Sam Webb crystal balls QB Nate Johnson to Michigan
April 23rd, 2021 at 11:42 PM ^
Go Blue, Nate!
EJ Holland did the same over at Rivals earlier in the week, so that is two guys that are pretty strong in the loop on M recruiting weighing in.
April 23rd, 2021 at 11:45 PM ^
Nice wheels and sweet Bobby Debarge throwback do.
What you know bout Bobby Debarge?
April 24th, 2021 at 11:50 AM ^
His hair is badass
Seriously though, he seems good at football.
April 23rd, 2021 at 11:46 PM ^
If QB doesn't work out then his potential at WR is immense.
He played receiver previously before moving to QB.
April 23rd, 2021 at 11:57 PM ^
Somehow he is already in the transfer portal
April 23rd, 2021 at 11:59 PM ^
Pre-portal
April 24th, 2021 at 12:02 AM ^
I think I have a burner account named transfer pretal.
April 24th, 2021 at 11:32 AM ^
I think that's called purgaportal.
Watching some highlights he kind of reminds me of a Dylan McCaffrey type - good intermediate and short passing accuracy, not a crazy strong arm that will blow you away but can also make the 30-40 yard pass if he has to. May need to get stronger or maybe a mechanics thing. Good wheels but not the slippery elusive and lightning fast Denard type - just good at pulling the ball and getting upfield quickly. Can house it if you give him a seam but may be best at a quick pull and run up the middle for ten yards kind of qb. For a class after a kid ranked like JJ, he seems like a good pick up and a guy who could brew into a good college qb if given a couple years.
Now in today’s college football, you just have to hope the kids ranked like JJ stick around so your project QBs in the class following aren’t rushed into starting.
I'm pretty happy with this. Jj is the future. Michigan didn't need an elite guy that would step on jj's toes. Let the kid develop, and then give him some wild card Denard packages and see what he can do.
I get where you are coming from, but you don’t have a winning football team if you are worried about stepping on people’s toes. We need top talent year after year, and let the best rise to the top. What we don’t need is to take an inferior player because we are worried about the psyche of our star if they have to compete for a spot. If that is our mind set, then we are fucked.
I think the point is that you can take more of a project qb with someone like McCarthy in the previous class. If you look far into the future, the state of Michigan also has some really good QBs coming up in Dante Moore (5*), Isaiah Marshall, and CJ Carr. They’re obviously not locks to Michigan but Michigan are favorites due to childhood affinity. Johnson would ideally be a QB with really good athletic traits that you can mold into something even better
April 24th, 2021 at 11:01 AM ^
I just can’t buy that mentality of that. You don’t win and develop a football machine by hoping projects plan out. You win by taking top talent, letting them compete, and then the best become better.
I agree - we need to be taking a 4-5 star QB every year until we get the QB room stocked and then maybe look at specialists or projects (Not suggesting that Nate is). While we all hope that J.J. McCarthy is the answer there is no guarantee that he is and even if he is he could be injured - something that seems to be happening to all our QBs lately.
Comments like this make no sense.
Outside of Villari, literally EVERY QB Harbaugh has brought in since he started at Michigan has been a 4 or 5 star. Even Malzone was a 4*.
You don't need an elite QB every year, you need one every OTHER year and you need to develop guys.
Johnson is fine as long as McCarthy is developed and then you go get the kid in the '22 class that everyone wants (name slips my mind).
I could have said elite QBs but since you really don't know if they will be elite that doesn't make sense either. How about this "Needs to bring in highly ranked quarterbacks every year that have the skills to start day one and fit into the system that they will run"
But what you are saying is to do exactly what we have been doing.
We are starting from a deficit in QB talent - we have to stockpile more talent because either Jim can't develop the talent he recruits or doesn't have a good eye for talent.
Are you talking about Dante Moore from Detroit Martin Luther King? He's class of 2023.
Can we not anoint JJ before he’s done anything on a college football field? Gambling all in on one player has never been a good strategy. Elite teams get elite backups that are more likely to step in and be elite. This is a game where one play, one move in practice, can find you having lost JJ for a year due to a ligament tear.
Alabama, Clemson, OSU: each has continued dominance by having the next guy come in and be better than the last.
I am glad we have Cade, a 4-star who has flashed great ability, and JJ. But the room is thin behind them. I am not saying picking up Johnson is bad. All talent is good. But I hope they take two QBs in the class rather than just hope one guy can turn into a serviceable QB when needed.
JJ shouldn’t be an anomaly of a get, he has to be the precedent of level for UM to get back to elite. Year in and year out, UM should be signing a Top 10 QB if they want to compete with OSU.
April 24th, 2021 at 11:49 AM ^
I think you're right about the elite teams. Problem is, we're not elite yet whereas Bama, OSU established themselves as elite before this current transfer climate really took off. If we can get to elite, we can do the same but until then, I don't think elite QB's will be willing to sit behind another elite QB at Michigan.
This is how Dabo gets his elite QBs to sign at Clemson. He promises them not to sign a QB in the year after and he keeps that promise. Now, there is obvious risk here. But it got him Deshawn and Trevor Lawrence.
The first thing I thought of when I saw his 247 pictures is this. Let's hope he's a thriller of a QB!
GO BLUE!
Is the Jheri curl coming back? I knew Mom jeans and the 80s/90s were making a resurgence, but I didn't expect the Jheri curl to make a return. Acid wash and mullets are next.
Gen Z is so weird and unoriginal. Get off my lawn!
Mullets are still in style In many parts of Ohio
April 24th, 2021 at 10:01 AM ^
There’s a Soul Glow joke in there somewhere
I have a feeling recruiting will look really weird the next couple of years. How accurate can the recruiting rankings possibly be right now with COVID screwing up high school sports and shutting down most of the camps?
Recruiting rankings are already an inaccurate mess to begin with. Based too heavily on camps, with the various sites giving boosts to guys who go to “their” camps.
Sure they get it right sometimes and it’s a fun thing for fans to follow along with. But they get things wrong far too often for the term “accurate” to be thrown around.
They’re typically really good at grading the top 100-150ish guys that you can correlate a high team ranking to future success. If you get enough of those guys, your necessary hit rate becomes lower. More bullets in the chamber and whatnot. If one top 150 guy is a bust, it’s okay because you have two more at the same spot and odds are one or both will work out.
But when it comes to grading and evaluating individual players it’s not an exact science.
Well Nate Johnson the wide receiver didn't work out too great for Harbaugh, so maybe we'll have better luck with Nate Johnson the quarterback
April 25th, 2021 at 11:58 AM ^
How about Navin Johnson? One of the better jerks.
I foresee trick plays where he’s put in at WR.
Like an end-around or jet sweep with a possible throw attached? You know, shades of both the McDoom-around and the Pepcat. Teams will be fooled out of their gym shorts!
Wherein the other team is not at all fooled and the offense takes a 5 yd loss which kills all the momentum of the drive and they punt after looking like they might score.
April 24th, 2021 at 12:34 PM ^
It makes me think those plays are set up to fail so that people will lose faith in them and be more inclined to accept running into stacked boxes.
The dream of Antonio Bass will finally come true!
I immediately thought of so many trick plays that he could run. Then I remembered this staff!
Well, he should, at least, be a good red-zone option.
With that speed definitely a dual threat QB. Always nice to have a QB that can keep a defense honest with their legs and arm
Please let it happen. We need a change of pace QB, badly.
How was his accuracy in High School? Asking for the MgoBoard. Also, seems like any recruit from CA transfers within two years anyways so nice to have a fast QB but...
California kid. He’ll play 1-2 years here, show flashes of promise, then suddenly transfer to UCLA.
Seems like a smart, team-oriented kid with his feet firmly planted on the ground.
April 24th, 2021 at 10:37 AM ^
Mr. Johnson - from a fan: the University of Michigan is a world class university that will provide wonderful opportunities to you both as an athlete and student. Come join the Maize and Blue!