Grimes now package deal
Scout is reporting that Grimes is now a package deal with Clarance Murphy. Not happy about this...
http://michigan.scout.com/a.z?s=162&p=2&c=890425&ssf=1&RequestedURL=htt…
August 20th, 2009 at 10:47 PM ^
Murphy is sporting South Florida and Wisconsin as his best offers and isn't rated by Scout.
August 20th, 2009 at 10:57 PM ^
His other offers come from Maryland, Colorado State and Florida International. Not quite sure what to think of this yet. Rivals has him listed as a 3 star, so he can't be that bad, right?
There may be bigger fish to fry at this point in the game.
August 20th, 2009 at 10:50 PM ^
in a position of need. How is this any different than Robinson / Witty? I would take it and be happy to secure Grimes with a future potential contributor.
August 20th, 2009 at 10:51 PM ^
We don't have the luxury of giving a scholarship to someone just to get his teammate.
August 21st, 2009 at 11:02 AM ^
Do you think Dior Mathis now becomes an option again?
August 20th, 2009 at 11:15 PM ^
because they wanted witty on his own merit, they're not even really recruiting grimes' teammate at this point.
August 20th, 2009 at 11:14 PM ^
if I ever played high school football I would have become best friends with the best player on the team. Woo free education and athletic gear.
August 20th, 2009 at 11:26 PM ^
Georgia is in no position to accommodate his friend, they're even closer to their limit that UM. I really can't see Grimes picking off Murphy's current offer list. It will be interesting to see if a team with an extra schollie to burn comes knocking but Grimes' two favorites don't have the room for Murphy.
August 20th, 2009 at 11:26 PM ^
we had a few decommits and easily give up one for a 4* QB to create something of depth at a severe position of need. We don't have walk ons starting at CB now nor in the future so a sub standard recruit in this situation will not get an offer. Especially since we have Cullen pretty much in the bag, just let him get some visits out of the way.
August 20th, 2009 at 11:42 PM ^
Don't count your Pennsylvania CBs before they're hatched.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:57 AM ^
not why witty was offered
August 21st, 2009 at 1:02 AM ^
Was it his 2 stars or his two other offers that attracted us?
August 21st, 2009 at 1:47 AM ^
Probably the fact that he was supposed to be faster than Denard pre-injury, he seems to love football, and he plays CB. Those are 3 things in his favor.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:42 PM ^
Alright. The first doesn't change the fact that he had a potentially career altering injury that made everyone but us, Kansas State (also after Denard) and Florida International refrain from offering him. Secondly, I highly doubt there are many prospects out there who dislike football. And he played CB... so does this kid (Grimes, not Murphy). And he does it without having suffered a severe injury that makes his ability to contribute questionable.
August 21st, 2009 at 1:18 PM ^
Adrian Witty was also 1st team all-state his Junior year before the injury
August 21st, 2009 at 1:29 PM ^
And that changes the fact that he was injured how? That's like someone saying "Antonio Bass was a top recruit before his injury".
August 21st, 2009 at 4:27 PM ^
And if he doesn't recover from his injury he gets a medical redshirt. How is this a problem?
August 21st, 2009 at 4:57 PM ^
The point is, would we take the risk if Denard wasn't guaranteed? Probably not.
August 22nd, 2009 at 12:47 AM ^
Maybe, maybe not, but we can't prove it either way. The risk/reward is clearly acceptable with getting Denard though, so w/e.
August 22nd, 2009 at 6:22 PM ^
And Adrian Witty was able to come back and play part of his senior season and run track. Did his torn ACL scare away programs? Sure it did. But to assert that we would have offered a scholarship to a potentially useless athlete just to pick up his teammate is inaccurate.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:49 AM ^
Fortunately, our coaches aren't people who hang out on blogs and evaluate players based on Rivals and Scout. It was probably neither the two stars nor his other offers that attracted them to him, if I had to guess.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:38 PM ^
That's a great strawman. The point was that 117 schools deemed Witty unworthy of an offer and Rivals and Scout deemed him nothing more than a two-star prospect. Funny how people will argue how important offers are when it's to show how great our class is but when someone notes a player is sporting almost no offers than suddenly they're irrelevant.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:30 PM ^
First of all, feel free to find where I slagged off on a recruit because of a dearth of offers. Until proven otherwise, I have faith that Rod and the rest of the coaches generally know how to spot talent that will fit their system(s).
Secondly, you stated, sarcastically, that it must have been that two star rating and that long offer list that attracted the coaches to Witty. What I'm saying is that the coaches probably did not give two shits about either his star rating or his offer list, and you implying that they did is an example of blogosphere recruitnik navel-gazing. While the coaches might not have noticed Witty were he not at the same school as Robinson, I'm guessing they offered him because they thought he had potential. Seeing as how only a couple of other schools had offered Witty, Michigan probably did not need to extend a schollie to him as part of a package deal to get Shoelace's signature, unless you think he was just about to go to Florida Atlantic.
August 20th, 2009 at 11:31 PM ^
If this is the case, then it looks like Maryland or USF are their likely destinations.
August 20th, 2009 at 11:31 PM ^
That sucks. I wonder which of the schools chasing him will want to extend his friend a scholarship in order to get Grimes. Maybe others will be in the same boat that we are and not be willing to do it. If that happens, and the interest starts to dwindle for some of those schools (causing his options to narrow negatively), maybe Grimes will reconsider. [This is all wishful thinking on my part, I know]
August 20th, 2009 at 11:57 PM ^
I say give the tree star a schollie and then as soon as Grimes gets unpacked in his dorm somehow find a violation of team rules like Feagin and send him packing. Joking, Joking, just joking.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:12 AM ^
I'm not seeing the problem with offering a kid who fits into our class in a position of need who sports four BCS offers. We should have almost 30 scholies.
August 21st, 2009 at 10:15 AM ^
I agree.
August 21st, 2009 at 10:26 AM ^
We have a few options at cornerback. We don't necessarily need to burn two scholarships to get Grimes and a slightly-out-of-his-league DE (and I only call him that because, obviously, if we weren't going to offer him based on his own merits, then he might be out of his league).
I'd rather offer J.D. Pride a scholarship to get Seantrel Henderson than offer Murphy a scholarship to get Grimes.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:40 PM ^
That's nice. There's 6 months until signing day. I never said offer him tomorrow... but will recruiting them both hurt?
August 21st, 2009 at 2:23 PM ^
Considering I mentioned four players, I don't know who you mean by "both."
However, if you mean both Pride and Murphy (in addition to Henderson and Grimes), then yes, I think it could hurt. Coaches only have so much time in a day. Recruiting guys you don't really want is potentially harmful to how much time you put into recruiting guys you DO want.
Anyway, not sure why you're so hurt by this. My previous post wasn't rude at all.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:34 AM ^
Oh well about Grimes, we have other corners to seek!
August 21st, 2009 at 12:35 AM ^
isn't 25 the limit in the big ten?
August 21st, 2009 at 2:51 AM ^
Just checking online... Penn St. gave out 27 last year.
http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/commitlist.asp
http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=9&c=8&toinid=688&yr=2009
August 21st, 2009 at 4:35 AM ^
in the NCAA, not just the B10. But early enrollees can count toward last year's class, allowing a team to hand out more than 25/season.
August 21st, 2009 at 8:06 AM ^
28 was the big 10 limit last I heard
August 21st, 2009 at 8:07 AM ^
Yes.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:53 AM ^
That's a bummer, I always thought that Grimes could have been a good corner for us. He had a lot of big name offers and seemed high on Michigan until this point.
August 21st, 2009 at 6:40 AM ^
worse still is what he said regarding a UM visit
August 21st, 2009 at 7:24 AM ^
I don't have a Scout subscription, so I can't read the article. I know in the header he said "We're definitely going to college together," but as we've all seen in the past, package deals aren't always package deals. Early in the recruiting process, kids say they're package deals...and when it comes down to the end of the process, they both want to do what's best for themselves.
So while this probably isn't a good development, it's not necessarily a death knell for Michigan and Grimes.
Also, I haven't seen any film of Murphy, but he could earn an offer. Michigan has ZERO defensive ends in this class right now and needs a couple. Most of the guys we've offered aren't that interested, so don't be surprised to see some new offers going out. I don't know if that will include Murphy or not, but it's possible.
August 21st, 2009 at 8:09 AM ^
fully agree
August 21st, 2009 at 8:40 AM ^
....by claiming he's a "package deal" with a good friend or teammate, trying in a way to boost his teammate's offer list? Maybe Grimes is doing this as a favor to a friend and, once the friend has more offers since schools want Grimes, the two then go their separate ways. It seems a Favre-ian way to play the scholarship system, but hey, the schools are doing what they feel is in their best interests throughout this process, so should the student-athletes.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:00 AM ^
This theory is brought up anytime a kid says he's a package deal. In my opinion, this is way too conniving for a high school kid. I don't think 16- and 17-year-old kids are thinking "Fuck the system!" as much as a lot of conspiracy theorists want to believe.
Is it possible? Yes. But it's probably not likely. They probably really do want to attend college together...until Grimes realizes that Florida Atlantic probably doesn't give him much of a chance to play on the big stage and get drafted.
In the next couple months, don't be surprised if you hear Grimes saying, "We were talking about being a package deal, but I need to do what's best for me and he needs to do what's best for him. If that's the same school, so be it, but it doesn't have to be." I've seen that scenario play out several times in my three or four years of following college recruiting.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:51 AM ^
...and I think you're right regarding the kids, but in considering characters surrounding the college game (I'm thinking the Butler character that has landed Bryce Brown in serious jeopardy of ineligibility), I wouldn't put it past the adults to have the kids try to set the system up like this.
One example that definitely supports your position is Seantrel Henderson. I never heard Florida, Ohio State, USC or Michigan offer J.D. Pride, and it really hasn't helped Minnesota that they offered Pride. The LOLphers will probably be stuck with Pride, at a position they don't need another player, and without Henderson.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:22 AM ^
Wilkins is likely a DE, I think, but yeah there is still need for more DE's.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:55 AM ^
I think he'll end up at DE, but he was recruited as a Quick.
Either way, our depth chart at DE (and I'm including a couple guys who are DT/DEs) goes...
Graham - Sr.
Banks - RS Jr.
Patterson - RS Jr.
Van Bergen - RS So.
Lalota - Fr.
It's possible that Patterson and/or Banks won't come back for fifth years, so we're pretty thin at those positions.
August 21st, 2009 at 10:02 AM ^
Yeah you're not going to get any argument from me on this one. Other than the CB, the DE depth scares me the most.
August 21st, 2009 at 3:36 PM ^
I think it's safe to say that one of Wilkins, Roh or Paskorz will be a DE and not a quick, likelihood in that order, IMO. That gives us 5 guys for 2 spots, only one of which would be a true frosh. That's not ideal, but not terrible either. Especially because, as I think you have said before, it's not unlikely that next year we see the front three of Campbell, Martin and RVB, which helps the depth at DE significantly.
August 21st, 2009 at 6:03 PM ^
I really think Roh will stay at Quick. Putting him in a 5- or a 3-tech totally negates his strength at rushing the passer.
Anyway, I also get the feeling that one or both of Banks and Patterson will not return next year. I have no inside information, but considering that neither has played very much, I think somebody might say, "I'm tired of doing all this work and not getting on the field" and take off after he graduates.