Tuesday Recruitin' Looks Good, Feels Good
Elite 11 Updates: Peters Performing Well, Probably
Ah, the Elite 11, when a group of more than 11 of the nation's best quarterbacks gather for a camp in which a handful of throws will be analyzed to death. There's usually something of a disconnect between how the recruiting analysts and the camp counselors rank the performers. This year doesn't appear to be different. After Monday's opening session, Scout's Brandon Huffman named Michigan commit Brandon Peters among the five quarterbacks who stood out to him:
Was one of the most consistent passers all morning. Was just hot from the get-go on day one. Looked athletic and threw the ball with very little effort. The Michigan commit really dropped the ball into the basket for receivers and it looks like the Wolverines have a lot to be excited about.
247's Barton Simmons also had high praise for Peters:
Finally Brandon Peters was one of the guys that multiple analysts were buzzing about and his upside is crazy considering he's had limited quarterback training and he has elite athleticism that shows up on the basketball court.
Partway through the camp, however, Peters isn't on the Elite 11 rankings list. (He's far from the only notable missing: five-star FSU commit Malik Henry didn't crack the list, either.) Peters still has time to make a move; regardless, he's been impressive to onlookers.
Meanwhile, Peters is also keeping an eye on recruiting, per 247's Steve Wiltfong:
“I was talking to coach the other day,” Peters said. “He said we might get Ahmir Mitchell and maybe (Naseir Upshur). Also I think Devin Bush Jr.”
Upshur will be at The Opening this week, as will Peters and Michael Onwenu. You can bet M's commits will be working on getting Upshur to join them.
[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]
Hey, Radio Guy
This is how Michigan recruits a four-star receiver:
“Michigan’s staff is great,” [Brad] Hawkins said about the Wolverines in April after visiting. “Harbaugh, coach (Jedd) Fisch, I built a great relationship with those guys when I was in Ann Arbor. It’s a great place. I can't wait to get back."
The second visit, which was originally scheduled for last week, is now taking place on July 19th. Hawkins will be accompanied by high school teammate and fellow four-star Michigan commitment Ron Johnson and 2017 center Cesar Ruiz, who also has the Wolverines in a good early position.
Hawkins and Johnson are both commitments, of course, and Ruiz—who was on the Harbaugh-in-the-streets visit—may be the next to come through the burgeoning Camden-to-A2 pipeline. The four-star 2017 center raved about Harbaugh to Scout's Brian Dohn:
“Coach (Jim) Harbaugh, he’s just an amazing guy,” Ruiz said. “He’s down to earth. He’s not like one of those stuck up guys. He walked the streets with us. Everybody wanted to take pictures with us. It’s not like he said, ‘I don’t want to take pictures.’ He took pictures with everybody. He’s always smiling and he seems like a positive person.”
Ruiz specifically mentioned Michigan and Penn State as schools currently standing out to him. Michigan is widely considered to have the early edge, though Ruiz boasts a very impressive offer sheet.
Defensive Back Updates: Butler Decommits
This has felt inevitable for quite some time. Three-star Lakewood (OH) St. Edward CB Tony Butler finally decommitted from Pitt, and while he has a top four, only one of those schools is currently slated to get a visit, per Scout's Bill Greene:
"My four top schools right now are Michigan, Rutgers, Maryland and Arizona State," he explained. "I am open to hearing from any other schools right now, and I do have to call Clemson this Monday about their interest in me."
"The only unofficial visit I have scheduled is Michigan on July 15, and that visit is rescheduled from earlier when we had car trouble and couldn't go there," he added. "I might just take all my officials now this fall, but I need to discuss that with my mom and my coach about."
Butler is a good bet to end up in the class, though he's not Michigan's only option at corner. Three-star MD CB Sir Patrick Scott—yes, SIR PATRICK SCOTT—will visit for the BBQ on August 2nd after adding an offer late last month, per 247's Steve Lorenz ($). Wake Forest is considered Scott's favorite for now; if Michigan makes a strong push, he seems like a very realistic option, as well.
One corner who most likely won't end up in the class is four-star CA CB David Long. Long told Rivals' Adam Friedman that he plans to see Michigan before making a decision, but it's telling that he already has a decision timeframe in mind before taking that trip ($):
"I'm going to try to get out to Michigan and Notre Dame before the season starts," Long said. "At this point I want to commit before the season starts so probably in the late summer."
One other trip Long could take is with his mother to Stanford. That could be especially important since the Los Angeles Loyola standout seems to favor the Cardinal over others and this would be his mom's first trip to campus.
Stanford is the heavy favorite. I'd honestly be surprised if Long followed through on those unofficials.
Right, The Nike Thing
Steve Lorenz rounded up the recruit reactions to Michigan's forthcoming switch to Nike. Four-star 2016 ATH Jordan Fuller probably had the most realistic assessment of its impact:
2016 Top100 ATH/Safety Jordan Fuller: "It's a perk for sure. I wouldn't choose a school based on that alone, but it helps."
Four-star 2016 OL Jean Delance came out on the high end:
2016 Top100 OL Jean Delance: "I'M BEYOND EXCITED. HELL YEAH! Michigan and the Swoosh.....awesome."
And commit Victor Viramontes continues to build his legend by mentioning Russell Athletic and busting out a Deion Sanders quote:
ATH Victor Viramontes: "Even if we're wearing Nike, Adidas or Russell Athletic, we're going to give 110% on the field, but it's definitely something to be excited about. It's like Deion Sanders said: "You look good, you feel good, you play good"."
The move to Jordan Brand for hoops should also pay dividends.
Etc.
Three-star WR Chase Claypool, who Michigan put a lot of effort into recruiting at Sound Mind Sound Body, will make his college choice at The Opening either Thursday or Friday. Notre Dame is the prohibitive favorite. Rutgers tried to make a late move and managed to get Claypool on campus; Claypool gave Rutgers' Rivals outlet his reaction, which I can't help but interpret as his best attempt to say something nice about the program ($):
"It was a lot of fun," Claypool. "I was really surprised with how much I liked Rutgers. I liked how much construction they are doing. It was really impressive."
"How do you feel about Kyle Flood?" "Man, I tell you, that's a big ol' crane over there."
The Wolverine's Chris Balas caught up with Todd Howard, who help out with M's camp, to get his thoughts on commit Benjamin St-Juste ($):
"Somebody's coaching that kid. The things he knew - shoulders over the knees, planting and driving, technique, playing low. That's the thing I don't really see a lot of young football players doing. They'll have high backpedals, some kids will double plant, bicycle break where they are running in place out of breaks. You didn't see that with him. He played low the whole time, was barely out of position, maintained low pad level, change direction with no false steps, attacked the football. He caught the ball like a wide receiver, and he could just fly. He was all over, and it you could tell it mattered to him. He was diving around, selling out, and if he did get beat he was getting right back in line for another rep. That's what you want to see as a coach."
Howard even went so far as to say St-Juste could be a "three-year guy"—as in, a potential early entry to the NFL. While Howard's opinion is likely affected by his status as a former Wolverine, that's some high praise.
Erik Swenson talking about the events that have transpired since his commitment will make you feel old.
Why the hell would a ten minute shitty interview change kids' opinions of someone who they've actually interacted with in person? In a month nobody will even remember the interview.
Sarcasm.
Sorry for the instinctive reaction, I know a couple of osu slappies who won't shut up about the damn thing.
running their mouths- just have the guard return them to their cells.
tell them to refill the T.P. in the McDonald's bathroom like they are supposed to do.
SINCE WHEN???!!!
in hopes of the minimum wage being raised to $15 an hour.
never lost to Michigan.
Got Em!
I am just impressed we landed 14 kids in a month with the impossible weight of Adidas holding us down.
It's not JUST the value of the sarcasm, its the ability to get others to bite on it. I'm sure that the 2010 version of me would have bit on it...but nowadays, I just sit back and let the sarcasm pour over me like a warm relaxing shower....
but is that shower golden?
One of my favorite lines from The Wire, and very true.
Has there been anything writen explaining the Elite 11 rankings? It seems like every year there are discrepancies between how the writers covering the event and the counselors rank the performers.
I'm pretty sure the discrepancy between observers' rankings and the counselors' ratings boils down to the fact that observers are only watching the kids throw, while the counselors are also grading them on their Lego-building and cross-country running and playbook memorizing and all the other non-throwing things Dilfer has decided to make them do.
You forgot "Dilfer-blowing" on that list.
It's a tv show as well so, there has to be drama...
You ever watch Jerry Springer and think "She says she hates that girl for sleeping with her man, but she has an odd smirk on her face as if she's enjoying this?"
Yea there's some of that "reality TV drama" going on. I wouldn't get too emotionally invested in the Elite 11 rankings.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Got a link to those rankings? I've not heard a thing about him ranking the QBs at A4.
I didn't say that grading the kids on the non-throwing stuff was necessarily bad (Some of it, like testing their ability to master a playbook, is probably pretty important...on the other hand, I would argue that Harbaugh having them play other sports is probably a more useful activity/measuring stick than Dilfer having them build Lego structures), just explaining why the rankings the Elite 11 puts out are different from the rankings observers put out. They're taking into consideration different criteria.
Is that the camp where each qb throws like 5 passes?
And if he then became a ranking military officer, would you have to respond him, "Sir, yes, sir Captain Sir sir Patrick Scott?"
If Han Solo convinced Sirhan Sirhan that he should drop the han part of his name because it was causing him shame, and then for some reason he was introduced to the football player, & it turned out that Mr. Scott found out he was actually born in Surrey, the introducer (TM) would look first to the prisoner & then to the player saying Sir Sir, Sir Sir Scott of Surrey. Surely surreal! Stop calling me Sirley!
Sir squared patrick scott
They portend zero in regard to future performance. A big who cares.
Unless Peters was in the top 5, at which point they'd be incredibly predictive...
Scout is the best at rating recruits. Othertimes its ESPN or 247. Sometimes they all suck, cause they don't see what our coaches see.
And no, this has nothing to do with how they rank M recruits. There are plenty of recruits that picked somewhere else other than Michigan where I think that the recruitng sites ranked that recruit too high. See, total unbiased approach.
How did your date go?
Oh, you know, she is really nice.
/never a good sign
She's having a lot of construction done.
I liked other guys better than Malik Henry when I looked at their film, and I have not heard good things about Henry's off-the-field exploits. He and FSU will probably fit well together.
Can someone please photoshop Harbaugh from this article into a Titanic picture?
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/06/michigans_2016_recrui…
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