drew kendall

Reminder that you have through today to get the Good Time Charley's shirt before we put in the big order, then we'll play for the next one tomorrow, and so on.

I think we're back to where I can just post updates. Leave questions in the comments.

Four and Out

No sooner was OH WR Markus Allen minted a 4* on Rivals than he left Michigan's class citing Fat Tay, and following some ominous tweets about going where you know you're a priority. That's a done deal($) according to everybody($), and a surprise to the sites, but apparently not one to the team. There doesn't seem to be anything to the theory that it had anything to do with Allen playing on a torn labrum that will need surgery this year. It could also be that he saw three other receivers committed in his class and Michigan was still talking to more. Sam said on the WTKA recruiting roundup that it's been trending this way since Michigan got Andrel Anthony and Michigan didn't make Allen as much of a priority after.

A decommitment means everyone wants to know who they're after next, but honestly the only response available at the moment is to walk you through the board. So we'll do that, after the JUMP.

I've been lapsing while I get the book out so here's a big update again. The recruiting board also got one. Offense covered here, defense tomorrow, and I'll try to be more regular until we find someone to take this off my plate.

Quarterback

If your buddy tells you "Check out our future quarterback at the pool," what do you think is going to be at the link? Right? Well when my text alert sound went off, I saw that much of the message on my lock screen and decided I could look at abs later. Then I forgot to open it for a few weeks. This is what was inside:

Bored at the crib .@overtime pic.twitter.com/qXKkNQ2H9q

— J.J. McCarthy (@jjmccarthy09) April 6, 2020

There is no pool anywhere in that video. Bad text, friend.

Angelique spoke to McCarthy this week as he prepared for IMG's season opener this weekend. That included a better description of the low-amplitude Elite 11 performance than I think we got from any of the sites covering it:

“I performed not perfect the first day, but I only missed probably two balls the whole night, so it was really good,” he said. “And the second day, we had a 20-throw pro day script that we had to do. I was the first one to go voluntarily and I didn't feel I got through as well as I wanted to. But I did all right, still placed top 10 in the final standings for that day. And the third day, we had this conditioning drill where it was like eight targets and we had hit all of them in a certain amount of time and the fastest time wins. I performed top five in that.

He's also Jim Harbaugh:

“I decided that football was going to be my everything around right after we lost the state championship (last season). That was the breaking point. Fifth grade is when I knew I loved football and I just wanted to play for as long as possible, but after we lost state, I knew I had this clear vision of where I want to be. I'm just running with it, and I'm working as hard as I can to get there.”

The Freep has an article behind a subscriber wall, and I don't know anyone with a login to get into it, but the clip looks promising:

[After THE JUMP: They can't poach our recruits. Only WE can poach our recruits.]

I'm not usually your recruiting guy, and there are many on our message board who follow this stuff more closely than I. But since we're down our football recruiting guy during all of this, I found myself trying to play catch-up in the process of writing various Hello posts. While I'm at it, I figured I might as well try to catch you up too. If you're a heavy recruitnik, I recommend you subscribe to one of the paid networks. If you're like me and just want an idea of what they're talking about, this post is for you. If you see something or someone I left out, please say so in the comments.

The Board:

I might as well get this old thing out of the garage.

Icon	Name	Meaning
	Sad Josh	The genre of player with unrequited interest in Michigan. Unlikely to receive offers; most will eventually fade off the list and go to Duke or Michigan State or something.
	Nefarious Eduardo	Player is a longshot. Either they've declared someone else a leader publicly or popular opinion holds that they're likely to go to another school.
	Data	Either no opinion or Michigan is one of a fairly even group of chasing schools. Players in this category maintain no leader or change their leader frequently. The default category for players that we don't know much about yet.
	Happy Teeth	Players who have Michigan in a small leading group or have Michigan as a tenuous favorite. Should be regarded as a good shot, not a slam dunk.
	Mr. Blue	Player is either a verbal or is expected to be one sooner or later. Players with this designation are 65%+ to be Michigan commits.

The order is my interpretation of how likely they are to commit and how many recruiting points are being expended.

A Note on "Stars": These are a general (not exact) average of a player's status among the recruiting services.

A Note on Premium Info: No illicit sharing of said material will appear on this site. Players are listed with interested schools in their profiles; this information is public. Commitments are by definition public. Any assertions as to schools in the mix, decision dates, or leaders I will back up with links to the source of the information.

Quarterback

Commit
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Previously
JJ McCarthy	IL	****.5	Michigan		Hello.

Needs: High. Michigan took just Cade McNamara and Dan Villari in the last two classes after longtime 2020 commit JD Johnson had to give up football for health reasons. The way quarterbacks transfer these days they could lose whoever loses the McCaffrey/Milton battle.

Commit: Michigan locked up blue-chip J.J. McCarthy before the end of his sophomore season. The news today is he'll play his senior season (if there is one) at IMG.

Sometimes a move to IMG is a worrying thing, but not with McCarthy, a 100% locked commit who's been "one of the most passionate commitments the staff has reeled in within the same time frame," according to 247's Steve Lorenz. McCarthy now gets to whisper sweet maize and blue nothings to some of the most talented players in the country all fall. It's a good thing for him as a prospect too: he'll arrive with an extra year of college-level coaching, and enroll early, according to Orion Sang.

Other McCarthy things of more recent vintage include a practice video Rivals's EJ Holland put out($) in a series of embedded tweets on May 4—if you're not a subscriber you get to scroll through his timeline. Rivals's Austin Fox says McCarthy could be a 5-star if there's a senior year. Lorenz recently profiled McCarthy in his new commitment overview series.

Prospects. As far as I can tell they are not pursuing another at this time.

[After THE JUMP: Chipping away]