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.
I forgot about this guy. What an odd school to commit to. For anything!
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.
Purdue isn't a bad school in terms of academics. I figured IMG would scare away schools that focus more on academics. Guess not. Good for him.
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.
There isn't a better offer than UM. Its like winning $300M in the lottery and wondering if spending it on $300M of scratch offs is a good idea so you can make more. Only Denzel's scratch off says "Purdue".....thanks for playing.
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.
Wow I completely forgot about this guy. Solid pick up for them. One wonders what went wrong in his recruitment.
Good luck to him. But Purdue?!
...Purdue.
I loved him in "Training Day."
Meh. I thought he was playing a role that he didn't fit too well. His acting was too forced.
he almost won an academy award for that role.
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.
As always, good luck and all the best to these kids. He picked a good academic school and will probably get run by UM every time we play him. But that's his choice.
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.
Wut?
Michigan "snake-oiled" them away from Purdue.
Ward was committed to UM until the coaches pulled(?) his offer. Interesting strategy, we'll see if it pays off.
I blame Urban Meyer. Or possibly Ed Orgeron.
Why not both?
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
Short for George Oscar Bluth.
Gob.
him stay in the B10. Hope he does well. I hate seeing midwest kids leave the region
Wow, completely forgot about this kid. Guess that's what happens when you're putting together a monstrous recruiting class. Something tells me we'll be just fine without him.
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 hope you know we are still looking for another true tackle in this class (jamarco Jones) so technically his spot hasn't filled yet.
...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.
For a summer. I wonder if those guys made lots of promises that they could really raise his profile with top schools and get him many connections. I kinda got that vibe while I was there. Of course there is a price for all of those connections and exposure.
I'm hoping he committed to Purdue so he can later commit to M in order to cause Danny Hope's mustache to spontaneously combust.