5-Star DE Eyabi Anoma: so you're saying there's a chance...
For the internet trolls who are purely concerned with crystal balls, read no further; 100% of crystal balls have Eyabi Anoma going to Alabama. However as ACE put it yesterday:
The coaches have mostly narrowed their focus to a short list of high-level prospects, including DEs Eyabi Anoma...
Michigan appears to be making a big push for him and they aren't shy about letting reporters know when asked. Echoing Ace, the freep reported yesterday that Michigan continues to make a heavy push for him. So I'm saying Michigan thinks they have a chance.
I've outlined below paraphrasing rationale for why 100% of crystal balls are saying Alabama, as well as hopefully more information on Eyabi and his situation. In any case we will all know tomorrow as he has moved up his announcement date to tomorrow at 2pm instead of Friday.
Essentially from what I can gather the crystal ball calls have been made for the below reasons:
1) Eyabi has visited Alabama four times, the most of any school, and is their top DE recruit of the year. He lists only Alabama, Michigan and Maryland as his top choices.
2) Sam Poggi, one of his current coaches has ties to Alabama (suspend your knowledge of the Michigan connections for a moment).
3) It makes a pretty trend; Eyabi would be the second five star DE recruit out of the North East to go to Alabama recently, after Terrell Hall (he changed his name to Terrell Lewis ) (suspend your knowledge, this time of Rashan Gary).
4) Most importantly, Eyabi is looking for two things that Alabama can provide- Training to get him to the NFL and a winning schedule. In the words of his own head coach:
Alabama does a great job of getting guys to the NFL and putting their players in position to succeed. Coach Saban runs a great program. You have the academic support in place. All of the little things are taken care of in that program. Eyabi is also super competitive and hates losing. Alabama is that type of team. They don’t lose much. He thrives in those types of environments. I think that’s why he’s very attracted to what they offer.
However this is far from a normal recruit, and the predictions on this guy deserve a second pass.
I've compiled what I hope is a better understanding of Eyabi and his decision process.
Eyabi has played football for eighteen months at this level, and had been focusing his high school career on playing basketball prior to transferring to St. Francis as a Junior. However having seen him up close and in action I'd say that his frame is too big to play the kind of basketball he does, though he could easily put on more weight as a DE. His assistant coach is none other than Sam Poggi who hopefully needs no introduction. In Poggi's own words:
He's the best player I've ever coached
Michigan first became aware of him at a satillite camp Harbaugh attended in the summer of 2016 as he was preparing to start playing for St. Francis. In his Michigan interactions he attended the summer BBQ, the MSU game, watched the Maryland game, and took his official for the OSU game. He has indicated that he's looking for two things out of a program. First, he's looking for a school that can really challenge him to be a better defensive player.
So when I go up (to Michigan) I want to see how they coach. Are they aggressive? Are they conservative? Are they (relaxed) or are they on me? I want my coach to be consistently on me. If I’m going to do something wrong, yell at me. I take criticism pretty well when it comes to football, so I want that. I don’t want nothing given to me. I don’t want no promises. As long as that happens, I think that will be a good visit.
The second thing he is concerned about is getting to stay close to his sister Amiya who is also a senior (though they are not twins). He's the only boy in the middle of six sisters, so that should tell you all you need to know about his ability to thrive under constructive criticism. Amiya is looking at schools also, and they really want to compete together athletically at the next level. As a junior she was a state champ for track and field and also set the all time state record for the triple jump. In an interview with 247 Eyobi talked about the competitive nature between himself and his almost twin, and it doesn't seem like getting in together somewhere will be an issue.
(We) have many of the same scholarship offers and talk about attending the same school.
As far as what Amiya wants, academic wise the choice between Alabama and Michigan is fairly clear. While the SEC (to a lesser extent Alabama) has been a traditional powerhouse of women's Track and Field, Michigan just completed a state of the art track and field facility and roped in a very competitive 2017 recruiting class as a result. Amiya would be hard pressed not to consider Michigan if that's what her brother is doing.
With his two stated considerations above, I'd agree that at one point he may have made an informal decision with his sister to attend Alabama. However there's an important timeline that bears review, a narrative of facts if you will.
The day before Eyabi made his official visit to Tuscaloosa, Alabama's Defensive Coordinator Jeremy Pruitt announced he was leaving the Tide to be Tennessee's new head coach and was taking with him one of his assistants, Brian Niedermeyer. Pruitt then began a recruiting blitz for the Vols and wasn't around helping to prepare Alabama for the Clemson game (let alone helping with recruiting for Alabama) until the beginning of this week. Consider this development with Eyabi's need for good coaching as a new player, his desire to mesh with coaches, and not even knowing who the new Alabama defensive coordinator will be.
Soon after this Eyabi posted two similar tweets in what I can only consider a shot across the bow to anyone listening.
I am not committed to any school still weighing my options
December 19th, 2017 at 3:25 PM ^
lol nope he is going to bama, don't overthink it. Currently only Michigan guys think they have any shot with Anoma, Chase Oweh, or Petit-Frere. Its possible everyone else is wrong and the people who are saying what you want are right, but its way more likely everyone else is right.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:26 PM ^
Shut up, Maizen!!!
December 19th, 2017 at 3:33 PM ^
What about Tyler Friday? Thought UofM had a good chance with him.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:56 PM ^
Friday seems to be a Michigan lean, national guys are in on Michigan for him too.
December 19th, 2017 at 4:26 PM ^
Baumgardner had Lorenz on the Michigan Rant podcast today, and he said he thinks Friday will come to Michigan.
December 19th, 2017 at 8:01 PM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 3:26 PM ^
That is Saban's DOB. He is 66 years old. I'm not sure he will be around Tuscaloosa for that many more years. Even if he does stick around, how much longer before he starts losing a step like Bowden, Spurier and that creepy freak from PSU. I know we don't necessarily do negative recuiting but hopefully somebody is getting the word out to some of these kids that Saban is old. Lord knows our competition tells our recruits that "(Insert NFL team here) is still in play" with Harbaugh.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:43 PM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 3:53 PM ^
Dabo is not going to leave Clemson to follow up arguably one of the best CFB coaches of all time. I think he wants to build his own legacy at Clemson where he is already the best coach they've ever had.
December 19th, 2017 at 4:11 PM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 5:04 PM ^
When mama calls...
December 19th, 2017 at 3:27 PM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 3:28 PM ^
and didn't get. Can anybody think of one?
But I'm a homer. I can't imagine anyone on defense who takes his craft seriously wouldn't want to be a part of a Don Brown coached defense.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:47 PM ^
that Nick Saban wanted Rashan Gary.
December 19th, 2017 at 4:12 PM ^
I'm pretty sure Saban also wanted Aubrey Solomon.
December 19th, 2017 at 4:16 PM ^
I remember that Saban wanted Lewis really bad, too. I think he saw him at a camp and by that time he was already committed to us.
December 19th, 2017 at 4:22 PM ^
He sure did. That's exactly how it went down. I remember that. Saban was very impressed with him.
December 19th, 2017 at 5:43 PM ^
He wasn't wrong.
December 19th, 2017 at 5:09 PM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 3:29 PM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 3:30 PM ^
They should point out to him the career Hand has had there, during the last 4 years we probably have 10 guys with better stats then Hand and I hear no talk of his draft status
December 19th, 2017 at 3:36 PM ^
OK, but Hand was choosing between Brady Hoke's deteriorating program and Nick Saban's Death Star. I don't blame him at all for going to Alabama.
Hand's slow development can also be attributed to some bad decisions on his part and a couple unfortunate injuries. He will still likely get drafted.
December 19th, 2017 at 4:07 PM ^
My biggest issue with Hand was when he said one of the deciding factors was education, huh?
December 19th, 2017 at 4:22 PM ^
They all say that just to appease their parents.
December 19th, 2017 at 5:26 PM ^
Good point
December 19th, 2017 at 5:49 PM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 6:07 PM ^
on their engineering school while we were pushing him towards a business program. Obviously the schools aren't comparable, but Bama focused a lot on his academics in Hand's recruitment. I bet they don't do that with most of their players.
Having very competitve and demanding majors isn't always an advantage in recruiting.
December 20th, 2017 at 7:50 AM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 3:38 PM ^
Yeah their one miss who is still likely to be drafted in the 6th round can totally counteract the parade of first rounders and multiple top 10 picks they've put in at the position over the last decade
December 19th, 2017 at 3:41 PM ^
Hand has 7 solo tackles, 14 asst tackles, 2.5 TFL and 2 sacks for his senior year.
Rashan Gary has 22 solo tackles, 31 asst tackles, 10.5 TFL and 4.5 sacks (and a bunch of near misses) for his sophomore year.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:59 PM ^
Hand missed some games and then played a few more through an MCL injnury.
He also had to sit for a few plays after his DUI.
December 19th, 2017 at 4:13 PM ^
And sat out most of his freshmen year sophomore year and junior year because players in front of him were better. I'm just saying playing time and the path to the pros is what most kids are looking for. If he had come to Michigan he would most likely been drafted last year not going late round after his senior year. One will never know
December 19th, 2017 at 4:24 PM ^
Going to Alabama is an excellent choice if you are looking for a path to the pros..
December 19th, 2017 at 5:45 PM ^
The Univeristy of Jim Harbaugh ain't a bad choice either . . .
December 19th, 2017 at 5:50 PM ^
Right, but it was University of Brady Hoke when Hand was making his decision, which is what we are talking about.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:31 PM ^
and hope Clemson beats their asses, that is all.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:49 PM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 4:17 PM ^
I have to agree 100%!
December 19th, 2017 at 5:40 PM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 3:36 PM ^
I saw a blurb about this on ESPN today, talking about how Michigan was still in the running. I'm about 99% sure he gone, but hey, you never know. And we haven't exactly done poorly with D Line recruiting lately, and pumping out all americans and all conference guys routinely can't hurt.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:41 PM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 5:05 PM ^
Chuck Norris doesn't invest in recruiting, recruiting invests in Chuck Norris.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:45 PM ^
Hurst going high in the draft might really help pull in these top defensive line recruits.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:43 PM ^
I don't blame him for wanting the free Charger.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:47 PM ^
This type of post epitomises why points do not fully correlate with good content. Excellent work and thanks for sharing!
I think his sister is our true shot at getting him. Fingers crossed, we'll find out soon enough.
December 19th, 2017 at 3:50 PM ^
December 19th, 2017 at 4:02 PM ^
So theres a chance we finish second again, watch this kid ride the pine for Bama for a year or two, then he explodes and is a fist round nfl talent... Ok I can believe that.
December 19th, 2017 at 4:05 PM ^
and we won't have to endure one of these "Chinese Water Torture" recruitments like we've had in the past (a number of which were cited above).