Denzel Ward to Purdue
I believe they were his first offer. I'd hardly heard his name since he decommitted. http://purdue.scout.com/
That is probably a pretty good pick up for Purdue. I guess Florida didn't work out.
I'm guessing his whole transfer unexpectedly to a FL school without telling your previous school, nor the school you were committed to, didn't work out all that well eh? Guess UF wasn't that interested afterall?
Well, good pick up for Purdue. Crazy high ceiling on that guy. He'll be good if Purdue has the OL coaching to help him reach it.
Purdue was actually his first offer, and he came very close to committing to Purdue before he committed to Michigan. In fact, I remember some concern then about the firmness of his Michigan commitment, since he seemed so thrilled with Purdue and then so thrilled with Michigan just a couple of days later.
Here's an article from a year ago in case anyone is interested --
http://247sports.com/Article/Purdue-Is-First-To-Offer-2014-OL-Denzel-Wa…
There MUST be something weird going on here in terms of schools cooling on him or something for some reason or another. I can't think of a one reason why a kid would decommit from Michigan, move to a football camp of a high school in Florida, then commit to Purdue. Very weird.
I don't think it's crazy for schools to cool on a kid that (I think) was a high risk / high reward type of recruit, with a Michigan committment in-hand, that picks up and moves to Florida without telling his HS, or the school to which he's committed.
It certainly doesn't seem like he acheived whatever his objective was, which I'm assuming was an offer from a better (?) school than Michigan. If that's the case, then...whatevs, man, whatevs.
the drum. Don't forget the drum!
Its a classic case of ;
Girl/College/Coach/Runner: "Baby, come be with me and everything will be so much better"
17 year old: OH YEAH I'M ABOUT TO GET SOME (insert word of choice, maybe even subs?)
Hopefully it works out for the kid in the end.
Strange recruitment all around. Good luck to the kid.
Denzel Ward would then be Purdue's fifth commit for 2014, and their second three-star commit (QB David Blough is the other, I think).
As a refresher, including Michigan, Arizona State, Florida and Ohio State were in the mix at some point. This was written a few days ago regarding his visit to Purdue (LINK), and it also mentions Oklahoma, a visit he never made ultimately. He did have this to say about Purdue's coaches:
“I just learned how to be a leader out here on the field without it being a team,” he said. “I just tried to have my presence shown and learn a lot about what coach Bridge is going to be trying to run the next few years. I’m trying to learn how he wants his O-linemen to work. I think it went really well. I feel pretty comfortable with him.”
intern there this summer.
Rivalries aside, Purdue is a fine school. I'm not quite sure what Ward was thinking, or who had his ear, but I'm sure he will do well there. Of course, I also hope Michigan's D has a field day when they play Purdue.
...Purdue.
Meh. I thought he was playing a role that he didn't fit too well. His acting was too forced.
I suspect I may be missing a joke here, but he did win an academy award for that role.
that he should have gotten for Malcolm X.
for some reason I thought it was Malcolm Jamal Warner.....
I wouldn't bet the farm on him staying committed to Purdue.
I mean really? Da fuck.....
This gives Purdue football fans, all 14 of them (which is still 5 more than Northwestern), a chance to bring out the snake oil comments, at least to some degree.
As for the rest of the ND, Indiana, Michigan, OSU, Illinois fans that attend Purdue, they're probably thinking "meh, alright, I guess I'm not mad about it," and then they're getting back to engineering or drinking a lot.
Hey, if it makes Purdue feel better, we can even pretend we care.
We will snake oil him ala Roy Roundtree and Russell Bellomy.
Michigan "snake-oiled" them away from Purdue.
I blame Urban Meyer. Or possibly Ed Orgeron.
Only on mgoblog. What a magical place.
0/17 on the "crystal ball" thing. I guess he took everybody by surprise.
As the final ticks run off the clock against Michigan I can see him look at the team across the field and channel his inner Job and utter "I've made a huge mistake."
Not every college athlete wants to win the conference, Rose Bowls, and national championships in 2014-2018. Instead of being buried in the #1 recruiting class in the nation, isn't it more satisfying to being buried in the #75 class?
It's GOB
Gob.
him stay in the B10. Hope he does well. I hate seeing midwest kids leave the region
Good luck to him, but Purdue? Really? It must have been the prospect of early playing time, because unless you like the Little Caesar's Bowl and playing in front of 15,000 uninterested, indifferent fans every Saturday, I don't see a draw for going to Purdue. Oh well. That's his choice.
Likely, ANY playing time. He would have had a tough time breaking the 2-deep, given the OL haul we've brought in.
I wish him well and success in life.
...I'm assuming the coaches are still looking for someone. I won't pretend to be a recruiting expert, but that doesn't mean that a particular recruit would have an easy time making the 2-deep. We recruit lots of players who don't make the cut, and given the recent history of recruiting, and prospects for the future, I think it will take a very talented player to make it. Ward may have been that guy, but it's far from certain. Tackle may be a position of "need" at the moment, but "need" is a relative thing.