OT/Recruiting: Belleville’s Crowell out TWO years
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/high-school/2022/11/23/bellevi…
Not sure if this is premium content or not.
Not allowed back until ‘25-26 season.
November 22nd, 2022 at 10:31 PM ^
This should work better than the mess I made up there ^^
November 22nd, 2022 at 10:32 PM ^
This is a big f*g deal regardless of impact on UM recruiting.
November 22nd, 2022 at 10:35 PM ^
I knew he was facing a year, but I did not expect the MHSAA to go for two instead of just kicking the XP.
November 23rd, 2022 at 8:04 AM ^
I am a fan of going for two
November 23rd, 2022 at 10:58 AM ^
Username does indeed check out
November 23rd, 2022 at 11:42 AM ^
Because they couldn’t go for 3.
November 22nd, 2022 at 10:44 PM ^
Your username makes be believe this has happened to you.
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:09 PM ^
Does anyone know if he has been coaching since the investigation began?
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:14 PM ^
I believe that Belleville suspended him immediately once they got the notice from the MHSAA.
November 23rd, 2022 at 8:45 AM ^
This is great to see -- it will have a big (positive) impact on Michigan's in-state recruiting. Talented Detroit kids will get decent coaching, and will play at schools with stronger relationships with the M coaching staff. Win-win!
November 22nd, 2022 at 10:40 PM ^
And….I think he’s been fired at Belleville, at least as far as coaching is concerned, if I’m reading the Freep version correctly:
“Belleville athletic director Joe Brodie said there is no way Crowell will be coaching at Belleville for the 2025-26 school year when his suspension ends.“
November 22nd, 2022 at 10:50 PM ^
Yeah, dude's not mincing words there.
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:53 PM ^
my first reaction was "can't be true. he's only suspended for two years, not...uh...hm...oh."
remember when 25-26 was like a LONG way away
November 22nd, 2022 at 10:48 PM ^
I'm aware of the background story of the rift between Harbaugh and Crowell, but can anyone that follows other teams more than I do tell me whether our recruiting 'misses' from Bellville have really hurt? Have there been any recruits from Belleville that Michigan didn't get that have gone on to have solid/great careers at other schools? These are the ones I can find that I recall UM recruiting:
- Payne (Alabama) probably too soon to tell?
- Barnett (MSU)
- Dobbs (MSU)
And there are probably others. Would any of these guys have been impact players at UM? I don't imagine we're missing much on Dobbs given our OLine and I haven't heard much about Barnett.
November 22nd, 2022 at 10:55 PM ^
Their little 'angst' between one another was when Harbaugh criticized Andre Seldon for being so poorly coached coming out of HS, that Crowell took it as a personal insult.
Harbaugh could not have been more correct, considering 0 Belleville players have panned out in college so far.
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:12 PM ^
What gets me about how bad they've all been in college is that I presume they showed these limitations during their recruitment and many top teams still took chances on them. And these staffs typically aren't afraid of projects and you'd assume after a year or two would have coached out whatever bad habits they got from HS. And yet you see all of these kids either disappear completely or scuttle on rosters across CFB. It's sort of amazing Belleville won as much as they did if their coaching was this bad they couldn't be fixed by high-end staffs.
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:22 PM ^
I remember a lot of people on here were SO frustrated when those kids would do interviews & there would be comments alluding to them not hearing much from Michigan. "What is Harbaugh doing that 4 and 5 star kids are in our backyard and they're not recruiting them hard!?!" Turns out Harbaugh knows a thing or two...
On your last point, all that talent with only one state title to show for it certainly says something about the coaching those kids were/are getting.
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:43 PM ^
Imagine that, a coach that has won a conference championship, been to the Super Bowl and now has won a BIG TEN title and CFP appearance know just a smidge more about football and what it takes to be successful than a HS 'coach' that just goes out an recruits talent at the HS level and out "Jimmy and Joe" most other teams.....
November 23rd, 2022 at 8:13 AM ^
Though Harbaugh's credentials don't make him infallible, this situation is a reminder that we almost never have the whole picture on dealings with players and recruits.
That won't stop any of us from offering our opinions but it does suggest adding a touch of humility to bold certainty.
November 23rd, 2022 at 9:15 AM ^
Well... we "only" have one (state) title also.
Are we seeing this evenly or with our maize tinted lenses?
November 23rd, 2022 at 9:26 AM ^
This is something I wish my second alma mater would figure out. Taking every sociopath in the Top247 just gets you a team full of sociopaths. Choosing to then hand half of them off to DJ Durkin and have the other half try to figure out Jimbo's offense is...well it's not great.
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:59 PM ^
Many of them win the camp circuit with raw talent...others are a by product of playing on a team with a bunch of recruited top players from metro Detroit.
November 23rd, 2022 at 9:13 AM ^
What this suggests is that Crowell's cheating was so profligate that they could win just by acquiring a boatload of top recruits, even without properly developing them.
November 23rd, 2022 at 2:37 AM ^
https://tdalabamamag.com/2022/11/22/damon-payne-alabama-grow-confidence-austin-peay/
I had forgotten about Damon Payne so I looked him up and a recent article popped up. He was a redshirt last year and has only played in some mop up duty this year - not great, but no shame either given the depth Bama has across its DLine!
However, all of the excitement and talk about Payne getting more “confidence” from a fumble recovery against an FCS team is not encouraging. He was a 5 ⭐️ expected to be a 1st round draft pick in 2024 and yet they sound like are talking about a walk on.
November 22nd, 2022 at 10:55 PM ^
Way more teeth than the NCAA. Wtf.
November 23rd, 2022 at 8:03 AM ^
All about the money. Not much money at stake with Michigan high school football. NCAA is more worried about money than doing the right thing.
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:07 PM ^
Yeah, if that statement from the Belleville AD is to be believed then Crowell's next coaching stop in 25 will be at another school because it sounds like he's fired.
I have long assumed there was more going on here than driving a kid to practice over the summer and this punishment confirms that inkling.
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:16 PM ^
Yeah, I've got to believe that there's a pretty big issue for them to sit him down for 2 school years.
Either way, I don't think he's coaching high school again. He's probably off to the college level.
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:43 PM ^
Mel Tucker is on line 1.....
#Tuckincoming
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:48 PM ^
Mm, definitely a big change in the Detroit HS scene. Was under the impression relations had thawed a bit for the better since the Dobbs/Barnett days between him and Michigan, but it's for naught now. Michigan got commits from a few but they either were processed out (Woods/Alexander) or transferred away (Seldon). As others mentioned the big fish haven't panned out. *Correction, Woods was a King prospect, not from Belleville, my bad.
Big question in my book is what happens with Bryce Underwood? 2025 QB considered one of the best in his class so far. Not sure how likely that would have been for us regardless with Jadyn looking good right now in 2024, but wondering where this leaves him in general.
November 22nd, 2022 at 11:55 PM ^
probably leaves us with Bryce UnderDavis
...
i'll see myself out
November 23rd, 2022 at 6:50 AM ^
Seeing Underwood live, I’ll say the hype is real. He throws an amazingly accurate deep ball. I hope he finds a good coaching staff whatever winds up happening.
November 23rd, 2022 at 12:58 AM ^
As a coach in the same region as Belleville it has been a not at all secret that Crowell is a crook and a fraud. He has had the most talented roster in the state for the past 5 years, but when it comes down to actual coaching, he couldn’t coach his way out of a wet paper bag.
He has people on payroll at PAL and other youth leagues. A player of mine’s (estranged) father was in charge of the Eastside region and he drove the kids he recruited from the Eastside of Detroit to Belleville.
Shows too why Belleville players don’t translate as well as their rankings would suggest
November 23rd, 2022 at 5:36 AM ^
Fired too
November 23rd, 2022 at 7:37 AM ^
Despite their righteous indignation, Belleville waits until he’s caught to distance themselves. You can’t convince me that they were ignorant of his cheating before the shit hit the fan. The whole thing smells of baby poop.
November 23rd, 2022 at 8:23 AM ^
to quote brando, after a dropped 'would be TD' pass in the endzone. "I'll remember this Germaine Crowell"
November 23rd, 2022 at 11:57 AM ^
Belleville players seem to be overhyped and overrated.Can’t think of one that has comeback to haunt the good guys.Maybe JH knows what he is doing 🤷♂️.
November 23rd, 2022 at 4:47 PM ^
Then there's the Detroit area coaching rumor that Mork's Sparty program is somehow indirectly responsible for that giant house he lives in. * starts whistling and moseying off.