This is where I will be posting who has signed his National Letter of Intent, who has committed elsewhere, etc.
RUMORS/NEWS
- West Bloomfield (MI) West Bloomfield RB Donovan Edwards signed with Michigan
- Lehigh Acres (FL) Lehigh CB Omarion Cooper, who had been considering Michigan, officially signed with Florida State
- Jacksonville (FL) Sandalwood LB/DE Branden Jennings flipped from Michigan to Maryland
- Scottsdale (AZ) Saguaro DE Quintin Somerville flipped from Michigan to UCLA
NATIONAL LETTER OF INTENT SIGNED
- Ft. Lauderdale (FL) St. Thomas Aquinas CB Ja'Den McBurrows
- Ft. Lauderdale (FL) St. Thomas Aquinas LB Jaydon Hood
- Fresno (CA) Central East WR Xavier Worthy (LINK)
- West Bloomfield (MI) West Bloomfield RB Donovan Edwards (LINK)
- Del Valle (TX) Del Valle RB Tavierre Dunlap (LINK)
- Suffield (CT) Suffield Academy DE Kechaun Bennett (LINK)
- Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei WR Cristian Dixon (LINK)
- East Lansing (MI) East Lansing WR Andrel Anthony
- Brentwood (TN) Ravenwood LB Junior Colson (LINK)
- Orchard Lake (MI) St. Mary's P Tommy Doman (LINK)
- Clayton (OH) Northmont S Rod Moore (LINK)
- Bradenton (FL) IMG Academy QB J.J. McCarthy (LINK)
- Mansfield (MA) Mansfield DE T.J. Guy (LINK)
- Louisiana Tech OT Willie Allen (grad transfer) (LINK)
- Detroit (MI) Cass Tech C Raheem Anderson II (LINK)
- Bradenton (FL) IMG Academy C Greg Crippen (LINK)
- Sterling Heights (MI) Stevenson OT Giovanni El-Hadi (LINK)
- Wallingford (CT) Choate Rosemary Hall OT Tristan Bounds (LINK)
- Needham (MA) St. Sebastian's TE Louis Hansen (LINK)
- Freehold (NJ) Mater Dei DE/DT Dominick Giudice (LINK)
COMMITMENTS ELSEWHERE
- Indiana LB Yanni Karlaftis committed to Purdue
- Louisiana DT Ma'ason Smith committed to LSU
- Florida WR Xavian Sorey committed to Georgia
- Florida CB Markevious Brown committed to Ole Miss
- Florida DT Anthony Hundley committed to UCF
- Arizona DE Quintin Somerville flipped from Michigan to UCLA
- Florida LB/DE Branden Jennings flipped from Michigan to Maryland
Thunder, if Jennings and Somerville sign elsewhere the defensive class looks weak. How concerned are you?
ReplyDeleteJennings concerns me more, because I think he has the physical ability to be successful, as long as he accepts the idea of playing an edge rusher role. I have been very confused by some analysts insisting he could have played about five different positions at Michigan.
DeleteI am not impressed by Somerville. He's just a guy, IMO. If he goes to UCLA, I don't think we'll hear much about him.
Thunder, how concerned are you about the defensive class assuming Jennings and Somerville sign elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteBiggest needs: DT & CB
ReplyDeleteBiggest misses: DT & CB
Can our Offense protect the D? Doubtful, considering it hasn't happened under JH
Who flips to Maryland when they're not even from Maryland???
ReplyDeleteAre defensive recruits worried Don Brown will get axed? I realize the defense this year was just utterly abysmal, but of all the assistant coaches, he's shown enough history of success that I'd bet on him getting another chance.
Looking at today’s signings and flips I would infer that JH and Gattis will be back but there will be significant turnover of the defensive staff.
ReplyDeleteIt sure seems like that might be the case, yeah.
DeleteYep. And I think you can rationalize it. Gattis is recruiting quite well on offense and they may think that the Warriner/Gattis marriage can work schematically. That requires some squinting and selectively looking at OSU game last year over some of the struggles early on this year and last. And glossing over the dubious Milton/McNamare decision, head-scratching playing calling, among other issues.
DeleteBut the talent they are bringing in on offense looks very good especially at QB, RB, and WR. They seem to like their young talent on the OL and with the level of turnover you can probably rationalize the poor performance this year, whereas last year was very good.
On defense -- you'll probably see Brown move on and be successful elsewhere. He's getting scapegoated here IMO but you can see that perhaps it's time to move in the direction for the program.
-Lank
On D - you take your hits today with firing the defensive staff. Saids hits aren't that damaging if we are being honest. If you bring the exciting new guy in soon, you can maybe hit the late signing period with some sleepers and then mine the transfer portal, which should be robust, to fill roster holes as needed. Plus of course try to retain the guys you got already so that there are fewer holes.
DeleteIt might work out alright.
-Lank
Huh? How is it not damaging to again ignore position groups that have led to bloodbaths?
DeleteWe'll probably get Mason as DC, because who wants to join a lameduck staff? The D just took a GIANT step back, and I'm pretty sure we still don't have enough on Offense to make up for it. 9 wins, tops is my guess
Typically, one of my favorite sports days of the year has taken a bitter turn. I can barely even bring myself to look at UM football, let alone recruiting, with even part of this regime coming back. JH should be GONE! Not, just the defensive coaches but the whole staff. I can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading and people have fallen for this Sh*tshow. JH has cashed in his chips and shows no passion whatsoever. Neither do his players. It's abysmal that this is even still a topic right now. I'd trade in EVERY SiNGLE COMMIT for a change in the entire coaching staff. Most of these guys today will be transferring in 1 yr when UM goes 5-6, and THEN have to pay out 3-4X the amount of money for JH to leave.
ReplyDeleteWOTS is that Michigan is looking to bring back Harbaugh with a lower buyout. So I'm not sure that will be the case.
DeleteHarbaugh has a long history of coaching success. I'm not sure we should read too much into the 2020 season. There was a lot of crazy stuff that happened this year.
Harbaugh had a great track record at UM, but the downside started before 2020's crash & burn
DeleteI am with Thunder here. I don't think you are right about going 5-6 next year.
DeleteThey need to make some changes it is clear and it sounds like a wholesale turnover on defense is the way this is going to go.
It is a terrible time to fire a head coach and try to bring in a whole new squad for several reasons. The pandemic-related challenges of current existence, trying to build relationships and teams over ZOOM is hard. Also, there are very few good candidates on the market. When your top candidate is scraping around 500 in Big 12 it's slim.
-Lank
It's not just this year, it's the last 3 years. He's a statue on the sidelines and it's obvious to the team. Hey, I get it. You're never going to beat OSU and he finally realizes it. However, he doesn't even care about the losses to MSU or other Big 10 games. He's just lost the passion and, unfortunately, no NFL teams want him anymore. He's defeated. This program needs a re-start and despite the buyout being less than typical, it's going to be MORE than the $8 million he's owed next year. They are delaying the inevitable. Plus, what defensive coach is going to bring his staff in when it's a dead-end job? The buyout for a new staff is going to add additional buyout costs too!
ReplyDeleteThere's just not a better time to sever the ties than right now. Harbaugh's coaching success has never taken 7 yrs to get going. I'm willing to call this a loss and move on. UM football needs a re-start. Simple as that.
I remember when he was criticized for being too emotional on the sidelines and costing the team penalties. The rest is just a story.
DeleteFor whom has the Michigan DC job been a dead end? Brown will get scooped up quickly. The previous 2 coordinators went on to a head-coaching job in the Big Ten and DC at OSU. You gotta go back to GERG. If Harbaugh hires some old guy that washed out of the NFL that will be a disaster, but that's not the direction it's going to go if when they fire Brown.
DeleteProgram re-start sounds nice except when you remember that there's not much to objectively differentiate a restarted Michigan vs a restarted Illinois. Ann Arbor is prettier but Champaign is closer to Chicago.
DeleteIt's wild to take the strides Harbaugh has made for granted when we saw two guys fail right before him.
DeleteThinking in investment terms, this is like taking your parents inheritance (the Bo era) and throwing all of it into tech stocks in 2007 (great recession), then overreacting by allocating everything to ultra conservative and outdated strategies that caused you to miss out on a boom (of wide open pass spread and RPO). So finally you get back to leveraging your assets wisely and maybe you aren't fabulously rich your like your neighbor on the south side who got rich by lying, cheating, and stealing with no shame, but all in all things are essentially back to the good old days up until a pandemic knocked you back. But dang you really want to be rich... and this is hard so... time to cash it all in to buy lotto tickets baby!!!
We just fielded our worst team since 2008 ... Fair to be pessimistic
DeleteA lot of schools did. Wisconsin, MSU, PSU, Michigan, Nebraska, Florida State, Baylor. none topped 3 wins.
Deleteright on. People also forget, Michigan hasn't been relevant since the late 90's. Rich Rod, Brady dug a pretty big hole that Harbaugh has had to dig out of. Add to it, the NCAA and SEC stepped on the momentum he brought with the traveling camps. My opinion, Harbaugh helped reestablish the brand, made us relevant again and put us back on the national spotlight. That said, you can't lose the MSU and worse case, you got to split w's with Ohio. Remember it wasn't long ago Notre Dame fans wanted Kelly out after a subpar year. Harbaugh is our best chance, but he has to get back to what made him successful. Enough of Don Brown Blitzing every play and man coverage. Enough of Josh Gattis horrible play calling. Bring back Jedd Fisch, bring back Mattison (or someone like him). Bring in a top recruiter and spend the money on social media to stay in front of the kids. That is where Ohio is cleaning our clock. Harbaugh the guy, but he has to be better.
ReplyDeleteNot a fan of the ND comparison
DeleteThey lost one game by double digits, to rosebowl USC ... they were otherwise competitive, Ave universally expected to bounce back after during VanGorder
Kelly also hired coordinators who meet his vision as the head man. His OC now is his UTL1 QB, tommy rees ...
At UM, what is the JH vision? What is our identity? Year m heading into year7, nobody knows. This is no exaggeration: not fans, not players, not the staff ... I'm not sure Jim Harbaugh even knows
Jedd Fisch sucks. Pep Hamilton had better offenses. So did Josh Gattis.
DeleteI don't think Fisch sucked, he ran the offense he was brought in to run. We won 10 games
DeleteNot a fan of Pep, but even he decided actually being the OC. Gattis has been all talk. Maybe they're giving him another chance because of recruiting, but I hope the new QB Coach is ready to take over
I'll also mention, if UM plays OSU and gets blown out AND then heads to IOWA and gets rolled, this entire coaching staff is GONE. There is no way the fan base would let keep JH and co. if those games are played. Fans have short memories and can barely recall the PSU game. Therefore, they are much more likely to agree with the Wayne Fontes-like rebuild (firing assistants). COVID keeps making 2020 worse.
ReplyDeleteWake me up when a good 330 lbs DT signs.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to agree with EJ here, but he's right
ReplyDeleteForget ohio - they own us. JH is getting embarrassed by Wisconsin. Going to 3OT against rutger. Losing to a very bad sparty team, with all starters still around. In year six, we were 20pt underdogs to an iowa team replacing a ton, and having gone through more drama than any other program in the country (including racism)
It's a lost cause. While I'm not the biggest fan of matt campbell, I do think there are better options, including Mario cristobal
Cristobal just lost to rebuilding historical dormat Oregon State and Cal. That's far worse than losing to Wisconsin or MSU. And he got canned at FIU for a 3 win season there before struggling at Oregon.
DeleteRecords over the last 3 years: Cristobal 24-8. Harbaugh 21-11, with an exponentially harder schedule.
Cristobal just hired Joe Moorehead, the hot shot head coaching candidate from a couple years back who failed badly at Miss State. A few years before that people wanted Les Miles, Kevin Sumlin, etc etc.
Most of these guys are shuffled around so quickly they are proverbial lottery tickets. I guess you can hope you find your Urban Meyer. More likely you find your Brady Hoke.
If you are Indiana or Vanderbilt this is fine - you have little to lose. If you are Michigan - a team this is consistently winning 8-10 games - there is a lot of risk of going back down to 5-7, and we saw that TWICE, in the last decade.
Oregon is playing in the Pac12 Championship, again. I watched the Civil War, and the Cal loss. Both looked like the weirdness of 2020, where some kids make more mistakes than typical, and it costs a game (see OU) ... they were not slapped around, like we have grown accustomed to against ohio, wisconsin, PennSt, and more
DeleteThat said, dude can recruit. He did it at FIU (winning conference titles at a program that never had a winning season before his arrival). Saban snatched him up, and national recruiter of the year honors began. Now he's recruiting at Oregon, a part of the country he'd never been
Is he a sure thing? No, in fact I don't see anything close to that out there. He does have what I think we need (in no particular order): HC experience, RECRUITING chops, prefers a physical brand (good for B1G), and has worked with guys like Schiano & Saban, both fantastic coaches and workaholics
Well if things are great at Oregon and Cristobal is an ace recruiter, while things are terrible at Michigan and Harbaugh is not, why did he end up with such similar ranked classes?
DeleteOregon is a better program over the last 20 seasons. They're 2-0 against Michigan. And they have Nike's support more than any other school in the country.
And yet - 3 wins against a cake schedule and not a top 5 recruiting class.
Held on to Worthy, just like Dax. I'd rather do without the pump fakes to Alabama but I'll take it.
ReplyDeleteGo Blue!
-Lank