The only 2024 commit who doesn't yet have a Hello is 3* CB Jeremiah Lowe, out of Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington, Kentucky. Lowe committed in August around the same time as Jo'Ziah Edmond, who I profiled a few weeks back. With signing day tomorrow, I figured it was time to give Lowe his proper Hello. 

GURU RATINGS

RATINGS BY SITE
247: 5'11/170	On3: 5'11/170	Rivals: 5'11/170	ESPN: 5'11/175
3*, 86, NR Ovr #87 CB, #13 KY	3*, 85, NR Ovr #196 CB, #15 KY	3*, 5.6, NR Ovr #NR CB, #8 KY	3*, 77, #421 SE #88 CB, #7 KY
3.42	3.13	3.48	3.48
COMPOSITE RANKINGS
247 Composite	On3 Consensus	MGoBlog
3*, 0.8614, #1123 Ovr #100 CB, #10 KY	3*, 85.38, #1184 Ovr #124 CB, #9 KY	2*, #744/800 Ovr #69/77 CBs since 1990
3.61	3.54	3.39

Lowe is a legitimate 3* and based on the rankings, he is one of the biggest stabs-in-the-dark of this class. He's 69th out of 77 corners Michigan has recruited since 1990 and in the 100-125 range for corners nationally. The recruiting rankings say there's nothing to be excited or intrigued about with Lowe, but given the manner in which Michigan pursued him (more on that in a minute), there is probably more than meets the eyes. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: the mystery man]

SCOUTING 

The scouting on Lowe is a bit odd because there wasn't a ton of it until he committed to Michigan in August, then each site weighed in with their take, and after that, there has been nothing on him. Both Zach Libby of On3 and Brice Marich of 247 went to see Lowe when his HS team played Archbishop Hogan in Ohio in mid-August, but there hasn't been much of anything said about him since that game. As a whole, the information on Lowe is a bit vague and underwhelming for my taste. 

When Lowe committed, Michigan's On3 beat didn't have much to say on him and outsourced their take to Charles Power, On3's ranking director. Power generally liked Lowe's athleticism and praised his advanced technique ($): 

(Lowe is) smooth moving and has the versatility to play multiple spots. Whether it’s outside corner or in the slot at nickel. He seems to be comfortable reading a quarterback’s eyes. You can see him jump passes and make plays on the ball with good instincts ... His footwork and technique are refined, so he won’t be a guy who’ll need quite as big of an adjustment to the requirements needed to play cornerback

The areas for improvement section of the scouting report is strange and incoherent, saying there was no "context" for Lowe's size or athleticism (not sure what that means) and criticizing Lowe for not playing as much offense as many DB prospects do, but then admitting that his ball skills are good anyway. Okay then. 

A few days after the Power scouting report was published, Libby went to see Lowe, his first chance to watch the player up close and personal. Libby liked what he saw from Lowe in run defense but noted that one large improvement is needed in that phase of the game ($): 

Lowe is a willing tackler. Despite beginning the season at 178 pounds, his aggressiveness when flying down to help out in the run game signals that he brings an attitude at cornerback that Michigan co-defensive coordinator Steve Clinkscale desires ... Frederick Douglass head coach Nathan McPeek told The Wolverine earlier this month that weight gains were a struggle for Lowe, which will be installed immediately upon entering Michigan’s strength and conditioning program. A need for filling out on both halves of the body deterred him from finishing with more tackles on Saturday

Not big enough, it seems. Lowe's abilities in coverage were harder to decipher because Archbishop Hogan didn't throw it much, but Libby liked what he saw: 

Lowe played both the field side and boundary corner, mostly off-man, and showed the proper footwork when changing direction. In the first quarter, Hoban threw a five-yard drag to the home sideline, which Lowe would have broken up, had the receiver held on to the ball for a split second longer. He also rarely allowed a receiver to create separation in a one-on-one situation

The takeaway: 

Lowe has the upside to be a Michigan prospect who can see the field at the next level once proper development and sculpting is received as an underclassmen. The credentials of Clinkscale in his current tenure with the Wolverines and previous stops, are impeccable and that should help the long-term trajectory of Lowe

Brice Marich of 247 attended that same game and mirrored the same takes with regards to Lowe's physique and what little snippets of coverage snaps there were: 

With that, it resulted in Lowe having to help in run support and see how willing he would be of a tackler. Well, he certainly was willing to stick his nose in there and be a tackler. Not every moment did he make the moment, but he was always around the ball. 

One area I really was curious to see was his coverage skills. However, Hoban really didn’t attack him or target his side of the field. They really didn’t have to with the way they were running the ball. Despite that, he was locked on his receiver every play and was always in position just in case the ball was thrown his way 

The takeaway was similar to Libby's, a player with potential but a bit of a tough eval based on that game. Of course, that game is still the only one where we have any in-person scouting from a Michigan recruiting beat writer of Lowe, which goes to show you why I was dissatisfied with the level of scouting there is on Lowe.

Lucas Reimink of Michigan's Rivals site put up a scouting report based on the junior year tape when Lowe committed and said a lot of the same things ($): 

Against the pass, Jeremiah has good mental processing speed to diagnose pass quickly and get into his backpedal on time ... When in both man and zone coverage, he does a good job of watching both his man and the QB to ensure he can make a play on the ball when it’s in the air. He creates/capitalizes on an unusually high amount of tipped passes and turns them into INT’s simply by having good awareness and ball skills backed up by good eye discipline. When in pure man coverage, he has all the physical traits to stick with WR’s due to his good mental processing speed, solid COD/Agility, good foot speed, and good hip fluidity

And then the "not big enough!": 

Once a WR catches the ball however; he has marginal tackling technique, and due to both a lack of will, and lack of physical strength, he is prone to being drug for extra yards or having his tackles broken altogether. He can make the tackle, but needs to clean up his technique and gain weight to become a more complete player.

Perhaps the only interesting thing that Reimink includes in the report that's different from what has already been said about Lowe is his diagnosis of where Lowe could play in college: 

He projects best to the defensive secondary at the next level, and due to his solid size and slight frame probably projects best to Nickel Back but is versatile enough to be able to play any of Nickel, CB, or even Free Safety

Most of the other scouts to issue a take on Lowe seemed to believe he will stick at outside corner, but being beneath 6'0", the possibility of playing nickel will always be there. Allen Trieu of 247 caught up with Lowe's high school coach and he said the exact same things with regards to the scouting report, smart kid, ball skills, good athlete, needs to add weight. *Yawn*. 

Austin Meek of The Athletic had a short post on Lowe when the commitment happened and there isn't much new here, but I included it because of the small tidbits about the recruiting process ($): 

Lowe is a Steve Clinkscale recruit all the way. He’s from Kentucky, an area Clinkscale knows well, and is clearly rated higher on Michigan’s board than in the eyes of the recruiting services ... Once Scott and West committed to the Buckeyes, it was apparent that Michigan was looking at developmental prospects to fill its needs at cornerback, and Lowe is one of those players. The Wolverines trust their evaluations, and it will be up to Lowe to prove them right

This was Clink's baby and we'll see if Lowe rewards that faith at some point in the next five years. 

OFFERS 

Lowe's offer sheet mostly matches the low-rated recruiting profile, with a mix of Group of 5 offers and purely regional Power 5 offers. Lowe was offered by such MAC teams as WMU and Miami (OH), as well as Eastern Kentucky out of the FCS and Army. His Power 5 offers included Boston College, in-state Kentucky, and then neighboring schools West Virginia, Mizzou, and Michigan. Nothing too exciting on this front. 

HIGH SCHOOL 

Lowe plays for Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington, which is one of Kentucky's top HS football powers. A public high school located more in the suburbs/outskirts of Lexington proper, Douglass is a pretty new school (founded in 2017) but has been a dominant football program since the school's inception. 2022 was a crowning achievement, as the team won the Class 5A State Championship with a perfect 15-0 record, a team that Lowe competed on. This year the school leveled up to Class 6A and took a bit of a step back, with an 8-5 record, losing in overtime of the state semifinals to Trinity. Douglass, being as good as they are, is a program that often has Power 5 recruits on their roster, so the level of competition both on the field and in games that Lowe has gotten to face is quality.  

STATS 

No stats that I could find on Lowe because MaxPreps' page for Douglass is barren and no one has included any stats in write-ups of him. 

FAKE 40 TIME 

One "Larry Vaught", who appears to be a freelance University of Kentucky sports writer and claims on Instagram to have been at it since 1975, wrote up a post on Lowe back in November 2022 when UK was looking at him. In that post Vaught claims "The last time (Lowe) was clocked in the 40-yard dash he was timed in 4.4 seconds, another reason college recruiters like him so much." The article does have direct quotes from Lowe, so my guess is that the 40 time cited in the article is from Lowe himself, in which case we're dealing with a self-reported time published by only one journalist, who is doing it on a site called "Yoursportsedge.com" that looks like it hasn't gotten a software update since 2006. I'm giving it a full five FAKES out of five out of extreme caution for the sourcing involved, even though a 4.4 isn't an impossible time for a slimmer corner prospect who scouts think looks athletic. 

VIDEO 

The last compilation reel of Lowe on his Hudl page is junior year highlights: 

You can see other/shorter highlights from his senior season on the Hudl page. 

Brice Marich came back with a bit of video during his trip to see Lowe, but it's not too exciting (matching the scouting report): 

Not much has been thrown the way of #Michigan CB commit Jeremiah Lowe (@JeremiahLowe_24) today pic.twitter.com/pRSDzB5Vmb

— Brice Marich (@BriceMarich) August 19, 2023

Baseball highlights: 

⁦@JeremiahLowe_24⁩ could’ve made home 😂 I always think you can make it speedy. pic.twitter.com/s4XT46ANoB

— Richard (@qaroadside) March 15, 2023

ETC 

Also a centerfielder on his baseball team. 

 

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE 

Lowe's profile is a bit vexing for me because scouts seem to believe that Lowe knows how to play corner pretty well, has reasonable athleticism, and plays for a good HS, yet he's ranked like a complete nobody. Sure he needs to bulk up but is that alone reason for him to be the lowest rated player in Michigan's 2024 class? I don't really think so. Michigan certainly didn't, because they took his commitment still on the early side in the cycle, showing sincere interest. Lowe and Edmond were the first two pivots after the failed pursuits of Bryce West and Aaron Scott and Michigan took Lowe's commitment when there were still more than four months left in the cycle. 

So Michigan is considerably higher on Lowe than the evaluators but what is the big picture prognosis for Jeremiah Lowe? Michigan won't need Lowe to be an instant impact player for the team in 2024, as Will Johnson is playing one outside corner spot and then there are a number of bodies for Nk/CB2 (McBurrows/Walker/Hill/Harris/Berry), not to mention whatever happens in the portal. The depth they've built up in the DB room + the ability to add talent out of the portal to fill in any gaps means that Michigan can let Lowe be the long-term developmental prospect he is. Hand him over to Ben Herbert until Lowe is up to proper playing weight, sharpen up his tackling technique, and hope he's retained enough of his natural feel for the corner position and athleticism to be able to be a usable piece later in his Michigan career. 

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS 

Lowe and Edmond are Michigan's two corners in the 2024 class, a positional group that has been wrapped up since their commitments in August. Put alongside the safety Jacob Oden, Michigan has a rather small DB room for the '24 class. That's fine, because as I mentioned in this section in Edmond's Hello, the plan is likely to go very aggressively in building a large DB room for the 2025 class, where the playing field and depth of talent is much superior. 

THE CLASS AS IT STANDS

OFFENSE
Pos	Player	State	Stars	In a nutshell
QB	Jadyn Davis	NC	4.4⬇⬇⬇	Smooth, accurate field general
RB	Jordan Marshall	OH	4.5	Accelerates South-North
RB	Micah Ka'apana	NV	3.9⬆⬆	Well-balanced accelerator
WR	I'Marion Stewart	IL	4.0⬆	Ronnie slick/quick, #1 WR to M
WR	Channing Goodwin	NC	3.7⬇	Chain-moving son of Jon
TE	Brady Prieskorn	MI	4.3⬇⬇	Colston Loveland Midwest
TE	Hogan Hansen	WA	4.0⬇⬇	Colston Loveland West
LT	Blake Frazier	TX	4.2	Athletic son of Steve
RT	Andrew Sprague	MO	4.3⬆	Basketballin' grow-a-Long
RG	Luke Hamilton	OH	3.9⬇	Midwestern mauler
LG	Ben Roebuck	OH	3.8⬇	Bigger Midwestern mauler
C	Jake Guarnera	FL	3.9⬆	Mauler but center
DEFENSE
Pos	Player	State	Stars	In a nutshell
NT	Deyvid Palepale	PA	3.7⬇	Penei's Alaskan nose cousin
DT	Manuel Beigel	CT	3.5⬆	Lengthy German via Choate
DT	Owen Wafle	NJ	4.0	Little nose with bite
DT	Ted Hammond	OH	3.9⬇	Cincy build-a-bear
SDE	Dominic Nichols	MD	3.8⬆	Mike Morris-ish SDE
WDE	Devon Baxter	MD	3.9⬆⬆	Super long 4-3 grow-an-edge.
LB	Mason Curtis	TN	4.1⬇⬇	Long athlete moving up
LB	Jeremiah Beasley	MI	4.0	Explosive hitter from Belleville
LB	Jaden Smith	NC	4.0	Underscouted Uche/WLB
HSP	Cole Sullivan	PA	4.0⬆⬆	Hybrid LB with crazy athleticism
S	Jacob Oden	MI	4.0⬇⬇	Tall son of coach
CB	Jo'Ziah Edmond	IN	4.0⬆⬆⬆	PU decommit, long CB/WR ATH
Nk	Jeremiah Lowe	KY	3.4	Sainristilian athlete