Murphy to Maryland

Submitted by Smitty D on

Per rivals.

Link behind a paywall.

JC3

January 7th, 2010 at 11:29 PM ^

Either A. He really liked Maryland.
or B. The staff is in on a number of good players (which they are) and felt comfortable in cooling on him.

Hm.

This national signing day trip is going to be a hell of a ride.

WildcardBitches

January 7th, 2010 at 11:50 PM ^

Miami has come out of nowhere to get a visit from him. They were all set to be a package and now Murphy goes to Maryland? Seems to me Grimes is all set to head to Miami and Murphy knows he doesn't have that option.

J. Lichty

January 8th, 2010 at 12:00 AM ^

TomVH, just spoke with Grimes, who left some wiggle room as to whether they were still a package deal at this point.

Certainly shoots the silent commit theory out of the water.

I would expect that Tom will seek to get some insight from Grimes which we will know as soon as Tom learns anything.

WreckingCrew

January 8th, 2010 at 12:00 AM ^

Haha this is funny. I recently responded to a post listing Murphy and Grimes as commits to Michigan or the silent variety. I called the poster on it, saying it was unsafe to deem them a foregone conclusion with almost a month left before signing day. Hopefully Grimes comes our way, but perhaps the Karma Police did strike afterall.

MinorforPresident

January 8th, 2010 at 12:32 AM ^

I posted this a few days ago in another thread but over the past 3 weeks or so I just really started feeling they would go to different schools. And at this point I am not confident with Grimes coming here. Again no inside info or basis for the statement, just a feeling. As mentioned above I think Miami is a player. Kids from Florida like to play for Florida schools and Miami has a good track record for putting CB's into the pros. I'm not saying Murphy isn't good but I would much rather a DL that will be a run stopper at this stage in the game. What happens to close out this class is anyones guess. I think there will be at least one surprise.

Magnus

January 8th, 2010 at 6:59 AM ^

Yes, Knight could play cornerback. Some teams were/are recruiting him as a CB. I do think he'd make a better safety, though.

I don't know of any good candidates who could pop up at the last minute. I think you tend to look first at in-state guys who might have grown up as Michigan fans, but a guy like Wayne Pettus probably isn't offer-worthy (he's tiny). There's also Travis Williams, the kid who tried to commit to Michigan last spring, who has since committed to Miami-OH; but that bridge has probably been burned.

MinorforPresident

January 8th, 2010 at 2:00 AM ^

I was stating the fact that Miami has now gotten in on the Tony Grimes sweepstakes and the combination of being an in-state school and one known for putting a lot of kids into the pros definitely doesn't hurt them. They will get the last chance to roll out the red carpet for him so we shall see. And thanks for running down the list of Michigan players in the NFL, I never knew those guys made it.

UM Fan NY

January 8th, 2010 at 7:25 AM ^

i never liked the idea of taking package deals when it comes to recruits. it was obvious all along that murphy wasn't needed based on our other recruits at that position. we're not in a position right now to waste scholarships on guys we never really wanted in the first place. i'd love to still get grimes, but who knows now. let's just hope murphy saw that he would get more PT at maryland.

Magnus

January 8th, 2010 at 8:44 AM ^

If Grimes doesn't come here, Rodriguez has the ability to recruit late in the game. Rivals lists the top 85 cornerbacks in the country, and 23 of those 85 (including Grimes and Mathis) are currently uncommitted. He has the time and the recruiting prowess to make that happen.

Also, this is pure speculation, but if the coaches stopped going hard after Murphy, then perhaps that's because they're not as enamored with Grimes as they used to be.

Murphy WAS supposed to be a package deal, a Michigan lean, and a Signing Day commit. Suddenly he's not a package deal, he chooses Maryland, AND he publicly commits a month before Signing Day. That sounds to me as though something went awry with his Michigan connection...

Frank Drebin

January 8th, 2010 at 9:37 AM ^

His connection (recruiter) was Hopson, and now that he has left for Memphis, we have seen question marks with these two (murphy and grimes) as well as other recruits that once were interested no longer being interested. I wasn't too upset to see Jay leave, but maybe he was still able to recruit the south better than our other coaches.

Blue in Yarmouth

January 8th, 2010 at 9:49 AM ^

I found that odd as well, the fact that he was supposed to be a signing day commit but just committed to Maryland.

My point wasn't that there were no CB left uncommitted, it was that there were none that, IME, were better than Grimes and considering UM.

Do you know of any that are looking at UM that are better than Grimes other than Mathis (I know he is rated higher, but I like Grimes more than I do Mathis, no offense to him)?

MinorforPresident

January 8th, 2010 at 11:15 AM ^

Couldn't agree more. RR has shown the ability to do a lot of recruiting with a little time, esepcially closing on kids the closer it gets to signing day. Until a LOI is signed remember anything can happen and does every year. In his two years here we have had surprises come signing day. They realize the situation and work hard to secure the best possible players to be part of the entire need-fit-chemistry equation. Again Murphy is a talented kid but I honestly think some of the recent happenings could be blessings in disguise and we can potentially finish stronger because of it.