commitments do not follow your personal schedule

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And we are now caught up. I had this whole conversation with a guy who follows recruiting really tightly where he was like “We got Damani!” And I was like “For real?” And he was like “Yep, he’s going to announce!” And I was like “Oh wow that’s huge! Is he coming as a safety or a cornerback?” And he was like “At safety, specifically Dax Hill’s position, but he could play anywhere in the secondary!” And I was like “That’s amazing, all glory to Courtney Morgan!” And he went “Actually all glory to George Helow—he’s the dude who recruits Jacksonville and was recruiting Dent to Maryland before.” And I was like wait, what?

I may have confused an ‘a’ for an ‘o’ but the rest of this conversation holds up, and as soon as the recruiting rankers get caught up themselves it seems there’s a good chance that Michigan finally managed to reel in one of these late-breaking, hyper-athletic safeties they kept finding on their way up the rankings last year. I’m thinking of Donovan McMillon, Daymon David, D’Arco Perkins-McAllister—you know, a D guy!

And yes, Courtney Morgan and Ron Bellamy were of course highly involved, as was the head man himself. Michigan clearly made Dent a priority. Meanwhile the people who do the recruiting rankings were determined to make sure that twit who thinks recruiting stars are the only measure of a life’s value would burn another $5 MGoBlog account to say so.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals: 6’1”/179 ESPN: 6’0”/185 247: 6’0”/190 247 Comp
3*, 5.6, NR Ovr

NR S, NR FL
No rating 3*, 86, NR Ovr

#55 S, #95 FL
3*, 0.8355, #1406 Ovr,

#100 S, #192 FL
3.50* NR 3.61* 3.36

Arrows show trend of recruiting rankings. An arrow is like a third of a star.

So yeah, we were expecting there to be quite a few players in this class (and many more in the next one) who popped late because a crucial year in their scouting was wiped out, and Dent fits the bill. 247 went from 81 to 84 in late July, then up to 86 (still a middling 3-star) at the end of September. ESPN doesn’t have a rating yet. Rivals recently slapped a 5.6 on him without ranking him among his position or state. FWIW, their #50 (last ranked) safety right now is MSU commit Quavian Carter, who’s a 3.56 on my 5-star scale, and their #100 player in Florida is DT Jordan Phillips, the guy from Ocoee who nearly committed to Michigan earlier this cycle, who would be a 3.53.

With all due respect to Michigan State recruiting and Phillips, neither of those guys were getting heavy interest from Oregon and Georgia when they committed.

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No we haven't forgotten Michigan's X-mas day gift. [Aaron Bills]

There is a genre of December commitment who will get a hundred thousand adults to watch an Instagram feed or spam refresh on message boards. And then there's there's the type who sneaks in right after that wave, before all the replacement F5 keys are installed, the one day per year that recruiting reporters and attendant media are not at their keyboards. The type who doesn't even get a commitment alert, or so much as a mention on MGoBlog's front page until a week has passed. A person so anonymous he's either some kind of secret agent or a Michigan offensive lineman. Or both:

Jones is the fifth player in Michigan's 2022 class, and the first offensive lineman.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals ESPN 247 247 Comp
3*, 5.4,

no ranking
no profile 3*, 82, NR OVR

#96 OLB, #9 CO
3*, 0.8266, #776 OVR,

#78 OT, #6 CO
3.40* n/a 3.38* 3.27*

Bottom row is my conversion of the above to a 5-star scale. Links are to profiles.

Jones at this point is deep in unscouted territory. That wouldn't be surprising in a normal year; projecting offensive linemen for 2022 who aren't already at major programs is futile after their crucial junior seasons and the accompanying camps were mostly wiped out.

Connor's dad is originally from Ohio and rooted for Michigan, which became Connor's rooting interest, he told Maven's Brandon Brown. Michigan visited before COVID, offered in early September, and Jones committed on Christmas after taking a self-guided tour the week prior. Connor has been telling recruiting reporters that a degree in sports medicine/kinesiology, NFL development, and a good team atmosphere were his main criteria, so one can assume he enjoyed the esprit du corps in the aftermath of Ohio State lucking out of a certain loss in the Game around that time.

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wiiiiiings

Aux arms! [Photo: Christopher Nee/247 Sports]

As expected for over a month now, D.J. Turner (not the Maryland receiver) committed to Michigan in an announcement planned long before half of his generation decided to do the same. Now it's public!

He's a long-armed, heady, versatile 3.5-star sort whom Michigan identified as a top target—he was one of the first 2019 cornerbacks Michigan offered, according to Steve Lorenz, and Chris Partridge stayed on the Georgia prospect the whole way.

GURU RATINGS

247 ESPN Rivals

Composite

3*, 88, #41 CB, #49 GA, #450 Ovr 4*, 80, #23 CB, #154 Southeast, #37 GA 3*, 5.7, #52 CB, #47 GA 3*, .8817, #41 CB, #47 GA, #439 Ovr

Turner was a 4-star for most of the process until 247 dropped him from #280 to the mid-400s; their ranking is now almost exactly in line with the Composite, with ESPN the only site still clinging to the post 2016 season impression. That came after a move to free safety in a loaded secondary (he's one of three recruits from his school ranked around the same area), even though that move led quite directly to North Gwinnett's first-ever state championship (of the new 7A level).

He's listed anywhere from 5-10 to 6-0, and 165 to 180, with an "official" (i.e. what he wrote down himself) measurement from The Opening of 6-0/165 as of March. We'll split the difference and call him 5-11/165 though as you can see with the favored photo he's got arms for days, a point that gets brought up often in scouting reports. Also brought up in scouting reports: Versatility!

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