Remaining defensive recruits?

Submitted by Blue_Bull_Run on
I'm not a huge recruitnik, so I'll probably require a little patience ... But what recruits could we still land on the defensive side of the ball? Obviously I'm really hoping for for least two out of Christian, Grimes, and Mathis. Then, I hear about a large DT from Pahokee, Richard Ash. That's good, too. What we really need are a few more LBs, right?

BrianinGR

November 14th, 2009 at 5:37 PM ^

Josh Furman would be HUGE. He would most likely walk in and start. Was a visitor for the ND game. Olanyian would also be a huge get...both are linebackers. For further knowledge look towards the recruiting board. Tim does a great job with it.

TheIcon34

November 14th, 2009 at 5:41 PM ^

No recruit should ever be defensive when they pick Michigan, because that would be offensive to all of us Michigan fans. Pryor was probably defensive because of his little tosu thing and alleged booster money or something.

spacemanspiff231

November 14th, 2009 at 5:57 PM ^

Anybody that says either Furman or Olaniyan would start obviously haven't been watching the Wolverines this year. Hopefully Furman is as fast as his 40 times on the recruiting sites, which have him in the 4.4 range, b/c then he could redshirt and learn to play safety. Otherwise, he's gonna have to redshirt anyway to take a year or two to bulk up. Both of these players are only around 200 lbs. Furman is even smaller than that. Anyone with half a brain that is a Michigan fan would know that our defense's biggest problem, aside from our secondary's inability to play coverage, is our undersized front seven. We are a very VERY small defense and Rich Rodriguez himself, a man who profusely supports fast, athletic players, has said that we need to get bigger on defense. We could use players like Furman and Olaniyan, but they are just way too small and both would need to add weight and get bigger before they were starters..

TheIcon34

November 14th, 2009 at 6:00 PM ^

It seems like a lot of people think it is easy to recruit dline or oline guys and make them starters in the first year. There are very few players who will start right away as a lineman. That's why it is important to keep recruiting the big uglies and keep them around until they are jr's. By then, they will have the size and strength to keep up with the rest of the Big 10. Once 70% of the team are jr and sr, we will have a good foundation and not expect the linemen to start a year or 2 later. There is a lot of attention being paid to defensive recruits, but the reality is they should be given a 1-2 year window to develop and bulk up first.

Blue_Bull_Run

November 14th, 2009 at 6:02 PM ^

But there's a good reason that we're watching the recruiting closely - it's because our program is pretty deplete. Sure, it might take two years for them to be ready to play, but if we don't land them in the first place, then we're in for more pain

TheIcon34

November 14th, 2009 at 6:16 PM ^

Fans have so much expectations on these frosh...and they want all these guys to enroll early and skip the prom. When they do play in a game, everyone insults this person saying he sucks and then they remember that one play for the rest of their careers. We're not so forgiving as to give some of the players some latitude and allow them to grow a little bit from experience...they're still only 18 yrs old. At this point, we just need to keep bodies in the system and give them their 2 years. We're on a rampage about walk-ons, so I could care less who we recruit as long as they are given time to mature and get barwised.

FingerMustache

November 15th, 2009 at 1:45 PM ^

furman, as far as i know, is being recruited as a lb recruit. i think he could potentially bulk up enough to contribute next yr. Notice that Leach is only listed at around 210 lbs. It is reasonable to think that Furman could bulk to 215 over the next 8 months. but based on the fact that he is only a 3 star recruit to rivals, despite his incredible measurables (4.37 40m, 40 inch vertical jump), I suspect that he is not college ready. I suspect he will be redshirted wherever he goes.

Hoken's Heroes

November 15th, 2009 at 3:19 PM ^

Seems he made it to the Pitt/ND game and Pitt has "opened" his eyes a bit according the snippet on Scout. It's a premium story so don't know the full context but sounds like Pitt might have made a big impression on the kid. Don't blame him. Pitt has really come around as a program.