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| Hudson (OH) Hudson linebacker Ben Gedeon committed to Michigan last week. |
Hudson (OH) Hudson linebacker Ben Gedeon committed to Michigan.
OFF THE BOARD
Snellville (GA) South Gwinnett linebacker Reginald Carter committed to Georgia. Michigan offered Carter early, well before his junior season began. However, Carter tore his ACL in South Gwinnett's first game of the year and missed the rest of the season. A high school defensive end, Carter is supposed to play inside linebacker for the Bulldogs.
Richmond (VA) Varina cornerback Tim Harris committed to Virginia. He had been talking about visiting Ann Arbor this summer, but I would expect that visit to be canceled.
Olney (MD) Good Counsel linebacker Dorian O'Daniel committed to Clemson. Michigan was high on O'Daniel's list earlier in the recruiting cycle, perhaps even sitting atop it. But O'Daniel was told that the Wolverines were full at his position so he canceled what was supposed to be a visit for this weekend's spring game with cornerback teammate Kendall Fuller. Clemson doesn't ever produce much in the way of linebackers, but Kavell Conner (Indianapolis Colts) had a decent season in 2011.
SPRING GAME VISITORS
You can find more details in the weekend visitors list, but here's a bare-bones list of the guys who were at Saturday's spring game:
Fenton (MI) Fenton P Kenny Allen
Nashville (TN) Montgomery Bell DE Alex Bars
Nashville (TN) Montgomery Bell OT Blake Bars
Fort Lauderdale (FL) St. Thomas Aquinas DE Joey Bosa
Wheaton (IL) St. Francis OG Kyle Bosch
Rockford (MI) Rockford OT Ben Braden
Pickerington (OH) North TE Jake Butt
Pickerington (OH) Central DE Taco Charlton
West Des Moines (IA) Dowling Catholic WR Amara Darboh
Lake Forest (IL) Lake Forest WR Bo Dever
Columbus (OH) Marion-Franklin WR Jaron Dukes
Parker (CO) Ponderosa OT Chris Fox
Olney (MD) Good Counsel CB Kendall Fuller
Farmington Hills (MI) Harrison TE Devin Funchess
Sylvania (OH) Southview S Allen Gant
Aurora (IL) Marmion Academy OG Ryan Glasgow
Novi (MI) Catholic Central DE Matt Godin
Cleveland (OH) Glenville DT Willie Henry
Detroit (MI) Crockett TE Khalid Hill
Detroit (MI) Crocket CB Khalil Hill
Detroit (MI) Cass Tech LB Gary Hosey
Ann Arbor (MI) Pioneer RB Drake Johnson
Bloomington (IL) Normal QB Josh Kirshenbaum
College Station (TX) A&M DT Christian LaCouture
Grand Rapids (MI) Forest Hill Eastern LB Mark Lawson
Woodbridge (VA) C.D. Hylton LB E.J. Levenberry, Jr.
Fenton (MI) Fenton TE Quinton Mandle
Trotwood (OH) Trotwood-Madison LB Mike McCray
Detroit (MI) Loyola DE Malik McDowell
Toledo (OH) St. John's DE Matt Miller
Warren (MI) De La Salle QB Shane Morris
Detroit (MI) King RB Dennis Norfleet
Duluth (GA) Northview DB A.J. Pearson
Mentor (OH) Mentor DE Tom Strobel
Crete (IL) Crete-Monee WR Laquon Treadwell
Peoria (IL) Manual OT Logan Tuley-Tillman
Cincinnati (OH) Sycamore TE A.J. Williams
Toledo (OH) Whitmer DE Chris Wormley
QUICK HITS
Joey Boas named Alabama, Florida State, Michigan, and Ohio State as his top four after the visit.
Christian LaCouture named LSU, Nebraska, and Michigan as his top three after the visit.
Man, did things in the twitterverse get ugly with Bosa this weekend. He certainly shouldn't have called a school he was about to visit by the nickname used by its rival as he came off a visit to it, but worse than that was the fan reaction. Michigan football is your hobby. It may not feel like it at times, but it is nothing more than a hobby. On the other hand, for a prospect like him, football has a great deal to do with his life, and his decisions ultimately might affect a good portion of his life. The fans need to lay off sometimes.
ReplyDeleteBut the real news in all of this is that OSU's recruiting director Mark Pantoni is a massive douche.
I must have missed it. Why is Pantoni a douche?
DeleteI don't really care that Bosa called Michigan "up north." He's a high school kid, and it's not an offensive nickname that he clearly knows is "wrong." I don't think he made a mistake at all. It's just a thing.
Pantoni seemed to be goading a lot of this on. He's a pretty active twitter user and he seemed to be goading the argument along knowing that Michigan fans were just blowing their chances at landing him with every tweet. That, and when Michigan was having their amazing recruiting weekend with 8 commitments he felt the need to hop on twitter and make a comment about how slow and steady wins the race to undermine a bit what they were accomplishing.
DeleteI disagree that it wasn't a mistake though, Ohio fans clearly use it to signal a lack of respect and good feeling toward Michigan. I'm sure the Ohio staff was aware that he was headed to Michigan next and had probably made a joke referring to it by that name, and for him to repeat it just seems a bit disrespectful. Like I said, the fan reaction was out of proportion, but when he's still in a portion of his recruitment where Michigan is courting him and he is courting the school, it just seems like a misstep on his part.
Agree with your take 100%, Virginia, but more importantly, Ohio's recruiting coordinator is named Mark Pantoni? This is amazing. All I can imagine is Dantonio with a Groucho Marx mustache-glasses on: "No, it's not me, Mark Dantonio, it's Mark PANtoni..."
DeleteIt's only a mistake for Bosa if he's his own PR rep. I think you (and others) might be taking the Twitterspeak of a 17-year-old kid a little too seriously. Not that you're getting totally bent out of shape about it, but honestly...why would anyone care that he said "that school up north"? It has virtually no significance except maybe it's a hint that he likes OSU more than Michigan.
DeleteThe "TSUN" or "TTUN" stuff didn't bother me personally, but he was retweeting such classy buckeye fan comments as "Ann Arbor has herpes" immediately after the visit to Michigan.
DeleteHigh schoolers think that stuff is funny. That's America.
DeleteThe "school up north" thing really does't bother me. It feels forced from Meyer feeling he has to respond to "Ohio" from Hoke. Except Hoke was doing it from the start and Meyer didn't start until after he was hired. The fan reaction on Twitter though really did bother me. I don't care if you are the same age as these recruits, you shouldn't be interacting with them on Twitter unless you actually know them.
ReplyDeleteBosa to OSU though would bother me. The DEs they are stocking up on are hard to ignore.
If I'm not mistaken, the "school up north" thing is older than many of this blog's readers are. I'm pretty sure that was the way Woody Hayes referenced Michigan, and it might have even started before him. There was that old story that Hayes's car ran out of gas across the state line, and he pushed his car across back into Ohio so he could buy his gas in OH rather than giving money to Michigan. The hatred between the two schools is much older than Urban Meyer, obviously.
DeleteI know it is, what I mean is he never referred to Michigan as "that school up north" until a while after he was hired. It is his response to "Ohio" and doesn't seem genuine, considering he intimated he would coach for Michigan if offered.
DeleteI would coach for Ohio State if offered. If they were willing to pay me a couple million dollars, sure. Just because he would have hypothetically coached for Michigan doesn't mean he owes us any more respect than any other opponent.
DeleteI think the whole "Ohio" and "that school up north" things are blown out of proportion. I think it's kind of silly to refuse to call the other school by their proper name, but that's just me. It seems like an elementary school sort of thing. "Billy? His name's not Billy. His name's BOOGERFACE!"
This is silly. If anything Hoke's 'Ohio' was a reaction to TSUN...not that it matters at all. Neither remark as an insult. It just expresses a healthy disdain for your opponent. All in good fun.
DeleteMeyer would have sounded stupid if he used TSUN before he was the coach. It's in the job description at only one school.
Meyer's "school up north" is absolutely not a response to Hoke's "Ohio". When Meyer was at Utah, he referred to BYU as the "school down south". That's just part of his shtick, and has nothing to do with Hoke referring to OSU as "Ohio".
ReplyDelete