Monday Recruitin' Feels The Snow Between Its Toes
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Interest Level: Cold
Michigan offered four-star 2016 NC OT Landon Dickerson last week, per The Wolverine's Brandon Brown ($). As is the norm with a touted recruit hailing from south of the Mason-Dixon line, Michigan will not only have to overcome offers from several powerhouses, but also concerns about the weath-- wait, what?
Right now Dickerson is the No. 16 guard in the country and just a three-star prospect, but with an offer list that includes schools like Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida State, South Carolina, and Tennessee among others, his ranking is likely to get a boost. Still even with all of those high-profile offers, the Maize and Blue appeals to him.
"Geographically Michigan is probably a great place for me," he said with a laugh. "I'm a cold-weather kind of guy. I'm the guy that when it's 25° outside I don't have a shirt on and I'm in flip-flops. I don't think it could be any better geographically.
If you grew up in a place like Michigan, you not only know people like this exist, but that they're the exact type of person you want playing offensive line for your football team. Dickerson is a long way from making a decision, though he says Virginia Tech and Tennessee have stood out to him. If he wants to get that warm, fuzzy feeling of advanced hypothermia, however, he may seriously consider his new offer.
Dickerson isn't the only rising senior O-lineman to nab an offer of late. Three-star PA OT Johncarlo Valentin* added an offer last week, and he told TMI's Brice Marich he's already familiar with the program ($):
“They offered me after they watched me work out,” Valentin told The Michigan Insider. “I was overly excited. Not really did I see it coming. I am very interested in Michigan. I like everything about them.”
“I already have visited them. I was there last summer and it went wonderful. I do want to visit again, but I just don’t know when yet.”
Michigan joins Arizona State and Virginia Tech as significant offers on Valentin's list, and he's fielding interest from several other top programs. Valentin is high school teammates with one of M's top tight end targets, Naseir Upshur, and the two have spoken about playing together at the next level.
Michigan also offered 2017 four-star MD OT Jordan McNair, who told Marich he's "very interested" in the Wolverines ($).
[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]
Enis Sets Visit
Three-star 2016 IN ATH Kiante Enis, a remarkably productive—as in, rushed for 3,189 yards and 49 touchdowns last season productive—running back and 10.53 100-meter dash speedster, has set a visit to Michigan for May 30th, per 247's Steve Lorenz. Enis added an offer this month, with Michigan looking at him at several different spots, according to his high school coach ($):
“I had a great conversation with Coach Fisch,” Jones said. “They love him. They think he can play immediately. They’re not sure where that would be. Running back would be where he started. They love him at safety and wide out and think he can do a lot of different things.
Enis won't be the only major visitor that weekend; Lorenz says five-star WI OT Ben Bredeson, three-star Paramus Catholic WR Donald Stewart, and 2017 four-star QB Dylan McCaffrey are also expected to be on campus.
In-State Junior Day Set
On the afternoon of June 2nd, Michigan will host a recruiting event for the nine in-state 2017 prospects currently holding offers; the junior day of sorts, which has been widely discussed without a confirmed date in recent weeks, will be the first of a few events focusing on top Michigan prospects, per Lorenz. The nine recruits with offers are:
- Five-star Cass Tech WR Donovan Peoples-Jones
- Four-star Oak Park OT JaRaymond Hall
- Four-star OLSM ILB Josh Ross
- Four-star Detroit King CB Ambry Thomas
- Four-star Cass Tech S Jaylen Kelly-Powell
- Four-star St. Joseph WDE Corey Malone-Hatcher
- Three-star OLSM WR KJ Hamler
- Three-star Brother Rice TE Carter Dunaway (Michigan commit)
- Unranked Warren De La Salle RB Allen Stritzinger
It's a strong class for the state in terms of top talent—I'm a big fan of both Hamler and Stritzinger, two of the lower-rated prospects (for now) on the list—and it's clear the coaches are making it a huge priority to lock down as much of it as they can.
Worth Monitoring
The Wolverine's Tim Sullivan made his way down to Alabama to talk to Michigan RB commit Kingston Davis, who's added some noteworthy offers—Florida and LSU chief among them—since his commitment. In a video interview, Davis told Sullivan that while he's firmly committed to Michigan, he plans to take visits to other schools, and he'll do so with permission from the coaching staff ($).
This is notable for a couple reasons. First, Michigan should probably keep an eye on Davis' commitment; with multiple other offers out to running backs, they won't be caught off-guard. Second, it appears Brady Hoke's no-visit policy is D-E-D dead. Discussion of it will not be missed.
Etc.
Four-star 2016 UT WR Simi Fehoko plans to make a decision "sooner rather than later," but first he "absolutely want[s] to visit Michigan" before making his choice, per Brandon Brown ($). Michigan is in his top five along with BYU, Stanford, Utah, and Washington.
Michigan made the top 12 for four-star 2016 CA DT Boss Tagaloa.
Happy trails to top-100 IL DE Josh King, who will choose between Michigan State, Penn State, and USC on June 6th, per 247's Steve Wiltfong. Michigan had consistently been mentioned among his top schools, but never seemed like a threat to land him.
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[*Or perhaps JonCarlo—there's a pre-fame Stauskasian inconsistency in how the services spell his first name, with Scout omitting the 'h'.]
I'm curious how often do teammates who "have spoken about playing together at the next level" ever actually end up on the same team? I feel like recruits say that a lot and it almost never happens.
Very rarely.
The only one I can really think of is Vincent Smith and Brandi Hawthorne committed on the same day.
There were other who were on the same team(Funchess, Ojemudia), but I'm not sure if they were ever a package deal.
Last year Michigan signed two and a walkon from Brother Rice. I wouldn't really consider that a package deal. They did mention how it would be cool if they could play together at the next level, but Grant Perry didn't hold an offer at that time.
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Is there a worse team than the red/white opponents in that Enis video? They looked absolutely terrible. Even sadder that the entire video was him running all over one team!
If he is a 3-star can you imagine what someone like Fournette would do to them? Could he run for 49 TDs that game?
thinks Dickerson is crazy.
I am really amazed at how few commitments Michigan has at this point, I expected more.
Michigan has been down for about 8 years (miss you Lloyd). Harbaugh, for all of his Superbowl appearances, NFL coordinators, and development of ProBowl players still has ground to make up. It is what it is.
Wins will help.
His 'Exposure U' and trolling of the entire NCAA won't hurt either.
Coaches are still building relationships with kids/parents/HS coaches that their counterparts have months/years headstart on. For example, Hoke's first class in 2012 was good but not the recruitapalooza that 2013 became.
It's burned into my brain as "too much information," but then I always ask myself when reading these recruiting posts, "but is it really?"
this has been about the lowest i've felt for a long time with regards to recruiting, especially with State cleaning up like they are in recruiting. double edged sword.
if the team responds well this year, which i think they will with some upper classman finally, we should rebound in recruiting too.
Agree, right now it is about volume for MSU as they have 12 kids already in the fold.....but they look to be leaders for Corley, King, and Auston Robertson - the latter 2 set to announce first week of June and both top 100 players in the country. Corley is wearing MSU gear everywhere to camps and seems to be headed there too eventually.
They also are a leader for a 3rd guy who is also going to announce that week in June who is a top 300 guys (also 4 star) - Naquan Jones. Those 3 guys scheduled their announcements back to back in 3 days in a row which is something the MSU recruits seem to be doing on purpose.
Those 3 all landing at MSU would be pretty powerful and give them a whopping 15 kids very early in the process - like that one Feb Hoke landed all those players. While it will be temporary MSU will probably have a top 4-5 class at that point (they are top 10 already in 247). Hill is also looking like a flip from PSU.
Also at this point saying its "only 3 stars" at MSU football is a lot like them mocking Beilein for his lower rated guys. They are going for Big 10 championships and Rose Bowls with those 3 star type players and are now getting a higher caliber version of them so the next half decade is looking very solid for them, or at least until Dantonio one day calls it quits.
I think he meant the two edges are M being a bit down in recruiting, and State being up. Not sure I totally agree with either of those assessments though.
But that's still not what that saying means. A double-edged sword refers to something that is good on one side, but bad on the other. "It cuts both ways" is also commonly used.
An example people have been using around here lately: Bringing in transfers can be a double-edged sword. It brings in more talent, but it can also be discouraging for the current players who have put in their time. One positive, one negative. "Bringing in transfers is seen as a good thing, but it cuts both ways."
when in Rome.
a sword with two edges?
So, we're letting kids visit other schools after they've committed now! That seems like an interesting change from the Hoke regime. I think it will help us land a few more highly-touted recruits, Michigan can hold up against the big boys! Discuss!
/s
Big offensive linemen never get cold. Michigan is the best place for them.
Well there are only so many players in the country. And yes you can flip some late but flipping is more difficult than getting an original commitment. So as these players go off the board it makes UM's job more difficult as the pool of available players shrink - many of which UM is not in the conversation for. The main worry for me is really the defense - we lead for almost no one in the nation's top 300. And we are losing the bulk of our defense post 2016 so these 2016 recruits will be critical to the 2017 teams viability as a conf champion - a ton of them are going to get immediate or near immediate playing time.
Also we are getting almost completely shut out in the state of OH which is a very rare thing for UM. I guess the offset is we are going much harder in CA, TX, and FL but the former 2 especially is a lot harder to get guys up to UM. A lot easier to get OH kids than TX kids in a normal world.
I am content our player development is going to be better but it would be nice to have Hoke level recruiting (in ranking, not player identification) combined with the development we hope to see from this staff. One without the other is less than ideal.
Ace,
I respect your reporting. But as for the comment about Mexico/Mexico City not caring about American football... not true at all. I've spent a lot of time in Mexico City, and aside from reading about fan presence down there, I've seen it in person countless times.
On the other hand if you want to make the argument that there is minimal interest in College football specifically, as opposed to the NFL, you may have something. From what I've witnessed, the vast majority of interest is NFL-related down there.
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