operation voluntears

Michigan secured a commitment yesterday from one of the top remaining targets on their board, regardless of position. You’ve probably heard of him.

The first I ever did was the hit on national TV. JJ McCarthy lobbed a wheel to tailback Kaytron Allen that looked like an easy gain, and then suddenly the 220-pound RB was replaced by this beanpole of a DB standing in the space the soon-to-be future Nittany Lion had been occupying:

3 star CB Myles Pollard getting his called on ESPNU! @me1espollard @RavenwoodFB #GEICOShowcase pic.twitter.com/NKN9KipcoY

— Who's Next (@WhosNextHS) September 26, 2020

I didn’t think to look the DB up because there were all sorts of great players on the field, and who wants to learn about some top-100 four-star from SEC land who’s deciding between Bama and Georgia while Florida fans curse Dan Mullen’s very un-Urban approach to talent acquisition?

Sam Webb asked though. Sam Webb was all over this Myles Pollard kid in Tennessee, back when I was searching the latest New Englanders for hope of a light at the end of last year’s tunnel of cornerback hell. Sam Webb was beating the drum so hard there was a joke about it that got cut from the Bacon roast last spring.* That’s when I started to pay attention to Myles Pollard.

Michigan started paying attention too, but by then Pollard had gone national. Steve Clinkscale, then with Kentucky, came Myles’s first Power 5 offer last summer, and 70 percent of the rest of them came in after, including Oregon and Alabama in early December. Michigan came around in January, but with Linguist picking up two quick commits in Tennessee this thing suddenly looked plausible. Neither the other Nashvillian, Taylor Groves, nor Linguist would stick around, but when Michigan hired Clinkscale the sentiment was this is the only thing that could have helped them with Pollard, and maybe that was part of the point.

By all accounts Agent Will Johnson was just as key, flying back early from that frightening USC dalliance to make sure he was in town for Pollard’s official on Detroit Day. Michigan then spent the rest of June and a week of July sweating out visits to three SEC schools and Oklahoma before Myles picked Michigan over the latter and Auburn.

If that sounds like a solid top-150 cornerback recruiting kind of story, I don’t blame you. None of it explains this:

GURU RATINGS

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

That works out to a 3.75* in my scale, putting him in company with William Peterson, Johnny Sears, Ja’Den McBurrows, and Channing Stribling, who was a 3.69 and listed at 6-2/165. There hasn’t been much movement since all three sites added Pollard to their databases in the back half of 2020. 247 gave him that “87” last October and when his offer sheet blew up in February they…left him an 87. He’s drifted down with recruiting gravity but they haven’t reevaluated him nor seemed close to doing so. ESPN’s story was even weirder: He didn’t have a profile (few did) when his school played IMG on the Primo, and when they did evaluate him, about the time Saban called with the personal offer, they stuck Pollard between a couple of out West players that Don Brown’s recruiting to Arizona. And then there’s Rivals, who gave him a fourth star in fall, and incremented him up the in-state rankings four times, noting in December he was just short of their Top250.

Something’s got to be holding them back, and it’s not for a lack of seeing him. What do the coaches know that the scouting services don’t? Or is it vice versa?

* [“Holly is here from Tennessee, or as Sam Webb calls it, ‘The land of Myles Pollard.’”]

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]

Some things have happened since we last checked in. Starting with…

Quarterback

The dominoes fell($) and Michigan’s top pro-style targets went off the board to Clemson (Cade Klubnik) and Penn State (Drew Allar). Oregon’s commitment from Tanner Bailey ruled out the Ducks for Trayce Jackson-Davis’s brother Tayven, the younger Jackson just put out a top eight that excluded Michigan.

Michigan’s now forging ahead with some dual-threats, notably CA 3* Nate Johnson who sounds like($) the closest thing to a Denard Michigan has recruited since the smiling one. The new offer is 3* TX dual-threat Alex Orji, who expressed “tons of excitement” after getting that offer from Harbaugh directly. Orji is a Linguist idea with a lot of regional offers and a highlight reel of leaving a lot of grasping defenders rolling on the ground.

What?

Running Back

Mike Hart seems focused on 5* Gavin Sawchuk, whom Michigan was first to offer, though Oklahoma has five crystal balls there. They’re also looking at a big fella in AL 3* Quinshon Judkins, who impressed Rivals’ EJ Holland($) at the Panama Beach 7v7 Tournament.

[After THE JUMP we finally name our Tennessee operation]