readyourguard

January 3rd, 2014 at 12:48 PM ^

I sort of feel bad for Jerry Kill and Minnesota. They did enough to offer Jones and get a commit. The the kid does well in an ESPN contrived event and now everyone wants what Jerry got. I get that it's recruiting, but if there's no televised high school all star game on ESPN, Minnesota winds up with quite the sleeper.

Joined: 08/21/2008

MGoPoints: 40944

MDot

January 3rd, 2014 at 12:49 PM ^

The D. Green comment was more of a critique on him than anything about Jones, wasn't comparing the 2. Should've saved that for another thread tho, that didn't belong in here. Obviously we would be better off with more talent like that.

 

It was just an observation in general while watching that game yesterday (when watching Hand, Peppers, etc). These kids have so much hype coming into these games, one forgets that they'll be starting all over next year. I can be as guilty of that as any.

 

 

Joined: 11/16/2013

MGoPoints: 2130

Leonhall

January 3rd, 2014 at 3:03 PM ^

Deveon nor derrick impressed too much. I thought Deveon had more potential, no empirical evidence, just a hunch. After seeing both play, to me green looks to be the better back. To me he has more cutback potential, and while not breakaway speed, more speed than Deveon, which looks to be his major drawback. I think derrick and Deveon split a lot of carries next year.

Joined: 06/14/2012

MGoPoints: 16430

PurpleStuff

January 3rd, 2014 at 1:11 PM ^

They gave him 1 carry in the bowl game.  We can all debate how "credible" that critique is, but at the moment he appears to be behind another guy in his recruiting class (who also hasn't stood out on the field, but got 4 carries against KSU), getting fewer touches than Hayes (who got a carry and a number of balls thrown his way), less productive than Norfleet (who picked up 9 on his one jet sweep), and less likely to carry the ball than Devin Funchess or Shane Morris.  Not to mention Fitz.

 

Joined: 04/21/2009

MGoPoints: 15969

fatbastard

January 3rd, 2014 at 10:47 PM ^

You are probably blind.  Right?  Green will be a stud here.  Period.  He's an excellent back.  But, he's a true freshman learning how to play behind an extraordinarily inexperienced offensive line!  Trust me, he's a stud.

Joined: 01/03/2009

MGoPoints: 792

Magnus

January 3rd, 2014 at 12:56 PM ^

I've been hoping for Jones to get offered for a while. Michigan could use a RB in this class since neither Smith nor Green redshirted.
I also think another QB wouldn't be a bad idea since we didn't take one in 2012.

Joined: 07/17/2008

MGoPoints: 165915

Don

January 3rd, 2014 at 1:25 PM ^

because there was nothing in his regular season highlight film that stood out to me at all. Didn't look particularly fast, quick, strong, or elusive. Green and Smith's videos were more impressive.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 148237

goblu

January 3rd, 2014 at 1:50 PM ^

after not only being a Gopher commit but being offered this late in the game. Reality says not gonna happen, it's ok to bank the scholly for next year. Not a big deal

Joined: 11/27/2010

MGoPoints: 123

Space Coyote

January 3rd, 2014 at 2:24 PM ^

Jones has great feet. When you watch his highlights, watch how quickly his feet get up in down. This allows him to be very good both at power cuts and more subtle cuts. At the college level, this will make him a good runner between the OTs. Needs to work on picking them up a bit more, but that's the type of feet you want picking through traffic.

He does need to do better at pressing the line and being more assertive, as he won't be able to outrun many defenders in college and things happen much quicker. Not great top end speed, and while he has the size, he doesn't always square up the shoulders to get more yardage. Looks like he wants to split and slip between tacklers still, and will have to probably balance that more at the next level as defenders don't allow you to do that as easily. Good potential, I see him more as a man blocking scheme runner as he's better at picking his way rather than really exploding in an out of cuts like the great zone backs do, but I think he's a good offer at this point.

Joined: 06/18/2009

MGoPoints: 38962

True Blue Grit

January 3rd, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^

This kid looked damned impressive at the UA Game.  I kept thinking, "wow!", Minnesota got a really good player here.   He didn't seem tentative at all, could make some cuts, and was a very good receiver as well.  Would love to see him Go Blue.

Joined: 01/21/2011

MGoPoints: 32234

kirbylax10

January 3rd, 2014 at 3:41 PM ^

Interesting offer. I like it. Interesting in that, Steve Lorenz just said the other day that Michigan wouldn't offer him, not because of on-field concerns, but off-field concerns. Maybe those finally got cleared up. Who knows. But I'm a huge fan of this guy. Much more than Enwere, no offense to him.  Watched Jones make someone fall flat on their face in the UA game last night when they tried to tackle him.

Joined: 08/31/2013

MGoPoints: 157

alwaystrueblue

January 3rd, 2014 at 3:52 PM ^

May i ask what your take is on Speight?

 

I do not follow recruiting like some on here obviously but you seem to have a pretty informative take on players we are looking at...

 

(sorry if you have been asked this before and i missed the answer)

Joined: 08/09/2010

MGoPoints: 80

Zoltanrules

January 3rd, 2014 at 4:50 PM ^

He had good feet, quick acceleration, ran hard and didn't go down easily... I thought he had a better game than any of our recruits including  Peppers. You could see Peppers athleticism so I'll reserve judgment on whether is is worthy of all the top accolades - but none of the other Wolverines recruits particularly impressed. It's a small sample size but Jones looked damned good. These recruiting rankings for MIchigan have been very unreliable. The "reports" that Jones is too slow is baloney... I'll take the eye test any day.

Joined: 08/23/2009

MGoPoints: 20881