Monday Recruitin's On Another Planet Comment Count

Ace

Shaun Crawford, Mini-Jabrill

A much-anticipated matchup between Cleveland.com's top-ranked Cleveland St. Edward squad and #9 Cincinnati Elder didn't live up to the hype, as St. Eds ran away with a 48-7 victory. Much of the credit for the blowout goes to 2015 commit Shaun Crawford, whose stat line looks like one posted by a certain other defensive back headed for Ann Arbor:

Yes, it appears Michigan may have the best player on the best team in Ohio, and he's only a junior. This is nice.

Jabrill Peppers, Still Jabrill

2014 commit Jabrill Peppers, meanwhile, did a little bit of everything to lead Paramus Catholic to a 35-21 victory over DePaul. Peppers rushed seven times for 41 yards, caught four passes for 49 yards and a TD, returned a kickoff for 47 yards, tallied four solo tackles, recorded three pass defenses, and returned an interception 32 yards for another TD.

Got all that? If you'd like to see Peppers in action, a full replay of the game is available at msgvarsity.com, which also has clips of a big hit by Peppers and the pick six.

[Hit THE JUMP for more outstanding performances by Michigan commits, plus an interesting development in JuJu Smith's recruitment.]

Wilton Speight, Mini-Roethlisberger?

So claims this video. Thankfully, it's referring to Speight's ability to escape pressure in the pocket and not a proclivity for motorcycling without a helmet or allegedly being a total creep.

Speight continues to put up monster numbers this season; over the weekend he led Collegiate to a 30-7 win, completing 17-of-33 passes for 260 yards and three TDs.

I Don't Know What This Means, But It Sounds Good

I can't find stats for Michael Ferns from St. Clairsville's 34-14 win over Martin's Ferry; according to his father, he's playing quite well. At least, I think that's what he means here:

Good. I think.

Other Michigan commit standouts from the weekend:

  • 2014 Southfield DE Lawrence Marshall had four TFLs and a fumble recovery in a 20-12 win over Oak Park; he played a major role in limiting Oak Park's standout junior back John Kelly.
  • 2014 De La Salle LB Jared Wangler recorded nine tackles and 0.5 TFLs, though it wasn't enough to stop Brother Rice—and 2015 QB target Alex Malzone—from winning 26-24 on a Hail Mary.
  • 2014 Highland DT Bryan Mone recorded five solo tackles in a losing effort.
  • While no individual stats are provided for 2014 Kenton LB Noah Furbush, he was part of a brilliant defensive effort that limited Van Wert to four(!) total yards—including negative-16 rushing yards—in a 32-0 shutout.

Etc.

2014 4.5-star ATH John "JuJu" Smith is still in the process of narrowing down his stop schools and plans to take all five of his officials, including one to Michigan for the Ohio State game. In-state schools USC and UCLA have been thought of as potential teams to beat; according to Rivals's Adam Gorney, Smith may be having second thoughts about the Trojans ($):

"Lane Kiffin, I don't know," Smith said. "Lane Kiffin is a great coach but his moves right now are (not) very high to a lot of recruits like me. It's not going well.

"The SC crowd was saying, 'Fire Kiffin.' That is crazy. Later I found out USC had a team meeting without Lane Kiffin. That's really crucial. Just to have that without him is really hard."

Smith grew up as a USC fan; it seems like that may be less and less of a factor as Kiffin continues to run that program into the ground. While UCLA is looking good, there's certainly an opening for an out-of-state school—whether that be Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame Ohio State, or Oregon, Smith's five official visit destinations—to make a major move in his recruitment.

Free 247 feature on 2015 five-star DT Tim Settle and his happy-go-lucky nature ... off the field, at least.

I can't even bring myself to tag '2016 recruiting' yet and here goes a 2017 commit to LSU.

Comments

jericho

September 23rd, 2013 at 2:04 PM ^

If you haven't followed the link to see Pepper's big hit, do it. It's awesome. His pick was a case of a horribly thrown pass, but it's interesting to see him run right through a tackle and put it in the endzone.

thisisme08

September 23rd, 2013 at 2:27 PM ^

Ace,

I know you've stated that instead of doing two  (recruting roundup and Friday Night Lights) separate posts that you are going to combine them into your regular recruiting segments but can you try to keep the formatting similar to differentiate the content? 

Monday Recrutin' 

>True recruiting (e.g. uncommitted kids) content such as JuJu Smith's update

>Prep Roundup (e.g. commits)

>Misc. stuff such as the 2017 kid and other "quick hitter" items. 

Small gripe as its not like I would have missed the update on JuJu but when I think of the recruiting posts I tend to think most people are looking for updates on current targets first and then want to digest information on commits.

Just a thought. 

Ace

September 23rd, 2013 at 2:57 PM ^

I'll take that into consideration, though I think the vast majority of the time I do this anyway. 95% of the time, I lead off the post with pertinent recruiting info before getting into the commit performances. This week, however, the one bit of recruiting news worth posting—one that didn't directly involve Michigan—didn't seem worth an above-the-fold header over two great games by Michigan commits. Plus, I made sure to point out in the jump teaser that there was info on JuJu Smith.

My recommendation for those who don't want to miss out on info is to simply click through. Not sure what else to say here.

Pit2047

September 23rd, 2013 at 3:43 PM ^

The 0-3 record is on our god awful offensive line that can't even give him 2 seconds to throw let alone open up any kind of running game.  Ben is the only reason we may even win a game since while our defense is still good, we don't have Unstoppable Scoring End Shalique Calhoun.  If Wilton turns out to be a 2 Super Bowl winning, All-Pro calliber QB who has one of the best winning percentages in NFL History I think we'd all be pretty happy.  Still don't think he's Big Ben though.

WolvinLA2

September 23rd, 2013 at 6:03 PM ^

I agree that Roethlisberger is a 2-time SB champ, but he's not an All-Pro, nor has he ever been.  No doubt Big Ben is a franchise QB in this league and should be a starter for a long time (and has been) but he's not in the top-tier category where Steelers fans want to put him.  He has had the benefit of being a good QB on extremely talented, well coached teams, but that has gotten him more props than he deserves. 

TB, Peyton, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees are elite QBs.  You might be able to make the argument for a couple more.  But not Big Ben.

M-Wolverine

September 23rd, 2013 at 3:25 PM ^

"Lane Kiffin moves right now are very high to a lot of recruits like me.

But doesn't his recruiting really come down to who the NEXT coach is, and how fast they hire him?

alum96

September 23rd, 2013 at 4:20 PM ^

Peppers hit awesome but part of the reason he could build up such momentum was that he was playing way off the WR - I wonder why.  (Maybe it was not his guy but I don't see any other DB in the area)  Not cricizing but I'd expect at HS level a dominant Peppers would be in a WR's grill step for step rather than playing 5+ yards off.  Maybe it is the defensive scheme.  I guess the sarcastic comment here is "coverage 5+ yards off the WR? well that almost makes him prepared to play in Mattison's defense...."

Mr. Rager

September 23rd, 2013 at 4:44 PM ^

re: Speight / Big Ben thing.... no.  Just no.  Speight is at least a foot taller than any other kid in that highlight.  Big Ben does it against NFL players.  No.  Just.. no.

That being said, good to see Speight doing well against weak competition.  

Brimley

September 24th, 2013 at 2:06 PM ^

I know. Busting your balls a little.  I just happened to read the Hazing thread immediately before I read this and got a chuckle at your quick snap back into prickliness (a word I think I made up). Rage on!--but civilly, of course.

Kfojames

September 23rd, 2013 at 8:21 PM ^

Borges is calling plays as if he's back in Auburn. This team needs things simplified for them. They're young. Some changes need to be made. Jack Miller is not cutting it. He physically is getting out muscled. He can't stalemate at the point of attack let alone push someone off the line. Gotta try some different things IMO

rmic2

September 23rd, 2013 at 9:12 PM ^

I went to the St Clairsville - Martins Ferry game on Friday night. I concur with Mr. Ferns - Michael had a great game. On offense, he ran the ball hard and caught a pass from the tight end position. On defense, he was either in on the tackle, or completely filled his gap so his team could make the tackle. He got hurt in the middle of the 3rd quarter, but came back on the last few drives of the game.

I was at the game with my two sons, and we all had Michigan gear on (in the heart of osu territory). After the game, he came over to us and talked to us for a few minutes. The next day, my son sent a tweet to him, and he responded back. Class act all the way - great football player - better person.