Julian Barnett article in the Detnews today

Submitted by ldevon1 on

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/high-school/2018/01/16/bellevil…

 

Julian Barnett is one of the top cornerbacks in the country for the 2019 class and already has committed to Michigan State.

He picked the Spartans on Dec. 22 over a long list of national powers, including Alabama and Georgia, who played in the national title game earlier this month.

Well, Michigan assistant coach Pep Hamilton made the trip to Belleville High on Friday to give Barnett an offer and head coach Jim Harbaugh texted him the next day to show his interest in him.

Barnett isn’t about to change his mind, though, and is locked in at Michigan State, where he has tremendous respect for longtime Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio and his staff.

“(Michigan's staff) is trying to come up here and build a relationship with me and (offensive tackle Devontae) Dobbs and some other guys," said Barnett, who has two dozen offers.

“Coach Dantonio has been around because of (senior cornerback) Davion (Williams), Dobbs, me, (freshman offensive lineman) Damon Payne and (sophomore cornerback) Andre Seldon, but other than that I just like the program. I feel like that’s my home, like I can go there and play, get a good education and I’ll be led to the right path. I’ve been going there a lot since my freshman year.”

maize-blue

January 18th, 2018 at 1:10 PM ^

The whole UM/Belleville dynamic was weird. There seemed to be some blocking of sorts of UM. Some believed it was the Bellville staff favoring other schools others thought nothing was going on. But it seemed weird that a school so close to UM, producing D1 talent, that UM would have zero interest. 

It does seem lately that UM is getting it's foot in the door, however. 

Maizen

January 18th, 2018 at 1:32 PM ^

FWIW Sam Webb has refuted this multiple times. Michigan simply dropped the ball. Good to see they are at least trying to rectify their mistake. Anything can happen in recruiting and it's a long time until 2019 NSD.

maize-blue

January 18th, 2018 at 3:45 PM ^

The Belleville stuff may be not true but if it was I doubt Sam would point fingers at anyone. I know Sam is close to a lot of situations and privy to a lot of information but when it comes to holding people to the fire he is one of the poorest out there. He very much likes to not ruffle any feathers. That is understandable in a way I guess, if he want to keep his sources.

NRK

January 18th, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^

Crowell coached under Wilcher at Cass Tech, I don't think there's much to the obstruction stuff.

Michigan has been behind on Barnett for a while. I know a coach at the school (don't ask me who) who had told me as much last year.

MSU has made some inroads there over the past few years and UM was slow. Same thing happend with Gabe Brown in basketball. UM is palying some catch up now, but should be able to correct it long-term.

In reply to by Remember the Alamo

Blue4You

January 18th, 2018 at 4:40 PM ^

I’m going to correct you before some Sparty comes on here and does so. I’m pretty sure it’s like 36-30-6 in favor of the good guys since the Paul Bunyan Trophy came into play.

Remember the Alamo

January 18th, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^

Hi Sparty! Yeah i like to look at things from a historical perspective. From that perspective, i see a blue blood who is the best all time and i see a pretender who lives in the shadow of the blue blood. Eventually the pretender goes back to not being very good.

Maizeblue11

January 18th, 2018 at 5:25 PM ^

I hate to break it to you, but looking at things from a "Historical Perspective", especially in a sport that is evolving as fast as college football is, doesn't work. Just because MSU wasn't good in the 1970's doesn't mean in a few years they will begin to suck. 

 

Also, capitalize your I's. It gets harder to read your posts with every account you make.

Remember the Alamo

January 18th, 2018 at 5:49 PM ^

Hi internet troll. You have what’s called selective history, sorry doesn’t work that way. Also, cool comment on the account statement, whoever you think I am, sorry to disappoint you, I’m not, but hey what else do internet trolls with negative gazillion points have to do. Bye internet troll.

Maizeblue11

January 18th, 2018 at 6:14 PM ^

Jeez, no need to be so mean. You shouldn’t even know who I am! Anyways, I’m not trolling, I’m stating facts. To keep the discussion going, I stated that football was is a completely different sport than it was 30 years ago, and that believing that, in the next few years, the teams will shift back to your “equilibrium” consisting UM being good and MSU being terrible is, for lack of a better term, stupid. In response, you called me a troll and said I have “selective history”. Could you provide me with a logical and understandable argument?

redhed

January 19th, 2018 at 10:53 AM ^

I fully expect us to return to form sooner than later.  However, expecting Sparty to return to 2003 form is not reasonable under their current coaching staff.   For history to "swing back into place" they are going to have to get a lot worse (while we get better), and no one on this board has really given any realistic insight into why that will happen.

gruden

January 18th, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^

I don't see how anyone could possibly accuse Harbaugh and his staff of laziness.  C'mon, really?

However, apparently Wheatley before he left made some comments about recruiting efforts being somewhat disorganized, so there's that.  M is probably too late on Barnett, but I suspect the offer exists more to open the door to future recruits from this school

LSAClassOf2000

January 18th, 2018 at 1:14 PM ^

Well, Michigan assistant coach Pep Hamilton made the trip to Belleville High on Friday to give Barnett an offer and head coach Jim Harbaugh texted him the next day to show his interest in him.

Had I known Pep was going to be in town, I would have extended an offer to sit down at the bar at the Bayou Grill and talk passing game. I have some criticisms that I would like heard and there is no better time to lodge such things than after a few pints. 

Neversatisfied

January 18th, 2018 at 2:58 PM ^

My guess is they just don't have good inroads to certain areas in Detroit right now, and with other schools having long relationships with this specific school, they just didn't get the earlier flier like others and were starting out behind the game.  Kind of like why they weren't all over Vansumeran early on, but they found Schoonmaker early than any big schools.  Don Brown's connections tipped them off, and they were in.  

Some schools recruit St. Thomas Aquinas really well because they have long standing relationships and they focus on getting that early flier.  Some schools have the early scoop on IMG.  Etc., etc., etc.  With how Michigan is focusing on broadening their national recruiting inroads to places like Florida, California, and Texas, it makes sense that maybe they could lose a little focus on Detroit.  Its kind of where you need to be right now to be a national brand, and compete for national championships.  You have to have national talent, not 75% Michigan talent with some Ohio mixed in.  

Getting some solid Ohio and Michigan recruiting focused coaches would be really nice though because Ohio and MIchigan still produce some really good talent.  

Jimmyisgod

January 18th, 2018 at 5:13 PM ^

In the grand scheme, no big deal. Barnett has reportedly been a huge MSU fan for years. Some kids just grow up liking MSU. Dobbs is also an MSU fan, but he might end up out of state.

It's two kids who grew up liking MSU and turned into top 60 players. Not much you can do about that.