Hello: DE Kechaun Bennett
Not sure if this impacts our recruitment of Dallas Turner. He may have a spot in the class no matter what. But Bennett is a WDE/SAM who is probably going to be used in a similar way as Uche.
Junior season highlights
I love the sounds of high school football whoops and cowbells.
I don't think we're really in contention for Turner anymore. Just hoping this doesn't affect Quintin Somerville
I think they’re still pursuing Turner especially with 2 commits as his teammates. But it’s clear that it’s a long shot and he has already said that Bama is his leader so far. Pretty sure Somerville is also a take no matter what and he would have been committed by now if he could make it to campus. Hell, maybe this expedites his timeline and he commits to ensure his spot in the class.
Seriously... spots are filling up. This is looking like a really strong class.
What road is he standing on? Stadium Blvd? Dope edits need to be geographically correct.
Nah, Crisler is to the left of the Stadium, so he is to the north. Maybe on Greene up by Hill St.?
He's standing on top of my tailgate FFS.
Greene St looking south towards the Stadium, which turns into Keech Ave with Kipke Dr on the left. Of course, this pic is really stretching the imagination lol
Noice!
New England STUD! Looks like a beast! Welcome!
Is it pronounced Keyshawn? As in, "throw me the damn ball?"
Hey, a real commit! I’ll assume that’s why Rocco didn’t really commit and he will tomorrow.
Impressive HUDL video....looks quick and explosive. Could be the next Uche. Welcome aboard Kechaun!
HURRAY!!!! At least we did get a commit today.
Saved your ass haha
User name checks out.
A nice pickup and hopefully one of a couple on the line.
Wolves are on a roll!
Wolves?
Is there a problem here?
Before anyone talks shit about stars, I encourage you to watch his tape. There's A LOT to like.
Reminder: if Josh Uche and Kwity Paye were re-ranked (with the benefit of hindsight), they would be solid 4 stars.
I think we're getting a DUDE.
ETA: Bennett is a low 4 star in the 24/7 composite and a high 3 star in 24/7's individual rankings.
He’s also a composite 4 star and a 3 star on 247 by the smallest of margins.
#1 player in CT per rivals. People complaining about him being from New England probably also were chapped about Tarik transferring to Texas. Can't have it both ways.
+1
Yeah, I decided to add that in.
Bennett is skinny but with a tall, wide frame. That bodes very well for him once he gets college S&C.
He looks like he has some speed but he's undersized. He's gonna have to put on a lot of pounds to not get bullied around in the run game.
He'll likely need a redshirt like Uche did.
Uche came in at 6'2" and 212-215 pounds and left at 6'2" and 245-250.
Bennett will need to go through a similar transformation.
This is going to sound very condescending but... duhhhhhh! Almost everyone needs to add weight when they get to the college level.
I think the only recruits that don't add weight when they get to college are QB's and Rashan Gary types.
Michigan is up to 4th in Rivals rankings and 5th in 247. The problem of course is that Ohio State is not only 1st, it’s basically in an entirely different league.
The average stars mean more than ranking at this point. Multiple team lower have much better averages. I would say it’s right about the #10 class at this point.
This seems like an average class for us lately. Just for giggles, I did some class calculator scenarios.
Scenario 1 - Closing about as good as we possible can. I still think we have shots at higher ranked guys, and I LOVE some of the guys with lower rankings like Hisatake. I digress.
Offense:
Donovan Edwards
Cristian Dixon
Xavier Worthy
Rocco Spindler
Drew Kendall
Defense:
George Rooks
Rayshaun Benny
Quintin Somerville
That puts us at 26 commits. Projected composite score of 285.48. Normally that's good for right around the 5th ranked class in the nation. Pretty damn good in my opinion. Not a total pipe dream, but I don't think we'll close like that.
Scenario 2 -
We don't get Edwards, we get Prophet Brown.
We don't get Spindler, but we do get Kendall
We don't get Rooks, we get Schuster
We don't get Somerville, we get Hisatake
We don't get Fidone, we call it good at TE.
We don't get Worthy, we get Andrel Anthony
That's only 24 commits and a score of 259.09. Normally that would rank 10-15th in the nation. Not awful. That's definitely the floor.
My gut says that even in floor scenario we have guys that are wins for our scouting department and will get a bump. I'll say 12th is the floor. 5th is the ceiling. The commits have been so early for many teams, but I think that some top prospects will be open to recruiting until very late in the cycle. Given the interest we have from some legitimate top targets, I would say a playoff run opens the door for us to get into rarified air in this cycle, as opposed to a delay until next years. More of our usual recent results will have us around 7th-8th, which has been pretty typical.
Yeah you are about correct imo. Top 5 is semi realistic and top 15 is very likely. I will make my official guess at #9 in the end lol. Which is plenty good enough to compete. I think to win a national title or become even with OSU, uofm just needs to keep grinding away with very good but not elite classes, until things finally go right and make the playoffs. At that point the recruiting bump would hopefully happen. And there is always the NLI rights we can hope to parlay into better recruiting.
Couldn't agree more. Auburn hasn't had more talent than us since 2016 and they've found a way to make the Iron Bowl a game and take 2 out of the last 3. I thought UM bullied Alabama fairly well most of the bowl game and got beat strictly by the big play differential. Mac Jones hit his deep throws and Shea... Did not. We are recruiting well enough to compete. Need better QB play and defensive coordination in big games.
I think you guys summed it up pretty well. I don't care about winning a national title right now (something Michigan has only done once in a million years). I care about being competitive with the elite schools at least to the tune of a ~25% success rate in those games. If that happens, we'll get into the BTT game periodically with a shot at the playoff. Once we get to that step, we can start discussing the next step to the elite level (OSU, Bama, Clemson).
1 - We need elite QB play (see LSU)
2 - We need our D to be better against elite offenses (keep us in the game)
3 - We need some damn luck.
On the last point, we've definitely had some luck against lesser teams but against top teams we always seem to be on the wrong side of a 50-50 play or call. Think about how the last 3 years play out if we win the 2016 OSU game. Think about Harbaugh's reputation if the fluke punt against MSU doesn't happen...or if John O'Korn doesn't have to play in close losses to MSU and OSU. Or last year if we get some breaks against PSU. Too many to count.
As long as that's taken in context - Michigan has a kicker in the class with an 81 rating, and they've got a couple guys at the bottom who may or may not end up in the class. It's very typical that some guys who commit to Michigan are culled along the way, especially those at the bottom. Nick Patterson last year, for example. That's been a thing with Harbaugh's classes all along.
At this point it just is what it is. You can't realistically expect to catch up. OSU has had three straight grand slam football coach hires. Not home run hires. Grand slam hires. They're in the midst of a 20 year golden age that still somehow looks like its only just getting started. With Saban's tenure at Alabama probably winding down, and my still being convinced that Orgeron just caught lightning in a bottle with Burrow and Brady, there is a very strong possibility that this will be OSU's and Clemson's world for the foreseeable future.
All Michigan can do at this point, and all it ever really could do, is get the best guys in that it can, coach them up as best they can, and just see what happens.
Legitimate edit
Dude is crunching quarterbacks. Yikes.
Great to have Kechawn as a fine Wolverine!
Kechaun*
Nice pick up if he truly is a WDE. Seems like after this year, Ojabo is really the only pure rush end on the roster. Feels like the other DEs on the roster (Lewis, McGregor, Morris, Upshaw, Newburg) fit more of an anchor type DE, so nice to add some guys who can get after the QB. Hoping we add Somerville as well.
Jaylen Harrell comes to mind. Vilain should be able to come back in '21 if he so desires.
Yeah, forgot about Harrell, good call there. I saw Vilain listed as a RS senior somewhere, but I hope you're right and that he has another year
#1 ranked player in Connecticut, obviously another Don Brown special.
Time will tell if this obvious infiltration of the east coast, in terms of recruiting strategy will pay off.
It'll pay off just like CFB Risk paid off for us.
We're gonna finish 2nd in the country???
Offer list says high 3* to low 4*...Borderline
Tough call for Maizen on whether to burn $5 on this one.