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Recruiting Update 4-30-09

2010 Michigan Recruiting Board goes here. There’ll be another substantive recruiting update on Monday, because I couldn’t fit all the information into this one.

The Wolverines are among the favorites for TX QB Jeremy Johnson. The same article is also posted on other schools’ Rivals affiliates with titles such as “West Virginia, Baylor among Johnson’s favorites.” With doing much further research, I would assume that is something of a top 3 for him. Remember, WVU sites were expecting him to commit to the Mountaineers at their spring game not too long ago, but he didn’t

PA QB Anthony Gonzales has been nominated to play in the US Army Bowl. This doesn’t mean he’s in the game (it’s essentially a semi-finalists list), but certainly speaks to his talent.

FL WR Kenny Shaw is blowing up this spring, and also indicating that he is probably all-but-committed to Florida State:

Shaw visited FSU unofficially last month, and wanted to pull the trigger then.

“Honestly the reason was my parents,” Shaw said. “They wanted me to wait it out, take my visits over the summer, and then make a decision after my senior year.”

With Michigan’s current stockpile of WRs in the 2010 class, it’s sad to see a talent like Shaw fall by the wayside for Michigan, but them’s the ropes, I guess.

FL WR Chris Dunkley has transferred from Royal Palm Beach High School to Pahokee. This might slightly increase Michigan’s chances for him (he’s mostly considered a Florida lock, however). Also, it gives Pahokee an awesome set of WRs with Fred Pickett, Dennis Hall, and De’Joshua Johnson already there. Speaking of Johnson, however, he’s narrowed his list of choices to 3, Florida State, Alabama, and Oklahoma State. He won’t be removed quite yet, but considering he’s stated he doesn’t want to play in a spread offense (which, lol at him, is the scheme that best fits his skill set), and is serious enough about it to eliminate Florida, he’s probably gone baby, gone.

He also dumped Michigan, which was a difficult decision since the Wolverines have three former Blue Devils on their roster and were the first team to offer Johnson.

“I’m not going to knock them, but (the spread is) why,” Johnson said. “That was my school for a while. That was my first written offer and all my teammates are up there. It would have been fun.”

Sounds like he really liked the Wolverines, so maybe Rich will be able to convince him that players in the spread can make it to the NFL (Steve Slaton, Pat White, the ever-gusty Percy Harvey).

A spring game visit to…Northwestern?… has “wowed” OH OL Christian Pace, and the Wildcats’ turnout of 3,000 fans was enough to vault them near the top of Pace’s list of favorites.

Removed PA OL Seth Betancourt. He is selecting a school today from a list of finalists that does not include Michigan. All indications are that he’ll don a Boston College hat.

The Charlotte Observer’s hideous Blogspot-hosted (lol) blog has some very nice things to say about NC DT Gabe King‘s ability to play the game of foot-ed ball. Caveats about his being a discipline case persist, but Michigan has offered and appear to be strong for him, so keep him in mind, even if you don’t think he’s worth the potential trouble at this point. Edited to reflect the correct name, because I’m apparently not fond enough of proofreading.

Florida is the leader for FL DE Lynden Trail (info in header).

Not a ton of information is available for free in this article about PA LB Jordan Paskorz, but the alt text for the image in the post is “Paskorz is favoring Michigan, Virginia and Pitt.” take that for what it’s worth.

More from the Sporting News on the faux-commitment of FL CB Travis Williams (they think it’s a real commit). Conventional wisdom, direct quotes, and logic say: He wants to commit, RR told him not to for now.

Michigan has offered FL CB Rashad Knight (info in header). He is a more highly-rated prospect than Williams, at the very least, and indications (article title: “Michigan Jumps in Front for Knight“) are that he also holds Michigan in high regard.

Has GA CB Jonathan Mincy been offered? I haven’t even heard of the kid, much less as somebody who was likely to have received a Michigan offer, but he’s now added to the board, tentatively listed without said offer.

CA CB Troy Hill says Washington is his #1 school right now (info in header). Remember, he said a while back that his interest in MIchigan was waning, so he’s teetering on the edge of removal.

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6 Comments so far

  1. West Texas Blue says...

    It’s Gabe King, not Mitch. Mitch King was DL for Iowa who just graduated.

  2. Jack Tripper says...

    I hope to God that UM and whom ever helms the QB position (Tate?) prove that the spread only means the ball is spread around and that the WR get plenty of nice balls to catch for TD and big gains to dispel this idiotic myth that the Spread disses WRs.

  3. Thunder says...

    Not to be too critical (and you might have been joking), but it seems a bit strange that you’re lol-ing that the Charlotte Observer has a Blogspot-hosted blog. I realize they’re a professional news company and you guys are only bloggers…but you just moved off Blogspot four months ago.

    Full disclosure: My blog is on Blogspot, but I didn’t take offense. I have no intentions of being a professional blogger.

    Also, you lol-ed at De’Joshua Johnson for not wanting to play in a spread offense, but Rodriguez hasn’t really shown a knack for developing WRs (other than Chris Henry, who’s a freak athlete). It’s not too surprising that Johnson would want to go elsewhere; in fact, it’s MORE surprising that we already have four or five WRs who want to come to Michigan.

    I just think some of your lol-ing is misplaced.

    Otherwise, good post.

  4. Tim says...

    The Charlotte Observer has their own domain, but can’t be bothered to host their blog on that?

    Also, I’m not saying that Rodriguez in particular should be lauded for his ability to develop receivers, but that a prototypical slot receiver saying “all spread offenses will not get me to the NFL” is ridiculously off-base.

  5. BenAA says...

    I worked in the media industry (software for print and online) for several years, and the primary reason why traditional media outlets (newspapers) pick up a blogspot-hosted blog (or a wordpress.com blog) is because they want to be seen as being just like you…(well, maybe not you…but, down to earth…easy to relate too…common… etc).

    Also, as we know here in AA, newspapers have a great deal of trouble trying to be profitable. So, why should they host their own blog when they can get one for free?

  6. Tim says...

    Valid points, but if they already have a website (and they do), it wouldn’t cost them anything more to host a recruiting blog on it. Throwing it on a Blogspot site to make it relatable to the common man is undermined by plastering “HEY THIS IS RUN BY A NEWSPAPER” all over it.

    Not a huge deal either way, just something I found funny.

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