Wednesday Recruitin' Braces for HOKEMANIA
Without knowing what Brady Hoke's coaching staff is going to look like, it's hard to say exactly what will happen with Michigan's recruiting. I'll maintain the status quo from last week for now, assuming most of Michigan's non-Florida recruits are going to stick. Hoke has already said he'll honor their commitments.
The Commits
So I'm not redundantly linking the same article over and over, AnnArbor.com article is here.
MI RB Justice Hayes took to Twitter to say he'd stay a Wolverine no matter what. The AnnArbor.com article confirms it.
MI OL Jake Fisher is "rethinking" his commitment. Though Fisher had previously said he picked Michigan for the total package, not just a coach, he'll make sure he doesn't like Michigan State, Oregon, or Notre Dame better.
FL OL Tony Posada, per AnnArbor.com, planned to stay with Michigan before the hiring.
OH OL Jack Miller said he'd stick with the Wolverines even before Hoke was hired, and his buddy, OH DT Chris Rock is solid, along with him ($). Video on Miller:
MI DE Brennen Beyer's coach told AnnArbor.com that he'd consider opening his commitment.
MI LB Desmond Morgan is "definitely solid" to Michigan:
“It was more than just the coaching situation,” Morgan said of deciding to accept a scholarship at U-M. “It was the school, it was the atmosphere, the education and the history, the tradition.”
TX LB Kellen Jones said, pre-hiring, that his commitment was firm (AnnArbor.com). He told Tom that he's still a Wolverine as long as the staff still wants him. There had been rumors of a decommitment in favor of Florida. He's still planning to take a couple visits, so keep an eye on him.
OH S/CB Greg Brown is already a student in Ann Arbor.
FL S/CB Dallas Crawford probably shouldn't even be considered a Michigan commit anymore, and he now favors Miami (YTM). It would be a surprise to see him end up in Michigan's class. I'll remove him from the commitment list, but leave him on the board.
MD CB Blake Countess will not decommit, but he's waiting to speak with Hoke ($, info in header).
CA K Matt Goudis has been replaced in Boise State's recruiting class by Jake Van Ginkel, but he'll visit Miami (YTM), and it sounds like he's looking to give the Canes his commitment "no matter what the Michigan coaches have to say."
It looks like Fisher, Jones, and Goudis are the only current commits (Crawford not included, of course), that are serious flight risks.
Finishing The Class
Hoke has said there will be no recruiting visits this weekend (though a couple unofficials may be a possibility), so there should be a pair of huge visit rosters over the next couple weeks. Stay tuned for those.
Sam Webb talks Hoke's recruiting in the Detroit News. A few new prospects to keep an eye on with the change in coaching staff: CA DT Christian Heyward and CA DT Mustafa Jalil. With Michigan's need at defensive tackle and Hoke's background, they could see opportunity. Also mentioned in Sam's article is CA WR Devin Lucien, who Hoke recruited at SDSU. He plans to visit Ann Arbor, and Michigan has a good chance at him.
Aside from defensive tackle, losing Tate Forcier makes quarterback a huge area of need in this class - especially with Denard Robinson mum on whether he definitely plans to stick around. San Diego State has one quarterback commit, 3-star Californian Chad Jeffries. The 6-3 pocket slinger is SDSU's highest-rated commit to Rivals, and if Al Borges plans to continue with pocket guys after Denard leaves town, rather than adapting scheme somewhat, Jeffries could be a possibility.
IL OL Chris Bryant has pushed back his announcement ($, info in header). He'll now decide the 28th instead of the 21st, giving him time to get to know Michigan's new staff. Tom says Michigan still leads.
NC WR/LB Kris Frost committed to Auburn last week, but the Tigers still haven't accepted his commitment. If they can't find room for him in their class, he'll consider Michigan again.
SC WR Hakeem Flowers will announce a commitment on January 23rd. Oregon, LSU, and Michigan are his final three.
NJ TE Jack Tabb had planned to announce yesterday, eliminating Michigan from the running, but now will announce tomorrow ($, info in header), with the Wolverines back on the table.
MI CB Raymon Taylor still plans to visit Ann Arbor. He's visiting Indiana this weekend, and the Hoosiers will try to regain a commitment from him.
Mini Happy Trails
NJ S Sheldon Royster has eliminated Michigan ($, info in header).
Happy Trails to FL RB DeVondrick Nealy, an Iowa State commit. The new staff likely would not have pursued Nealy.
MD DT Darian Cooper removed Michigan from his list, but with a defensive line-oriented head coach, it'll be interesting to see whether Michigan can get back in on a kid like him.
Happy Trails moments should be coming fast and furious as Signing Day approaches.
Reminder: 2012 updates are on hold until after Signing Day.
January 13th, 2011 at 1:07 PM ^
But I don't see why he would leave. He's not exactly the Pat White type of QB. He's a big dude with a strong arm, he should fit in well with the new coaching staff.
January 13th, 2011 at 12:53 PM ^
Some of you guys get freaked out way too quickly. We have 10 solid commits - I'm not counting Goudis or Fisher as solid right now, but I think Kellen Jones will be here. That means we have about 10 spots to fill, yeah?
We have a very good shot with Bryant, Lucien and Raymon Taylor, the latter being our Crawford replacement. Guys like Frost, Flowers, Tabb and Cooper are longer shots at this point (maybe not Flowers) but don't be surprised if one of them comes back to us. If Thomas Rawls can get his grades up, he'd be a great fit.
That leaves us with about 5 open spots. We'll try for a QB, we'll try for another DT/DE ,we might try for another OL and we'll try for a TE if we don't get Tabb. If we can't fill all the spots with M calibur guys, than we'll have a couple extra to give during Hoke's first full class. These guys weren't going to help us win this fall anyway, don't worry too much about it.
January 13th, 2011 at 12:53 PM ^
I dont have a good feeling about all of this.
January 13th, 2011 at 1:04 PM ^
Sorry for the double post. Go Blue!
January 13th, 2011 at 1:02 PM ^
Heard he's visiting the Hurricanes on Saturday. Michigan pull his offer?
January 13th, 2011 at 1:21 PM ^
A mixed bag -- some losses (a we-hardly-knew-ye kicker, a sweet CB (who happened to be an even sweeter QB, and of course, Dee Hart), but also some excellent pick-up possibilities (Tabb, Bryant, Lucien -- that might have otherwise slipped away). If we get a couple of those guys, and hang on to Beyer and Countess, we won't have done have bad, considering . . .
January 13th, 2011 at 1:27 PM ^
According to Webb, Hoke has some serious recruiting skillz. But when I look at the recruiting at Ball State and SDSU with and without Hoke, not a huge difference. I wonder what the disconnect is...
January 13th, 2011 at 7:45 PM ^
Realitically - it's tough to recruit at those types of schools, BSU especially. It's tough to sell something nobody wants, or when all your competitors have better products.
However, this current class at SDSU is better than they've had in a while, picking up Chad Jeffries alone is a big deal, and it would have finished off very well if "Hoke to UM" rumors hadn't started in late November.
January 13th, 2011 at 1:46 PM ^
Say we only land 10-12 guys this year does it mean we're in trouble? I would say no because this team as a whole is quite young. With 20 starters comming back and some solid recruits who were redshirted last year there is some decent depth. Maybe the skill isn't as high as we want or they are the type of players Hoke wants but it's arguably a better situation than 3 years ago. In that transition we lost both starting WR's, QB, RB, LT, LG, and C (douche) on offense and both OLB and SS on defense.
So if some of these guys go elsewhere I think it would be ok. Getting 20 guys back on a 7 win team isn't so bad and one of them will be a senior CB and another is D-Rob.
January 13th, 2011 at 1:58 PM ^
Probably not... until we get farther down the road. It is never a good thing to have such a large swing in pure numbers between classes.
January 13th, 2011 at 2:18 PM ^
Even further down the road I don't think it matters but it will however put the pressure on next years class. You definately can't miss two years in a row like we did on 06/07-07/08 years. As we know that leads to trouble.
January 13th, 2011 at 9:33 PM ^
http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/teamrank…
#12 in 2007 and #10 in 2008. Seems like the attrition as a result of the coaching change caused more problems than recruiting those years.
We slipped to #20 last year and we are in the high 30's right now. This year seems pretty important. We have only 12 commits according to rivals, everyone above us has closer to 20. Hoke needs to fill out the class obviously, and if he gets 20 total that would probably bump us substantially.
January 13th, 2011 at 2:39 PM ^
I wouldn't put too much stock in these star ratings. I live in WI and year after year a WI. recruiting class is ranked any where from 30 to 50 including this year at 33 according to rivals. They have 19 commits broken down as follows 1, 2 star, 16, 3 star and 2, 4 star. Their classes look like this year after year. So please explain how all of these 2, 3 and 4 star players play so well. Coaching, the services that rate players are full of crap. Its all a crap shoot in my opinion. One more example, Texas, when was the last time they were ranked outside the top 10 recruiting schools and how did their year turn out? Relax , to me it's all about getting the players to play.
January 13th, 2011 at 3:35 PM ^
He's been committed to Cal since April. Looks like he was committed to SDSU for a time, which is impressive given his high ranking on Rivals/Scout. But he looks to be gone
January 14th, 2011 at 2:04 PM ^
What's up with Miami, is there some crazy party going on there? Why the fuck are all these people going there at the same time?
January 15th, 2011 at 12:03 AM ^
think we have a slim chance to finsh in the top 25.Here's why,it seems that Kris Frost is back on the board,also we still are going after Chris Bryant.Also i heard that we might try to sway Zettel and Arnett.Brady Hoke is also trying to talk to some top notch DT's from the west coast,There is also a WR out there that we have a shot at.Keep the guys that we got and add some of these guys and more and we will have a shot.
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