bryan bresee

‘Tis the season for in-home visits and the subsequent flood of photos of coaches with their arms around recruits and their families to hit twitter. The coaching staff has spent a fair amount of time checking in on already-committed prospects—Jim McElwain visited phenomenal tweeter CA slot bug Giles Jackson, Al Washington had dinner with OH SDE Gabe Newburg, Jim Harbaugh and Don Brown visited the home of FL ATH George Johnson III, Sherron Moore checked in on OH TE Erick All Jr., and so on—while also jetting around the country to see a select few prospects that would fill out a class that, at 25 current commits, is close to full.

Tight ends coach Sherrone Moore went to Texas to visit TX WR Jaylen Ellis, who took a Michigan official in early September. Ellis has been committed to Baylor since summer 2017, has a crystal ball that is currently 100% Texas, and still plans to take official visits to Baylor, Houston, and Tennessee (he officially visited Arizona in late September). Crootin’! Ellis is coveted for his speed in a class that apparently lacks that. He runs a verified 4.59 40 but has been given the “plays faster than his time” scouting note, so he’ll be worth checking out at the All-American Bowl.

Jim Harbaugh and linebackers coach Al Washington visited the home of GA LB Kalen DeLoach yesterday. You may remember an earlier recruiting roundup in which his father more or less told Sam Webb that he asked Michigan to continue recruiting his son despite being verbally committed to Florida State; Webb said on The Michigan Insider’s recruiting roundup segment that DeLoach is thinking of decommitting from Florida State not because of their record this year but because they haven’t recruited him very hard post-verbal. Contrast that with Harbaugh, who visited DeLoach’s father and mother at work yesterday. DeLoach was a composite top-300 recruit when he pledged to Florida State, got a bit of a bump with his July verbal, got a nearly 50-spot preseason bump, and has hung just inside the top 250 since.

He may not be getting an in-home visit, but one seemingly out-of-nowhere flip candidate has set an official visit date. FL LB Anthony Solomon will take an official to Miami, the school to which he verbally committed in April, on December 7th before heading to Ann Arbor for a December 14th official. That’s good news if you’re a fan of the “he who goes last wins” theory of recruiting. This is something of a shock, as the last 11 events on Solomon’s 247 timeline are all Miami-related. 247’s Andrew Ivins checked in after Miami HC Mark Richt and DC Manny Diaz visited Solomon, and the sentiment seems to be that Solomon-to-Michigan has legs and that Solomon wants to get out of South Florida.

[Things get cloudy after THE JUMP]

We got a break from obsessively checking the hour-by-hour chance of precipitation, wind strength, and “feels like” temp with the bye week but it’s time once again to open your favorite weather app: 2019 LB/RB Quavaris Crouch is coming to town. Crouch, you may remember, continues to express a great deal of interest in Michigan and a great skepticism about its weather.

Things literally and metaphorically look good for his official visit right now. According to Weather Underground, it should be partly sunny during the game, feel like 43 degrees with virtually no chance of precipitation, and have winds tapering off from nine to two mph as the night progresses. According to Sam Webb, the outlook is good with regard to Crouch’s travel party, too. It wasn’t clear whether Crouch would be bringing family members or just his former head coach/mentor on this weekend’s official visit, but Webb confirmed two days ago that Crouch’s mother and grandmother will be in Ann Arbor, and his former head coach/mentor is also likely to be in attendance. That shows how seriously Crouch is considering Michigan, which he named tied for his top school with Clemson while including a weather caveat.

Family input is expected to have some influence over Crouch’s decision, especially that of his grandmother. Webb published a lengthy interview with Sam Greiner, the aforementioned former head coach/mentor, in which he says distance isn’t as much a factor as it once was because they realized all of his top schools are a couple hours away, the difference being whether that’s by car or plane. Greiner goes on to detail the pitches some schools are using, as well as what Crouch likes about Michigan and Clemson. He notes that Crouch and his family have been to multiple Clemson games but none of them have seen a game in the Big House; it’s tough to overstate how important this visit will be. 

Crouch most recently took an official to Florida State last weekend, where the game itself couldn’t have gone much worse. Not only did they get obliterated by No. 2 Clemson at home, but they got obliterated by No.2-and-tied-for-first-for-Crouch’s-services Clemson at home. The things he told Rivals’ Adam Friedman after the game about how the history of the football program is good and they’ll be good after they repair the current culture make it sound like he isn’t headed there.

Where he’ll be headed won’t be known anytime soon, though, so don’t expect a commitment to come out of his visit to Michigan. Not publicly, at least. Crouch plans to announce his chosen school at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl on January 5, but told the Charlotte Observer’s Langston Wertz Jr. that he plans to silently commit before publicly announcing so that he can start the early enrollment process.

[Two weeks worth of updates after THE JUMP]