TomVH: Kevin Williams Update
Ohio DT Kevin Williams is going to Nebraska's spring game this weekend.
He said he's not sure if he's going to make it back up to Michigan, unless he can schedule something with the engineering department. He wants to commit shortly after his Nebraska visit anyways.
Here's the new part. He recently took a visit to Michigan State, and said the visit might have been his best yet. His top three now consists of Nebraska, Michigan, and Michigan State.
He said the MSU visit felt really good, the coaches were real excited about him being there, and the other players were a lot of fun.
It seems like Michigan might be losing out because of connections that this coaching staff doesn't have with Springfield's. As everyone knows, Kevin's head coach is friends with Bo Pelini, Nebraska's Head coach. He also happened to coach with, or play for some of the staff that is currently at MSU.
Take this FWIW, but if he was picking today, I don't think it would be Michigan. They might not have enough time to get him back on campus and address any issues.
That sucks to hear. Hopefully we somehow get him back on campus and work out the issues. Otherwise I think he is all about Nebraska, Pelini is probably selling this kid as the next Suh, and that is hard to compete against. Hopefully his family tells him to stick close to home, because I can't imagine him picking Sparty over us.
I was thinking the same thing. Hard to argue with Pelini's defensive coaching ability; the guy has to be one of the, if not the, best defensive coach in the country and having a guy like Suh who was possibly the best DT of all time just come through under your tutelage is a phenomenal selling point. Hopefully we can soon sell kids on becoming the next Will Campbell, however.
I think his step/father played for MSU.
That being said, I would have really liked to snag this kid. If he doesn't come here, lets send him out to the Big 12 and wish him the best of luck ...
...and he's considering Nebraska and MSU over Michigan? Seriously?
...he's serious. Probably because their programs are geared to be MORE football player friendly than at Michigan, if ya know what I mean.
April 12th, 2010 at 12:52 PM ^
Dantonio: Come to MSU our differential equations class is easy. Plus you will be taking lots of classes with nerds...I mean guys that you can intimidate, I mean copy, I mean get help from easily.
April 12th, 2010 at 10:09 AM ^
Yeah, no kidding. My buddy graduated from UM's Engineering School in 2006 and is making over $300,000 working for Disney. I went to law school and I'm making about 25% of that.
you demand people call you The Situation in court
What you want to study and what you end up studying can be two different things, just ask Jim Harbaugh.
Man, I would love to hear Dantonio's negative recruiting schtick towards Michigan. He must dig really deep into the gutter for material to tell these kids.
Or promise to give them unlimited chances if they run afoul of the law ...
Once we've won a couple in a row against MSU they'll revert back to "that other school in Michigan" status they held for much of the recent past
They are definitely still "that other school in Michigan", but something is fishy. His decision is two weeks away, he has been to Ann Arbor 3-4 times now, and all of a sudden he takes a trip to East Lansing and leaves with an obvious disinterest in attending Michigan? It just doesn't add up......
MSU has been frustrating this year. They seem to be in better position than us on some of our big targets: Arnett, Aundrey Walker and Doran Grant (family ties).
I would have thought that MSUs recruiting would have a slower start considering the headlines they are getting "Player X sentenced to..." but they seem to be doing just fine.
Seriously, a future engineering student? This should be a slam dunk.
Probably because the paper that shall not be named keeps praising Dantonio and the third chances that he gives his players.
so the Freep is not an issue. The Blade covers Michigan heavily, about equal with Ohio State, U Toledo and BGSU. MSU is covered equally with the rest of the Big 10, generally just wire service stuff except for season preview and when it is getting ready to play Michigan or OSU.
If he's from the Toledo area, I will blame Jim Carty if we don't get him.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:25 PM ^
the suggestion at work here. he trusts people he knows to give him good advice. that's pretty usual. the argument against negative recruiting is somewhat pragmatic. if you can't get anyone to believe your negativity, you come off even worse. and if negative recruiting is anything like going negative in politics, the finding there is that negativity brings down approval ratings in both the attackee and the attacker. it doesn't always cancel out, but there's plenty of reason to avoid negativity.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:52 PM ^
I agree with most of what you say, but the timing of this seems to go against the "good advice" argument. Nothing has happened recently to potentially change RR's job status. Williams attended Michigan's practice on March 27th, and left giving good reviews.
If someone he trusts was casting doubt upon RR's job security, this likely would have come up long before he decided to take so many visits to Ann Arbor. Instead, the issue is brought up for the first time immediately following a visit to East Lansing.
This why it screams "Negative Recruiting" to me.
Either way, I've been under the impression for a while that he will eventually commit to Nebraska. It's just that the shady recruiting taking place in E. Lansing is becoming tough to ignore.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:29 PM ^
By gutter, do you mean basement?
All he really needs to do is point to the Big 10 standings to make any anti-Michigan case.
I'll add this, too. He told me that he is worried about the job stability of the coaches. He's going to weigh out the positives and negatives for every school, and make his decision. We'll see; don't hold your breath.
I don't recall any mention of coaching stability questions from him in any of his earlier interviews. Perhaps a simple strategy employed in EL? Tell the kids it might be RRs last year and get them worried.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:19 PM ^
Well, I'm sure they conveniently forgot to mention that their starting DT from last year is currently sitting in a jail cell......
Or, maybe that was included in the "early playing time" pitch?
Tom or anyone else who may know...Why isn't this kid rated higher by Scout? I didn't even see his name in their 300 (I admit, I may have missed it). All the things I have read state that he is a monster but it doesn't seem everyone agrees.
He plays in a lesser division of Ohio football. Also, judging by the fact that recruiting sites use a grainy on-field photo or the one at Crisler Arena from his Michigan visit, I'll guess he hasn't been to any camps.
...until UM starts to win and win consistently this year, don't hold your breath for top rated recruits (other than in the state of Michigan) to seriously consider U of M.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:10 PM ^
Michigan will still get its share of recruits this year. It isn't time to throw in the towel on good recruits quite yet. And Michigan will win again this year, and make the fears of you and others a moot point.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:24 PM ^
UM won't get good players, but not top tier players with possible exceptions if the team plays well this year. This team has to win to get the attention of top rated players. It's just that simple.
...got Lawrence Thomas and William Gholston and I don't remember them winning last year. Their record was 6-7 in addtion to the fact that they don't have a tenth of the football tradition that Michigan has. Not to mention that they're in on a number of other top rated players, such as Doran Grant, Deanthony Arnett and Kevin Williams. So.... yeah. There are specific reasons for each of the above players liking MSU, but Michigan has a number of ins themselves on these players. Yet in the end we're the odd man out. Why?
Recruiting really sucks right now. We're hearing so much about "stability" and "waiting" that the season needs to roll around, we get our 8 wins, and these recruits get aboard. Sheesh.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:10 PM ^
...as I am with the improvement and development of those already on the team. It's how the team gels and plays that will end up helping recruiting. It's pivotal for the guys to start playing as error free ball as they can and to play consistently good football. The team can no longer lose games because of their poor playing and execution. If they are to lose, they should lose because the other team just was better and not because UM kept screwing up.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:26 PM ^
Word around town is he is not coming back from Nebraska.
He wants to commit soon and the info pipeline in Toledo says the comittment is theirs for the taking this weekend.
If Nebraska doesnt knock his socks off, I think he ends up delaying any verbal. But for now, this is Nebraska's lose.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:27 PM ^
This is the problem with a D+ in program stability. It's just too easy to negative recruit against.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:47 PM ^
Man, this whole job security thing is going to hurt recruiting this year. I hate the media. And why can't players come to Michigan because Michigans the best, not because of the coach?
April 12th, 2010 at 10:07 AM ^
Florida could have been considered the best, but then Spurrier went to the NFL and they got the Zooker.
USC wasn't any good before Pete Carroll arrived, and then they were the best.
Coaching has a lot to do with it. Not everyone thinks Michigan is "the best."
April 11th, 2010 at 11:09 PM ^
Guys, I'm sure the coaching stability issue has worked in our favor a number of times in the past, so we can't be too pissed that it's coming back around. Like I've said a million times (along with a number of other people), if we win, we're back to stable. If we don't, then recruiting isn't our problem, and everyone who said we were unstable were right, and those kids were justified in choosing elsewhere.
Bottom line, let's win a bunch of games this fall and everything is back to good.
April 11th, 2010 at 11:37 PM ^
I am much more excited about the upcoming season. How well we are recruiting right now has little/no bearing on the upcoming season. We already have a few commits and it is going to be a small class anyway. This kid will be good, but I'm more excited to see how Big Will, Sagasse, Ash and Talbot improve this year.
April 11th, 2010 at 11:46 PM ^
If we end up getting this kid it will be Michigan's academics that make the sale. It seems like anyone wanting to commit early is going to be a tough get for the time being. Slow start to recruiting but hopefully a strong finish.