Recruiting home stretch
Feel like we need some swim lanes here but that’s not my thing. Still going off the assumption that we will take appx 4 more commits. Is anyone NOT signing in 2 weeks? I think everyone last year was signed in December. Anyway...
Offense:
WR: Feel like we will grab someone, just doesn’t feel like we have a clear favorite yet. Cornelius Johnson would be ideal. If we strike out, getting an elite outsider receiver or 2 becomes becomes imperative next year.
TE: Possibly Darius Robinson is a take although I’d like to see this lower on our priority list.
OL: Looks like we might just have Keegan wrapped up, giving us a very good OL class. Trente Jones has shot up the rankings lately as well. Will be interesting to see if Dawand Jones is a take as well. Not highly rated but picking up some big offers late. 3 late crystal balls for UM.
Defense:
DL: Harrison is the prize now that it appears Karliftas is solid to Purdue. Feel like we have a good shot. Late offer to 4 star DT Ellies who appears to have some interest.
LB: Kalen Deloach and Anthony Solomon both appear to be high up on our list. Not sure if we would take both or not, depending how the numbers work out.
Bottom line, looks like we will close pretty strong on an already very good class that has a chance to be an elite class.
December 7th, 2018 at 6:55 AM ^
You mentioned Wanya Morris. Trente Jones tweeted that he was home last night. Did he come up for an official, or did he come up with Wanya? I thought Trente already had his official, so it is a little strange for him to be visiting this weekend unless if there was another reason.
December 6th, 2018 at 1:37 PM ^
My understanding on Crouch is that he’s not feeling Dabo and that there are people telling him not to go to Clemson. Clemson’s selling point is that there’s really no one else in the ACC that can challenge them and they’re almost guaranteed a spot in the playoffs every year. Just putting this out there.
December 6th, 2018 at 1:40 PM ^
Your understanding is pretty off. Crouch has stated several times that his faith is very important to him, and he views Dabo as a similarly religious guy. That's been a big positive for Clemson so far. I also don't know where you got the idea that people are telling him not to go to Clemson. I haven't seen that anywhere.
December 6th, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^
Agreed. Crouch loved visiting Clemson. He also loved Michigan but distance may play a factor. Crouch also wants to play at a program that wins every year and while Michigan is getting there, Clemson is already there
December 6th, 2018 at 1:54 PM ^
Is crouch catholic ? If so I don’t think any coach fits that more than Harbaugh. Maybe the problem is Jim doesn’t shove religion in everyone’s fave like Dabo and so many others from the south.
December 6th, 2018 at 1:57 PM ^
You’re right, Crouch is big on his faith, but I disagree on the Dabo part, at least that’s what i’ve been told. I think Crouch is down between us and Clemson and anyone who claims to know who it is definitively is just making it up. I think it’s going to go down the wire as to who he’s going to sign with. Plus, while distance may play a factor, he wouldn’t mind getting away from the Carolinas to put some distance between him and others.
December 6th, 2018 at 2:50 PM ^
Most of what you're saying hasn't been reported anywhere. Who is your source on this stuff?
December 6th, 2018 at 4:29 PM ^
Wouldn't worry too much. Drew is not so sharp.
December 6th, 2018 at 5:09 PM ^
Trader Jack, be happy to share with you where I got my information from privately. What’s the best way to message you? Or if the Mods would like to email me, be glad to share with them.
December 6th, 2018 at 1:41 PM ^
Wait—we're still getting commitments even after Harbaugh is going to Green Bay?
December 6th, 2018 at 1:47 PM ^
Early Signing Period: Think any commits that don't sign are either looking around or the coaches have asked them to hold off. Let's not freak out if it happens either way (narrator: they freaked out).
OL: Think Keegan takes the last spot. The dates line up like this is 'crootin dominos (Keegan announced ahead of Ike's timeline and ahead of the Jones official). Hard to take more than 6 guys.
DT: The late offers to a couple east coasters make me think Michigan is trying to get another interior guy now that Brohm took Karlaftis off the board for good.
Wildcard: Depending on how things shake out with current top guys you could see Michigan pull in a guy or two we're not talking about. This could be a senior riser, an elite guy looking around after the coaching carousel happens or a highly ranked guy who just got his grades up his senior year fall.
December 6th, 2018 at 2:17 PM ^
Is there a chance Jack Stewart decommits and one of the other two slots in OT? 247 has Arizona and TCU listed as warm and he's the lowest rated guy we have there.
December 6th, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^
There's always a chance but we don't know if Michigan would even want that. The recruiting services kind of suck at OL rankings and we don't know Michigan's OL board.
I'm not a fan of rooting for any specific decommits, but you might want to hold out your opinion on Stewart until you hear stuff about him on campus. The services struggle to project OL (to be fair, that's really difficult) so I can't imagine they're terribly accurate with dudes from lightly-scouted New England who didn't go to any camps.
December 6th, 2018 at 3:29 PM ^
Arizona and TCU were a couple of schools he visited before he committed to Michigan. Maybe old info since he doesn't talk to 247 or other recruiting services.
I doubt you'll see much news on Stewart anywhere. He made as low key a commitment announcement as I've seen in recent years. He may be low rated, not doing camps contributes to that, as does playing in CT. The services had zero scouting reports on him when he committed but his offer list wasn't bad. Auburn and TX A&M are other schools from way out of his region that offered. No offers are listed since April, either because he doesn't report them or he lets schools know he has no interest in looking around.
December 6th, 2018 at 1:51 PM ^
might have missed it, but are we out now on Crouch?
December 6th, 2018 at 2:02 PM ^
Never over.
December 6th, 2018 at 10:18 PM ^
Odds remain in favor of Clemson, but Michigan is not out. At least not as of a couple of days ago.
He's very much been planning to take his time with this, no matter what people want to speculate on the internet.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:43 PM ^
Agree. Don’t know your source but that’s what I’m hearing as well from my source regarding Crouch.
December 6th, 2018 at 1:58 PM ^
Beat Ohio and everything will fall into place!
December 6th, 2018 at 2:31 PM ^
Too soon...
December 7th, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^
Beat Ohio all you want. Now Ohio State, that's a different story! I kid
December 6th, 2018 at 2:01 PM ^
Don't we have two commits we are unaware of?
December 6th, 2018 at 2:31 PM ^
Silent Commits are generally worth the paper they're printed on.
December 6th, 2018 at 4:35 PM ^
I’m actually surprised by the lack of recruiting chatter/news with the signing period 2 weeks away
December 6th, 2018 at 3:02 PM ^
Need alum96 back. Gonna take a stab. We have 24 right now. I could see 3 decommits, giving us 21. We could then take up to 7 more? I am gonna say, Harrison, Keegan, Ike, Johnson, Solomon, Ellies and DeLoach
December 6th, 2018 at 3:29 PM ^
3 decommits? That would surprise me.
December 6th, 2018 at 3:36 PM ^
I'd put the O/U at 0.5.
I suppose Day could try to flip some of the Ohio kids. You never know for sure if they didn't get an offer from Meyer, but it's awfully late in the process. I'd worry more without the early signing period.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:33 PM ^
Upvoted for the comment about alum96. Quality MGoPoster who is greatly missed!
December 6th, 2018 at 9:45 PM ^
He's just changed his name. He's still here.
December 6th, 2018 at 9:53 PM ^
Call me a Doubting Rob Thomas if you'd like, but until I see some "swim lanes"...
Er, alum?
December 6th, 2018 at 4:14 PM ^
Man I forgot about swim lanes. Someone shine the alum96 beacon into the night sky.
December 6th, 2018 at 4:31 PM ^
Am I alone in thinking that the recent DT offer is signaling M lost out on Harrison? I’m starting to think M getsSolomon and Keegan to wrap up
December 6th, 2018 at 4:37 PM ^
I assume it’s a replacement offer for Karlaftis.
December 6th, 2018 at 4:54 PM ^
I always assumed the Harrison and Karlaftis where takes due to there level of talent didn’t see a lot of room for more DL commits now that we are talking plan b’s seems....crowded
December 6th, 2018 at 5:16 PM ^
Ellies looks like a future NT and Harrison is a WDE. Those aren't interchangeable positions. One is 6'2", 280 and the other is 6'5.5", 243. We just lost out on Karlaftis and arguably Woods. Ellies could take that place.
If we lose out on Harrison, we might just replace him with a TE or an extra OT. One thing to keep in mind is that none of these new offers is committing right away. They are going to schedule OVs first and by then the class makeup should be clearer.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:09 PM ^
I like Woods think he’ll be a good player but I saw his de commit more loke the coaches telling him to keep his options open...I hear ya on the differences between theHarrison and Ellies but there are some other DL commits that can move inside/out (Hinton, Morris). My spider sense is that Harrison is looking elsewhere and the staffs offering DL as they lost out on Karlaftis who they thought they could flip, and Harrison. Reading between the lines the “big one” commit watch put out last week by Dudek I think was Harrison as it came out the day before the game the game which shall not be mentioned happened and Harrison walked back which is why we fans have heard nothing since. Sounds like Jim’s in home with the family tonight here’s hoping. I like the kids already committed but it’d be real nice to get another 5 star.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:03 PM ^
I agree that there could be some shuffling along the line, but I still don't think is related to Harrison except for possibly just having one more spot in the class opening up. Harrison is an ideal WDE. The guys in this class that could move inside or out are SDEs or 3Ts. Maybe one could bulk up to play NT.
I'd be more worried if they were offering new WDEs. For example, offers to Ellies and a WDE would look different than offering Ellies and another DT.
Ellies is a good player who just might not have been interested before. I'd hope we were looking for candidates to pry away from OSU.
I think the "big one" commit might have been Harrison Bailey. The timing fit and the predictions for UT only came a couple of days after Dudek's tweet. A top 60 QB would have been a very big commit. Harrison is the only one on the board bigger than that.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:34 PM ^
Purely speculation but I believe he was an OSU/PSU battle and perhaps they saw potential to pick up a kid and deprive a division foe of talent? Not sure if this is related to Larry Johnson (his primary recruiter) to Maryland chatted and Urban’s departure or just as you said a replacement for missed recruits but they should have time to work in there if he is not an EE. Seems like he is a PSU lean though.
December 6th, 2018 at 9:05 PM ^
Was Harball in Columbus today, I saw something that he was.
December 6th, 2018 at 9:30 PM ^
Harbaugh, Brown, Washington and Mattison all went to the Velazquez house for dinner. I assume they are all used to eating multiple dinners on his visits and I doubt it was their only stop.
Shows they really want Velazquez.
December 6th, 2018 at 10:02 PM ^
They want his opinion of Rodas Johnson too.