We've got a couple Hellos to catch up on that dropped during the past week. The first of which is 4* LB Jeremiah Beasley from Belleville, MI. The in-state prospect picked Michigan last Wednesday over Michigan State, among other schools with interest. Let's give him a Hello: 

 

GURU RATINGS

RATINGS BY SITE
247: 6'1/210	On3: 6'0.5/210	Rivals: 6'2/212	ESPN: 6'1/220
4*, 90, #239 Ovr #26 LB, #6 MI	4*, 90, #264 Ovr #20 LB, #5 MI	4*, 5.8, NR Ovr #24 OLB, #8 MI	3*, 79, #53 MW #15 ILB, #10 MI
4.05	4.09	3.96	3.83
COMPOSITE RANKINGS
247 Composite	On3 Consensus	MGoBlog
4*, 0.9025, #312 Ovr #26 LB, #6 MI	4*, 90.37, #273 Ovr #28 LB, #6 MI	4*, #386/797 Ovr #31/78 ILBs since 1990
4.03	4.04	4.01

Everyone but ESPN has Beasley as a 4*, but it's not like there's a terribly dramatic range in the overall rating based on our five-star scale. The 247 composite vs. On3 consensus vs. our calculated consensus is almost exactly even, right around 4.00. Beasley is viewed as one of the top ten players in Michigan, and ranks near the middle among all ILB prospects Michigan has recruited since 1990 according to our database. There's a bit of variation on Beasley's height, from 6'0.5" at On3 to 6'2" at Rivals, with his weight ranging from 210 to 220. Nothing crazy. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Runs well and hits hard]

 

SCOUTING 

We start with Allen Trieu's free 247 scouting report, because it is often a broad and easy way to take a quick look at what a prospect offers, before digging into the nitty gritty. The first two lines are as good of a quick summary for Beasley as you can get: 

Powerful linebacker with short-area explosion. Adequate size, but hits beyond his listed measureables

Cool. Tell us more: 

Has a track background and runs and moves around easily in space. Times his blitzes and shoots gaps with good acceleration. Also is a standout at running back and could fit the bill as a bigger back if a school wants to play him there

Michigan definitely has some experience with partial RB/partial LB types (hello, Kalel Mullings), but all indications are that Beasley is wanted for 'backer. Every scouting report of him makes a mention of his RB exploits but only in the passing mention of "he could be an RB if you wanted him to be". EJ Holland of On3, very familiar with Beasley from the 7v7 circuits, gets a bit more detailed ($): 

Beasley is the perfect scheme fit for Michigan. While he’s a little on the shorter side, Beasley is fast for his size and can get sideline-to-sideline in a hurry ... Beasley is also physical and aggressive. He’s the heart and soul of a Belleville team coming off another state title. Michigan sees him as their future WILL

EJ goes on to highlight the area of Beasley's game he likes the most: 

Where Beasley has really impressed over the last two offseasons is in pass coverage ... Linebackers are often a weak point for 7v7 teams. However, Beasley is terrific in the middle of the field and has no issue covering bigger tight ends or quicker running backs

Touch The Banner gave a review of Beasley upon his commitment to Michigan and came away reasonably enthused with the profile. TTB saw the same athleticism and physicality that other scouts saw: 

Beasley is a good all-around athlete with a nice mix of size, speed, toughness, and change-of-direction skills. His toughness and athleticism really show at running back, where he has nice balance, breaks a ton of tackles, and has good speed ... Beasley’s athleticism also shows in his ability to change direction and chase down ball carriers

TTB did find a possible hole in the highlight film, an area of Beasley's game that hasn't been shown on video yet: 

What I don’t see much of in his highlight film is reading and reacting on defense. Most of his defensive highlights come on blitzes or in pass coverage, but not reading run and/or fitting his gap. Whether that’s a weakness or just not something he felt like highlighting is left to guesswork. 

Per Hausfeldt from Mike Farrell Sports did a round up of uncommitted 2024s back in January and gave some takes on Beasley. He saw evidence of processing and diagnosing to be encouraged by: 

Good play diagnosing, reading through triangle with good mental processing to establish good gap leverage on downfield runs due to good lateral agility.

However, he was a bit cooler on Beasley's athleticism, thus questioning his abilities in man coverage as opposed to zone: 

Adequate range against outside runs from middle or backside alignment due to adequate acceleration allowing RBs with good speed to attack the perimeter. Adequate man coverage and match in the open field due to adequate route recognition

As a whole, though, Hasufeldt likes Beasley as a prospect: 

Overall good prospect, best used in a 4-3/4-2-5 system with middle or frontside alignment due to his good play strength and block processing. Can be trusted to start for a Power 5 defense by his 3^rd season.

The scouts like this guy quite a bit! 

OFFERS 

Michigan State was the other main team competing for the services of Jeremiah Beasley. They were somewhat favored early on in the process, with strong ties to Beasley through his older brother Maliq Carr (a Spartan player) and the relationship MSU has had with Belleville HS over the past number of years. However, area recruiter Steve Clinkscale and newly hired LB coach Chris Partridge kept hammering away and won over Beasley in the spring, eventually culminating in this commitment over Sparty. The other schools extending offers include a sampling of B1G programs Nebraska, PSU, Purdue, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Maryland, and Indiana. Mizzou, Pitt, Florida, Tennessee, Cincy, Kentucky, Louisville, Colorado, and Kansas were also involved, in addition to the mid-majors. 

HIGH SCHOOL 

Beasley attends Belleville HS, a familiar in-state powerhouse to Michigan HS football followers and/or recruiting watchers. Belleville, located some 25ish minutes east of Ann Arbor, has become a D1 juggernaut in MHSAA football under head coach Jermain Crowell, drawing many of its players from the Detroit region. Belleville is currently the two-time defending state-champions at the D1 level, championships that Beasley has gotten to be a part of. In 2022 the team went 14-0, defeating Caledonia at Ford Field to take home the title.  

Belleville coach Crowell and Jim Harbaugh were involved in a feud for some amount of time (if you want a refresher, click on this site tag) which obstructed Michigan's ability to procure blue chip prospects out of this powerhouse HS in their own back yard. Crowell was on decisively better terms with MSU (past Belleville stars Devontae Dobbs and Julian Barnett ended up in East Lansing), which led to the early speculation about Beasley --> MSU. 

However, new developments in the Belleville Wars have changed the picture some. Crowell was suspended by MHSAA last November for violating the undue influence rule, which forced Belleville's hand. With their coach suspended from coaching in the state for two years, the school dismissed Crowell, bringing a new coach to head the staff. DeJuan Rogers won the state title as an interim and was named the full-time coach, but then departed for a gig at Tiffin University. Former Detroit Cody coach Calvin Norman was given the HC label in May. All this tumult and the removal of Crowell helped make the recruitment of Beasley a bit easier for the Wolverines and landing Beasley is a nice tool to use in the recruitment of 2025 5* QB Bryce Underwood, Belleville's superstar prospect ranked as the nation's best QB recruit in that class. 

STATS 

Despite being a dominant program in Michigan HS football, the Belleville MaxPreps page is absent stats for 2022. Just one game has stats uploaded, with none for the defensive side of the ball. However, Beasley's Hudl tape (embedded below), credits himself with 27 touchdowns and 1,250 rushing yards on offense and 72 tackles/108 total tackles on defense. Are those numbers legit or are they heavily fudged? Who knows! 

FAKE 40 TIME 

As a player who has done a healthy number of camps, we have some official 40 times for Beasley. On3 has him verified for a 4.8, something they say is exactly in line with the average top 300 LB recruit over the past three years. Perfectly reasonable number, independently timed, it gets zero FAKEs out of five. 

VIDEO 

Junior year highlights: 

EJ Holland has a number of videos of Beasley from 7v7. Here's one: 

On300 Michigan LB target Jeremiah Beasley (@JBeasley_2024) jams his man into oblivion #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/v8UAOHc7Xr

— "EJ Holland" (@EJHollandOn3) February 25, 2023

More available with a simple twitter search. 

ETC 

Brother Maliq Carr is an MSU TE. Track background. 

 

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE 

Jeremiah Beasley is a solid 4* LB prospect, a pretty safe and projectable one at that. He's got decent size and the athleticism needed to hang in modern college football. Beasley hits hard enough to play in the B1G and while we may not have the most concrete evidence of his processing abilities, a few years in the linebacker classroom should help rectify any issues (if there are any at all). He's been playing for one of the top HS teams in the state and has been a fixture of the 7v7 offseason circuit, so the guru reliability should be reasonably high here too. If all goes well, and Michigan shouldn't have to rush him into duty by any means, Beasley seems like a future starting ILB down the road for the Wolverines without a ton of risk or hoping that a skill pans out. 

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS 

Michigan's LB recruiting is more or less finished at this point, barring some change in the fall. The plan had long been to take Beasley and 4* Aaron Chiles as their two true ILBs, in addition to HSP-ish types Jaden Smith, Cole Sullivan, and Mason Curtis. However, things took a stunning and unfortunate turn when Chiles offered his commitment to Florida while on a visit with the Gators, scratching his name off the board for the Wolverines. Michigan hasn't indicated that they plan to pursue a different LB instead of Chiles, so right now, things look set. The team is interested in trying at least one or two of that HSP-ish group of prospects at ILB, so they are not feeling like another ILB is a must. The staff could pursue a player at this position at a later date (if one comes available), but there are no names on the board currently. 

THE CLASS AS IT STANDS

OFFENSE
Pos	Player	State	Stars	In a nutshell
QB	Jadyn Davis	NC	4.7	Smooth, accurate field general
RB	Jordan Marshall	OH	4.4⬇	Accelerates South-North
RB	Micah Ka'apana	NV	3.7⬆	Well-balanced accelerator
WR	I'Marion Stewart	IL	3.9⬇	Ronnie slick/quick, #1 WR to M
WR	Channing Goodwin	NC	3.8	Chain-moving son of Jon
TE	Brady Prieskorn	MI	4.4⬇	Colston Loveland Midwest
TE	Hogan Hansen	WA	4.1⬆	Colston Loveland West
LT	Andrew Sprague	MO	4.2⬆	Basketballin' grow-a-Long
RT	Blake Frazier	TX	4.2⬆⬆	Athletic son of Steve
RG	Luke Hamilton	OH	4.0	Midwestern mauler
LG	Ben Roebuck	OH	3.8⬇⬇	Bigger Midwestern mauler
C	Jake Guarnera	FL	3.8	Mauler but center
DEFENSE
Pos	Player	State	Stars	In a nutshell
DT	Manuel Beigel	CT	3.5⬇	Lengthy German via Choate
DT	Owen Wafle	NJ	4.0⬇	Little nose with bite
DT	Ted Hammond	OH	4.0	Cincy build-a-bear
DT/DE	Jerod Smith	CT	4.0⬆	Low-pads, high-motor big twin
Edge	Dominic Nichols	MD	3.8⬆	Mike Morris-ish SDE
Edge	Devon Baxter	MD	3.8⬆	Super long 4-3 grow-an-edge.
Edge	Elias Rudolph	FL	4.0⬆	Former Ohian OLB type
OLB	Mason Curtis	TN	4.2⬆	Long athlete moving up
LB	Jeremiah Beasley	MI	4.0⬇	Explosive hitter from Belleville
LB	Jaden Smith	NC	3.9⬆	Underscouted Uche
HSP	Cole Sullivan	PA	3.8	Hybrid LB with crazy athleticism
S	Jacob Oden	MI	4.1	Tall son of coach