Jermain Crowell on the radio with Sam this morning said there is no rift with Michigan
For those that don't know, Crowell is the coach at Bellville HS. He sad a lot of very complimentary things about Michigan. If there was a rift, it no longer exists. Loves Mike Hart, Ron Bellamy and Shaun Nua. When the podcast shows up, I'll post aa link. Looks like Harbaugh has spoken with Crowell, and all is well.
[ed-Seth: here's the link: https://omny.fm/shows/michigan-insider/006-recruiting-roundup-w-bellevi…]
January 27th, 2021 at 8:57 AM ^
As in their program will put the kid on the radar of college programs that might offer scholarships.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:49 AM ^
Crowell from all of his years at Cass Tech got in with PAL (which is basically like the Michigan football equivalent to AAU). He has staff from all over the place. I had a student who lived right on the Warren and Detroit border who ended up going to Belleville. His dad was a PAL coach who was hired on to the Belleville staff and part of his role was to drive students daily. He had the "far eastside area."
Now, most school districts who are doing pretty well enrollment wise will only accept school of choice kids from their county. This is for several reasons as out of county SOC you have to deal with the other ISDs or RESAs. For special ed funding a student must be going to school in their resident county or the resident county must defer to the SOC school. This rarely happens because of the increased funding the district gets for special education services.
Not accusing Crowell of this, but in my years of coaching the main thing that is done to get out of county kids into your school is to setup addresses within the district that are used by these kids. That's why some of these kids are recruited from age 12 or so. For example, John Harrington the longtime coach at Harrison was the one who really pioneered this at the public school level. He had a family member who owned apartment complexes within Farmington Hills. He was able to use some of these addresses to get kids into the school that otherwise wouldn't be able to due to where they lived. If their address is listed within the district, they are automatically enrolled.
January 27th, 2021 at 8:19 AM ^
But, respectfully, what else is he supposed to say? "Fuck Michigan!" (that could be awesome in terms of recruits if the past is going to reflect the future). He is doing right by his kids, saying of course Michigan and I are cool, and keeping those lines of communication open, but that doesn't mean he is going to be pushing kids our way. It will be interesting to see where his kids sign, that will say more then a radio hit that he is using to build up his brand.
January 27th, 2021 at 10:35 AM ^
Yeah, where these kids end up and the stories about Crowell speak for themselves. He's publicly stood by this "I'm good with Michigan" narrative for a long time, but it doesn't seem to match reality
January 27th, 2021 at 8:24 AM ^
Have any recent Belleville kids done well in college? I don’t follow recruiting closely but feel like Ive read here that the program is overrated in terms of P5 players
January 27th, 2021 at 8:30 AM ^
Not particularly. Crowell seems to be a better recruiter than talent developer. Still it would be in Michigan’s best interest to foster good relationships with all of the high school coaches. Belleville has also been regularly churning out power 5 caliber players. You don’t want to shut that school off just because former players didn’t do well in college.
January 27th, 2021 at 8:43 AM ^
The fact that we missed out on 21' 5* DT Damon Payne this year sucks. The narrative around Nua and our DT situation would be totally different with him in the picture.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:10 AM ^
Unfortunately, a lot of kids want to leave the state (especially for warmer weather). That's true for all ages and demographics, so Payne may have been in this boat. My problem is when we lose kids to other B1G schools (like PSU).
January 27th, 2021 at 9:47 AM ^
I don’t live in Michigan so I’ve always been curious about this comment on weather. You would think Michigan is the only power 5 school with winter weather. Does Columbus, OH and South Bend, IN not get cold as hell? Notre Dame recruits California like it’s going out of style. Ohio St has no problem getting kids from warm weather climates. Is it not cold as hell in State College in the winter as well? Just kind of curious because the media, recruiting sites and broadcasters all hit this a lot as well.
January 27th, 2021 at 10:28 AM ^
I think you have mixed together a few different phenomena. Some recruits in the Upper Midwest are tired of being cold every winter and just want to go to school somewhere warm. Michigan cannot do much to retain those recruits. That has nothing to do with recruits in California, Florida, Texas, or even Michigan, committing to schools in the Upper Midwest. Losing a recruit, either in or out of region, to another Upper Midwest school hurts because they might have committed to Michigan, but chose another school with a similar profile.
January 27th, 2021 at 10:55 AM ^
Being from Detroit, I grew up loving this school. That was the main thing that kept me here. Otherwise, I was ticketed for a warm weather school. Unless the local school has something you really want, it's hard to pass up a free education somewhere warm.
Also, we've recruited on a similar level to ND since the Moeller years. The one thing we and ND had then, that OSU has now, is a stretch of national relevance (on the field). OSU is in a different recruiting stratosphere because they are a CFP fixture.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:57 AM ^
I will be interested in how Payne performs in college. Motivation is a critical ingredient. If you have not, watch the Belleville/WB game. It is the most important game of the year. Everyone believes the winner will go on to win the state championship. It is, arguably, the two most talented teams in Division 1. Look for Payne.
January 27th, 2021 at 10:37 AM ^
Losing a 5* DT, who wanted to leave the state, to Bama shouldn't be shocking
January 27th, 2021 at 12:53 PM ^
I'm less bothered about a kid who made it clear early on he wanted to leave the state and play in the SEC (which was my read on Payne for a long time). You'll lose guys who want to leave sometimes, and that's fine.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:24 AM ^
No, they haven't. I don't have encyclopedic knowledge of every kid they've produced, but basically, nobody since the Jenkins brothers in like the early 2000s has done anything.
Until somebody does something in college, I'm not going to get too worked up about Michigan (mostly) whiffing at Belleville.
January 27th, 2021 at 8:32 AM ^
Fake news!!! Harbaugh kicks puppies and everyone hates him!!! He alienates everyone he comes in contact with!!
January 27th, 2021 at 8:41 AM ^
He's too WEIRD for people to mend fences with him!
January 27th, 2021 at 8:56 AM ^
Curtis Blackwell likes the Bellamy hire too.
Curtis Blackwell II@CoachBlackwell_11h
Congratulations Coach@19Bellamy, we look forward to seeing you on the sideline and recruiting The State of Michigan & Metro Detroit!!!!! @SMSBFootball is 100% behind YOU coach!
January 27th, 2021 at 10:01 AM ^
Blackwell hates MSU. He now has a reason to like Michigan. Can't be a bad thing for recruiting the state.
January 27th, 2021 at 7:17 PM ^
Crowell also doesn’t respect Tucker anymore either. So it’s no surprise he has come back around to Harbaugh. Especially after Harbaugh hired Bellamy.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:11 AM ^
All along I thought Tim Banks would be a home run hire. Maybe landing Bellamy is hitting for the cycle.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:18 AM ^
Interesting that he mentioned Nua specifically. Not that we don't know about some of Brown's problems already, but if Nua ends up suddenly doing much better recruiting it would be an even bigger indictment of whatever the hell Brown was thinking.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:23 AM ^
I think the indictment is well in the past and the conviction is in. Look at the new age of assistant coaches at Michigan. Time for innovative thinking and recruiting.
I loved me some Don Brown, though.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:21 AM ^
Too little. Too late.
Like everything else Harbaugh has done at Michigan he is just reacting to the problem long after the damage is done. There is no coherent plan for the future. Everything is year to year.
Nothing is proactive. It’s all reactive.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:55 AM ^
I think you have that backwards. Instead of going for the big name DC he went outside the box. The plan looks to be long term. The plan looks to be recruit your ass off, and out athlete people. This isn't a quick fix, and he looks like he is doing what best for the team, as opposed to what's best for his job security.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:25 AM ^
I'll believe there's no rift when Rayshaun Benny signs a LOI for UM.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:55 AM ^
Rayshaun Benny goes to Oak Park.
January 27th, 2021 at 10:23 AM ^
Oak Park almost pulled off an amazing feat; going from winless regular season to winning a championship. They went 0-6 in the regular season, but made it all the way to the semifinals before losing in OT.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:25 AM ^
There is no Dana, only Zuul.
January 27th, 2021 at 9:36 AM ^
I will believe it when Benny signs with Michigan.
January 27th, 2021 at 10:10 AM ^
What does he have to do with anything? He doesn't go to Belleville.
January 27th, 2021 at 10:31 AM ^
He's said this all along, but he's clearly full of shit
January 27th, 2021 at 10:55 AM ^
Never heard of him.
January 27th, 2021 at 11:57 PM ^
Lol Crowell is a clown and he does not like “khaki pants” as he publicly calls him. He may respect Bellamy but he’s not so quietly jealous of the man, and oh by the way, he definitely steers kids away from us. Although he grew up a Michigan fan. I don’t know him well, but word around the coaching scene is he’s bitter about one or more of the DBs Cass sent us during that early stretch of Harbs. Jourdie? Doubtful. Thomas Gordon? Although he was a hoker. I don’t know which one or two it is or why. But I do know him well enough to know he’s a damn lie about holding no ill will toward us.