Monday Recruitin' Hugs Everybody
Free Hugs: Not An NCAA Violation
The Washington Post series "First and 17"—following VA WDE Da'Shawn Hand as he goes through his senior year—continues with a look at his first day of school, Woodbridge's second game, and his official visit to Michigan. Watch to see Hand hug seemingly every student and faculty member at Woodbridge, drop a hint about potentially knowing his college destination at lunch*, lay into his teammates (physically and verbally) during practice, help his team to victory, and then discuss his Notre Dame visit. The positive vibes for Michigan continue unabated, and Hand also comes off as a genuinely pleasant and likable guy—as long as you're not facing off against him in a game or loafing on a practice rep, that is.
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*If you can't/won't watch the video:
Girl in cafeteria: Do you have any idea?
Hand: Yeah.
Girl: For real?
Hand: Yeah.
Girl: So you know and you're just not saying it.
Hand: (slight pause) I have an idea about where I'm going.
Yeah, you have permission to feel good about that. Meanwhile, random Woodbridge girl just locked down a job at the recruiting service of her choice, as that's the most telling quote anybody's got from Hand in months.
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[Hit THE JUMP for the latest on the Glenville duo and a wrapup of Michigan commits in action over the weekend.]
Urban Meyer: "We Have To Close The Package Deal Gap"
2014 four-star Glenville safety Erick Smith to Scout's Bill Greene ($):
Teammate Marshon Lattimore joined him for his trip to Michigan, and the two have discussed playing for the same school at the next level.
"We always talk about playing college football together," Smith reported. "I would say the chance we play at the same school would be 50%."
2014 four-star Glenville athlete Marshon Lattimore to Scout's Bill Greene ($):
When asked about the possibility of playing in college with Smith, Lattimore laughed when told his teammate said the chances were "50%".
"I would say it's more like 100%," he said with a smile.
Lattimore seems guaranteed to end up at Ohio State. Smith would be in that same boat if it was a certainty that the Buckeyes would have room for him; I'm not sure that's the case. At any rate, both Glenville prospects say that they're considering taking official visits to Michigan; neither has one set at this point.
The other thing, aside from OSU's scholarship crunch, that Michigan potentially has going in their favor with Smith is his familiarity with Roy Manning, per ESPN's Brad Bournival ($):
“I talk with Coach Manning the most at Michigan, and we spoke a week ago. He’s my guy,” Smith said. “He recruited me when he was at Cincinnati, and then at Northern Illinois, and now for Michigan. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him when I was up there, but that’s my guy, though.”
The Wolverines are no longer actively recruiting PA S Montae Nicholson, and though they could try to go after him again, I think Smith is actually the most likely candidate to fill a spot at safety should one open up. Michigan also hasn't stopped recruitiing CA ATH JuJu Smith, who projects to safety; if you're wondering why they'd want him, click here.
By A Count Of One Heisman To Zero, I Say You're Wrong
Wilton Speight was named the Richmond Times Dispatch's Player of the Week after throwing for 282 yards and three touchdowns in week two; in the accompanying Q&A, he gave an answer that may rankle the Michigan faithful:
If he could have dinner with anyone dead or alive: “Peyton Manning.”
The correct answer, of course, is either Charles Woodson or Tom Brady. We'll forgive Speight because kids are kids and shouldn't listen to us crazy adults and our crazy biases anyway.
Oh, we'll also forgive him because he went on to complete 23-of-35 passes for 335 yards and four touchdowns (to one interception) to lead Collegiate to a 35-21 victory over Benedictine on Thursday. Brief local news highlights ahoy:
Damien Harris: Still Faster Than You, Most Everyone Else
It wouldn't be Monday if I wasn't posting some eye-popping stats from Damien Harris. This time, the 2015 five-star back rushed for 120 yards and a 77-yard touchdown... in the first half. A knee bruise briefly knocked Harris out of the game and likely still bothered him when he returned, as he finished with 21 carries for 142 yards in a 21-19 victory for Madison Southern, which is now 4-0 after winning just two games all of last season.
Other standouts from last weekend:
- Per Steve Lorenz, Michael Ferns tallied 15 tackles, a forced fumble, a pass breakup, and a rushing touchdown (32 yards, via the local news) in a 27-20 St. Clairsville victory.
- George Campbell caught three of East Lake's four completed passes for 72 yards and a touchdown as the Eagles romped to a 48-0 shutout win. Per Lorenz (same link as above), Mason Cole recorded five pancake blocks in 13 offensive snaps and tipped a pass on defense. Campbell also had three tackles and a sack from his defensive end spot. This also happened, because Florida.
- Lawrence Marshall forced a fumble on a sack that Southfield returned for a touchdown in their 48-0 pasting of Bloomfield Hills.
- Freddy Canteen caught touchdown passes of 48 and ten yards while Brandon Watson had three tackles and an interception; their efforts couldn't get Eastern Christian Academy past St. Peter's Prep, which won 35-32 on the strength of a 204-yard, four-touchdown rushing performance by Rutgers commit (and former Michigan target) Jonathan Hilliman.
- Noah Furbush recorded ten tackles (five solo) and two TFLs in Kenton's 66-14 blowout of Memorial.
September 16th, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^
You have to think we are ahead at this point, seeing as how he hasn't been to Florida and been to AA much more than Tuscaloosa.
Not to mention our lack of pass rush has to be obvious to him.
September 16th, 2013 at 3:04 PM ^
It's the Barons or the Knights! WTF!! /s I know, the high schools have merged, but being a mixed household (my wife being a former Lahser Dame and myself being a Baron) it's a little sad. Good thing they are keeping up the Andover tradition of getting obliterated by teams with D1 talent.
September 16th, 2013 at 3:38 PM ^
I'm a Baron (class of '77). The last time I heard they wanted to build a new high school which would combine both, on the Andover site. Now it looks like the combined schools are at the Lahser campus. So, I don't know whether this is a short term plan until they approve the new school or whether the plan to build the new high school is dead in the water.
http://www.bloomfield.org/bhhs/index.aspx
They must have decided in fairness to come up with an all new team name.
(EDIT: I should have looked on the other web page - they ARE building a new high school on the Andover site that will open in 2015: http://www.bloomfield.org/bhhs/about-us/index.aspx. )
September 16th, 2013 at 4:35 PM ^
'09 Grad here.
They are tearing down Andover now, and have all the students at Lahser (10-12) or Hickory Grove (9th), until the new school is built. So this is the first year of combined football teams, and they are absolutely terrible (a lot of players have already left the team).
September 16th, 2013 at 3:44 PM ^
They won one game in my three years at Andover. At least it was against Lahser.
September 16th, 2013 at 4:08 PM ^
In my day Andover teams were pretty competitive. The '74 team was actually extremely good and were ranked #9 in the state in Class A at one point (the largest size division at the time). There were 3 players on that team that eventually ended up playing at U-M. One Jerry Meter, ended up as Michigan's defensive captain in 1979 I believe.
September 17th, 2013 at 2:54 PM ^
September 16th, 2013 at 4:31 PM ^
+1 for a fellow Andover grad. We never beat Lahser though...
September 16th, 2013 at 7:30 PM ^
September 16th, 2013 at 3:06 PM ^
not that I have any insight, my interpretation of the quote from Smith and Lattimore is that lattimore is very much a OSU lock and wants Smith join him there too. Smith, being more realistic, thinks that it is 50-50 that he will get an offer from Meyer. Lattimore wants to help Smith by going on visit with him to AA.
September 16th, 2013 at 4:47 PM ^
Me too. Also I think we have a bird in the Hand... or a Hand in the bird. Or something.
September 16th, 2013 at 5:04 PM ^
September 16th, 2013 at 5:16 PM ^
Smith already has an offer from Meyer.
And it is committable, Glenville kids always have a spot once their offered.
September 16th, 2013 at 4:47 PM ^
September 16th, 2013 at 4:55 PM ^
The HS merger is just sad, reverse economic downturn.
September 16th, 2013 at 5:04 PM ^
September 17th, 2013 at 2:58 PM ^
September 16th, 2013 at 6:34 PM ^
MGoBlog is running highlights of my tiny, (formerly-in) Richmond high school getting beaten by a their rival, in a game that featured multiple M targets. In addition to Collegiate's Speight, Clelin Ferrell played in that game for my Cadets. And it wasn't even a basketball game- saints preserve us, life is strange.
Gotta disagree with that ESPN article from a couple of weeks ago: I really don't think it's that M doesn't recruit nationally, it's just that they also clean up locally.
September 17th, 2013 at 7:35 AM ^
September 16th, 2013 at 7:05 PM ^
I was at the ECA-SPP game, Canteen and Watson both played pretty well. Canteen got a little lucky on his first touchdown since the corner mistimed the jump, but still a really good play. His second touchdown was a really nice catch where he just got his feet down.
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