wtka roundtable

Things Discussed:

• Draft Takeaways: Nice that Saban kept being like "I love this dude!" Brian: Michigan and Iowa are the best two teams at developing talent; Michigan also recruits in an area where you win a national title if you outperform like that.
• Seth: Harbaugh recruited at the same level as previous Michigan coaches but where they were getting 20% to 33% of their players to the NFL, Harbaugh is putting *60 Percent* of his players in the League:
• JJ McCarthy: Threw as many passes in the first three Qs as the other guys. Would I trade Goff for JJ, Neil? Can't break up a team on a Super Bowl run, but JJ is more valuable than Goff by far; he's gonna be under team control for a long time.
• Junior Colson: Sam shares that Minter told him to go pro after the championship because he and Harbaugh were going to the league and they're gonna come get him.
• Amorion Walker: If he'd stayed at receiver he'd be the breakout player of the year, but he burned his redshirts both years and then was at cornerback and Ole Miss—that is a hard position to play, and it's probably gonna need to be next year before he's a breakout player.
• CJ Charleston: He's here to be a veteran presence. Sinagosa brought him over from YSU. Tough sell getting receivers.
• DT? Looks like PT wasn't there for their top prospect CJ West so they're moving on to the GVSU guy (Suggs).
• Jaden Mangham? Seth: YES TAKE ALL THE FALCONS! Brian: I don't want anybody who thought it was a good idea to play for Mel Tucker. He's also against taking anyone from Belleville.
• Break: Basketball recruits.
• Post-break: NCAA has an opportunity with House negotiations to sit across the table from *somebody* and create a sustainable future. Brian: Pendulum swung too far, single transfer rule was correct. Seth: Best thing would be to create an incentive formula that gets small schools out of a huge tax bill and makes players want to stay put.

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Things Discussed:

• Spring game takes:
• QB: Wasn't a good format (no zone reads, mostly under-center) for gauging Orji. It was him or Warren, and Warren wasn't a speed-reader upon further review.
• RB: Edwards is geared up. Tavierre Dunlap had a really good game.
• TE: Saw Marlin Klein's speed, has a good feel for timing blocks. Saw some Tonielli too.
• OL: Hard to judge Persi from guard, Gentry moved guys but also had some breakdowns. Big drop from there to Link, who looks like a future player. Like some young Cs, Raheem Anderson stood up to Grant, Guarnera looked plausible at guard.
• DT: Both Benny and Pierce were out so we saw Ike and some DEs they had to move down. Keep an eye out for Chibi Anwunah next year. Joey Klunder played hard.
• Edge: Guy is real.
• LB: Barham is big and can move. Hausmann looked really good. Rolder looked really good.
• S: Hard to tell, but Oden is a lot bigger than we thought, might be ready to contribute early.
• CB: Waller and Hill coming on.
• Waller to the portal: Sam says sometimes a guy asks for way more than the pay scale. There's a lot of nodding and talking around without actually saying that Kentucky has a reputation for promising more than they deliver. Schools have got to be sick of this by now. Sam: Gotta live in today, which means you gotta go tamper.
• Dusty May Builds a Dusty May Program Overnight! These guys were all primary creators for their teams; Rubin Jones is also an elite defender. Choosing to pursue Tre Donaldson of the two Auburn guys shows Dusty knew what he was doing, took the path of greater resistance. Roddy Gayle is in the draft if he doesn't shoot 28% from three, and he had a wrist injury to explain it. Sam Walters shot 43% on *contested* threes, because when you're a 6'10" pogo stick there's no such thing as a contest. Danny Wolf is a very underrated creator, should team with Goldin to be the best pair of Cs in the B10? Nimari Burnett can actually be Nimari now, and Tschetter can Tschetter.
• Concerns: They all have elevated TO rates (should come down as they aren't all forced to be creators), they're a bit weak defensively at the four (Walters has length but he was a beanpole freshman last year), and it's going to take time for everyone to get used to playing together.
• We're gonna LOVE Rubin Jones. Very good rebounder, very smart ballplayer, put Johnell Davis in a hell, which is probably why May wanted to go and get him.
• NFL Draft? Sorry out of time.

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Things Discussed:

• Filling the basketball roster. Expect to get C Vlad Goldin (FAU), CG Justin Pippen (HS), PG Trey Donaldson (Auburn), W Roddy Gayle (OSU), and another guy they're going after under the radar.
• Like Gayle if they can get his 3P% up better than Saint Mary's Aidan Mahaney, who took a lot of bad shots. C Justin Abson (App State) is Ben Wallace. Is he an either/or with C Danny Wolf (Yale)?
• What's the holdup? Guys want to go through the draft advisory board process. Sam thinks we'll get a drumbeat of commitments in the coming days and weeks.
• NIL: Dusty May needs a little more. How deep does the donor pool go? Well it's complicated; you're talking a quirky small subset of people who can afford this, and their individual circumstances matter a lot. There's a lot they're supporting: Football (which we're getting it done), Men's Hoops, Women's Hoops, etc. Seth: Don't forget Mott and the University of Michigan.
• Spring Game: What does the OL look like? Are there any guys standing? Sam thinks we won't be able to watch Hinton, Crippen, and El-Hadi, which that's three of your starters. Who's next? Seth doesn't like that Giudice is ahead of Efobi. That battle for RT is more iffy than we realized? Sam thinks they want a guy in the portal for Gentry or Persi to beat. Seth: If you're saying they Anderson we're at eight guys they trust now.
• Ohio State Spring Game: Their DL pushed their OL around so much it colors everything. QBs were throwing the ball into defenders; chests. Craig thinks their secondary is good. Seth says the offense is very Chip Kelly, they might have something with Julian Sayin down the road but he's skinny and mistake-prone right now.

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