Cameron McGrone Welcomes You To Football Season

Don Brown is getting a...Bear @bear_lc LB, #Michigan commit Cameron McGrone with a monster sack against McCutcheon. @McGrone_Strong pic.twitter.com/FTg2GajslV

— Andrew Pogar (@AndrewPogar) August 19, 2017

I THINK I'M READY FOR FOOTBALL SEASON.

High school ball is underway for a few of Michigan's commits, including four-star IN LB Cameron McGrone, who killed a guy. McGrone spearheaded a dominant defensive performance in Lawrence Central's 40-6 season-opening victory over a ranked McCutcheon squad that may now be in search for a quarterback whose ribs haven't been smashed into a fine powder.

A pair of Peach State products were also in action. Three-star RB Christian Turner needed only 11 carries to rush for 128 yards and two scores in a blowout win for Buford, while four-star OLB Otis Reese put together a performance that raised his stock in the eyes of Rivals's Chad Simmons:

What is known is that he is a heck of a football player. In game one against Forsyth (Ga.) Mary Persons, he had numerous big hits including one which led to a fumble and turnover. He was around the ball a lot, he was very aggressive, and he is going to be a Rivals100 prospect when all is said and done.

Simmons also notes that Reese has gone completely quiet about his recruitment, which is a little unnerving given his recent visit to Georgia. Michigan, as expected, is going to have to keep recruiting him until the final bell. While Georgia has home-state advantage, Michigan has a couple factors in their favor: freshman DT Aubrey Solomon is Reese's former high school teammate and Reese's older brother plays at Central Michigan.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]

2019 Updates: Karlaftis, Mom Both High on Michigan

TMI's Brice Marich went down to West Lafayette to watch top 2019 DE target George Karlaftis in action. Karlaftis had "several tackles" and a blocked punt in a 40-10 win; afterwards he went full Kool-Aid Man about his recent Michigan visit:

After getting to experience Michigan, Karlaftis admits the visit definitely exceeded his expectations going in and hopes to return this fall.

“Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah,” Karlaftis stated on the visit meeting his expectations. “The Big House is just huge and awesome. I saw the history. Everything about that place is awesome from the coaching staff to the facilities to their hospitality to their players all great guys and academics. Everything is top notch and you can’t get anything better than Michigan.

Marich also caught up with Karlaftis's mom, who was born and raised in West Lafayette and graduated from Purdue. Despite her Boilermaker loyalties, she couldn't find anything to critique about the Michigan experience:

“I was not expecting it to have that same feeling I have when I am in West Lafayette at Purdue University,” she said. “It reminds me so much of the town I grew up in and it was just so easy to like. I was looking for things to dislike and I couldn’t find anything. I mean anything. We got a tour of the campus, met the people in academics and met the coaches. I could not find one thing that went wrong that day. It was perfect. When it is so perfect, you always wonder, what was I missing, but it wasn’t. It was just easy and that is why I definitely want to go back because it just felt so surreal. It was so much what I was used to. I think that is why George fell in love with it as well because when we were living in Athens, we would come back and forth two times a year to see my family. He was always around Purdue a little bit for a month in the summer, so I think he had that same kind of feeling at Michigan. I had that feeling and it was so great.”

Miami (YTM) and Purdue round out his top three. Karlaftis may not say Michigan leads but it's difficult to get any other impression at the moment.

Meanwhile, the coaching of Don Brown is a big draw for top-100 2019 MA S Lewis Cine, who earned an offer at the Sacred Heart satellite camp, per 247's Steve Lorenz:

"Don Brown is a genius defensively," Cine told Wolverine247 on Wednesday afternoon. "He's really, really good friends with my head coach and that relationship is what helped get things started.

"He came out to visit my school early on and told my staff they were really interested in me but wanted to see me play live, so I decided to go to their satellite camp at Sacred Heart. I got there and he looked me up and down and told me I looked like a guy who could play some press coverage on the outside. I hadn't played a lot of cornerback at that point but performed better than I thought I would. Less than a week later, my coach put me on the phone with Coach Brown and I had an offer from Michigan."

Cine, who's originally from Florida, already has a national offer list. He's now squarely in Don Brown Country, and at 6'2", 180, very much fits Brown's ideal mold for a defensive back. 247 just moved him up nearly into five-star territory; he's a junior to watch going forward.

2018 QB Recruiting: Probably Done

After Michigan missed out on 2018 QB Tyler Shough and 2019 blue-chipper JT Daniels, it remained an open question whether they'd pursue a second 2018 quarterback to pair with four-star commit Joe Milton. Now that Michigan has picked up preferred walk-on Kyle Grady, a pro-style QB out of San Diego who had strong interest from the Ivy League, it appears Michigan will stand pat with Milton, per 247's Isaiah Hole.

Grady, as the Ivy interest would suggest, is quite the academic achiever:

Obviously you are an academic student-athlete. When you look at your Twitter profile, we see you're a 4.7 cumulative GPA, 33 ACT, 1430 SAT. Obviously academics are really important to you. What factors were you looking for in that? You mentioned the business school. Is that what you're looking to do?

"Yeah, that's the path I'm looking to take. Business has always kind of been my thing -- what I want to do, whether it's open a business or somehow just kind of be in the business, you know? I don't know exactly, we'll see as it goes on, as I pursue my major what interests me the most. But that's definitely what I want to do, and there's no better place than Michigan to do that."

I really don't want to know how many AP classes you need to crush to get a 4.7 GPA.

Etc.

Rivals's Adam Friedman scouts tight end commit Luke Schoonmaker:

"I really like his upside. He has a big body and a big frame and runs really well at his size. I’m excited to see how versatile he can be. He’s clearly a guy who can flex out and be a big time receiving threat. I’m curious to see him as an in-line blocker to see if he can handle the job on the line of scrimmage. I’m just really looking forward to watching him as a senior to see how good he can be."

Feature on Joe Milton and his bond with his high school coach in the Orlando Sentinel.

Happy trails to four-star TX OT Rafiti Ghirmai, who's scheduled to announced his decision, oh, ten minutes ago, and if it's not Texas it'll be UCLA.