New in-state offer: 2024 QB Isaiah Marshall

Submitted by Magnus on January 15th, 2019 at 12:12 PM

I'm about to make you feel really old: 

Michigan offered Southfield (MI) A&T quarterback Isaiah Marshall this morning from the class of...2024. This is his first offer of the recruiting process.

Here's a link to his highlights, which indicate that he threw 51 TDs last season (LINK).

FauxMo

January 15th, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^

This kid is my son's age. I think it's wrong to offer kids this young. Not because he's twelve, but because he's my fucking son's age and that makes me fucking old and that's not fucking OK... 

Perkis-Size Me

January 15th, 2019 at 12:32 PM ^

I know its all an arms race and seeing who can get to these kids first, but offering a 7th grader is ridiculous, in my opinion. I don't care if you're Rutgers or Alabama. I'd want to see the kid play at least one year of real HS football before I even start talking to him. How much can you really learn about a kid when he's barely even grown into his body yet? 

At this point, I won't be surprised if college football recruiting starts moving into eugenics. Some company will start growing test-tube recruits in some underground lab somewhere, and they will get sold off to the highest bidder. $10,000.00 for five stars, $7,500.00 for four stars, but if you buy three four star recruits now, you get the fourth one free. 

PetoskeyBlue

January 15th, 2019 at 12:42 PM ^

On the surface it seems ridiculous they offered a seventh grader but here’s a thought I had: 

In Europe, every soccer club has a youth academy with players his age or even younger and it’s completely normal. You can tell elite talent and athleticism at an early age. Just because he was offered doesn’t mean he will commit or end up at michigan. Just in case he does end up being an elite player he will always remember Michigan was the first to offer him and it may help in his final decision in the far far future. I don’t have a problem with it. 

Nickel

January 16th, 2019 at 12:18 PM ^

Eh, these super early offers are usually for publicity. Obviously it's a crap-shoot whether the kid will develop but it's not like the offer binds Michigan in any way and it got UM football a front page story on ESPN and all the talking heads shows for a day or so which was the real reason UM offered.

LSAClassOf2000

January 15th, 2019 at 12:36 PM ^

Holy crap, one of my kids is basically his age then (assuming born in 2006 to be in class of 2024, of course). Yeah, that one actually does make me feel rather old then. Worse, when we talk 2025 at whatever point, I will have a kid that is the same age as that one AND one that is a year older then. That might make me feel even older.

crg

January 15th, 2019 at 12:49 PM ^

It is ridiculous, IMO, for schools to be offering full rides to kids that haven't academically qualified for high school yet (generally speaking).  I understand that this is just a prelim offer and doesn't mean anything until the kid is actually admitted, but the NCAA should really draw a line about how early this process is allowed to begin.  This assumes the NCAA is a competent organization though.

Maize and Luke

January 15th, 2019 at 1:17 PM ^

I agree 100%. My son is also in the 2024 class and I can't imagine big name coaches calling my son. Not to mention what that would do to his ego or how the kids at school would react. Let these kids be kids. They need to focus on school, video games, watching stupid YouTube videos, girls, whatever but not what they'll be doing in 5+ years. 

FrozeMangoes

January 15th, 2019 at 1:02 PM ^

Was he playing up any levels? There were some huge kids on that team for middle school.

 

Edit: NVM there was a kid about 5 feet tall trying to tackle him towards the end. Has to be middle school.  

mgogogadget

January 15th, 2019 at 1:10 PM ^

Magnus, any "household name" college players that were originally offered scholarships at that young of an age? I don't follow recruiting well enough to know if any of these insanely early offered recruits ever pan out.