Friday Recruitin' Hits The Road Comment Count

Ace

Awwwwww

Well, that's adorable. Dave and I are on the road to Indianapolis at this very moment to watch Brandon Peters' Avon High play at Ben Davis High School, home of Chris Evans. We'll also be taking in Orchard Lake St. Mary's vs. Detroit Loyola, Detroit King vs. Warren De La Salle, and Detroit Cass Tech vs. Southfield at Wayne State on Saturday. That should provide plenty of material for next week's Future Blue Originals.

Since it's apparently Cute Pictures of Recruits week, Brandon Brown posted this photo of a young four-star King WR Donnie Corley at the Hall of Fame camp with Lloyd Carr, sent to him by Corley's father ($):

Corley's father also talked about his son's recruitment, saying Donnie "is building a great relationship" with the Michigan staff, and they're waiting to see how Harbaugh will utilize his wide receivers. While Michigan is gaining ground, they still have work to do; this week, Corley set his first official to Michigan State.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]

Kelly Sets Official

Michigan will get the first crack at impressing five-star CA OLB Caleb Kelly when he takes his official visit for the UNLV game. Oklahoma is generally regarded as the favorite for Kelly, but their lead doesn't seem insurmountable.

Although his recruitment continues to drag on, three-star FL OLB Jonathan Jones maintains Michigan is ahead of his other top schools—Notre Dame, Stanford, UCF, and Duke—and for their part the Wolverines don't seem to be backing off at all, per 247's Steve Lorenz ($):

"I talk to Michigan almost every day between Coach Durkin, Coach Harbaugh and Coach Partridge. I have been talking to them a lot. They ask me about how I've developed and are always asking me about how I've been playing and how I feel on the field. There are a lot of factors with Michigan. They got in before I started to get more offers. They signed with the Jordan Brand. Michigan is a train that's about to take off with their new staff and it's one that I wouldn't mind jumping on."

Jones plans to make a decision in late January or on Signing Day.

New Rivals250 Released

Rivals updated their rankings this week. Here's the movement for Michigan's commits:

  • WI OG Ben Bredeson dropped from #49 to #60 overall
  • MI OG Michael Onwenu moved up from #191 to #83
  • NJ WR Ahmir Mitchell dropped from #51 to #102
  • IL OT Erik Swenson dropped from #93 to #115
  • NJ DE Ron Johnson dropped from #109 to #222
  • NJ WR Brad Hawkins dropped from #206 to #224
  • IN QB Brandon Peters dropped from #229 to #242

Outside of their assessment of Michael Onwenu, it's clear Rivals has lost their touch.

Commit Updates: Enis To Start At RB, Reese "100%" LB

If you missed Chris Evans' four-carry, three-touchdown performance from the season opener, the highlights are above. He may not have had to do much work to find the holes in the defense, but he sure ran through them fast.

After a monster first game, IN ATH Kiante Enis updated TMI's Josh Newkirk on his future position at Michigan:

"I know first of all I am coming in as a running back," he said. "They are going to play me in the backfield coming in. There has been talks of going out to wide receiver, going out deep. There has also been talks of me playing in the secondary at safety. I'm a two-way player, so I'm comfortable playing either way. Just looking forward to getting up (there) to do anything I can to help the team win."

I like Evans best as a college safety, but it's admittedly difficult to judge his potential as a running back because of the low level of competition he faces in high school.

Farmington ILB David Reese, who looked around a little when it seemed like he'd end up at fullback, is "100%" coming in as a linebacker after talking with DJ Durkin at the BBQ, his father told Sam Webb. That leaves one last hurdle to clear before Reese suits up for the Maize and Blue:

“The only thing now is we did not get our direct answer on the (midyear enrollment) piece,” said Mr. Reese.

...

“What’s happening is Notre Dame is like two seconds away (from offering),” said Mr. Reese.

Even if they do the home team will definitely still be the team to beat.

“Everything else we feel comfortable with,” Mr. Reese said.  “It’s the midyear piece that’s important to us.  I told (Harbaugh) when we met with him… (David) doesn’t even have classes the second semester.”

Michigan shouldn't have any issue getting Reese enrolled early; unless something strange happens, Reese should be a Wolverine.

Etc.: A little basketball: NJ PG Bryce Aiken has tenatively scheduled an official visit for October. It's tentative because Cassius Winston has a couple more trips to the in-state schools to make before he comes to a decision; if Winston goes with M Aiken would no longer have a spot. 

Comments

DonAZ

August 28th, 2015 at 3:36 PM ^

"I talk to Michigan almost every day between Coach Durkin, Coach Harbaugh and Coach Partridge."

Could that really be the case -- some contact every day?

Any idea how a program like Michigan coordinates this outreach by coaches?  Do they have a schedule of which coach calls which recruit on what day?  And would there be a time of day the coaches break from other activities and hit the phone banks for this?

I'm asking just because I'm curious how a program manages the recruiting process across so many players.

ken725

August 28th, 2015 at 4:01 PM ^

Who knows if Jones was exaggerating or if he even means that he talks to the coaches every day. It could be that he gets messages from coaches through social media platforms. 

That is why there are people like Soup Cambell and Coach Partridge who's job is to coordinate these things. I'm sure there are lots of other support staff behind the scenes who help coordinate.

DonAZ

August 28th, 2015 at 4:09 PM ^

Yeah, I suspected there was a staff helping to coordinate these things.

Still, it just fascinates me to picture myself a fly on the wall.  Recruiting at this level has to be a pretty well oiled machine for top programs.  I can picture daily update meetings to get everyone on the same page with respect to status, trends, and who does what next.

We watch football on Saturday, but there's just a crap-ton of things that take place behind the scenes. 

ken725

August 28th, 2015 at 4:24 PM ^

If this program goes where I think it is going, the people behind the scenes will have a lot to do with the success of this team.

It seems like Harbuagh has brought in more analytics and technology to this team. Michigan will be one of the first college teams or maybe even the first to use virtual reality.

An example of the new support staff is a guy who goes by @Bink364 on twitter. It seems like he is one of the many who were brought in to bring more analytics into the football team.

 

Farnn

August 28th, 2015 at 7:21 PM ^

This is why Harbaugh totally overhauled the recruiting staff, bringing in a lot more people and modernizing the organization.  There are probably 200 recruits Michigan is in contact with on a frequent basis when you consider 2016, 2017 and even some 2018 recruits.  If you divide that up between the coaches and recruiting coordinators it's doable but I'm sure they need to spend 1-2 hours a day each doing recruiting work to make their 20 calls or texts.  They also need to spend a bit of time looking at recruiting film and such but that is why there is such a large support staff, to narrow it down, show coaches only what they need and leave them time for actual football coaching.

ken725

August 28th, 2015 at 6:48 PM ^

This is the explanation from Mike Farrel from rivals:
"Any drop that's less than 20 is what we call incidental," Farrell explained. "It's just other guys moving up and a lot of shifting around.
Here is his explanation on Peters.
"Peters and deWeaver aren't that comparable really," Farrell said. "deWeaver is a lot bigger at this stage. Peters is 6-4 but he's still filling out his frame. I think deWeaver is closer to his ceiling than Peters is.
They include upside into their rankings, but apparently not for Peters.
"Peters did okay at the Elite 11, not great, but he's getting better all the time. We like Peters enough to sort of keep him in the same range he's been at. We want to see him take the next step as a leader and really get in the film room and be a student of the game. He's going to have a really big senior year with big numbers and performing in the Army All-American Game will be a good evaluation.
If he did Ok and was part of the Elite 11 what does that make those who were not part of the final 11? How much of this is Rivals not being invited to The Opening or Elite 11?

alum96

August 28th, 2015 at 9:51 PM ^

If I was on staff I'd have run out of things to say to Jonathan Jones by now.  And they need to keep doint it for another 5 mo? Yowsers.

Also holy ron johnson drop.

FutureOfA2

August 28th, 2015 at 10:18 PM ^

Any word on Kingston Davis recently? Seeing these rating adjustments, I really thought Davis would see a huge jump. Looks great on film to me: size is there, competition is there, offers are there--recent ones from Nebraska, LSU, and Florida. Not much of a camp guy apparently, but I'm excited to see his senior film, hopefully he can prove his worth that way.

UofM626

August 29th, 2015 at 4:12 PM ^

That when a recruit picks Michigan almost all the damn time they instantly drop on the next rankings like clock work! I mean like almost every damn time

buwudew

August 30th, 2015 at 12:14 PM ^

   

 
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