Friday Recruitin' Flings Arms From Body To Demonstrate Athletic Prowess Comment Count

Brian

Next commit is fairly obvious

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wingspaaaaaaan

GA CB DJ Turner has fielded a number of Michigan crystal balls in recent days, and since he's also set a commit date of June 25th those have extra oomph. Turner is a 3.5 star sort who has some big name schools after him—he recently visited ND and scheduled a trip to Florida this weekend.  He was more of a 4 star sort until recently, when a 247 composite update dropped him from #280 to #435.

If Turner does end up committing—and it's not entirely clear if there's serious competition—that would probably signal the end of CB recruiting. Michigan flipped FL CB Te'Cory Couch from Tennessee a few weeks back and took five defensive backs last year.

Potential committed risers

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Two commits have put in impressive camp performances and may be in for a rankings rise. MI OL Karsen Barnhart drew mention as a top performer at two recent regional shoe-sponsored camps. Wiltfong at the local Opening regional:

…won the majority of his reps in 1-on-1s, a wide body that moved well, could match power with power and also had the quickness to take on outside pass rushers.

And Trieu in Chicago for a UA camp:

…yet another good performance here. He can bend and move his feet. He is still learning technical aspects of pass pro but right now his competitiveness and athleticism allows him to win.

Per Webb, Barnhart plays in a wing-T in high school so the technical aspects of pass protection are not exactly emphasized. Barnhart reports that Michigan sees him as a tackle and, early, as a bonus TE a la Spanellis last year. Video here for 24/7 subscribers.

Only 24/7 reported from either of these camps so don't expect big rankings fireworks across the now three sites that rate folks. I'd imagine he moves into the four star range there; he's currently just outside it at #381.

Since he is a quarterback and will be at the Opening, NV QB Cade McNamara has a better shot at significant moves up *cough* industry-wide. Brandon Huffman had him the top offensive player at the Vegas Opening regional:

 …was ripping the ball through windy conditions early on in the camp and threw with a lot of poise and confidence throughout. He was accurate, threw with touch and showed off the quickest release in the camp. McNamara was the lone signal caller invited to the Elite 11 Finals next month in Southern California.

Rivals did not attend the camp but Adam Ghabour caught up with McNamara afterward:  

“I feel like my release is so different, and something that no one else has,” McNamara said. “I don’t really know if there was something special [about my performance]. I just went out and did what had to be done. I felt like I was very accurate. I had a lot of zip on my ball, and I was able to control my ball really well when it came to one on ones, and I put the ball in the right place.”

McNamara is already a composite four star in the top 300 so he'll have more resistance in front of him if he wants to move up; the Opening will be a good oportunity to do so.

Defensive ends solid?

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wingspaaaa- aw cumong man

Michigan got two high-profile early commitments from defensive ends, one of which people had written off as KY DE Stephen Herron supposedly made googly eyes with Stanford. If that was the case at one time it is apparently no longer so, per Josh Newkirk:

“It’s pretty strong,” he said of his Michigan commitment. “A lot of schools like Stanford push pretty hard. My best friend went to Purdue, they push pretty hard. … But other than that, I try to stay really committed to my commitment. I got a year left. But I’m not looking right now.”

Herron says he has no intentions on visiting other programs either.

“It’s not planned,” he said.

"Commit is committed" is usually not that newsworthy, but this is a bit different. A majority of Herron's crystal balls, including ours, are still Stanford flip picks, and OH DE Gabe Newburg's commit was widely interpreted as something Herron-related. Apparently not?

Meanwhile, GA DE Chris Hinton has not given anyone a reason to think he's wavering in his commitment but Georgia's Rivals site checked in anyway. Verdict: waste of time.

Athough Hinton has been firmly committed for a long time, it hasn't stopped the pursuit of several schools.

"I have not visited anywhere else since I committed. I’m pretty solid on that," Hinton said on his Michigan commitment. "Georgia for sure. Stanford and Clemson. That is really the big three still coming at me hard."

At the end of the article Hinton does admit that if "something crazy" happened he'd look around, as one does when someone asks you a bunch of questions and won't stop until he gets something approximating a "correct" answer.

Still in search of DEs though

Even with Herron apparently solid to give Michigan a three-DE class there are some more guys being heavily pursued.

NJ DE Aeneas DiCosmo has Michigan in his top five and is coming up on a decision. Since that top five is Stanford, M, Notre Dame, Northwestern, and… uh… Clemson, it's clear that academics are meaningful for DiCosmo, and that often means fist-shaking in Stanford's direction.

That may be the case here too, as Brian Dohn asserts that this weekend's trip to The Very Inaccurately Named Farm is "huge" because several people have told me it is "a dream offer." DiCosmo has visits to ND and Michigan set up for mid-June, with Michigan batting cleanup. It kind of sounds like Michigan would do well to just get to that visit without a Stanford commit happening. A bunch of crystal balls for Stanford have already come in.

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KS DE Marcus Hicks has Michigan in his top two with Oklahoma…

After taking … trips Hicks will be ready to trim his list of suitors down to a more manageable five. For now, though, he can only name two that will definitely make the cut.

Said Hicks, “I think Oklahoma and Michigan would be in there.”

…and 13 OU predictions on the crystal ball. Michigan's best bet is that this is one of those recruitments. The Oklahoma 24/7 site:

They do feel confident in Hicks, but they are getting frustrated that he has not pulled the trigger and they are recruiting other DE and DT.

Hicks told Sam Webb that he would be taking his recruitment into the fall, so could be one of those things where the school is all like "you gonna commit" and the recruit is like "in a bit" and the school is like "we will now court these other large angry people" and the recruit is like "I take offense!" and then everything falls apart not like this has happened to Michigan ever.

Another point in Michigan's favor as they try to make up the gap: Hicks is taking the ol' road game unofficial as Michigan plays ND in the opener.

Etc.

CA LB Tristan Sinclair is a guy to keep on the radar as a potential VIPER(!); no offer yet.

Comments

njvictor

May 18th, 2018 at 3:23 PM ^

I thought that at first, but the rest of his quote makes me think that we are all just over analyzing that last part. I'm not saying he won't flip, but the "right now" can easily just be a few words added to answer that he didn't mean and just said in the context of the interview

Wolverine In Iowa 68

May 18th, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^

For as many times as "those recruitments" have gone against us, it would be sooooo nice to have one go our way.

Quick...sombody tweet at him....and spell his name wrong...and get him to say "Fuck Michigan"

Farnn

May 18th, 2018 at 8:39 PM ^

And in November Michigan was either leading for or very close to 1st with Najee Harris, Isaiah Wilson, Willie Gay, and there were a few others they were in the top 3 for.  Beat Iowa, OSU and go to the CFP and that class would have been top 3 at least.

Farnn

May 19th, 2018 at 9:38 AM ^

And there were similar results at the end of the 2018 cycle with Friday, NPF, and Reese.  You can just claim it was because of certain recruiting practices but winning and narrative matters.  Kids rarely say it, but they want to play for winners.  You can't always tell with individual kids but the only year Michigan had a great January/February was the 2016 class with Gary, Long, and Asiasi.  Get beat by Florida in that bowl game and Gary may have looked at that Clemson offer more closely.  2017 was good but should have been better based on what was being reported, and 2018 was terrible. 

Win big this year, and none of it matters.  Names not even on the board right now will suddenly pop up and be interested.

maize-blue

May 18th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^

I guess those Stephen Herron comments are somewhat positive considering not that long ago he was all but saying, "Yeah, I'm going to look around".

Marcus Hicks's dad is a huge, unabashed Michigan fan. So that is good.

budz

May 18th, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^

Anybody else a little nervous about the future of the VIPER!!! Position? I feel like missing out on Otis Reese and Willie Gay types in back to back years is a little bit alarming.

Farnn

May 18th, 2018 at 1:52 PM ^

I don't think Reese was a viper and as Magnus said, can't be too worried about LB recruiting under Brown.  They will find guys and get them ready.  Won't take long for guys to want to be the next Kaleke Hudson or Devin Bush with the season those guys should have this year.

leftrare

May 18th, 2018 at 1:40 PM ^

Ending this piece with something about Viper, you made me wonder, out of no known corner of my brain, could Michael Barrett be a secret Viper in waiting? Isn’t he really similar to K Hudson in his HS background, I.e., RB/QB/athlete?

Thoughts?

getsome

May 18th, 2018 at 5:44 PM ^

barrett will be one of the more interesting guys to follow - clearly a gifted, versatile athlete with ability to fill several roles (depending on development, need, etc).  great addition. 

however harbaugh did surprise when he mentioned barrett at WR - not saying hell end up there but i recall an interview where harbaugh referenced his versatility and whatnot and then first listed WR as potential position.  im sure hed make a solid WR, i just see barrett making more of an impact in the backfield or at LB.  

bottom line though hes a football player, a versatile kid who adds value and will help his team