Multiple commitments to track on Friday
3 of Michigan's top targets are announcing their decisions on Friday.
3* DE target Collins Acheampong will announce on 247's youtube channel at 12pm PT (3pm EST). Largely a 3 way race between Michigan-Miami-LSU. Biggest question will be if NIL outweighs all the other reasons to pick a college. If it does, then Miami/LSU is the option. If no, then Michigan (who still has the CB lead) will be the likely choice. UCLA is also in his top 4.
5* WR target Jalen Brown is also picking on Friday at 6pm EST. Again a 3 way race between Michigan-Miami-LSU with FSU and Texas as also hats on the table. Miami is the favorite but Michigan was the last visit he went on where he also met up with his mentor, Desmond Howard.
4* DE target Enow Etta simply posted on his twitter "Friday". Now this could be him announcing that his uncle will be on a TV show at that time, but given that he's expected to announce a commitment soon, it's more likely that that is his decision date. No time given. Top 4 of Michigan-MSU-Stanford-Bama, with this sounding like a Michigan-MSU battle. Michigan is the favorite because it gives him the best balance of academics with on-field success and he's someone who actually cares about academics. But he has some close ties with some MSU recruits so small chance that may be the chance. Of the 3, I'm personally most confident in this one.
"3 of Michigan's top targets"
looks down and the first one listed is a 3*
ohboyyyy... I'll get the popcorn
He's a composite 4*. Also, he's not really an ordinary recruit as his school canceled their football program and now he's kinda a bit of wildcard
I wouldn't look at his star rating. He's a 6'7 250lb DE who can really move. He hasn't actually played since his freshman year, but he's got athletic traits that jump out. So a super high boom or bust kind of prospect. Also, I just realized he's a 4* on composite and 3* on 247. That's my mistake
We all want 5-star kids, and lots of 4-stars too, but the reality is this is Michigan. We get a handful every year but we're not gonna be Alabama or OSU, etc.
That said, we have a decent track record developing under rated / raw recruits. Not all of them pan out, I know. But it seems like in the Harbaugh tenure that plenty of them have.
So, while I pine for as many 5-stars (and immediate impact players) as the next guy let's not knock all the 3-stars. There are plenty of negative nellies on the board that will do that with every recruit as it is.
1 out of 3? Only really feel good about Etta. Then maybe Acheampong. I think Brown stays home.
My gut is saying we won't get Acheampong, but so far no crystal balls have changed for him
I'm a little bit more optimistic because he moved his timeline from last Friday. He wasn't swayed immediately by the NIL deal Miami was offering
is it too late to trade baker mayfield for him?
I read this title thinking about track and field - hopefully they are recruiting better talent than our football team at the moment.
Well if they got Nyckoles Harbor then they would get one for both!
I must admit my 1st thought was we had some speedsters for the track team.
We could probably get all 3 with some NIL money. Odds are we may only get one.
You don't understand, Transformational >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Transactional.
Good perspective about NIL in the longer term:
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/nil-big-10-expansion-and-general-musings-qa
Acheampong feels like a coin flip at this point between us and Miami. He will end up at UM for sure
Wish the "Desmond mentor" piece was enough to pick Michigan ... but it isn't.
Unless it’s De$mond mentor with a handshake.
Looks like recent crystal balls have him going to LSU. So it sounds like it's not a NIL thing either (unless LSU is throwing out more money than Miami which I doubt). LSU has picked up 5 prospects in the last couple days and they're really on a roll.
Maybe they just like to dance?
Amir Herring announces tomorrow also. Michigan has the crystal balls for him as well. We could get some recruiting momentum going by Friday is all goes well.
We'll get nothing and like it.
Umm I was told Michigan doesn't recruit anymore. NIL and such. This OP must be mistaken.
Michigan most likely gets 1. Not much to praise about.
One recruit this year? Sounds about right. I hope we pick a good one if we're only getting one!
Yes, clearly I’m talking about the entire class and not three prospects that are being referenced in the thread.
Miami slinging out all that money to try to get kids to come to a program that has never won the ACC.
It’ll be interesting to see about 2-3 years from now whether all of this investment into NIL for certain players works out for these teams or not. Michigan is obviously going to do what Michigan always does and follow everything cautiously and to the letter, so it’ll be interesting to see where Michigan lands on the end of things as well. Can they still recruit top 10-15 consistently without having to pay out the ass for recruits? Time will tell.
Michigan will land where it has the last 20 years.
They say that NIL will even the recruiting plane. Yeah a team like Michigan that made it to the playoffs will have a much lower class ranking, than a team like Miami throwing NIL money at recruits.
Miami is obviously throwing money around but they always throw money around. Cristobal is also an elite recruiter, he was at Alabama, he was at Oregon and brought in easily their best classes and immediately turned Miami recruiting around. NIL is a thing but the skill of the recruiter still matters. It’s why cristobal is recruiting better than golden while they both pay players and freeman is out recruiting Kelly at nd even though they operate in the same structure.
This is still the backbone of recruiting and always will be. Relationships are paramount as the kid has to want to play for you, money or not.
Now, money can and will sway most players. That's just factual and the way of the world. However, few players will go to a place blindly just due to money. It will and has happened but most players, even 5* players, will choose a school with a staff they've developed a relationship with.
Freeman is cooking at ND primarily because he is a young, likeable, terrific recruiter. ND has not gone TA&M out there with NIL. They're doing more than Michigan but they aren't just dropping bags. Kids are choosing ND primarily because they like the staff. Same will be true for Cristobal and any other coach that can recruit their behinds off.
To end on that, I wouldn't expect UM to get more than one guy from that list and even that is about 60/40 atm. MSU seems to have another, higher ranked kid lined up so maybe they've moved on and it's already done but if he is still a take I wouldn't sleep on them until the kid is signed.
Brown is going to Miami as of a few days ago. Not sure if anything will change that. No info on the other two besides what I assume everyone is hearing from whatever site you sub to.
It’s sad this is what is believed. How strong a relationship will a player have with a staff that is only interested in him because of his athletic prowess and only wanted him to attend their fine university because of such athletic prowess. If you are a top recruit you take the money everyday and twice on Tuesday.
If relationships are winning the recruiting war, it sure seems weird that new staffs are about to out recruit programs that have developed relationships. How does Michigan trail Oregon for a player they recruited since middle school? Money talks and BS walks.
You’re correct, everyone talking about relationships seems to be ignoring that we’re losing recruits to schools that almost universally have new coaching staffs
Would be nice to see the recruiting payoff of schools like Miami, and Oregon being left out in the cold during realignment. Dante Moore you will never play for anything meaningful in Eugene! Sure Miami is nice Jalen Brown but your school will be an afterthought soon. Right?!
Fuck Oregon. Leave them out. As for the recruits, I think we whiff. Hope not. Maybe Michigan reassured acheampong and he's back in the boat
I'd be happy with a #25 class filled with linemen at this point...
To add to the doom and gloom…3* OT Logan Howland is trending Oklahoma while 4* DE Jason Moore is trending Ohio St.
Didn’t HARBAUGH recently say something to the effect of “now is the time for recruiting”?
Fantastic summer for recruiting for Michigan. Our swim lanes continue to shrink.
I don't know what is going on with the OL recruiting, but Moore is struggling in a big way to get talent to commit to him. If Michigan only gets Herring as a OL commit for 2023, and got a couple of sleepers in 2022, then the OL recruiting has become crazy bad. I get anything can happen from now until December, but losing out on Green, Jagusash, possibly Howland, Tarek and pretty much every other OL whom Michigan went heavy for is telling on how bad the luck for Moore has become. I really hope things change because Moore seems like a great coach and developer, but geesh...things are bad right now.
We were told awhile back that Michigan would be landing about 6 linemen sooner than later but I’m with you, it seems like we are missing out on a ton. Only took two last year as well. This was supposed to be a good year for the OL recruiting after winning the top lien award last year.
That's the debt that comes with a lien that high.
It’s not great, Bob. At this point I think the staff is going to have to commit a lot of time to recruiting committed kids and hope the product on the field this fall flips some of these kids back our way. A lot of the schools we are up against in the battles are new head coaches or new coordinators and a rough fall may be enough to switch a couple back? Not being fatalist but it’s that or recruit a bunch of projects. Of the kids waiting to commit later in the year, we aren’t really a factor for the top tier guys
It would be a bummer to choose a school for money over the place your heart and head says is the best fit for you otherwise.
But I cannot fault a guy for getting paid.
Quite frankly, it’s idiotic to expect kids to choose to “earn” big money after playing several years rather than accept big money up front. You have no clue what will happen tomorrow, let alone 1, 2, 3 + years from now.
What if they get in a car accident? Tear an ACL and can’t perform at a high level anymore? Use your imagination. They may never get to the point where the powers that be think they’ve “earned” the big bucks.
Anyone with half a brain takes the big money up front and invests it so that they’re financially set for the rest of their life (within reason of course).
We’re recruiting against the time value of money. It’s just basic economics that money, especially guaranteed money, is worth more now
None of them, two to LSU, one to MSU…. Am I doing this right?
Yep. We will get 2*, low 3* and walkons. Harbaugh may have to suit up.
Consider me….meh.