Alex Bars getting "close" to a decision per 247
Alex Bars, a 4 star OT out of TN and younger brother of current Michigan OL Blake Bars, is getting close to a decision per a Steve Wiltfong tweet:
Steve Wiltfong @SWiltfong247 11m
Top247 offensive tackle Alex Bars getting 'close' to decision #Michigan #NotreDame #PennState #Vols http://tennessee.247sports.com/Article/Top247-offensive-tackle-Alex-Bars-getting-close-to-decision-128976 … via @247Sports
He's the 107 overall composite player according to 247. The article is paywalled and posted on the Tennessee 247 site, but 247 also lists his top 5 as Florida, Floridat St., Michigan, Notre Dame, and OSU with the only 3 crystal ball predictions all having him going to Michigan. If he does indeed pull the trigger soon it may be good news for Hoke and co.
we shall see, I suppose.
who has him as an ND lean? (obviously not 247).
/negs self for bringing him up
Damefan is definitely not lean.
Yeah where is the ND lean idea coming from? Based on everything I've read, it seems like he is a very slight UM lean. Earlier in the prcoess it seemed like he was a stronger UM lean, but that things have tightened up. Still people seem to be indicating that UM is probably #1 with ND just behind at #2.
What's the source? No one in this thread has given any sources for saying that he's an ND lean. I don't have any subscriptions, so I don't know myself, but based on 247 alone, he seems to be a Michigan lean.
"Not every bit of info in the world has links involved"
Ah, so it's one of those bits of info that's been successfully kept off the Internet.
It has probably made it to the internet somewhere, but if I didn't get it from the internet, I can't really link to it, can I? Should I hyperlink every conversation I have with friends or coworkers?
This who obsession with links has gone way overboard. Yes, if someone is posting actual news, a link is handy, if not necessary. But sometimes there are rumors or impressions or opinions that people have that are still worth reading that aren't from a specific article on the internet.
"But sometimes there are rumors or impressions or opinions that people have that are still worth reading that aren't from a specific article on the internet" I call bs unless you got a link?.
Is your impression from the preponderance of what you've read (which, if it wasn't on the internet, was probably from some collection of sources, at least some of which you could presumably list) or from conversations with friends or coworkers? What's the point of being cagey? I don't get why anyone would claim to have heard something and then pretend to be unable to give an idea of their sources unless they were just looking to be treated as though they were important. Feel free to enlighten me here, though.
i don't question any of the people (you included) who have posted that. i just want to know where the information comes from.
Are you saying rivals says that he is a ND lean?
his dad played at ND and the family wanted both older brothers to get ND offers (but didn't). hope i'm wrong but i have a hard time seeing him not going to ND if he decides soon.
To hell with Notre Dame.
I fee like this ND lean is one of the self pepetuation things. Someone posted that he's an ND lean, and then it kind of spread, and now everybody is saying it so it becomes the "truth". However, I've not read from an actual insider that he's an ND lean (caveat is that I don't have subs to all the services so I don't know what everybody is saying). The person we all trust the most on this issue is not sure what he's thinking. The impression was that he was very high on UM earlier, but now it is not certain. He was entertaining the southern schools seriously. At this point, I don't think anybody except Alex really knows what he's doing.
But I have also heard that he is an ND lean*
*I have only heard this by reading this thread
People were saying Ian Bunting was an ND lean up until he committed. I agree that there are a lot of "presumed leans" for ND.
That's why links don't matter for what people have heard. There are so many opinions out there, and most people are guessing. Some guesses are more educated than others, but they are still mostly guesses.
in the fold, what are the projections for OL with a smaller number of scholarships next year?
Currently we have 8 commits:
OL - 2
QB - 1
WR - 2
TE - 1
DT - 1
LB - 1
I've know we're done at TE/QB. I hear we are taking 1 more LB and 1 more WR, which brings us to 10.
I see us taking up to 2 DBs, 2 DEs, and 1 RB which would bring us to 15.
Anyone have a better idea on the numbers or how many we're targetting for the OL? If we *hypothetically* (*knocks on wood*) got Bars, would that close out the o-line for us this class?
I was wondering if this announcement had anything to do with JBB's recent commitment and the possibility that we have only one more OL spot available in this class. Seems like pretty close timing. If Bars wants to snatch up the (potentially) last OL spot, I'm all for it.
I also think this class will end up at around 20, but I don't see 3 LBs... I think we'll take another TE/FB or 4 WRs before we take 3 LBs.
We only took 2 last year and next year is supposed to be a small class also. If we only take 2 this year will we even have space to grab more than 2 next year?
Probably only 1 more OL with Cole and JBB already in the fold. That brings them to 16 the current limit for the class. At that point you take the best available if more scholarships open up, as there are no real holes in the depth chart anymore. If you get some attrition at one position they probably target that position.
I don't know much about ND's OL situation, but since we just picked up a OL commit my maize and blue goggles want me to beleive that his commitment may have accelerated Bar's timeline. Pure Speculation though.
Hey, we must have the same goggles, because I came to the same speculative conclusion. Did you get yours at MDen?
Post by 247's Clint Brewster, one of the Michigan writers for the site, when asked what he feels about his pick of Bars to Michigan:
"Yeah I still feel confident but not quite as much as I did before. I know Barton Simmons has a great relationship with Bars and he still has him going to Michigan"
All the people who are saying that Bars is an ND lean are basing it off the fact that ND fans have said supposedly the dad wants him to go to ND and the only reasons his brother's didn't is because they didn't get offered. That may be true, and Bars may go to ND, but I've yet to see anything from any expert or writer saying Bars to ND.
That kid who just committed to play RB at ND that also took a look at us... like 85% of 247 people had him going to UNC.
Don't let 247's cool format and nice features trick you into thinking their guys have any real insight. It's sort of like if ESPN was doing it right / was good at ranking kids.
What the hell was everybody supposed to think? Hood had been very up-front and vocal that ND was his favorite pretty much his entire recruitment. Then he suddenly says "I need to stay closer to home", and listed UNC as his leader. Were they supposed to think 'oh, gee, well even though you said UNC is your leader, we think that eventually your family is going to come around to you living in South Bend so you can attend your professed favorite school'?
Exactly. Hood openly said that he wanted to stay closer to home. You can't expect even the "experts" to think differently than what the kid says himself.
It's not entirely pointless. It gets us all on here arguing about it when we should be working. Amirite?
Kidding. I'm all for discussing recruiting, generally. Just hard to get worked up about "locks," "leans," predictions, and rival site nonsense.
So because one they got one pick wrong means they have no "real insight" into any recruiting situation? That seems like a blatant over reaction to me.
Obviously I'm not going to live and die by their word. They will be wrong sometimes, like with Hood and Bunting, and Bars seems like the type of kid who they could potentially be wrong on. But to say they have no real insight is foolish. They obviously don't know 100% where any kid is going until the LOI is signed, but they definitely have a better idea than us as fans.
And Hood was also a very unexpected situation. He said ND was his #1 for the longest time, then said he wanted to stay close to home in NC, and then before giving any indication that that wasn't the case he committed to ND. Now obviously this could happen with Bars as well, where he does something the "experts" don't expect, but that seems to be the exception and not the rule.
Nobody has any real insight. At this point, all the major services have access to every word a recruit has ever said. After that it's just a guessing game, and dollars to donuts no one service is consistently any better at guessing than any other.
to hell with ND
...but more recently Sam Webb said that the numbers crunch has clarified some things, and it looks like he might be feeling Michigan a bit more than was originally thought.
I think if he decides soon, that's good news for Michigan, since we only have one spot left at OL (not sure what ND's situation is like).
Yeah...I think Bushell-Beatty's commitment and this sudden announcement by Bars suggests that there's a connection. Sam Mustipher picked Notre Dame a couple weeks ago.
Obviously his brother being here helps make the decision to visit, but he's visited here twice as much as ND and we offered well before they did. That doesn't really scream "slight ND lean". Regardless of what the 247 guys say, visits are usually pretty telling.
The Outback Bowl that was 5 months ago? Yeah I'm sure nothing changed....
Are you a bitch?