mario eugenio

The question of how they’re going to fit so many OLBs into one class got a little bit more clarity, as FL 4* Mario Eugenio announced he is reopening his recruitment.

After a long conversation with my family I have decided to decommit from the University of Michigan I thank @CoachRyanOsborn @MikeMacUM @CoachJim4UM @CoachNua for recruiting me

— Mario J Eugenio 2️⃣4️⃣ (@MEugenioJ) October 7, 2021

Eugenio is a guy they thought could DE/OLB for them. I really liked his film, but that’s true for a lot of the edge defenders they’re bringing in, and the edge defenders with a lot of eligibility left on the roster. Iowa State really wanted him, and his 6’3”/359 DT teammate Tawfiq Thomas. He was not the one I wanted to see fall out of the class, but they have a lot of options left in Micah Pollard, Deuce Spurlock, and Aaron Alexander, Kevonte Henry, and top target Joshua Josephs. Not being an insider, my best guess is it wasn’t the classmates so much as the evident depth on the roster right now for a player who was open about his desire to play early. That Ojabo game was magnificent if you weren’t the guy hoping to win Ojabo’s job immediately.

This reader also points out Michigan is suddenly weak again in matters of plumbing various kingdoms of mushroom people.

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Over the last year I’ve been following Craig Roh into a deep dive into the sublime subtleties of pass rushing. Not that you need all of that to appreciate fine defensive end play. As a fan it’s quite obvious when a player has mastered the art of coordinating hand movement, hip flexion, foot spacing and angle, and shoulder depth from the trail they leave. One moment there’s some people standing up around a football-holding guy, and then suddenly this beautiful dance has become a jumbled mosh pit and the quarterback is screaming.

The game of Mario Eugenio, who committed to Michigan today, has all the subtlety of a metal concert. If you really break it down there’s all kinds of technique in there, mixed together in ways that keep your mind guessing and which would fascinate any true aficionado. You can appreciate that, sure, but you don’t really care how many times the time signature just changed, because you’re just here to experience the raw viscera and brutality, and be glad it’s directed at someone else.

But we can still talk about why it’s cool.

GURU RATINGS

Arrows show trend of recruiting rankings. An arrow is like a third of a star.

That comes out to a 4.00 in my spreadsheet (I average data points, weighting overall rankings and ratings higher than positional/state rankings), putting Eugenio among a big pile of historic and present DEs like Jeremy Van Alstyne, Ron Johnson, Pat Kratus, David Ojabo, Kechaun Bennett, Mario Ojemudia, and Jaylen Harrell. If 24/7 ever comes around we’re into Wormley/Beyer/RVB/Rumishek territory.

Eugenio’s rankings leapt up across the board in April. ESPN shot him up from obscurity to nearly top-200. Rivals used to have him a 5.6 and the #40 SDE, a designation they tend to use for guys who don’t have a lot of pass rush, but moved him up to a 5.8 WDE after his 17-sack junior season, and moved him up again recently. Even 24/7, the low outlier, bumped Eugenio up from an 86 this spring, and admit that their DL rankings in Florida are messed up because this year is insanely deep. That coincided with a string of camp performances, and with Macdonald and Helow targeting the Tampa prospect immediately on assuming their new jobs.

One of the factors had to be the chance to play early, something ISU reporters were concerned about($) when it looked like Matt Campbell was going to swipe the guy from UCF.

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]

And now we wait. Visitors are still trickling through but Michigan got most of their top targets up for official visits, and those targets got to see some other schools, and some have commitment dates that are more or less exciting than others. Touch the Banner made a list of last weekend’s visitors. Will Johnson said he thinks July will be a big month($, title) for commitment. Let’s run the Board.

Quarterback

MSU flipped that Boise State commit; I still think Michigan should kick the tires. They had AL 3* Conner Harrell ⬇⬇⬇ up here last week($, info in title) but the Denegal commitment probably ends that.

Running Back

The only change here is confirmation from most parties that Michigan’s not getting top-100 VA 4* George Pettaway ⬇⬇⬇ over North Carolina because commit CJ Stokes and an impending commit($, title) from TX 3* Dillon Bell ➡ is a class.

Receiver

The board is frighteningly open here after the two commits. The Wolverines made a final five for TX 3* slot Che Nwabuko ⬆, who’s looking to take his official this fall($), said Holland. IL 3* Jacob Bostick ⬇ was one of their recent visitors, but was crystal balled to Iowa($) a few days after.

Harbaugh has been on the phone with($, info in title) WA 3* Tobias Merriweather ⬆ and EJ Holland learned there’s a very strong Michigan connection($), though the recruitment is in its infancy. Notre Dame has been in there a long time and picked up a few homer crystal balls two weeks ago however.

Michigan was also supposed to host AL 3* slot squirrel Marquarius White ⬇ from Nico’s high school, and lanky speedster FL 4* Chandler C.J. Smith ⬇, but it seems the former visited Tennessee instead($, title) and the latter committed to Florida instead.

Tight End

GA 4* Oscar Delp ⬆, probably the nation’s #1 TE, went home from his visit and Dad said regardless of how the recruitment goes, Delp is going to be a better player as a senior because of Jay Harbaugh($, title)—they spent hours breaking down film. Sam and crew are adamant that this is a Michigan-Georgia battle($) while national pundits name South Carolina and Clemson as the non-Georgia suitors. I believe them that Michigan is in this($), and if it was up to the parents maybe in the lead, but I still have a hard time believing Georgia lets Delp out of the state. He’ll escape at least once more—to see a Michigan game in person—so we get to still have some months to find our maid of honor dress. Weirdly he moved down on Rivals after he was the #3 finisher at their camp.

ID 3* Colston Loveland ⬆⬆⬆ came up for a visit and is getting ready to pull the trigger($, title) via all the sites, despite lots of other big-name programs, including Bama, jumping into this one. I’ve got the hello tabs open and…uh…dang…this is not a 3-star you guys.

Sam also made it clear Michigan can take three tight ends this cycle and I wholeheartedly agree, especially since they like to play two and keep going 1/2. Commit Marlin Klein is a Eubanks who needs some development time, and while Loveland has the size to play immediately it’s a big leap from Idaho football to playing in the potato capital of the college football world. Delp would be more like getting Thomas Fidone a year late, or Theo Johnson two years late, or Luke Ford four years late, or Isaac Nauta six years late, or…why does this happen so much?

[After THE JUMP: Buckle up this afternoon]