Michigan Offers Kahlil Haughton Comment Count

Brandon Brown

Kahlil Haughton

Name: Kahlil Haughton

Position: Safety

Ht/Wt/40: 6'2" / 180 lbs. / 4.4

Location: Midway – Waco, TX (2015)

Offers: Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Colorado, Duke, Indiana, Kansas State, Louisville, LSU, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, SMU, TCU, Washington State

Rating: ★★★ .8570 (247 Composite)

Ranking: #636 NAT / #41 S  (247 Composite)

FILM

The Michigan coaches offered Texas native Kahlil Haughton last night, taking the total number of safety offers up to three. The other two are already committed; Tyree Kinnel is a future Wolverine and Prentice McKinney pledged to the Fighting Irish about two weeks ago. Haughton is a long, athletic prospect that plays more the coverage type of safety, but also can come up and play run support pretty well for being on the thin side. Those skills drew the attention from Coach Mallory and eventually that led to an offer.

The secondary coaches both followed me on Twitter so I followed them back and they messaged me. They were just saying how much they liked my film and asked about my interest in them and then coach Mallory asked me to call him. When I called he extended the offer! I was pretty surprised, I hadn’t had any contact with the coaches before that.

What exactly did the coaches see on film that caught their eyes? I asked Kahlil to describe his game, including some strengths and some weaknesses.

I think one thing that stands out about me is that compared to other safeties I have better skills and hip flexibility. It makes it easier for me to be a more versatile type of safety. At the same time I can come downhill and tackle in the open field. I try to get around the ball as much as possible, but being the weakside safety I’m more of the cover guy, so sometimes making tackles can be hard.

Recruiting Texas has been discussed before and we all know it can be difficult to lure kids out of that countryish state. 247 presumes Baylor to be the leader for Haughton but he didn’t say that quite so clearly. I also asked him to compare Michigan to some of the other schools on his offer list.

At the moment I wouldn’t really say I have a leader but Baylor is definitely in my top schools. I’d probably put Michigan somewhere in the higher middle. I don’t really know much about them so I’ll have to do some research on them for sure to get a better idea of what Michigan is all about.

Haughton admitted to not knowing much about Michigan at this time, but he wasn’t completely green.

I already know that they have a great football program but Coach Mallory was telling me that it’s also challenging academic wise and will provide a great education. He told me a lot about the people that were very successful in sports medicine, which is what I want to study. He said that it’s a place where a lot of people want to stay even with me being from Texas.

With Michigan just now entering the mix for Haughton I asked him to explain how his recruitment has gone to this point.

I mean it’s calmed down quite a bit, at first it was really hectic! Right now I’m trying to narrow it down some, but still keeping an open mind on places that I think are programs I could see myself in.

Being a highly recruited kid from Texas means you have a lot of solid schools to choose from. I asked Khalil if he’d like to stay close to home and what other factors would play a part in his decision.

Location isn’t really a major factor for me. I’m not sure what Michigan is like, but if I feel like it’s a great fit then I could see myself going that far away for school. When I do get ready to make a decision I’ll be looking for a great environment and just the overall vibe of the place. The academics and the coaching staff will also be very important.

In order for Michigan to have a fighter’s chance in Haughton’s recruitment, he’s going to have to check out campus for himself. Will that happen?

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make a visit. I know I’m going to be really busy during the summer but I’ll be making plans later on some places that I’m going to try and stop by. Still not sure which schools though.

With a busy summer ahead of him, a stacked offer list, and no top group yet, a decision timeline seems to be pretty foggy for Kahlil right now.

I don’t really have a timeline for a decision yet. I’m basically just going to commit whenever I feel like the time is right. I’d like to try and do it before my senior season starts but I don’t know.

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THE VIBE

5 – Trending Blue

4 – Solidly in a top 2-3

3 – Contender in a top 3-7

2 – Among large (8-15) group under consideration

1 – Let’s see if he visits before we talk

0 – Passing interest or none

This rating isn’t necessarily based on a lack of interest, it’s just that Haughton has so many offers already, a desire to commit before the fall, an address in Texas, and a visit to Michigan doesn’t look like a real possibility yet. I will continue to stay in touch with him and if a visit to Ann Arbor gets put on his calendar then The Vibe could definitely change.

Comments

MGoStrength

April 12th, 2014 at 2:42 PM ^

Why is it that UM seems to have so much trouble finding a quality safety?  I find it very frustrating as OSU and MSU both seem to have quality safeties every year, but every year we seem to struggle with at least one of the safety positions.  Kovacs was a hard worker, experienced, smart, and had all those intangibles, but he wasn't the most gifted athlete.  It seems like at least one of the safeties is often a liability to get burned.  The last really talented safety I can think of was Marlin Jackson and he was really more of a corner playing safety IMO.  Why does UM struggle with this particular position or is it just me?

In reply to by MGoStrength

Mr. Yost

April 12th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^

Dymonte Thomas, Delano Hill, Brandon Watson...

Not even Jeremy Clark and Jarrod Wilson are seasoned vets...OSU and MSU have had 4th and 5th year players at the safety spot forever. If it's a 3rd year player, he's a 2 year starter.

Kovacs was a 4th and 5th year player when he was the Kovacs we grew to know and love.

MGoStrength

April 12th, 2014 at 4:31 PM ^

T. Gordan, Woolfolk, C. Gordan, M. Williams, Harrison, etc.  I know a lot of them played as underclassman and many eventually switched positions, but I feel like that's because they never developed, were playing out of position, and/or were just not any good.  It's like the staff is always looking for the right guy, or the next guy, or a guy to develop, yet they always seem to mix and match at that position. 

 

I will say that I think Wilson has the intangibles to be that guy.  He seems to have the size, skills, and now experience to be pretty good for the next few years.  But, who are we gonna put next to him?  All the options are unproven.  And, the best combination of skills and size is a true freshman (Peppers) who'd be playing out of position.  It just seems like UM rarely has a true safety playing at his natural position.  So many guys seem to be undersized.  Or if they have the size they don't have the speed. 

 

Even a guy like Dymonte Thomas who had a great recruiting profile does not look the part of a college safety yet.  After looking back at OSU's previous depth charts over the past 7 years you're right that many times they had juniors and seniors playing safety.  But, that's not the case at MSU.  Isiah Lewis was good as a sophomore, same with Drummond.  I can't see any good reason that a guy like Thomas with his recruiting profile shouldn't be ahead of where Lewis or Drummond were at his age. 

MGoStrength

April 12th, 2014 at 9:09 PM ^

I expect him to be better than Isiah Lewis and Kurtis Drummond were as true sophomores.  Dymonte was ranked pretty similar to Vonn Bell, who is already having an impact at OSU.  Marcus Maye and Marcell Harris at Florida were ranked similarly and either started or are projected to this year as a true sophomores.  Randall Goforth at UCLA started as a true sophomore.  Tray Matthews was ranked similarly and started as a true freshman at Georgia.  All I'm saying is that as a top 200ish player I would expect him to be ready to play at that position as a sophomore assuming we don't have an established upperclassman ahead of him, which he's not.  There are plenty of guys with similar or lesser recruiting profiles that are much further along in their development and I find that frustrating.

MGoStrength

April 12th, 2014 at 9:37 PM ^

Agreed, definately a quick neg on my part, but it's the offseason, what else am I gonna talk about?  If I can't be frustrated about something that hasn't even happened yet I wouldn't be a UM fan ha.  Out of curiosity do you expect him to start next season?

DrewGOBLUE

April 12th, 2014 at 3:53 PM ^

I really hope our coaches don't downplay how incredibly difficult it would be to play football and go through a very rigorous academic curriculum. If he actually meant something like athletic training that would be one thing, but if Kahlil truly wants to get into sports medicine, he would be taking on quite a load trying to balance football with the necessary pre-medical classes. However, a quick google search showed Kahlil received all-academic honors in his district so that's a good sign in this case.



Before I got to Michigan there was a point I thought I could do the whole pre-med thing while also getting a business degree and even graduate in less than four years. Needless to say, the didn't all happen even without being committed to playing a varsity sport.



Not that some of these kids can't successfully take on grueling course loads in conjunction with football, but I just hope our coaches don't sugarcoat something this important during the recruiting process. The kids could end up with false ideations and ultimately pick a school that's not great for them or find themselves way in over their heads academically.

Mr. Yost

April 12th, 2014 at 9:51 PM ^

...but when you get to the bottom and the "vibe" is a 1, it's like...so who cares? He's got an offer and remote interest in Michigan.

I wish we had more content on guys that we have better shots at...I feel like at the point we generally have 10-15 guys that everyone is following (on top of the guys like this) no matter if they end up at Michigan or not.

There's no "focus" or "direction" this year...as fans, we almost never follow EVERY kid who has an offer. Rather, there are always a certain number of guys who we give more attention than the rest. Who are those guys in this class that we're pursuing the hardest?

Deltroit3030

April 13th, 2014 at 1:05 AM ^

I enjoy the write ups and would rather have them than not have them... it's always good to have something new to read about for our teams. But anyway... by the end of the article I felt like, "well, I just read a bunch about a kid that doesn't seem so interested in Michigan and doesn't really know anything about the program... is any of this realisitic?" But I guess that's the process sometimes. Not knocking anybody- these are better than nothing, as I said. Just thinking outloud/noticed somebody else had the same thought I just did after reading it.

Hopy

April 14th, 2014 at 10:30 AM ^

 
"I know that they have a great football program, but coach Mallory told me that it is challenging to learn wise and will provide a great education. He told me a lot about those who have been very successful in sports medicine, which is what I want to learn., he said that it was a place where a lot of people want to stay even with me from Texas to better teaching methods and learning see the important role and its seriously the work efficiency will be multiplied many times, I liked how he talked about their teachers.

 

 <a href="http://www.hopy1.com">hopy</a>