quintel kent

Michigan's receiver corps once the Collins-DPJ-Black era ends was already shaky before Oliver Martin's painful departure. Now things are even slimmer after one of their three outside receiver recruits in the last two cycles announced he'll lose at least a season to a "medical finding":

pic.twitter.com/z7UNiZBMcc

— Q (@Quintelkent1) August 5, 2019

That's pretty vague, and a lot of things can turn up in a physical, from improperly healed old injuries that require surgery, to heart conditions. Here's hoping it's just the former.

Kent was a late find out of Lakewood St. Ed's, an power private school near Cleveland. The few eyes we got on him saw an extremely good route runner with elite acceleration off the line and strong footwork—the kind of prospect who doesn't look like much in testing numbers or generate many stars from the industry, but produces early and often in college. He also was a willing blocker. I'm guessing his YMRMFSPA was going to be Roy Roundtree, a guy whose name peppers Michigan's career, season, and game record books, and a guy who featured in many of the greatest highlights of his era. Any stargazer who thinks this isn't a big loss because of recruiting rankings has no idea what they're talking about.

It's not clear if this affects Kent just this year or his entire career. If you take a medical scholarship you can't come and play football again, and it seems from the tweet that Michigan and Kent aren't ready to make it permanent yet. It's a small bummer to lose a down-roster true freshman at a strong position this year, but it would be a huge one to lose a receiver for 2020 if the NFL takes the kind of bite out of the depth chart we expect it to. After DPJ, Collins and Black, Michigan has just Ronnie Bell from the 2018 class, Cornelius Johnson from this one, and the slots and guys they're recruiting now. Also the likelihood that Erick All stays at receiver just ticked up a notch.

More fun with rosters! With signing day behind us I've updated my spreadsheets and the associated interactive chart. Behold: the 2019 class contextualized against every Michigan recruit since 1990:

You can mouseover the big yellow bubbles to get a sense where each guy fits against previous Michigan players in the recruiting rankings. But let's still dig out each player to understand the context of his scouting. The full data are here.

QB Cade McNamara

The style of quarterback who uses his legs and is constantly being asked about his height is now considered a "Pro Style" quarterback, especially if he commits to Harbaugh, though it's not hard to find the guy Cade McNamara most reminds us of. Cade is a clear rung down from Tate's Top-150ish ratings, and for good reason. However Michigan's lone QB recruit in this class is still strongly above the 4-star line. Despite the other comps being substantially different players, the boom/bust nature of his ranking is evident in the range of success you see around him.

[After THE JUMP: The position you were dreading]

Like the hydraulic scaffolding from which David filmed, Quintel Kent has been on the rise. Bill Greene, 247’s Ohio uber-scout, wrote about Kent earlier this month and spoke highly of his skill set; it’s not hard to see why Greene re-ranked him in September. It is a bit surprising, though, as  Kent’s Hello post quotes a July scouting report from Greene in which he says he will remain open-minded but thinks Kent is properly rated. 247’s rating then: #1105 overall, #130 WR. Their rating now: #657 overall, #89 WR. He wasn’t even ranked in the composite when he committed in August, where he is now a three-star and #1257 overall. What a difference an offseason makes.

David thought we should see what we could see over the course of a full game and added Kent to the FBO schedule. He also added Woodstock BBQ in Lakewood to the list of this year’s restaurants, later texting me that it was really good but that the sauce wasn’t as good as City BBQ. Ohioans, to the comments! 

As the saying goes, “the best-laid plans of FBO and David often go awry.” Though there was no lightning delay, Kent’s St. Edward squad ran St. Joseph’s ragged by halftime, which led to a Kentless second half. He did his part in the first half to contribute to his second-half rest, which is my way of subtly influencing you to hit the jump.

[Hit THE JUMP for every-snap film and scouting]