
But there haven't been ones of this caliber. Henne, Terrell, Fargas, Walker etc. were all great players, like top 10-15. But the number of top 3 players in the nation isn't that high. Peppers is the elite of the elite recruits, those that you mentioned were elite.
I think you are splitting hairs here. Comparing players across positions is pretty arbitrary - how can you realistically compare a LB, OL, QB, DB, etc? Especially when they're not even HS seniors yet. I doubt there is any real rhyme or reason as to why one guy is considered the #5 overall player versus some other guy being #7, or #8 or whatever. Once you get up to a certain threshold it's probably a crapshoot. As far as I'm concerned, if a guy is considered #1 in the country at his position, he's super-elite.
(Incidentally, Drew Henson wasn't a top 3 overall player either - he was around #10. Ronald Curry, who went to UNC, was ranked ahead of him at the QB position.)
but Crable ended up being a bigger playmaker for us (except Ohio late hit...GUH).
The late hit was nothing compared to a certain special team fail...infamy is easy.
No embed - since it's too soon...
ten years then how can he be the best CB prospect ever?
He said Peppers is the best CB prospect coming out of high school ever. I think he was allowing for the possibility that some of the android CB prospects grown in Nick Saban's evil human cloning robotics laboratory might be better.
Sometimes I put on a suit and tell my wife to get all dressed up, we're going out to dinner. We take the convertible out, and I can tell she's thinking we might be going to some new French place . . . and then BAM! Golden arches, yo.
Except, I tell her that it's the firm's annual black tie party, so she goes all out with the hair and nails and pedicure, new dress and shoes, and then we drive up to McDowell's
But you wouldn't just be messing with the fans, you'd be messing with the coaches as well, which might be fun for you but makes you dishonest. And the people who work for places like Rivals and Scout with you might think is stupid, but it's their job and is honest work. So yeah, I think intentionally screwing with people's lives and jobs makes you a bit of an asshole. It's not like he's just trolling people on a website.
You should think about changing your name to tl;dr.
The pepper shaker was full and worked to perfection. I am choosing to take that as a sign.
There was an article on NorthJersey.com that was pretty thoughtful and talked about the media coverage of Peppers' now-impending decision and the process of recruiting him (HERE)
It has a quote from Tom Luginbill which discusses a phenonmenon that we've seen quite a bit in these first couple years under Brady Hoke too, how athletes commit early and in turn recruit for the school they choose. Peppers definitely would be the biggest commitment to date in the Hoke years, but it is awesome to see us in the running consistently for top talent lately. That speaks so well of how this staff not only identifies talent but the way that they represent Michigan.
Paramus Catholic President Jim Vail will apparently be with Peppers at the announcement, and he was very complimentary about Jabrill as a student and person as well as an athlete:
“Jabrill may be one of the best communicators in our school, including the staff. And he carries his success and recognition and brings the school community along with him.”
Happy About Today
Unless I start drinking now, this is me for the next several hours:
Edit: This was meant for the comment with the "Hand-y"
Does anyone know if there are tickets to purchase for the announcement? I happen to be around the NJ area and would like to attend.
I hope you are joking.
and the art of not worrying about things I have absolutely no control over. I am still working on it.
How could you deny this face?
I didn't read all 125 comments, so I hope this isn't repeating anything, but no matter what decision Peppers makes, I'm sure there are plenty of other 17 year old HS juniors whose decisions we can start worrying about.
It's like an infinite loop.