TVH Weekly: Diamond & Bryant Visits, Charles Jackson Interest

Submitted by TomVH on

This weekend saw two literally and metaphorically big visitors in Chris Bryant and Jordan Diamond. No commitments were made, but there was progress in both recruitments. Here's an update on the Chicago teammates, and a few other recruiting notes.

Chris Bryant

6'5, 330 lbs.

Offensive Line

Chicago, Illinois


Chris' visit was a great visit as far as Michigan making progress towards getting a commitment out of him. He was originally planning on waiting until signing day to see how things panned out, and to be able to take all the visits he wanted. That seems to have changed now.

That visit was great, I liked everything a lot. I don't think I'm going to wait until signing day now, but I'm not ready yet to make my decision.

Chris said that he wants to get up to Michigan a few more times for games to continue to expand the relationships he's building.

I'm not sure the next game I'll be at, but it will be soon. I just want to get a good feel for them, and keep meeting all the people.

So look for Bryant to make a few more visits to Michigan, and then potentially make his decision. It wouldn't be surprising if he took a visit or two to a couple different schools as well. Michigan is in great position though, and this weekend helped a lot.

Jordan Diamond

6'6, 289 lbs.

Offensive Tackle

Chicago, Illinois


The teammate of Chris Bryant, 2012 prospect Diamon came up to see a Michigan game with his mom and aunt. Just like Bryant, Jordan is very high on Michigan. He was very excited to see the Wolverines in person, and they didn't disappoint:

The game was cool, it was crazy. My mom and aunt both loved it too. The coaches told me that I will be getting an offer on August 1st, so that was great.

Being told you'll have a written offer in August is essentially a verbal offer now. Either way Diamond is planning on waiting things out since he's only a junior. Michigan did themselves a lot of favors with this game though, and they're in good position.

Charles Jackson

5'11, 180 lbs.

Cornerback

Klein, Texas


Jackson is the eighth ranked corner in the country and has a pretty nice offer sheet. He has both size and speed, and God knows Michigan needs help in the secondary. He hasn't been talked about much, but shared some insight with me today on who comprises his top four, and a potential visit:

I'm really interested in Michigan. I plan on taking an official visit out there, I'm just not sure which game yet. Michigan, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Arkansas are my top four right now.

This is a big time recruit, and if Michigan can get him on campus they have a chance to wow him. Terrence Robinson is also from Klein, Texas, although Terrance went to Klein Oak while Charles goes to Klein Collins. It can't hurt to have someone from your hometown up there. We'll see how this plays out. If he visits it could get interesting.

Extra:

  • Fort Myers, FL teammates DB Dallas Crawford and WR Sammy Watkins are visiting for the Iowa game. Watkins needs to get a higher score on one of the required tests and is working on it. As of right now we have a really good shot with Crawford, and maybe not so good with Watkins. This visit could change that though if he gets a chance to see Denard in action playing against another team. They were up for the spring game, but didn't get to see a lot of the offense opened up.
  • 2012 instate DL Danny O'Brien was told that he would be getting (verbally) offered at the U Mass game. I'm not sure if they indeed told him he has an offer, or if that was their way of saying you'll have an offer on August 1st. Either way he knows Michigan is very interested in him, and he feels the same.

Comments

MGoShoe

September 20th, 2010 at 8:53 AM ^

...the Michigan secondary, it isn't hard to believe that an enterprising high level CB or two will pull the trigger for U-M this year. The opportunity to contribute early and often coupled with the immense coverage this team will receive if the offense (read DRob) continue to rack up the yds and points should make the Wolverines a hot commodity.

Oh, and RichRod: please ignore the marginal qualifiers. They're like chewing sugar flavored gum instead of sugar free. Maybe you like the taste, but the long tern consequences aren't so pleasant.

DGDestroys

September 20th, 2010 at 7:04 AM ^

Seriously, what a name for a corner. Tom, do you know why we're suddenly in his top group? I know we offered him a while back and I'd been following to see if we could get his attention, but there was nothing until now. Does it have to do with winning?

MGoValiant

September 20th, 2010 at 7:50 AM ^

I wonder why UT wouldn't offer a kid that looks this solid in there own state. Maybe it's because they already have 3 CB commits this year. The number of commits Texas gets this early is just insane. Year after year. There class is usually filled before the season even starts.

Litt1e Rhino

September 20th, 2010 at 9:26 AM ^

It's no surprise they recruit like this. They are the dominant school in the biggest moat talent rich state. They get to pick and choose who thy want while others fight for the left overs. I wish Michigans talant was like Texas. But it just makes our all time wins and win percentage all that more impressive.

burntorangeblue

September 20th, 2010 at 12:19 PM ^

Word on the street is that there are three or four DBs in Texas this year that were all in the running for a UT offer.  UT targetted the three they wanted, and got commits, but there was a lot of grumbling that Jackson should have recieved an offer and didn't.  This is all a long way of saying that Jackson is legit (obvs) and was on the cusp of getting that Texas offer.  Glad to hear that he's giving UM a look, but I've heard he's a Sooner lean at this point.  Just get the kid to campus, imo.

toomer18

September 20th, 2010 at 10:36 AM ^

Good stuff.  We obviously need to start picking up some defense though.  We need to get bigger and stronger and faster on D.  Im a little disappointed being in year three with Barwis that we can't seem show any ability to dominate a game from the defensive side of the ball.  It's going to be a tough year if we don't figure something out. 

Wolverine0056

September 20th, 2010 at 11:17 AM ^

Ehh is mostly inexperience that is hurting us on defense. We have some talent and Barwis is doing an excellent job with strength and conditioning, but it comes down to having multiple guys fighting for playing time and making each other better. We have some of that on offense but not much on defense. 

Grahambino

September 20th, 2010 at 11:47 AM ^

Recruiting a kicker who can actually kick? 

 

FYI: There's a kid out of Dowagiac Michigan who needs to be getting D-1 Scholarships in about 2-3 years.  Nailed a 45 yard FG w/ room to spare as a freshman.  Won the punt, pass, kick competition in the state of Michigan a couple years back too.

Michigan4Life

September 20th, 2010 at 2:47 PM ^

offer a scholarship to a K, not when he had Gibbons in the fold.  Hagerup is an another schollie P.  That's two on the special team.  RR needs to use that one schollie for on the defensive side instead of wasting it on the K.  RR will probably try to recruit K as preferred walk on.

los

September 20th, 2010 at 12:07 PM ^

Thanks, Tom. Is it just me or is this year exceptionally low for us in terms of commitments? What are possible explanations for this? I know there's a long way to go and I expect the recruiting machine that is RR to rev up as the season goes but looking at the top 15 schools right now, they're commitment sheets are stacked and growing.

WolvinLA2

September 20th, 2010 at 1:01 PM ^

We only have 10 commits so far, but we also have fewer spots to fill than most other schools. That has changed a bit lately, but a month ago we only had about 15 available spots. Also, we have a number of big names (Hart, Zettel, Frost, etc) who we're waiting on, and others who are just waiting to make sure we don't flop for the third straight year.

I wouldn't worry about, and I expect we get a number of commits in the next month and a half.

JC3

September 20th, 2010 at 12:08 PM ^

There was a blurb on rivals the other week that said someone in Watkins/Crawford's program said Michigan may lead for both of them.. that'd be huge.

Thanks for the updates as always Tom.

lager86

September 20th, 2010 at 2:23 PM ^

I am not getting warm and fuzzies over the rivals report from Dee Hart's Auburn visit.  He raved about the atmosphere, SEC crowd and closeness of the coaches.  Anyone seen any more comforting reports?

bronxblue

September 20th, 2010 at 2:26 PM ^

Great post.  This week's list was all full of cool-name win - Jordan Diamond, Charles Jackson, Dallas Crawford.  Add in Shane Falco and Willy Beamen, and we'd have an amazing football movie cast on hand.

Magnus

September 20th, 2010 at 2:37 PM ^

Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but I'm not excited by any defensive recruits at this point.  It seems like offensive recruits come here and flourish...and defensive recruits use Michigan as a stopping point on their way to transferring to some Big East school.  Even if we get Charles Jackson, I'm of the mindset at this point that he won't pan out and will just be another casualty.

Hopefully I'm wrong.

In the meantime...Demetrius Hart in this offense would be awesome!

Magnus

September 20th, 2010 at 8:18 PM ^

I just don't see much improvement.  The defensive backfield is bad, the defensive line has been castrated by having a 3-man line, and the linebackers are slightly better than they were last year, which isn't saying a ton.

I haven't given up.  I'm still going to root for these guys to be successful.  But when you have a steady string of departures by highly rated recruits (Cissoko, Dorsey, Turner, etc.), it starts to wear on my perception.

SanDiegoWolverine

September 20th, 2010 at 3:53 PM ^

Why so sour?  I year ago around this time your were killing the meme that 3 stars can be just as good as 4 or 5 stars and now it seems like you're completely jaded and don't even care.

Let's recruit as many as talented guys on D we can hope that GERG turns this thing around and if not our next DC can figure out how to best utilize their talents.

If you look at our 5 guys in the secondary we have neither experience or high recruiting rankings.  I'm sure an excellent DC could better hide them or coach them up but even then their upside is still middling at best.  A year from now we're going to have 5 guys that have played a year at D returning at secondary so unless or D coaches or horrible the future is looking bright.

Magnus

September 20th, 2010 at 8:32 PM ^

I mean...other than "experience," there's really nothing to hang our hats on defensively.  And it's not so much the play on the field that has me feeling pessimistic - I knew Michigan's defense would be bad this year.

The thing that really bothers me is the fact that we're having so much attrition of talented guys who SHOULD be helping this year and in the coming years (Davion Rogers, Justin Turner, Demar Dorsey, etc.).  This is Big Ten football.  We need stars to be a good team (I mean "stars" in the sense of awesome players, not recruiting rankings).  No matter how hard Ray Vinopal or Terrence Talbott works, their ceilings won't be as high as Dorsey's or Turner's.

WolvinLA2

September 21st, 2010 at 11:04 AM ^

What about all the young guys who are still here and doing well?  4 out of 5 guys in our backfield are sophs or younger, not to mention quality back-ups like TGordon, Marvin, and the freshmen CB's who have showed promise.  Jibreel Black is exceeding expectations as a true frosh.  Craig Roh, well obviously.

Sure, we have guys leave who we thought would be major contributors.  But we also have young guys on D who have played better than we thought.  We don't have many seniors, and should have good recruits coming in (Beyer, Hollowell, Jones, possibly Zettel, Frost, Walls, etc) who will have more time to develop than the last couple years. 

I'm not as pessimistic as you are.  I think we have enough young talent and talent coming in to field a solid defense moving forward.  We might not be a top-10 defense nationally, but maybe top-30, high enough to let our offense blow teams out of the water.

trueblueintexas

September 20th, 2010 at 2:50 PM ^

I'm confused about the August 1 date mentioned about receiving a written offer.  This year's August 1 has already passed and next years August 1 is late for a 2012 prospect.  Did they mean Oct 1?

NateVolk

September 20th, 2010 at 4:10 PM ^

Tom is on as usual.  

We have a lot of good young young guys on defense.  We need more numbers to actually stick and embrace the competitive nature what Rich does with practice and playing time.  We'll have depth and veteran talent if that happens.

On offense, you can see at Quarterback, line and Receiver how guys just immersing themselves into this program and competing has brought quantum improvement.

My only worry on defense is getting guys who stick and compete. So the point made by guys on here about steering clear of marginal qualifiers is vitally important.