Wednesday Recruitin' Bucks Conventional Wisdom Comment Count

Ace

Michigan Leads For Slaton

Five-star FL OT Tedarrell Slaton has, at previous points in his recruitment, named Michigan his leader before walking back that stance. 247's Ryan Bartow has been going around Florida getting updates on seemingly every recruit in the state; when he hit American Heritage, Slaton once again said the Wolverines are out in front:

Slaton tells Bartow that Michigan "still has the edge" for his services. This is the third time Slaton has publicly placed Michigan ahead of the competition in his recruitment. Per Bartow:

The nation’s No. 7 offensive tackle, Tedarrell Slaton, said Michigan has the edge. Slaton also said Tennessee and Miami are programs he feels are recruiting him consistently.

In an interesting twist, Slaton added that he prefers to play defensive tackle. Oddly, there aren't full-season highlights of Slaton anywhere on his Hudl page or YouTube, and the single-game reels only feature scattered snaps at DT. His positional preference may not matter much anyway; Michigan would certainly take him and worry about the rest later.

Bartow also caught up with Flanagan five-star CB Stanford Samuels, who went further in depth on the top four—consisting of Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, and Michigan—he released over the weekend:

Michigan: “I like all the NFL guys they have on staff. All the guys on that coaching staff have been there and done that. When you have that experience it makes it hard for you not to get the right coaching.”

While Samuels has Michigan connections through his former coach, Devin Bush, and the three Flanagan teammates who will be freshmen this year, it's hard to see him ending up in Ann Arbor. He plans to make a summer decision and enroll early; unless he makes it to campus before then, FSU looks like the choice.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]

Rivals Vs. Everybody, Singleton Edition



Drew Singleton and some other guy from his high school. [Isaiah Hole/247]

If you've followed along with the roundups here recently, you've probably noticed that Rivals has departed from the conventional wisdom regarding some big-name Michigan targets with, at best, mixed results. For example, mods on the Fort insisted the Wolverines was a top option for 2016 five-star Caleb Kelly well after Michigan had stopped recruiting him (he committed to Oklahoma), and Rivals pushed Clemson as a "true true threat" to land Rashan Gary—you know how that one turned out.

Here we are again. Four-star Paramus Catholic LB Drew Singleton visited Ann Arbor for the Spring Game, did an extensive in-studio interview with Sam Webb on WTKA—usually an excellent sign a player will end up at Michigan—and his father had previously told Webb that the presence of Chris Partridge is of "HUGE, huge significance" in Singleton's recruitment. After Singleton's most recent visit, Steve Lorenz didn't mince words regarding M's outlook:

Michigan remains heavily in front for Top100 linebacker Drew Singleton (Paramus, NJ/Catholic). The Crystal Ball in that situation isn't going anywhere.

After Singleton's Clemson visit, however, Tim Sullivan had a different take on the Fort:

I see Clemson as a safe leader over Michigan right now - though close enough that it's far from a done deal - and those two as the only serious contenders.

"Safe leader" flies in the face of the rest of the info we have on Singleton unless Clemson completely blew him away on his visit, and while Singleton had high praise for the trip when talking to Rivals' Clemson outlet, it doesn't sound like it separated them from Michigan:

“The Michigan trip went real well, too,” he said. “It was a great experience, just like Clemson was.”

Singleton's recruitment won't wrap up any time soon, and Clemson is clearly Michigan's primary competition—it might be a while before we get an idea of whose intel is best.

Looking Good For Malone-Hatcher

Michigan has long been the favorite for four-star DE Corey Malone-Hatcher, who missed the Spring Game due to illness but made it to campus the following day. With a summer decision planned before an early enrollment, Hatcher's father told Sam Webb that M remains in great shape:

"They're still definitely up there as one of his favorites,” said Mr. Malone. “He's always had great experiences with Michigan, he loves Harbaugh, loves Coach Mattison, loves Coach Mattison's wife, and it has always been a real loving experience there. He's always said he could see himself playing there, so Michigan is definitely in good position. We just keep working through everything. I don't see them sliding down or falling anywhere."

Malone-Hatcher will take a handful of visits before his decision; it would be a surprise if he ended up elsewhere.

M Offers Fast-Rising In-State Junior

Michigan offered four-star 2018 Muskegon OT Antwan Reed yesterday afternoon, per Lorenz. Reed is one of the more intriguing prospects in the state. He's young for his grade, didn't start playing high school football until his sophomore year, and he already stands at 6'7", 285 pounds. Arkansas, Michigan State, Penn State, Tennessee, and Virginia Tech have also put forth early offers.

Other recent offers include three-star 2017 CT LB Ben Mason, who visited campus yesterday and three-star 2017 CA LB Sampson Niu.

Etc.

Michigan will host four-star OH TE Matt Dotson this weekend, per Lorenz. Ohio State and Tennessee split his Crystal Ball choices down the middle, but Lorenz expects Michigan to make a big push—he's near the top of the board in a class thin on tight ends.

Four-star CA DE Hunter Echols, a UCLA commit, told Lorenz that Michigan will receive one of his official visits. He added that it would "take something big" for him to decommit from UCLA.

Michigan is running second behind Florida for three-star Cass Tech OG Jordan Reid. If he sticks to his commitment timeline of "soon," it's unclear if M is even an option; the Wolverines are at or near the top for multiple higher-ranked interior line prospects.

O'Maury Samuels is stronk.

Comments

dragonchild

April 14th, 2016 at 7:20 AM ^

I know a guy, met him in a tavern.  When I asked him about Slaton I got this:

No one's slick as Slaton

No one's quick as Slaton

No one's neck's as incredibly thick as Slaton's

For there's no man in town half as manly

Perfect, a pure paragon!

You can ask any John, Shane or Gentry

And they'll tell you whose team they prefer to be on

No one's been like Slaton

A king pin like Slaton

No one's got a swell cleft in his chin like Slaton

As a specimen, yes, he's intimidating!

My what a guy, that Slaton!

I dunno, he was drinking at the time.

kevin holt

April 13th, 2016 at 2:19 PM ^

To be fair to Rivals, I think other accounts have confirmed that Clemson certainly was a real threat to land Gary. Not like they said it was a done deal to Clemson. The outcome shouldn't discount that. However, really hoping they're wrong on Singleton and I'm very surprised they are so confidently leaning the other direction.

His Dudeness

April 13th, 2016 at 3:15 PM ^

Rivals has fallen off a cliff with re: to Michigan. Whatever sources they had have to be gone at this point. At least within the football facility. It really is garbage. Just this week they stopped the weekly chat. Now pretty much all they do is a weekly list of recruits that they think Michigan is in good standing for.. which is all just a complete guess anyone could make. That whole site went from first-ish to dead last behind Scout, 247 and ESPN.

ken725

April 13th, 2016 at 3:35 PM ^

They must really be hurting because they can't even afford to give their writers a smart phone. Based on the videos that Balas uploads to his twitter, I think he is out at those camps using a flip phone.

They also can't figure out how to do podcasts. Might have had good content, but the quality was so bad.

Maizen

April 13th, 2016 at 2:19 PM ^

I don't trust Rivals' recruiting info. Never have. 

When was the last time they broke a commitment? 

Exactly.

Abcd1234

April 13th, 2016 at 2:34 PM ^

I can't imagine what it's going to be like when Harbaugh gets an entire roster of 85 kids that he recruited and fully developed throughout their entire careers, getting to fully reap the benefits of his extensive efforts and success on the recruiting trail and in practice.

Harbaugh's 2019 supermen will rip through the Big Ten like a hungry pack of wolves that got into a meat processing plant. Teams like Rutgers will be forced to start forfeiting in the third quarter when Michigan's scout team starts running up the score on them. Harbaugh's supermen will only know of two things on the football field: competition, and the screams of agony of their opponents. Questions of human decency and the point at which refs should call the game will be raised every time that Michigan takes the field. The tears of concern from the opposing team's fans and families will be enough to create a sixth ocean.

Whole Milk

April 13th, 2016 at 4:58 PM ^

In terms of his competition level, Muskegon actually plays a pretty tough schedule in the state. This film Shows East Grand Rapids who is a notorious powerhouse and made it to the state semi's last year. Also had DCC who was ranked all season, Mona Shores who went undefeated and was ranked top 3 in the state for most of the year, and a few other playoff teams in GR Christian and Grandville. Wasn't complete scrubs he is playing against, but I agree, he looks raw. 

WolvinLA2

April 13th, 2016 at 9:23 PM ^

I played HS football in west Michigan, so if anything I'm biased in its favor, but that's not that strong of competition. Those are all solid West Michigan teams (plus DCC) but compared to the rest of the country, that competition is average at best. Very few of the schools you named will have any D1 players on them at all, let alone P5 players. Many years there isn't a single P5 player who comes out of west Michigan at all.

umich_fan1

April 13th, 2016 at 4:26 PM ^

After Reed submitted his top 5, I believe he tweeted again where he said those are top 5, in no order. A Scout interview actually made him sound less enthusiastic about UF than the other 4, imo

Bo Lytle

April 13th, 2016 at 7:57 PM ^

For the record I want Tedarrell Slaton more than any other prospect in this cycle.  Just take a look at his 247 profile picture....this dude is a NFL first rounder all the way just on face alone.  Get it done JimBO

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