Thursday Recruitin' Updates Lists
247, Scout Update 2017 Rankings
The spring/summer camp season culminated with The Opening finals, and as prospects turn their attention to the upcoming season, the recruiting sites are updating their rankings. Scout and 247 both released new rankings over the last week, and while Michigan lost their only composite five-star, there were quite a few positive developments.
QB Dylan McCaffrey was good, but not great, at The Opening, and that was enough to drop him from #39 to #101 overall on Scout and from #30 to #54 on 247. He's now the #39 overall player on the 247 Composite, 12 spots away from regaining five-star status.
DE Luiji Vilain moved up nine spots to #85 on 247 and held steady at #138 on Scout. Making incremental gains—and avoiding small drops—is tougher the higher a player is ranked, especially when there's significant movement like there is in the post-camp re-ranks; Vilain inching up the composite (to #96) is impressive in that context.
The same principle applies to DT Aubrey Solomon, who dropped nine spots to #216 on 247 and two spots to #129 on Scout. LB Josh Ross had a more significant fall, moving down 16 spots to #193 on 247 and an even hundred spots to #228 on Scout.
The most significant split is over CB Benjamin St-Juste, whose star turn at The Opening earned him a massive jump from three stars all the way to #92 overall on 247; Scout, meanwhile, kept him as a three-star, only giving him a four-spot bump to #32 in their cornerback position rankings. The point of contention doesn't seem to be the quality of his camp performances—those were praised by both sites—but the dearth of other information on the Canadian prospect; if he played his high school ball in, say, Florida, I don't think there's much doubt he'd be a solid four-star.
There's a similar difference of opinion on RB AJ Dillon, who vaulted 112 spots to #99 overall on 247 while remaining a three-star on Scout. Again, weighing camp performances against quality of high school competition could be an issue here—Dillon doesn't face high-level foes in Massachusetts.
DE Corey Malone-Hatcher and OT JaRaymond Hall both dropped out of the Top247; Malone-Hatcher is still a four-star at #260 overall, while Hall lost a star in dropping down to #370. Both took less drastic tumbles on Scout, landing at #248 (Hall) and #296 (CMH).
OT Kai-Leon Herbert stayed at #180 on Scout and didn't crack the Top247. 247 still hasn't updated Herbert's ranking, but Barton Simmons indicated on their board that Herbert is in line to move up from his outdated, middling three-star ranking:
Good player. Size/Strength keeps him out of the Top247 for now. He's athletic. Will be a guy to monitor.
He should get a bump once 247 updates rankings of guys beyond the Top247.
[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]
Solomon To Take Visits
Aubrey Solomon's commitment last month took everyone by surprise, and we assumed at the time that Michigan would have to fight to hold onto him. The bad news is he plans to take all five of his official visits, as well as an unofficial to LSU this weekend. The good news is Michigan is getting one of his officials, and he doesn't sound over the moon about the other schools on the list, per 247's Ryan Bartow:
USC: "I hear from them sometimes. Not too much. I was born in Fresno, California so that's my 'dream team' growing up."
Oregon: "That's one of my favorites growing up. I like their swagger."
Florida: "I feel like I owe them one. They were my leader at one point."
Clemson: "They really turned their program around."
We should get a better idea of how firm Solomon's commitment is after his LSU visit; for now, I'm not seeing too much reason for concern.
Five-Star Updates: M Gaining Ground For Browning
Steve Lorenz's latest Inside Michigan Recruiting post contained an encouraging update on five-star TX OLB Baron Browning:
"Michigan's in his very, very top group," the source said. "At worst they are running third right now. He had a great visit to Michigan and his brother's connection to Coach Harbaugh remains strong and has helped them."
Overall, it appears Michigan is trending upwards with the player most believe is the best linebacker prospect in the country. UCLA, Texas and Ohio State are among those that remain serious contenders at this point.
Steve had previously downplayed Michigan's chances with Browning, so this looks significant.
NY OT Isaiah Wilson, who dropped two spots away from composite five-star status after the latest updates, has Michigan in his top five and set an offical to Ann Arbor, per 247's Alex Gleitman:
"As of right now I have three [official visits] scheduled and I still need to schedule two more," he told 247Sports. "My three I have scheduled are to Michigan, Alabama, and Georgia. The other two, I don't know. It could be [LSU and USC], but there's still one other school that could come in that could make those other two more questionable."
Wilson has visited Georgia on an unofficial this summer and will do the same to Alabama this weekend; he's looking to come to Michigan for the BBQ in August if he can arrange transportation.
Etc.
Four-star CT WR Tarik Black has Michigan among the six schools he's considering for his five official visits, per Scout's Brian Dohn. He could get back-burnered by Michigan, which is shooting for Donovan Peoples-Jones and Nico Collins and recently offered Oliver Martin, who climbed all the way to #67 overall on 247 after his breakout camp season.
Four-star VA S Jonathan Sunderland will decide on Saturday between Boston College, Michigan, Penn State, and Syracuse. He doesn't appear to be a take for the staff right now and Penn State has emerged as the favorite to land him.
Four-star 2018 (soft) commit Leonard Taylor will be at Ohio State's Friday Night Lights camp tomorrow.
He looks great, especially with that size. Cannot wait to have him here next year.
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"Is that a click or a clack?"
I may be the only person who has watched this movie. I had it on VHS growing up.
Q. Does listening to public radio make someone:
a) a nerd
b) smarter and more intelligent
c) better looking
d) a liberal
e) a, b, and d
Never heard of that. Maybe the quote in the movie was referencing the talk show and I was too young to understand? Anyways, I was talking about "Who's Minding the Mint." It was a movie I watched a lot as a child, although I'm not sure why. Maybe I thought it was cool because it was my parents' movie. Oh well....
I don't see it like that at all. On the contrary, I feel like this is the first year a lot of our commits and realistic targets have been risers throughout the first half of the process.
Screw the rankings, WHO HAS IT BETTER THAN US?
Oliver Martin got quite the bump. I know they liked him but I didn't see that coming.
These are really dissapointing quotes about the recruiting services. It's their job to be able to evaluate kids that are not just in the top programs in the Southeast, TX,and CA.
Anybody can pick the top performers in the big high schools in those areas and say they are your 4 and 5 stars.
If the under the radar guys are under their radar too, what significant value are these services really providing?
yeah, and it's Hugh Freeze's job to coach football without cheating...
How's THAT working out so far???
playing in actual games in pads are two different things. It's easier to evaluate a kid playing against good competition in those fertile grounds then watching an athletic kid play against inferior competition. No matter how good he looks you wonder if part of it is because his competition is not very good.
Tons of kids out there and evaluation can vary greatly depending on how the kid looks each day, his competition and sometimes who is recruiting him.
Lots of good kids get missed all the time though, because they do play in a state that isn't thought of as a football powerhouse, or maybe their parents can afford to send them to all these camps where they can be scouted.
They're from someone making educated guesses. It could be they are going to keep a close eye on those players in the fall and are waiting to see a confirmation of their camp performances. I think that would be reasonable.
Either way, it doesn't make any difference.
I could be crazy/wrong, but it looked as if St. Juste was getting beat with some consistency to the inside, particularly on slants. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you can't be as physical when you're not wearing pads, but if I had his length, I'd do whatever I could to force guys to the sideline, then use my size to jump routes (as he evidenced he could do on a few plays).
to really evaluate much with him as it seemed to be filmed from the grassy knoll. Tough to tell what his technique really looked liked. As far as getting beat on slants, some could be due to the coverage they were playing and him expecting more help inside, like maybe a backer dropping into that zone.
He was playing w/ outside leverage to prevent big plays. 7on7 is three downs to get 20 yards so giving up some slants is good for the D.
Didn't know that about 7on7. Excellent. Exciting future Wolverine regardless.
Still nervous about Solomon. That's a who's who of great schools with nice campuses
Yeah, I agree. On the bright side, there are some other quotes that make it sound like a few of those visits are just to get to cool places he would never otherwise visit. USC and Oregon, in particular.
Two things here:
1. If I was in his situation, I would absolutely take those visits even if I knew exactly where I was going to go.
2. The staff seems to be comfortable with guys taking visits elsewhere and are confident in their approach. It's not like Harbaugh's going to stop recruiting Defensive Linemen, so while I really want Solomon to stay in the class and think that he will, I don't think him deciding to go elsewhere is going to leave the staff flat footed like the previous one always was.
But its not as good as RB DAndre Swift. Or DE LaGaryOnn Carson. Deommodore Lenoir, Chaz Ah You, and ZaQuandre Wright also round out the list. It is a loaded field for best name.
But its not as good as RB DAndre Swift. Or DE LaGaryOnn Carson. Deommodore Lenoir, Chaz Ah You, and ZaQuandre Wright also round out the list. It is a loaded field for best name.
my wayward son.......
I like him in a robber role.
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