MGoRadio 7.13: The Signing Day Espectaculo Comment Count

Seth December 15th, 2021 at 7:25 PM

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THE VIDEO

[After THE JUMP: the player and what we said]

--------------------------------------------

1. Across the Crooked Blue Line, Offense

  • QB JAYDEN DENEGAL: Big-bodied, M had him up for a throwing session, camper, * fell, Speight. Teams were wary of weight issues. “Inconsistent” delivery. Slow release. Good deep ball. Cerebral. Owns a tortoise.
  • QB ALEX ORJI: VT decommit. Tough Dallas leaguer, kind of a Michael Barrett where he’s linebacker shaped and could move there if QB doesn’t work out. Or “backfield TE” just sayin.
  • RB CJ STOKES: Low league. Great balance, serious jump cut, runs good routes and wants to catch the ball a lot.
  • WR TYLER MORRIS: Golden Tate smooth and post-catch burst. Injured this year and no drama in his recruitment or he’d be a top 25 player. Also comped to Garrett Wilson. Great routes. Olympic-caliber high-jumper. (Junior Olympics champion).
  • WR DARRIUS CLEMONS: Huge dude who makes crazy catches and has a “verified” 40 of 4.37. Route running is a work in progress.
  • WR AMORION WALKER: Long, tall, leapy. M has done well with wingspans from the South.
  • TE COLSON LOVELAND: Flex you can play immediately, Erick All potential. Staff enamored. Bama looked.
  • TE MARLIN KLEIN: Receiver build, still rather fresh from Germany, plays in a low-level Georgia league so he’s more a Schoonmaker project.
  • OT ANDREW GENTRY: Counting him as a 2022 even though he was in the 2020 class. Crazy Mormon mission story recruitment after that. Stueber comp.
  • OL ALLESSANDRO LORENZETTI: Fell off the recruiting industrial complex tree and hit every blind spot on the way down: Quebecois, mid-career transfer, no junior film, highest-ranked player ever at his school in Connecticut, and extremely short recruitment that didn’t reciprocate SEC interest.
  • OL CONNOR JONES: One of us! Comes through the same Colorado OL factory as the rest, going to need some development. Fan favorite.

2. Across the Crooked Blue Line, Defense Front

(starts at 43:21)

  • NT KENNETH GRANT: Mammoth, underrated as far as his get-off and agility. Might need some time to develop. OSU slow-played and wished they hadn’t when he rose up the rankings.
  • DT MASON GRAHAM: Ryan Glasgow. Can play immediately.
  • DE/DT DERRICK MOORE: National top-50 heavy DE affected by M’s late rise, may be a play immediately. We honestly haven’t scouted him much yet.
  • EDGE KEVONTE HENRY: Didn’t sign with M today, didn’t sign with Courtney Morgan’s new place either. Uche-level edge-bender they’re going to go all-out for down the stretch.
  • EDGE/LB MICAH POLLARD: Popped when scouting someone else, development time, staff might see him at either role. Braylon’s nephew, Marcus’s son.
  • LB JIMMY ROLDER: Late pop and thank god because they were struggling at MLB this cycle. Athlete in the mold of Ben Gedeon.
  • LB DEUCE SPURLOCK: M had to go back hat in hand but smart player, sideline to sideline, underrated athlete, had to fend off Southern schools late.
  • LB AARON ALEXANDER: Don’t know much about him because he was a converted RB then got hurt. Had a good playoffs for Belleville. Also: Belleville.

3. Across the Crooked Blue Line, Defensivee Secondary

(starts at 1:06:06)

  • HSP KEON SABB. Brian has the worst memories of Cato June but yeah: linebacker who moves like a safety. Big piece for the amoeba stuff they want to do.
  • S ZEKE BERRY. Lorenz’s favorite player of the class. Peppers-like, even on offense. Maybe not as twitch but that sort of player.
  • S DAMANI DENT. Underrated player of the class, nationally. Oregon loved him after he went to their camp. Dax Hill minus the rankings.
  • CB WILL JOHNSON. Ideal cornerback, great upside for a top-20 guy because he can play anywhere in their system, runs WR routes like a WR.
  • CB KODY JONES. “SEC-style” cornerback who just can turn on a dime and competes like mad then goes in the 2nd round. Nickel early? Big recruiting win down the stretch.
  • CB MYLES POLLARD. Every Michigan fan, starting with Josh Newkirk, saw it before Michigan did, but he balls out against top competition. If he was a 4.4 instead of 4.5 guy he’d be Will Johnson.

4. Lightning Round and Superlatives

(starts at 1:27:18)

5Q5A: When do they get the bump from the end of this season? When does this secondary take over? Any LB/DE in the mix immediately? Affect of losing of Courtney Morgan? How do they finish?

LIGHTNING ROUND: Best player? Best player still on the roster in 4 years? Most underrated? Biggest recruiting win?

MUSIC:
  • “Hi, Hey There, Hello”—The Mowgli's
  • “Sorry I Stole Your Man”—Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas
  • “Starman”—David Bowie

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

  • “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
  • “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

If you or a friend made some good tunes and don't have a label out scrubbing for them we'd be happy to feature you.

THE USUAL LINKS:

It’s like 2018 if they said “No, that ending is too sad; go back and give it a happy ending.”

Comments

MGoStrength

December 15th, 2021 at 6:44 PM ^

I already know the answer to this (NIL/bagmen), but how does a TAMU & Fisher who routinely lose 4 games every year land the best recruiting class of all time?

newtopos

December 15th, 2021 at 6:53 PM ^

You know the answer; Fisher even said the answer:

https://twitter.com/DanWetzel/status/1471225907121737734

(Of course, some posters here still believe that it is a level playing field when it comes to NIL/bagmen/etc., and that all programs bend the rules in the same way.)

LeCheezus

December 16th, 2021 at 9:56 AM ^

I'm sure NIL/bag whatever was part of it, but most of their top guys are from Texas.  Location/distance still matter.  Look at some of the other top guys in the composite - #3 overall to Missouri (from St Louis), #4 overall to North Carolina (from NC), #5 and 6 to TA&M, both from Texas, #7 (Domani Jackson), 100% CB's to USC, from California, #8 overall to Bama (from Alabama).  I'm not saying the other stuff doesn't matter, but most guys stay in region or in state, even big time recruits.

lhglrkwg

December 16th, 2021 at 9:39 PM ^

Yeah seems like they basically just owned Texas this year. No one else in Texas is really that great right now or isn't a recruiting powerhouse (Baylor) and then with OU and LSU in transition as well and A&M coming off one of their best seasons in modern history (2020, not '21), it seems like the stars aligned and Jimbo locked the state down this year

Still had an odd amount of success out of state considering that Jimbo and Texas A&M are pretty much always mediocre so I am also sure there's a lot of "NIL" stuff going on

whidbeywolverine

December 15th, 2021 at 8:25 PM ^

I like the secondary pickups a lot as well.  I just worry that we will miss the edge dropoff  with Hutch and Ojabo departing, and hope we can steer Henry our way.  Montlake should be miserable for at least 2 more years, so here's hoping we can pry him away from Morgan and the Huskies.  God we're gonna miss pressuring the QB with just 4 guys.  If we can find edge pass rushers, MacDonald is gonna have some fun with that secondary!

mgobaran

December 16th, 2021 at 10:24 AM ^

Whatever ends up happening with Henry, that recruitment won't really help us replace Hutch/Ojabo. Not right away at least. Freshman edge rushers rarely enter and are terrors day one. 

The job to replace those two are going to fall at the feet of guys already on this roster. Hutchinson clone McGregor needs to take his game to another level, which would fit in right around the same time Hutch did. Harrell & Guy showed flashes of ability. 

The other way we fill in for those guys is doing it at the LB/S level. As the roster shifts more to MacDonald's liking, our DL is going to be less edge shaped, and our pressures are going to come from SAMs, Vipers, Safeties, and Corners. And hopefully our DTs & and NTs can generate some pressure on their own. 

Bo Harbaugh

December 15th, 2021 at 8:29 PM ^

Harbaugh has his formula to beat OSU now.  

UM is recruiting to neutralize their athletes with our own athletes and brute force.

The rivalry is going to get very interesting these next 5-7 years.

SanDiegoWolverine

December 15th, 2021 at 9:24 PM ^

Is this Harbaugh's best class yet? We got lots of top end guys but yet our DTs and TEs are criminally underrated. I think you can only say RB and EDGE are the only spots we didn't hit home runs.

Blue Vet

December 16th, 2021 at 11:28 AM ^

The only fix for revising divisions would require everyone acknowledging that some of the teams are strong in football and other are not, which few can acknowledge in public.

Craig's point system is workable but unlikely to be accepted.

Notre Dame blew it. Joining the Big Ten, they would have been the power in the West, and with the possible exception of Wisconsin, and maybe Iowa, ND would always be Big [EDIT] West Champ.