FB Recruit DJ Pickett Official Top 5 Schools
Miami, Michigan, Georgia, Oregon, and LSU. One of these teams is not like the other (both in NIL and recent hardware).
Pickett is a 5* corner from Florida, has some Michigan ties through family. He’s expressed he isn’t interested as much in NIL and has a strong relationship with Clink. Felt good about our chances getting him but Miami signed his cousins whom DJ said he’d love to play with. Fingers crossed Moore and Co can close the deal.
February 10th, 2024 at 10:12 AM ^
Just saw the Clink news, that’s not gonna bode well for Michigan.
February 10th, 2024 at 10:12 AM ^
Probably going to the chargers
February 10th, 2024 at 10:20 AM ^
Made me laugh.
”clinkscale signs best recruiting class for Chargers in their history.” Story at 11
February 10th, 2024 at 10:21 AM ^
He must be real good if he can skip college. LeBron is just down the street, he’ll show DJ how to route for the University you never attended…
edit: root. Although LeBron shows up to a lot of games, so routing may be taught too.
February 10th, 2024 at 10:53 AM ^
Welp, with Clink gone now that probably hurts our chances with this kid.
February 10th, 2024 at 10:54 AM ^
“Me and Coach (Steve) Clinck(scale) have a real good bond,” Pickett said. “The coaching change really didn’t matter as long as Coach Clink was still there…”
Yeah, it’s probably not looking too good now.
February 10th, 2024 at 11:49 AM ^
Clinksdale lost a lot of top talented recruits that said similar things about him. NIL definitely had something to do with it, but Clinksdale was not a great closer in recruits.
February 10th, 2024 at 10:57 AM ^
Not anymore!
February 10th, 2024 at 11:05 AM ^
Very unintentionally comedic timing on this. "He loves Clink and doesn't care much for NIL so we have a shot"
5 seconds after posting
*CLINK GONE*
February 10th, 2024 at 11:27 AM ^
I’m so old that when I read the headline I thought he was a “fullback”. I’m 44
February 10th, 2024 at 12:18 PM ^
Actually, it does say FB. It should have, of course, say CB.
February 10th, 2024 at 2:03 PM ^
I took the FB as meaning "football", as opposed to, say, "BB" meaning basketball.
February 10th, 2024 at 11:41 AM ^
Guys only want to play with their family and friends when they don't come to Michigan. When they do, the recruits want to blaze their own path
February 10th, 2024 at 11:53 AM ^
Lucy’s definitely gonna keep holding the football this time.
February 10th, 2024 at 11:57 AM ^
I don’t really buy it when any of these kids say that NIL isn’t important or deciding factor for them. They’re playing nice to the camera.
Which, for the record, is completely fine. I’m sure it’s what they’re coached to say, and I would unquestionably be doing the same thing. But as a five star talent, when someone is flashing a six or seven figure check in front of you just to sign on a dotted line, I don’t care who you are, you can’t tell me that’s not strongly influencing your decision. Especially if you come from a family, as a lot of these kids do, that doesn’t have any real money to its name.
Which is why Michigan should continue to not be surprised when it gets left standing at the altar by dozens of top recruits. I’d say Michigan was probably already fighting from behind to get this kid’s services because their NIL capabilities are grossly inferior to these other schools, but now that Clink is gone too, probably time to move onto the next recruit on your board.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:19 PM ^
Yep, it doesn't matter if a coach is a good or bad recruiter anymore.
It's simply, "bring your checkbook."
February 10th, 2024 at 12:24 PM ^
Which is why I laugh when people say Chip Kelly hates recruiting. He doesn't need to recruit to OSU. They recruit with a big fat checkbook.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:31 PM ^
OSU fans (on Reddit) still don't think their team is buying people despite open bidding wars with Miami.
February 10th, 2024 at 6:03 PM ^
While OSU clearly has stepped up its spending, money alone doesn’t explain their recruiting success.
They continue to fare better at certain positions (WR, CB) than others (OL, DT). Not that their line recruiting is bad; it just isn’t on the level of what they’re pulling elsewhere.
Given that they’ve long needed to improve in the trenches, it stands to reason that they’d have a pile of top-10 recruits there too if it were all about the money.
February 10th, 2024 at 7:42 PM ^
I don’t know if they out-bidding on every single player that commits to them. They’ve been recruiting at a top level ever since Urban Meyer showed up, but does it matter if they are buying players? Whether we like it or not, recruits are getting paid and it’s unrealistic to expect our staff to consistently build an elite team with one hand tied behind their back. It’s time our NIL collectives elevate their game and allows our staff an opportunity to compete in recruiting.
February 10th, 2024 at 12:27 PM ^
That’s why I’m not really sure that losing Clink matters, from a recruiting standpoint.
Coaching standpoint, absolutely. But for any recruit who’s going to win you anything, one of their main questions, if not their only questions these days, is “what are you going to pay me?“
You can have the best recruiters in the world, but since Michigan doesn’t have a good answer to that question, those recruits are going to move on and say “Fine, I’m heading down to Austin where I can show up to the football facility every day driving a Lamborghini.”
February 10th, 2024 at 1:04 PM ^
"...and has a strong relationship with Clink."
Welp.
February 10th, 2024 at 1:07 PM ^
If Moore can put together a good team after losing his entire OL, QB and WR, as well as almost every important assistant coach, he is a genius.
February 10th, 2024 at 2:20 PM ^
His roster is in way better shape than it was when RR took over from Carr.
February 10th, 2024 at 4:41 PM ^
If that bar was any lower you'd be in negative territory.
February 10th, 2024 at 3:03 PM ^
Well seeing as how we lost our best recruiter, I don't think we should expect to beat out those teams.