Thursday Recruitin' Has Gumby Arm Comment Count

Ace

Coach Plastic Man

The satellite camp tour certainly can't produce anything stranger than shirtless Peruballing Harbaugh, right?

Never mind!

Michigan has made their way through two stops in Texas and is now in California; meanwhile, the Sound Mind Sound Body camp (TomVH preview here) is underway in Michigan, and many of the participants in that camp are expected to drop by Ann Arbor this weekend.

The satellite camps are moving so quickly—and the visitor lists have been so fluid—that I can only say I'm doing by best to hit the highlights here. Coverage of all this is certainly going to bleed into next week as reporters are able to catch up with the various high-profile participants.

Top performers from the Houston camp included four-star OLB Jeffrey McCullough and 2017 five-star DT Marvin Wilson, who has Michigan in his top five, per Steve Lorenz. Four-star TX DT Jordan Elliott, a Houston commit, also dropped by to connect with the coaching staff, per Scout's Ahmard Vital.

The Dallas camp featured a lot of talent, including top-100 OT Jean Delance, who told Lorenz that he's got a "great relationship with the staff," and he plans to visit Ann Arbor soon. Three-star DE Rahssan Thornton, whose recruitment has seemingly become a Michigan/LSU battle, told 247's EJ Holland($) it was "the best camp I've gone to that I can remember." (He also said "Jim Harbaugh is like someone's cool dad.") 2017 five-star QB Shawn Robinson called Harbaugh "a quarterback genius."

Michigan leads for a couple prospects from their camps in Florida. Three-star DE Terrell Lucas told Steve Lorenz that Michigan "is on top" in his recruitment ($). He laid out a timeline for The Wolverine's Tim Sullivan ($):

"I like the whole thing about Michigan," Lucas explained. "When I hear 'Michigan,' I hear 'family.' You think of Ann Arbor, the town, you don't just think of the football team, you think of the city itself.

"Right now I'm open and trying to keep my options open. I'm considering all the colleges and trying to evaluate. I don't think it should take me that long to make my decision on which college I'm going to go to. Well before the end of the summer, I will have made my decision. End of the month or two I'll be done with it."

If he sticks to that timeline, Michigan is in very good shape. The Wolverines also emerged as the leader for DE/TE Rashad Weaver, who was offered as a jumbo athlete a few days after performing in front of the coaches, whose promise to uphold their end of the bargain stood out to Weaver, per TMI's Brice Marich:

“I would have to say yes (Michigan leads),” said Weaver. “At first when they offered, I had no leader, but when he said they would honor my commitment even if I got hurt, then that put them at the top of my list. They are the only coaches that have told me that.”

That's all from the camp tour for the moment; with SMSB this weekend, there will be much more next week.

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

Visits And New Offers

A few prospects decided to drop by campus on their way to SMSB, including five-star 2017 WR Osiris St. Brown, who visited with younger brother Amon-Ra St. Brown (2018 WR). Oldest brother Equanimeous St. Brown signed with Notre Dame in the 2015 class. While the Irish will be serious competition, Osiris told Lorenz that the visit impressed even though most of the coaches weren't around to host (Jay Harbaugh flew back early from California), and Michigan will be in the mix going forward ($):

"Michigan is definitely a contender," he said. "I don't have a top list or anything at this point, but Michigan is going to be around as long as the relationships I build stay strong."

In addition to the St. Browns, Canadian WR Chase Claypool was also on campus yesterday, per Lorenz ($).

An upcoming weekend visit to keep an eye on: Michigan will host the Hollywood (FL) Flanagan trio of four-star LB Devin Bush Jr., three-star S Devin Gil (Miami commit), and two-star S Josh Metellus, and M's outlook is quite good with all three, per Lorenz ($). Bush and Gil have shown high interest for a while, and Metellus seems quite intrigued by the offer he added this week. Devin Bush Sr., Flanagan's head coach and co-host of one of the Florida camps, had a lot of good things to say about Michigan's camp tour in this post by Eric Rutter.

Three-star FL OLB Jonathan Jones, who's long maintained Michigan as his leader, will also make his long-awaited unofficial this weekend.

In offer updates, Michigan gave one out to three-star CA S Troy Dye, whose recruitment has really blown up of late. They also offered a trio of 2017 prospects. Four-star UT RB/ATH Sione Heimuli-Lund told TMI's Brice Marich that adding a Michigan offer was "unreal." The Wolverine's Brandon Brown reported offers out to four-star TN RB Cordarrian Richardson and three-star TX OT Walker Little, both of whom (especially Richardson) boast impressive early offer sheets.

Peters Gets Elite11 Finals Invite

Well, that didn't take long. While Peters earned his Elite11 Finals invite, Michael Onwenu impressed at the Rivals Five-Star Challenge, and he was named one of the ten prospects who most helped his stock by Mike Farrell:

Checking in at 6-foot-2 and 367 pounds, Onwenu showed off amazing feet for a massive interior lineman and he reset as well as anyone. He washed opponents across the middle when they tried to go inside him and he extended his arms well and got his feet right when they tried to go outside. His balance was very good and he was solid inside and even outside at tackle.

Onwenu might get a bump in the rankings, though as a guard-only prospect on the offensive line there's probably a limit to how high he can get.

Etc.

Four-star CA S Marquel Dismuke decommitted from Cal yesterday, and soon after Rivals' Adam Gorney tweeted that Michigan and Nebraska "have emerged" in his recruitment.

Four-star NJ DE Ron Johnson told Tim Sullivan that Michigan still leads for him, and he plans to take all five officials—including one to Ann Arbor—before making a decision by the end of his senior season ($).

Happy trails to three-star NJ OL Will Fries, who committed to Penn State on Tuesday. Michigan was close here, but they've got plenty of other O-line prospects who are candidates to join the class.

Comments

Rabbit21

June 12th, 2015 at 10:11 AM ^

As much fun as that would be, I don't quite buy it.  It's so hard to pull players out of the south that a windfall like that just doesn't seem likely.  That said, I love the interest being shown and think it's a great sign for the future.  Looking forward to seeing what the ext few years will bring.

robpollard

June 11th, 2015 at 2:12 PM ^

This may have been covered somewhere else, but I recall when discussing one of the S CA swarm dates, the schools were local (e.g., USC, San Diego) and then Dartmouth. Now, I click on that article about the Miami camp and the schools are FIU, FAU, USF and...Dartmouth.

Is there like one coach who's just going to all the camps and has hitched a ride on the UM plane, or what? Or did someone have 100,000 frequent flyer miles that were expiring and decided to burn them? Lot of travel for a 1-AA school.

getsome

June 11th, 2015 at 2:47 PM ^

or a friend of the program agrees following harbaugh and staff around the country could never be a bad idea for dartmouth coaches and offers transportation?   who knows?  

cool to see so many involved, especially the other college coaches which only enhances the experience for all attendees.  it appears the only parties not on board with the camps are coaches, fans, media, etc from powerhouse programs who likely feel threatened

Magnus

June 11th, 2015 at 5:31 PM ^

There is something neat about taking recruits out of Ohio. First, because we get some good talent there. But also because it potentially takes talent away from Ohio State and Michigan State.

That being said, I don't think the 2016 class is particularly strong in the state of Ohio.

But like you imply, there are good players from all over the place. I care less about geography than talent, as we all do.

JFW

June 12th, 2015 at 11:39 AM ^

IIRC the biggest concern about the lack of midwest recruiting prior to that was that some of the local HS coaches felt alienated. 

Now, take that with whatever grains of salt you want. I get the impression sometimes coaches look for things to get bugged over. 

All in all, so far I'm very happy. I don't believe Harbaugh with alienate anyone in the search for talent. 

autodrip4-1968

June 11th, 2015 at 2:33 PM ^

The praise being garnered from the coaches, player's. The Devin Bush Sr article is a powerful offensive for the continuation of these camp's. All about the kid's.

Sopwith

June 11th, 2015 at 9:00 PM ^

from Imhotep Institute?

From the BBC History page:

Imhotep was chief architect to the Egyptian pharaoh Djoser (reigned c.2630 - c.2611 BC). He was responsible for the world's first known monumental stone building, the Step Pyramid at Sakkara and is the first architect we know by name.


A commoner by birth, Imhotep's intelligence and determination enabled him to rise through the ranks to become one of Djoser's most trusted advisors, as well as the architect of the pharaoh's tomb, the Step Pyramid. 

Imhotep's influence lived on well after his death. In the New Kingdom he was venerated as the patron of scribes, personifying wisdom and education. In the 'Turin Papyri' from this period he is also described as the son of Ptah, chief god of Memphis, in recognition of his role as a wise councillor.

CAwolverine

June 11th, 2015 at 2:41 PM ^

It's going to be interesting when the Michigan kids that had a chance to commit and didn't recognize too late that Jim Harbaugh and UM are sparking major interest and will get top flight recruits nationwide and their spots are now gone. I see a bunch of bellyaching in the future when these kids are on the outside looking in. I can just hear it now, Harbaugh is not focused on Michigan kids....

alum96

June 11th, 2015 at 3:06 PM ^

I like seeing all these safeties all the sudden - it was the major hole in this class.  Need some CB interest too.  Enis might turn into a safety too but we have a whole back 7 to rebuild from scratch over the next 2 years aside from a handful of players.

Rabbit21

June 11th, 2015 at 8:59 PM ^

It's almost as if the point you're making and the link at the bottom of your sig are saying the same thing.  I feel my mind is being blown in a time warp and I cannot figure out which came first.

To be clear I love the work you're doing, just wanted to have a little fun with it.