Monday Recruitin' Hits Baseball Season Comment Count

Ace

Note: The slew of commitments pushed this back, but I'm still taking questions via email or Twitter (use the hashtag #mgomailbag) for a recruiting mailbag that—any further recruiting developments pending—should go up tomorrow.

A4 To Your Door/No Sleepers No More


Just another totally normal Harbaugh picture. [Fuller]

Michigan hosted their "Aerial Assault" quarterback camp over the weekend. It featured such football activities as fielding ground balls and dodgeball; reportedly, the quarterbacks also threw an actual football around a little bit. Because Jim Harbaugh was involved, they kept score for the top campers, and M commit Brandon Peters came out on top, per TMI's Brice Marich:

The headliner of the camp was Avon, Indiana junior quarterback and Wolverine commit in Brandon Peters. The 6-4, 209-pound gun slinger showed off his strong arm and his footwork in several drills. He was in the top overall group and performed very well even in dodgeball. He clearly soaked in tutelage from signal callers like Jay Cutler and ultimately earned the crown as the camp’s top performer.

2017 four-star NY QB Jack Coan, the only rising junior offeree in attendance, found the camp as strange and informative as one would expect, per 247's Steve Lorenz ($):

"The camp itself was one of the most unique experiences I've ever had since I started playing football," Coan said. "I didn't go into the camp expecting to play baseball or dodgeball or anything like that, but it worked and it was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had from a camp standpoint. I learned a lot from a lot of great current and former players and coaches. It was really great to work with someone like Jay Cutler and a coach like Coach Harbaugh who has seen the position from every different angle."

Coan also took a campus tour while in Ann Arbor. Michigan seems to be in pretty good shape for him.

2018 Paramus (NJ) Catholic QB Allan Walters also worked with the top group. He showed enough to earn an offer, and he was still having a hard time expressing his excitement when 247's Steve Wiltfong caught up with him:

"I'm so excited I can't express it," Walters said. "I don't know a better offer for a quarterback. Harbaugh and Michigan that's unbelievable. I'm in shock and so excited."

Walters also has early offers from Rutgers and Temple. The ever-strengthening connection between Michigan and Paramus Catholic should help here.

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

Needs More '80s Movie Montage Music

Diehard Sport dug up this video of recent QB commit Vicious Vic Viramontes working out. Not including this in his Hello post was an unforgivable oversight, and for that I apologize.

In other commit news, ESPN updated their top 300 list today. Movement for Michigan commits:

  • OT Ben Bredeson dropped three spots from #53 to #56 overall
  • QB Brandon Peters moved up 29 spots from #181 to #152
  • OG Michael Onwenu debuted on the list at #255
  • RB Matt Falcon also made his first appearance, coming in at #258

Onwenu and Peters have both seen their rankings rise on multiple sites due to strong spring camp performances.

New Offers

While Michigan is one or two prospects away from being set for 2016 offensive line recruiting, that hasn't stopped them from sending out new offers. The latest went to four-star SD OT Matt Farniok, who tweeted the news himself. He boasts an impressive offer list; Michigan will have to make a strong effort to land him.

Michigan offered 2017 LA CB Tre Swilling, per The Wolverine's Brandon Brown. Swilling has an early LSU offer that could be tough to beat.

I've saved the best for last. (Or did, until Brian stole my 'crootin thunder in today's UV.)

Let your helmet be your guide, Sir.

Visit Updates

Top-100 2017 TX TE Brock Wright visited campus last weekend, and he told 247's Tom Loy he had a very positive visit experience ($):

"My parents and I really enjoyed our time with Coach Harbaugh," he said. "It was a wonderful visit from that standpoint. I have a feeling he is going to do some amazing things with their program in the coming years. One other thing that really stood out was our lunch with (redshirt freshman) Chase Winovich. We had a great time with him and you can really tell how enthusiastic he is about playing at Michigan and under Coach Harbaugh."

Wright's recruitment could come down to a Michigan-Notre Dame battle; he also stopped by South Ben over the weekend.

Four-star WR Steven Smothers also stopped by Ann Arbor. He'd only go so far as to tell TMI's Josh Newkirk that Michigan is in his top ten ($). As visit reactions go, that's pretty tepid. He's expected to wind up elsewhere.

Four-star CA S CJ Pollard wants to take unofficials to Michigan, Notre Dame, and Oregon before making his decision at The Opening next month, per Rivals' Adam Gorney ($). USC is the prohibitive favorite heading into these visits.

Four-star TX DT Jordan Elliott, a Houston commit, told Sam Webb that he plans to take an official visit to Michigan ($). Intriguingly, Elliott—listed at 6'4", 300 lbs.—also said he prefers playing defensive end to defensive tackle; that could make him a better fit in Michigan's defense than most. Several other top programs are also trying to pry Elliott away from Houston.

Four-star TX CB Jared Mayden told Webb and Kyle Bogenschutz that he also plans to take an official visit to Ann Arbor ($).

Four-star GA TE Isaac Nauta, a Florida State commit who's long had Michigan interest, will take official visits that include one to Ann Arbor, per Scout's Corey Bender.

Etc.

A reminder: Khalid Kareem will announce his decision on Wednesday. Michigan is in good shape here.

Michigan made the top ten for four-star TX WDE Levi Onwuzurike.

Happy trails to four-star WI OT Cole Van Lanen and three-star CT LB Koby Quansah, who committed to Wisconsin and Duke, respectively.

Comments

schone32

June 22nd, 2015 at 5:21 PM ^

Regarding Nauta...his uncle is Joel Smeenge who played for Jack Harbaugh at Western Michigan& also played about 12 years in the NFL, mostly with Jacksonville. Michigan is using that connection& the fact that the family has strong ties to the state in trying to pry him out of the south. Fwiw. I'll go back to lurking now.

JeepinBen

June 23rd, 2015 at 1:51 PM ^

as a Bears fan who likes Cutler (he's had shit to deal with as coaches, forever. And a garbage OL except for that one time), I have no doubt that he'd love to play dodgeball with a bunch of Bears fans and would use his cannon arm to injure many of them.

I love Chicago sports, and most of the time the fans, but they really don't know when to stop. I mean, half of them still want Corey Crawford run out of town. I wonder if I'm the only one who remembers the list of QBs before Cutler... we have a 7! There aren't 10s out there!

Roy G. Biv

June 22nd, 2015 at 10:01 PM ^

What great names from the past (Zurbrugg!  Higgins!) and memories from the '85 Purdue video.  Michigan crushing the Boilers on a cold, gray day in Ann Arbor, as it should be. 

tmzenn

June 23rd, 2015 at 12:45 AM ^

I sure wish we would hear some good news about quality wide receivers being highly interested in our program. I feel like we are in such a down period with the quality of our receivers. Also, has anyone heard any news about possible wide receiver 5th year transfers? It seemed like there was talk going on about that possibility, but the talk stopped. Is there even any possible quality 5th year receiver seniors still looking to transfer?