Tom, Tim, other gurus - Recruiting Predictions Down the Stretch?
Christian - he's in the bag.
Grimes - he's in the bag.
Murphy - he's in the bag.
Beachum - he's close to being in the bag, but his mom's an x-factor.
Furman - he says he knows where he's going, he missed his trip, and he doesn't sound too concerned with rescheduling. is this bc he's decided on va-tech already...or uofm already? hard to read.
Knight - also hard to read, missed his trip, but seems like he wants to reschedule.
Jefferson - heard a rumor that we're his new #1?
Shaw - also heard a rumor that we're his new #1? fsu falling apart is having an impact.
Baxter - also heard a rumor that we're his new #1?
Stills - heard that he's warming up.
Ash - these guys, i have no idea.
Thornton
Cornelius
Nealy
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:58 AM ^
I gotta say that some really good recruiting news over the next week would help take the edge off a very disappointing October and November.
News so far seems to be positive. I'm very anxious to see what develops.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 AM ^
Per Marvin Robinson on Rivals talking to Josh:
M-Rob says there is a player with thoughts of comitting on the visit, and that the player was someone most wouldn’t expect.
...later on in the Sunday Night Chat Josh told us that player is Dillon Baxter!
Wouldn't that be a great surprise!
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:06 AM ^
that would be great, but we'll see what happens after he goes home and thinks about it. Pete Carroll will have something nice to say I'm sure... "Have your seen Matt Barkley's hair? you could be taking hand offs from that for 4 years"
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:08 AM ^
r u serious!? wow. he's a guy that would compete with vincent smith for the starting tailback job...or a starting slot job immediately, imo.
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:40 AM ^
It would be weird for him to start in the slot when he's being recruited as a RB.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:13 AM ^
Considering that the only way we get him is if he thinks we'll use him in the manner which he himself describes, and yes contained "slot" in the description, it would NOT be weird.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:18 PM ^
magnus, read anything he has put on record. he describes himself as a running back, or slot reciever that might be able to throw the ball a little in the college game.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:22 AM ^
A Baxter commit would definitely cause me to:
(I had to, because it's true.)
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:22 AM ^
Baxter is also a December commit.. so things should become clear soon.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:25 AM ^
Lets not forget about the rich rod magic, every february he seems to pull a recruit that you would ever think about him getting. It might be something crazy like seantral henderson or william gholston.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:27 AM ^
I won't do it twice in one thread, but, if you're wondering what a Henderson commit would cause me to do, see above under Baxter, Dillon.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:37 AM ^
William Gholston will NOT be one of them, not in this lifetime.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:31 AM ^
take a look here: http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/recruits-visiting-updates-etc
That has TomVH's latest info.
Also remember, these sites and posts can, and probably are, seen by just about anyone. That includes the recruits you speak of. Just keep that in mind when you post stuff.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:35 AM ^
I like the potential, but don't get your hopes up before they commit.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:41 AM ^
Beachum's mom would be an x-factor in our favor...I remember reading that she was encouraging him to go out of state and was pretty pumped up when she found out he got an offer from Michigan.
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 AM ^
no, exact opposite. she wants him to go to arkansas.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:12 AM ^
Nope, she said that the farther away he could go the better, it would help "make him a man" IIRC.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:13 AM ^
From the sources I have seen, he is right. Here are a couple of quotes he gave the Det. News:
Quote:
"Aw, man, I was so happy," the Dallas native recalled. "Once I got the call I ran to the living room and told my brothers and mom. They were happier than I was. It was great. I'm happy, man. I was like, let's turn around and de-commit."
One factor not likely to play as a prominent role in Beachum's choice is distance from home. It's a topic that he has already discussed at length with his mother.
"She wants me to go where I feel better at," he explained. "She pushed me to go far. When I told her I was going to Arkansas, she was like, 'that's nice,' and, 'that's good.' That's where she's from. If I go out farther, it is going to make me become a man and all that. Michigan would be a good spot."
End Quote
Link if you want it:
http://www.detnews.com/article/20091119/OPINION03/911190423
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:16 PM ^
get a rivals subscription. there mods have stated several times over that his mom LOVES arkansas and wants him to stay at home. maybe a little snake oil has changed her mind since making that statement. but that was her original stance.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:18 AM ^
New Scout.com story has Jefferson saying RichRods recruiting him as the SAM linebacker. He also enthusiastically explained how exciting the atmosphere was and how good of a time he had. Committing crossed his mind before the visit was over. He's going to visit USC for the USC-UCLA game (which prompted scout.com to list his interest in USC as medium and Michigan as low) and then make his decision in December. This is exciting!
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:20 AM ^
Is SAM what they call stevie brown's spot? That would just be interesting since I thought we had a couple of guys for that spot already but we have a huge need at safety
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:13 PM ^
sam or spinner is stevie browns spot. its a hybrid ss/olb position. next year, it will probably be a competition between b. smith, m. jones, b. hawthorne, f. simmons and some recruits.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:20 PM ^
IIRC, GERG has explained this position as a pure SAM position. We'll put an undersized linebacker / larger safety at this position, and they will play man against the slot occasionally and help stop the run, but I think this is a strict OLB position and not a hybrid S/LB position.
It was getting a lot of talk in the off season as being as hybrid position, but I believe the current consensus is pure LB with man-man assignments sometimes.
Please correct me if this is wrong.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:36 PM ^
You are 110% correct.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:14 PM ^
very, very good news. thank you. he would be in the mix to start next season, obviously. usc, he'd sit for three years.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:45 AM ^
Getting Jefferson to play the SAM would be great. That way we could ditch the notion of putting Marvin Roboinson there and put him at FS.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:14 PM ^
right now, the plan is for robinson to start off at safety.
honestly though, and i've said this several times, it's best to think of our defense not as a 3-4, but as a 4-2-5. roh is more of a de than a lb. s brown is more of a ss than a lb.
November 24th, 2009 at 8:53 AM ^
Well, Rivals says that Tony Jefferson reminds them of Derrick Brooks. So - yeah. I'd take that.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:09 AM ^
From espn
http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=West_Recruiting&action=…
As good as the visit was, the Wolverines still have some ground to make up on a couple of other teams. "Oklahoma and UCLA are my top two," Jefferson said. "I'm still committed to UCLA but it's pretty soft and I'm having some second thoughts. My heart is still there but I'm also thinking it would be cool to play out of state and I really loved my time at Oklahoma and fell in love with the place on my visit.USC now all of a sudden getting an OV is very worrisome for UM as well Also Schofner has committed to MSU
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:09 PM ^
how recent was this quote? if its not saturday afternoon, sunday, or today, its meaningless imo.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:10 PM ^
it is dated 11/23.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 PM ^
article dated 11/23. doesnt mean the quote is from 11/23.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:11 PM ^
Read the tense that the article was written in:
As good as the visit WAS Michigan still has ground to make up.
Seem blatantly obvious that this was written after the OV to Michigan. AND you dont even have to click on the link to figure this out!
November 24th, 2009 at 8:46 PM ^
That was written by the author it wasn't in the quote. The quote didn't say anything about michigan, it could've been from any time.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 PM ^
The "spinner" position does not exist. Greg Robinson said so himself. There's no position named "spinner" on this defense.
And Steve Brown is not a SS/OLB hybrid. If anything, he's a slot cornerback/outside linebacker hybrid. Not once this year has he had safety responsibility, so that's like saying Vincent Smith is a running back/punter hybrid.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:35 PM ^
"not once this year has he had safety responsibility"
...you've never played a down of football, have you magnus? do you know what strong-safties do? a lot of what they do is covering slot recievers man to man. exactly what stevie brown, the sam linebacker does. hence, he is a linebacker/safety hybrid.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:44 PM ^
You're new here, aren't you?
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:13 PM ^
He's a coach, you dip.
Edit: that's to Moeller there, not you LastProphet.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 PM ^
You're right, k06em1. I've never played a down of football. Nor have I coached it.
But I did read in a book once that safeties typically cover a deep portion (half, third, quarter, etc.) of the field at least once throughout an entire season. Meanwhile, slot corners cover a short zone or play man coverage. So was Steve Brown's position more like a corner or more like a safety? That's right - a corner.
Regardless, as steve sharik has pointed out, the real hybrid LB/S in this defense is the free safety, who sometimes plays near the line of scrimmage on the weak side and sometimes plays a deep half.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:15 PM ^
cover zero - everyone is in man coverage or underneath, usually there's a blitz of some sort.
cover one - usually the fs is in the deep third, everyone else is man or underneath.
cover two - usually the fs and ss are in deep halves, everyone else is in man or underneath.
cover three - usually the fs and two cbs are responsible for a deep third each, everyone else is in man or underneath.
cover four - usually the fs, the ss, and both corners have deep quarters, everyone else is in man or underneath.
...the point here is that there are almost NEVER three safties in deep coverage. if you're using three saftey-types, like we do, at least one is always in man or underneath (stevie brown).
he's a linebacker in the sense that he's called a sam linebacker, and if there's no slot reciever, he's in the box. but when there is a slot reciever, like a strong safety, he is usually matched up man to man on the slot reciever, or dropping to the curl to flat zone.
he...and for that matter, mike jones, brandin hawthorne, floyd simmons, tony jefferson, etc...is a linebacker/safety hybrid in the sense that his skill set is that he's a big coverage guy. like a roy williams, sean taylor, or taylor mays. he is a bigger, slower safety. its no coincidence that we have a bunch of safetys that got moved to lb playing sam linebacker.
also, if you want to go through the entire board and neg everything i post, regardless of quality or content, i can do the same. but we will both save a lot of time not getting into a neg war.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:44 PM ^
what do you say we find some common ground here already. This could go on all night. I think we can all agree he is a defensive player, further than this I am skeered to go.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:14 PM ^
That article on Jefferson does not sound good at all. I could make the argument that he is just telling the guy what he wants to hear but then he apparently goes on the single out his top two.... and we aren't one of them. It basically says that he will choose between UCLA and Oklahoma.... with USC closing fast. Sounds like the kid just visited to have a good time. Which is okay.... that is part of the process. And hopefully we still get Baxter out of the deal.
Hope you have a change of heart Tony. You can be part of something great here. You can have an impact similar to Derrick Williams and Justin King at Penn State. Guys forever linked to the great turnaround at Penn State.... and consequently, guys who will always enjoy the unyielding loyalty of the Penn State faithful. You can have that here at UM. And mark it down, this program won't be down for long.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:18 PM ^
edit - oops, nevermind, didn't see you posted the date. thats not good news that it came out today.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:24 PM ^
Thank you for proving my point. Strong safeties play deep in cover 2, cover 4, or on occasions when the coaches switch up coverages, like giving the SS the middle third instead of the FS.
Regardless, I guess I don't really need to argue the point. Brown is called a LB on the depth chart, Robinson considers him a LB, and he didn't have deep responsibilities once this year.
The end.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:49 PM ^
no...not the end. not all strong-safties have deep responsibility. that was my point. see the 3-3-5 that rich rod ran at wvu. very, very rarely were all three safties in deep coverage. the biggest/best against the run/worst against the pass was usually underneath.
you can call the position whatever you want...sam linebacker, strong safety, etc...but the fact of the matter is that we have a bunch of big safties playing this position. stevie brown, mike jones, brandin hawthorne (never a safety, but most schools recruited him as one).
it is most definitely a safety/linebacker hybrid position.
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:49 PM ^
Coaches have different terminology for a lot of different things, aside from the most basic stuff. Depending on how you learned the game, you probably have different ideas on what certain things are called or the responsibilities of certain positions.
My college team ran a 3-3-5, and we only had 1 safety. The other two positions were guys that played at linebacker depth or on the line. They blitzed a lot and almost always had the flats in pass coverage. But they would never be considered safeties.
Cover 4, at least in our offense, was always identified as a coverage where 2 deep safeties buzz their feet until they read pass. Then they dropped to their deep halves. The corners are usually man on #1, and it was mostly run by teams that liked to get their safeties involved in the run game. We almost always got a long TD or two on these teams with a play action post. The coverage you are referring to, we called quarters.
I haven't played in a few years, but I think our coach would have identified Stevie Brown as the Sam linebacker and not a safety. Although it would have been a little tougher to get a mismatch on him in the pass game because of his athletic ability, unless of course we would have had Graham Zug.
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:18 PM ^
HEY MAGNUS!
from rivals interview with tony jefferson today...http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1020015
"Steve Brown, No. 3, is a hybrid safety, linebacker, who plays in the box most of the time, but still matches up one-on-one in man coverage," explained Jefferson. "They want me at that SAM linebacker, hybrid spot he plays. You have to be very versatile to play in coverage, but also come up and support the run."
let's see if you're man enough to apologize...or just a complete dick.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:16 PM ^
Was DEEP coverage, and that wasn't in the quote above. He's talking about covering the flat, or short middle.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:16 PM ^
"who plays in the box most of the time, but still matches up one-on-one in man coverage"
This sounds an awful lot like someone playing a role much like a run-support nickelback.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:18 PM ^
I guess I'm a complete dick.