 |
| Cleveland (OH) Benedictine linebacker Jerome Baker |
Elkton (MD) Eastern Christian Academy wide receiver Freddy Canteen committed to Michigan.
Massillon (OH) Washington kicker Andrew David committed to Michigan.
Natrona Heights (PA) St. Joseph's offensive tackle Jon Runyan, Jr. committed to Michigan.
Elkton (MD) Eastern Christian Academy cornerback Brandon Watson committed to Michigan.
ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2015
Cleveland (OH) Benedictine linebacker Jerome Baker was offered by Michigan. He's a 6'1", 205 lb. prospect with offers from Florida, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee, and West Virginia, among others. According to 247 Sports, he's a 4-star, the #2 athlete, and the #50 player overall for 2015. He plays running back in addition to linebacker, but I think he has more of a future on defense. His leader appears to be Ohio State, so you may not want to get your hopes up too much.
OFF THE BOARD
Chesapeake (VA) Oscar Smith defensive tackle Andrew Brown committed to Virginia. Brown mentioned wanting to visit Michigan a couple months ago, but nothing ever transpired. This is Virginia's third Rivals 5-star commitment in the last two classes, joining Quin Blanding and Taquan Mizzell.
Wayne (NJ) De Paul Catholic wide receiver Kiy Hester committed to Rutgers. Hester could play wide receiver or safety in college.
Chicago (IL) De La Salle offensive guard Jamarco Jones committed to Ohio State. This was somewhat expected, and unless there's some unexpected attrition, it looks as if Michigan might stick with just two offensive line commits in the 2014 class.
Baltimore (MD) Gilman cornerback Troy Vincent, Jr. committed to Penn State. In case you don't remember, he's the son of former Wisconsin, Philadelphia Eagles, and Miami Dolphins cornerback Troy Vincent. He also attends the same high school as incoming freshman defensive tackle Henry Poggi.
VISITORS
The coaches were mostly on vacation, so there weren't many visitors this past week. However, Huntersville (NC) SouthLake Christian running back Robert Washington and wide receiver Connor O'Donnell swooped through Ann Arbor for a visit. Both are 2016 prospects who are committed to Mississippi State. They camped at Michigan a couple weeks ago, went to Notre Dame for a camp, and then visited Michigan again. It was Washington's third trip to Ann Arbor in the past few months, despite no offer just yet.
MISCELLANEOUS
Here's a list of prospects attending Nike's The Opening this week.
I certainly hope they don't stop with two OLs. That's too few even in a class of 15. They need three, and if the class grows to as many as 20, they should be thinking about 4. To take 4 WRs and only two offensive linemen in any class would be insane. That's one of the reasons our Oline is so thin right now.
ReplyDeleteWith six in the previous class, I don't think two would be a huge problem. You just have to make sure to take several in the next class. If all the current players stick, Michigan would have 14 offensive linemen in 2014 with zero seniors.
DeleteI mentioned wanting 3-4 WRs in this class around last NSD, I think Magnus told me it was overkill with how many we already have on the roster. But the WRs on our roster aren't very talented, and the jury is still out on the 3 incoming freshmen. We took 10 pretty darn good linemen in the past two classes. I think only taking 2 this class isn't a problem.
Delete-JC
Well, the last two classes we took 10 OLs out of a total of 52, which is a good ratio (about 1 in 5 is a good general rule of thumb), but we certainly didn't OVER recruit at that position given the total number of scholies we handed out and how thin we were at OL depth. I don't think we're in a position to pull back on recruiting offensive linemen quite yet, especially when we still don't know how the crop from the last two years will pan out. The thing about Olinemen is that it takes 2-3 years in the program before you know what you've got, so you've got to have plenty of guys in the pipeline always. 14 scholarship OLs is still thin. That barely gives us a two deep with an expected 1/3 ending up as scout team.
Delete14-16 scholarship OL seems like decent depth, as long as there aren't 6 true freshmen, like we have now... OL were taking now will be buried on the depth chart unless they are extremely talented. If there is no elite talent left for us to pursue, the scholarship is better being used elsewhere. We don't have elite WR talent, except possibly Harris now.
Delete-JC
What happened with Vincent jr.? I thought we had interest in him very early? keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteWe did have interest in him early, and he had some interest in us. I just think he wasn't sold on Michigan, and the coaches moved on to other guys. It's been expected for a while that he would commit to PSU, and I don't think Michigan's staff has been staying in contact with him very much.
Delete