Belleville (MI) Belleville linebacker Aaron Alexander will no longer be a part of Michigan's 2022 recruiting class. He did not sign on National Signing Day on Wednesday, and then on Thursday, he made it public that he was re-opening his recruitment.
Alexander was offered by and committed to Michigan in June 2021. Eastern Illinois and Marshall are the other teams listed as having offered him. He's currently a 247 Composite 3-star, the #101 linebacker, and #1013 overall. I gave him a TTB Rating of 57 at the time of his commitment (LINK).
Hit the jump for more.
It's unclear exactly what happened with Alexander and Michigan. There are some assumptions that can probably be made. Of course, some people made some assumptions when his head coach posted a vague tweet regarding fake offers and thought it was about Michigan:
College coaches!!! Fake offers are not allowed at Belleville High school!!! If your offer doesn't come with a immediate offer letter from the current college you represent please save your breath. If my kid can't commit understand the consequences. You won't be allowed back!
— CoachJermain Crowell (@JermainCrowell) December 12, 2021
Coach Crowell followed that up five days later with an admission that the first tweet wasn't about Michigan:
So that there are no misunderstandings. Michigan has been all class in the handling of Aaron. The new staff have been amazing. Belleville will be rooting for all the instate schools as they go bowling!!The portal era and offer era means it's time to move different. pic.twitter.com/z6BaSVgyhY
— CoachJermain Crowell (@JermainCrowell) December 17, 2021
Regardless, Michigan has a solid group of linebackers in this class with Deuce Spurlock, Micah Pollard, and Jimmy Rolder.
Overall, I've said it before about Belleville, but I will be concerned about Belleville relations when one of their players turns out to be a difference-maker at the college level. They've had an array of well regarded prospects - including Michigan's Andre Seldon - and it's a group of players who have yet to do much at the college level. Julian Barnett and Devontae Dobbs didn't do much at Michigan State before transferring to Memphis, and 5-star Damon Payne redshirted at Alabama this year; those have been their top prospects over the past decade or so, and while there's certainly no shame in redshirting at Alabama, there's also no evidence that these kids are difference-makers at the college level. I do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of Belleville players in college football, but I think the most impact any of their products had this year was former 2-star prospect Kaevon Merriweather, a safety at Iowa who made 39 tackles and 1 interception. As far as I know, you have to go back almost 20 years to find a high-level Belleville product (the Jenkins brothers).
While it's a relief that Crowell chose to clear the air about the first tweet, it's interesting that it took 5 days to type out the second one.
ReplyDeleteI was told that there were calls and conversations about coaches needing to be concentrating on getting kids into college rather than excluding colleges from recruiting kids.
But, in fairness to Crowell, guys telling me about calls and conversations were never in the room.
Crowell is quite obviously a very emotional coach. He could afford to think more about the vibes his program gives off. He must be a very personable individual to attract so many kids to that school, but as far as developing them and getting them ready for the next level, I don't think he does a great job.
DeleteIt seems to me that he's a guy who could try to learn some lessons rather than trying to dish them out.
Ian Gold was a difference maker out of Belville, though he grew up before that in AA. Obviously that's well before the current coach.
DeleteI don't know what all the above refers to, but it doesn't sound good. I know there has been some friction with Michigan staff but it sounds like that's in the past no? Crowell was very complementary on the Michigan staff and Seldon is on the team. So I guess I'm curious where this animosity is coming from Thunder?
It seems like this record kind of speaks for itself:
https://michigan-football.com/f/bellevil.htm
Sounds like Bryce Underwood, their freshman QB who already has an offer from Michigan, is going to be a big deal so it's great that the relationship with Belville is seemingly strong now.
Crowell got into it with Chris Zordich over Lavert Hill.
DeleteCrowell coached Hill at Cass Tech prior to taking the Bellville job, and didn't care for Zordich questioning Hill's toughness when it came to practicing hurt.
He got some pretty good support on that one from around the PSL.
That was thought to be patched up with the hires of Bellamy and Hart who I'm pretty sure have Bellville within their purview.
Was Crowell wrong?
DeleteI thought it predated Hill but regardless... Harbaugh seems to have changed his approach to injury to a much more player-friendly way since the Durkin days. I wouldn't credit Crowell for it entirely but it probably contributed.
Durkin was shown to be toxic on his approach to injuries. He wasn't alone, it was a program thing and Harbaugh knew it. Zordich and Warriner notorious hard asses. They used to hang a slogan banner about how you aren't contributing if you are hurt. I remember Mattison doing an interview in front of it but not the exact words. And of course they booted guys like St Juste and Pipkins who kept playing after their "career ending" injuries. Pissed off players transferring because of the injury approach. Perhaps related - some guys in the NFL being openly hostile, which is bad for recruiting.
I think Harbaugh, to his credit is learning and evolving on many fronts. I said this in 2018 and 2020 too, not just post-OSU win. The switch to younger more "player friendly" coaches is another step. Especially with enhanced player mobility the old school mentality towards injury is antiquated. Much of the coaching that us middle aged guys experienced in the 80s and 90s won't fly anymore at the college level. It's been there behind somewhat closed doors, and is still there, but I suspect much less. Winning patches things over (see Meyer, Urban). Still, the Pete Carroll way continues to replace the Bob Knight way from what I've gathered (not a coach though).
This is not just a football thing but broader culturally and in business (where I have seen it). There are different expectations of leadership and "tough love" is still critical. This doesn't mean continually doling out punishment. Most times that's a cheap shortcut IMO.
There were also supposedly some comments made within Michigan's program about the lack of development at Belleville, which filtered back to Belleville's staff. That and the treatment of Lavert Hill seemed to kind of mark the beginning of the bad blood.
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