Semi-light update today because I got impatient last week, and gave 2 recruiting updates when I really didn’t need to. The Board.
I have no idea how he wasn’t added already (probably because I forgot to), but LaTwan Anderson, a friend of Jerald Robinson and a speedy, hard-hitting safety, has been offered by Michigan. I’ve belatedly added him to the board.
PA RB Corey Brown (not to be confused with 2009 PA CB Corey Brown, an Ohio State commit) has been selected to the Army All-American game for next year.
GA QB/DB Barry Bostic almost committed to Georgia Tech on his visit, and it seems like he might do just that before long.
TX QB Connor/Conner Wood is going to make his decision within the next week or so. He’s only visited schools in Texas and Oklahoma, so one must assume the Wolverines won’t be considered. Look for him to be removed from the board very soon, when he picks Oklahoma (most likely) or Texas/a dark horse.
With two DTs already in their class of 2010, the Longhorns probably won’t offer TX DT Jay Guy. The ‘Horns were considered to be one of his favorites, despite the lack of offer. Michigan has offered, and he’ll probably be their top DT target in the 2010 class. Per BON:
recruiting at the position is probably finished unless the coaches want to go after an OOS stud or decide to offer Jay Guy, a kid who really likes Texas, but doesn’t seem likely to get an offer right now.
(emphasis mine). Keep it in mind, because I think the Wolverines are near the top of his list.
Snippet from SI on FL CB Lamarcus Joyner:
he recently said five teams have jumped out early on his list — Florida, Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame and Ohio State. He reports offers from all those teams.
Michigan is notably absent, but theres no mention of a timeframe.
FL OL Torrian Wilson likes Michigan (info in header).
FL OL Chaz Green has been offered by Michigan.
Added SC QB Kersean Wilson, who is apparently hearing from Michigan. Also from that article: keep an eye on as-yet-unsigned 2009 RB prospect Larry Raper. The Clemson decommit is giving Michigan a hard look.
Removed:
TX LB Aaron Benson to Texas.
Posted under Football, Recruiting
Tags: 2009, 2010, aaron benson, barry bostic, chaz green, conner wood, corey brown, jay guy, kersean wilson, lamarcus joyner, larry raper, latwan anderson, torrian wilson
I realize it’s totally juvenile, but I don’t know how i’ll handle Daily articles if we recruit that RB prospect. ‘Raper makes instant impact at U-M’, ‘Raper looking forward to being big man on campus’, ‘Raper finds big holes behind offensive line’, etc.
Ryan, it can’t be any worse than the “Dick-Nutt” jokes at Arkansas, or every time the Trojans play the Beavers.
Latwan Anderson isn’t on the board yet. I believe he’s been offered and am sure he’s going to be a good one.
And Gardiner just told Scout and Rivals to drop his interest in o$u to NONE. He is no longer considering them. ZERO. Nice job Vest. Way to piss off a guy that may have considered you for a Montana. This is good for the good guys. Not really good, just good. And Tim, there are plenty of free articles to post on this.
Gardner and Bolden are way overrated and Gardner is no Pryor. That’s why RR is offering or looking at out of state QB’s. Problem is he had so much crticism about recruiting in-state last year he might take a kid with less talent which is another problem altogether.
Gardner is a monster FYI.
He may not be Pryor, but he is not horse shit either.
I think Gardner’s offers so far speak for themselves, he is a big talent: UM (VERY early), LSU, ND, Neb, Wisky.. I will take the talent evaluation skills of the coaches of these programs over the opinion of “Grob” any day..
Let me say this, I’m chuckling since we all hide behind monikers and we don’t reveal who we are….I know football and have watched a lot of film.
Gardner’s decision-making is poor and he struggles with backside pressure. He’ll rack up numbers between the 20’s and fail in critical situations. That’s who you want?
Football intelligence is highly underrated at the QB position.
Bolden is not an elite thrower or runner making him a’tweener that will struggle on the field.
I would take Justin Siller over these guys.
Gardner has good numbers but that doesn’t always equate to bigger things–just ask AJ Westendorp. In fact, I would have taken Westendorp over these guys. Plus, look at the out of state QB’s RR is looking at. There is a reason he is doing that. Recruiting in-state just to get people off your back is pretty silly.
I wouldn’t take Siller over Garnder, but I would take him over Bolden. I guess that means I agree with your take on Bolden, but disagree on Gardner.
Gardner is a high school junior who got legitimate coaching last year for the first time in his life. The staff obviously likes him, and they aren’t recruiting in-state just to get people off their backs. You think it’s silly because it is, and that is absolutely not what the staff is doing.
Westendorp was a good, smart player, but his physical limitations are way too great to play bigtime football. that’s why he’s in the MAC, and Gardner has early offers from many of the most successful football programs in the country.
Grob, you may know football, and you may very well know more football than I do, but I very highly doubt you know more football than the coaches at BCS elite progams like UM, LSU, and ND(okay, maybe ND). I think it is obvious that from the early interest in him he has got some serious raw talent, and like what Tim said with some serious coaching his senior year, and freshman year of college, he could be a beast. To say that he has a lower ceiling is insane, IMO.
Also insane is the thought that RR would offer a guy (last spring, before his junior year) just for appearances sake. Of course he is going to look around at other options who are out of state guys.. but to say that Gardner’s offer is nothing but giving props to the Michigander boys is just nuts..
Okay we’ll see when it is all said and done. I’ll let you apologize then. Devin is garnering a lot of interest because he has excellent physical tools.
Westendorp is not limited physically. He has good size at 6’2 205-215 LB’s. He is elusive out of the pocket and rolling to either side and keeping his eyes down field. His decision making his flawless. Will Snead (with connections to Steve Spurrier) said he was the best he has been around ever in making decisions. The reason he was not recruited by more instate programs is he waited until his senior year to shine when most programs wrap up QB commits during their junior year. Forcier at UM, and Maxwell at MSU were set, and both coaches eluded to that. We’ll just have to wait and see. I’ve watched Gardner all year, no doubt excellent physical tools, but in big and pressured situations–not so much.
Also, what I am saying about in-state is let RR offer who he wants to really offer and who wants to be here. The media puts so much pressure lately on getting in-state kids it’s ridiculous. you can win the in-state recruiting battle and still lose the war on the field. Games aren’t played on paper.
He is the poor mans Pryor and look at how much Pryor struggled. OSU struggled to score at times.
Westendorp has good size, but he lacks arm strength and speed.
Decision-making can be coached, physical ability can’t. End of story.
You are wrong.
Grob, I hate continuing this ridiculous arguement, but I am going to anyway.
1) You are rushing to judgement on Gardner’s decision-making ability, etc. He is a high school JUNIOR for Christ’s sake. He will be coached. He will get better.
2) How does Westendorp even come into this convo? Are you his Dad? Sure, he is a decent talent, MAC level decent talent (at best). I am not sure how you could even possibly compare the two, on top of the fact that they have completely different styles, Westendorp was offered by a D-II and a MAC school while Gardner is recieving offers from elite BCS schools. PLUS, they are in different classes altogether!
3) I will take a poor man’s Prior any day. Yeah, he struggled some last year, but he was a TRUE FRESHMAN. Much as I hate to say it, he will be an absolute monster for the next 2 years (at least).
Decision making can be coached? LOL. Not very easily. If so, Joey Harrington would still be with the Lions. Some QB’s never get it and make similar mistakes.
Westendorp has plenty of speed. The key for QB’s is the ability to escape the rush and the ability to roll and throw the football.
It all depends on the offense you play. Watch the state championships games?
Westendorp continually escaped pressure and kept his eyes downfield to complete passes. While Gardner was sacked or hit and plays got broken down. Speed doesnt help you then.
It is not based on always who offers a kid. Go look and study the pro bowl rosters and see how many guys come from supposedly small schools? A lot of them. Brett Favre form South Miss, Jerry Rice from Miss Valley St…etc.
Sure, there are always exceptions to the rule, and you have picked the very best. Westendorp had 1 offer. So I guess 119 other programs just missed the boat. And with the hundreds of really talented QB’s out there every year for teams to choose from, I see how he was missed. Come on. It’s great you like the kid, and he appears to be smart one, but get off of this. Gardner will be a 20+ offer guy from big time programs. He has something, and it is called athleticism. And you can’t teach that.
Vince Young made poor decisions as well. Hell, he probably still isn’t as good at it as he should be. But he was athletic enough to be one of the most succesful college QB’s ever. Tebow still has some questionable decision making. In college, you can get away with bad decision making and still overwhelm your opponent with speed and physicality.
Maybe if we were running TTU’s spread you would have some shred of a valid point, but a pure athlete can thrive in Rodriguez’s offense, much more so than a scrappy kid whose just a step too slow and with an arm a little to weak to garner any more than 1 division 1 offer.
Okay this is getting ridiculous, comparing Gardner to Vince Young or Terrelle Pryor is ludicrous unless you like to name drop.
Offers mean nothing. PLEASE NOTE–the reason Westendorp wasn’t getting offers was because he really didn’t shine until the end of his senior season when most teams had taken verbals from junior QB’s. Had that championship game came at the end of his junior instead of his senior year he would have had a ton of offers. I have seen a plethora of players who had one offer and no others and did well. Look at Ohio State, heck they had what, 20 commmits lined up by last June?! People run out of spots to take people. People don’t wait to February to take guys anyomre. They lock them up early and that was to the detriment of Westendorp.I don’t see Tebow with questionable or slow decision making. How can anyone compare him to Tebow anyway?
A step slow or an arm to weak? Would you rather have CMU’s Qb from last year or Threet or Sheridan? Plus, Butch Jones has sais he has plenty of arm strength. Should we believe him?
Rob Rubick said that kid could play at any college and was blown away by what he saw. Should we believe him? Should we believe Willie Snead who has a rep with Spurrier?
Sure Gardner may make some big plays, okay, but he is going to make a lot more negative plays than Westendorp would. Yet, the question isn’t even about that, it’s about the fact there are probably better out of state QB’s than Gardner.
Comparing anyone to anyone then, in your book is stupid. So here you go, Gardner reminds me a lot of this kid, Marcus Titnsucker, out of California. He is the exact same age, and has has a very similar type game. Now we all know who Titensucker is, so you can see that comparison. Is that better? See, comparisons only work when you know one of the parties being compared.
Now as for Pryor and Young, Pryor is still not a great QB, he is still very raw. And Young was an average QB at best, except for his last 14 games or so. Ask any UT fan. They are always amazed at most people claiming him as one of the greatest ever. So a raw, super athletic stud, capable of being very good at QB, yep, I see the comparison.
And if you think 119 Div. 1 programs were simply full, and didn’t have room to take one of the top quarterbacks in the nation, well more power to you. Most programs will make room for even a really good qb, let alone one that you obviously think is a super recruit. But you keep pounding home your point, take comfort in the fact you know more about evaluating talent then 99% of the guys that get paid to do it, and oh, don’t choke on all that sand your head is buried in.
Comparing Gardner to Pryor or Young = ridiculous. Comparing A.J. Westendorp to Brett Farve and Jerry Rice = totally logical. 1000 cocktails of stupid raised to you my friend.
I didn’t compare the two, I used Young and Tebow to illustrate the point that decision making in college can be overcome by raw athletic ability.
Also, did you just accuse me of name-dropping? How the fuck am I going to make a relevant point by using college players noone has ever heard of? Are you actually this dumb, or are you just pretending?
How can offers mean nothing? An offer is the most concrete praise a coach can give to a recruit, as it is saying he is good enough to use a schollie on. Westendorp was not good enough by the end of his senior year for all but one d1 school to use a scholarship on, Gardner is good enough to already have offers from UofM, MSU, Nebraska, LSU, Notre Dame, and Wisconsin, and that is just off of Scout.
Also of interest on the scout page, they describe Gardner as being a “very smart and poised player who is cool under pressure and in the clutch” and “Shows good command of the offense and understanding of the game”. So, basically, what you’re telling us is what you saw in probably one game in HS at Ford Field trumps what the people at Scout who are paid to evaluate talent think about a recruit?
I don’t get the thing about westendork (haha!) not getting offers because he didn’t perform until late in his senior season. Wasn’t Michigan still looking for a QB in February?
I got sucked into this convo from mgoblog and I see one point that Grob made that could be said for Gardner as well…if Westendorf didnt bloom until late in his senior year what makes you think that Gardner wont or cant do the same thing in his senior year. All bs aside, I believe that Grob is not taking into account the ability of a young talent to soak up coaching within a years time. That is what determines a potentially great player. If he can take it all in and make better decisions in a years time then RR will keep the door open and if he doesnt, RR made it clear in his PC that sometimes the recruit does you a favor and decommits. Nuff said!
I surely hope “Grob” is not a moniker for Greg Robinson, or we are all very screwed.. Please tell me you are not our new DC..
mgochiro pwns thread
Also, the idea that Michigan didn’t offer Westendorp “because they were full” is ludicrous – they wrapped up their QB recruiting on signing day.
Santoro–I am not comparing Favre or Rice to Westendorp and only you could make that reach to try and make me look bad.
Look, UM didn’t go after him because he is not an option QB like the kid from Florida. he is a DIFFERENT kind of QB. RR is looking for the next ‘Pat White’, or ‘Terrelle Pryor’. RR wants his cake and eat it to and wanted Westendorp to walk-on. That doesn’t mean AJ isn’t a quality QB.
So if Gardner takes to RR’s coaching he is fine, but if he doesn’t he’ll be “forced” into decommmitting. I don’t that is a good way to conduct business or that will catch up to you.
Offers, how about that kid that played at Louisville for JLS–Stephan Lefors who had an offer from Louisville and a podunk school in the bayou and set records.
Some kids gradually learn from their decision making issues. Sure he has his senior year to do it, but nobody has seen AJ make the decisions that kid makes. Devin can improve, but I think that improvement will be limited. Part of decision making is practice, but a LOT of it is inherent.
All the offers show me is that Westendorp is a late bloomer. By the way, Westendorp’s coach at Holland Christian said he the best player and QB he has been around, but that Cousins kid went to MSU and played at the same school? So how can one be a Big Ten QB and the other one not. Hey, what the heck, let’s get Devin so I can laugh later when he fumbling on the 5-yard line against OSU.
Dude, you’re wrong; give it up. Also, Cousins didn’t play for Snead, who was only at HC the last 2 years.
Also Grob, any kid who plays at CMU will never be seen as bette rthan a kid who plays at UM. I would take a “bad QB” at UM over a “great QB” at CMU anyday. Does anyone think Lefevre is better than Threet? I certainly don’t. Just by going to CMU the kid is already putting himself in a hole. That is, of course, his choice. That is just the way it is.
Tim, That what either Cousins coach and/or Snead said, That Westendorp was the best of the two.
An Arbor1879-now you know why people call us arrogant. A bad QB orver a great QB at CMU=burst out laughing silly.
Grob….for real???? Are you really trying to argue that a universal 1-star recruit (AJ) is better than at worst a high end 4-star???? Forgive me, but I tend to side with respected recruiting services, every D1 coach and recruiting co-ordinator in the country, and every state insider that covers this type of thing (except the HC coach I suppose).
I sincerely hope you are in some way blood related to Westendorp, that would be the only way to explain your wild views of QB talent. I would at least have some understanding of your view, and then perhaps I could listen to any other thoughts on players you may have. As it stands in my eyes, your credibility as a talent evaluator is absolutley nil.
Everyone in this thread is now dumber for having listened to your argument. I award you no points and may god have mercy on your soul.
Joe are you going with the vaunted star system? LOL I know quite a few 2-stars who will drafted in the NFL pretty soon. Apparently your short attention span does not alllow you to follow that system after they get ready to graduate.
“Wild views”–LOL. No, I actually know football. Go back and look at some of our recent siging classes, a lot of those 4 stars are gone, and not just QB’s.
Oh, the old patented, “Eveyone is now dumber line” that is so passe that is pathetic like yourself. Find some new material, you are begininng to look like a pseudo-intellectual.
There’s so many different ways to go with this but, like others before me, I feel I must decline to pursue this argument or risk my sanity.
Joe I agree, people have a short attention span here:
1. I am NOT saying that Westendorp should have been recruited at UM (as some have surmised) because he doesn’t fit the system anyway. +(No I am not related to AJ).
2. I am not saying Gardner doesn’t have some excellent tools to work with, yet what I am saying is there are better QB’s out-of-state than Gardner, and star-systems can be right but not always.
Everyone needs to relax.