Removed:
As predicted earlier this month, TX DE Reggie Wilson chose the Longhorns.
IL RB/WR Rayvonte Rice says he’ll give up football to focus on basketball. 

Added to the board with offers or interest:
SC S Brashaud Breeland (info obvious from header). 
FL CB Mark Deas (published by GBW).
A two-fer: GA DT Michael Thornton and TX QB Dylan Thompson are both hearing from the Wolverines.

From the same article: recruiting fluff on FL OL Brent Benedict, who holds a Michigan offer. It doesn’t appear he has any plans to make a spring visit to Ann Arbor.

From the Free Press, regarding Ohio prospects with interest in both Michigan and Michigan State (admittedly, a very specific set):

Latwan Anderson (Lakewood St. Edwards) is one of the top safety prospects in the nation for the class of 2010… Anderson is in the process of narrowing down his list and plans on having a final five. Two of the schools he says will definitely be on his final list are the Spartans and Wolverines.

Derrick Bryant (Columbus Brookhaven) lives in the shadow of Ohio State, but he may not end up in Scarlet and Gray… Bryant was offered early by Michigan and the Spartans recently followed suit. The Wolverines are seen as the team to beat at this point.

Defensive lineman Darryl Baldwin (Solon) is another big-time prospect that both the Spartans and Wolverines are after… The big obstacle with Baldwin will be the fact that unlike the above prospects, the Buckeyes have already offered him. The amount of recruits from Ohio that get an Ohio State offer and don’t end up playing for Jim Tressel can usually be counted on one hand.

So: Bad on Baldwin, Good on Bryant, Neutral-to-Good on Anderson.

This is slightly old news, despite my not having heard a word about it from any other source:

Northwestern is returning to the belly of the Big Ten’s beast to try and lure away another Columbus (OH) recruit. Rivals.com reports on how interior lineman, Travis Jackson, has put NU in his top five along with Stanford, Michigan, Vanderbilt and Cincinnati after visiting the Evanston campus for junior day recently.

I’ve honestly not heard of the guy, but if the Wolverines are in his top five without an offer, he may be a prospect down the road.

SC DE Brandon Willis wins state weightlifting championship.

Another day, another article on VA QB Phillip Sims that doesn’t mention the Wolverines. He’s close to being removed form the board.

OH LB Marcus Rush has named Michigan his leader (info in header).

The always-excellent Jim Stefani gives a look into Michigan’s early returns in the 2010 class, where things might go from here, and even a couple prospects to keep an eye on in future classes.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

Junio-to-be wideout Toney Clemons has left the Michigan football program, as I speculated when he was absent from practice Saturday. Clemons cited a desire to play in a more pro-style offense, where he feels he would get more opportunities to catch the ball and make plays. Perhaps most importantly, he didn’t try to slam the coach or school on the way out, simply citing his philosophical differences.

He intends to transfer to a school in one of the other BCS conferences, where he’ll sit out for a redshirt year before returning to the field in 2010. Clemons was one of my favorite recruits a couple years back, and I was already rooting for him to become a difference maker on the field. I’ll continue doing the same at his new destination.

Scholarship count and depth charts updated in the Personnel HQ.

Posted under Football, Personnel

From the mouth of Rod:

• 1st full scrimmage will probably take place on Saturday.
• One of the reasons Rich wants to have a big spring game (in terms of fan attendance) is to help young guys get used to playing in front of an audience, so they aren’t as nervous when they see crowds of 100K+ in the fall.
• Brandin Hawthorne, though he sometimes has been practicing with the safeties, is going to play outside linebacker.
• Steve Watson’s move to defensive end has gone well. He is competing well enough that he will get some real playing time if he keeps it up. The depth at TE (Koger, Moore, Webb all doing well) allows him to play there. If they need tight ends, he’s a smart enough player that he could move back.
• Will Campbell will be a big help for the team, because the depth at DT is pretty thin. He still has lots of learning to do.
• Steve Schilling is at guard for now, and he’ll probably stay there for the time being. He looks good at the guard position, and shows good leadership on the field.

Observations and E-pinions:

• Starting defense appeared to be a 3-4 set with the following personnel: DL – Van Bergen, Martin, Graham. LB – S. Brown, Evans, Ezeh, Fitzgerald. S – Williams, B. Smith. CB – Warren, Cissoko.
• 1st team backfield featured Nick Sheridan, and often had 2 RBs (Minor at FB, C. Brown at RB) in. Moundros was the starting true fullback, in front of Grady and with Forcier as the QB.
• The starting offensive line looked to be (L to R): Ortmann, Schilling, Molk, Moosman, Omameh. 2nd team: ? (green jersey), Barnum, Khoury, Ferrara, Dorrestein. In individual drills for the offensive linemen, either Barnum or Omameh (the only 2 black O-linemen having 56 and 65, respectively, was confusing) appeared to be by far the quickest on the team. I think it was Omameh.
• Practicing taking direct snaps at QB with rollout runs: Feagin, T. Robinson, C. Brown.
• An observation from the Oklahoma Drill (or the “Wolverine Drill” or whatever they call it here): Brandon Minor looked like a man among boys. He trucked a couple defenders, was able to spin off a couple more, and run by one or two (not easy in a 5-yard-wide playing area). We should have video of at least one of the impressive runs. Vincent Smith is super shifty, as can be expected of most tiny backs.
• GERG Robinson has amazing silver hair, which he partnered up with a gray sweatsuit. Lookin’ fly.

Random (and not so random) people spotted:

• Skyler Schofner, William Gholston, Teric Jones, Rick Leach (more of “heard.” He also sat behind us at Friday’s baseball game), Michael Taylor, Johnny Thompson, recently fired EMU coach Jeff Genyk.
• I didn’t notice Toney Clemons in attendance, but I may have just missed him.

MGoBlue report on the entire first week of practice can be found here.

Video:

 

 Spring Practice Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Football, Media, Spring Coverage, Video

Lots of stuff has happened since the previous edition of the recruiting class rankings, so here’s round 2. From now forward, I expect to publish these on a weekly basis. Rivals has released their initial Rivals250, and I believe the Scout 300 either has or will soon be released.

3-8-09 Minnesota gains commitment from Lamonte Edwards.
3-14-09 Michigan gains commitment from DJ Williamson. Michigan gains commitment from Antonio Kinard.

No more commits for OSU. Rivals isn’t quite as high on Norwell or Turner as Scout, and neither site has evaluated Durham yet.

Martin is the highest-ranked guy in the class. Surprisingly, Lombard isn’t in the Rivals 250.

Still not a ton of ranked guys for Michigan, though Miller is expected to end up close to a 5-star. Michigan also has an unofficial commitment from QB Devin Gardner, a 4-star to both sites. The Wolverines obviously have a lot of potential to pass the Irish, depending on where their current commits are evaluated.

No change for PSU. Consensus on the rankings of their two commits.

Edwards could be a wideout or a linebacker (maybe even a big safety) at the next level.

As expected, Bullough is in the 4-star range.

A single in-state commit.

I estimate that He’ll be lower-rated than Illinois’s lone commit, but that’s just a wild-ass guess from me.

Indiana, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin – 0 commits.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

Or: Tim’s foray into tempo-free statistics.

Michigan takes on the Sooners of Oklahoma at 5:50 PM tonight on CBS in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The game takes place in Kansas City, Missouri at the Sprint Center.

Tempo-Free and efficiency comparison (if you need an explanation of what any of these things mean, head to KenPom’s website):

Differences of more than 100 places in the rankings garner two-letter advantages, differences of more than 200 get a third.

Oklahoma is going to be a big favorite in this game, as should be expected of a 2-seed going up against a 10-seed. The Sooners are better than Michigan in nearly every facet of the game. In fact, the only area in which Michigan is expected to be better is not turning the ball over themselves. This means the Wolverines absolutely must hold onto the rock (and they did a decent job against Clemson), and hit the shots that they have open. Of course, the paint is going to be a very troublesome area for Michigan, as even Clemson’s non-all-everything players were able to get theirs and more from the lane. Oklahoma’s advantage in rebounding is surprisingly small to me, especially following the dismal performance on the defensive glass against Clemson. KenPom predicts a 73-67 Clemson win in a 65-possession game.

EEK! Blake Griffin! Who is the last guy that this Michigan team, what with their small size and inability to match up well in the paint wants? Why, a center who happens to be the leading candidate for most Player of the Year Awards! DeShawn Sims and Zack Gibson’s ability to defend Griffin without fouling too much is of paramount importance in this game. Because of that, I expect to see a lot of 2-3 zone. The only other Sooners I know off the top of my head are Griffin’s “big” brother Taylor, and that point guard with the hideous hair decisions on both head and chin.

Yeah, so this is a really, really bad matchup for Michigan. I want to delude myself into thinking Michigan can win, but there’s no way I can convince the rational side of me. The success of the 2-3 zone is encouraging, and Oklahoma’s smaller rotation (only 7 players get significant playing time) certainly helps. Considering Griffin has been beat up of late, suffering a concussion against Texas toward the end of the regular season, and getting flagrantly fouled Thursday against Morgan State, the Sooners may wish they had spent more of the year developing depth. However, I’d rather predict a Michigan loss and be pleasantly surprised when they win than predict a win (foolishly) and be disappointed and wrong if they lose. So yeah, Michigan might be able to make this one close, but I really see this as a matchup of doom.

Posted under Analysis, Basketball

The 2010 Recruiting Board lives here.

Removed:
FL OL Leon Orr. Committed to Florida.
VA OL Marquis Wallace. Committed to West Virginia.

THE MOST IMPORTANT RECRUIT IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD HAS SURFACED! A Louisiana QB named – I shit you not – Munchie Legaux has apparently been offered by Michigan. Landing him alone would likely make up for missing out on at least Pearlie Grave and DeQuinta Jones, though Barkevious Mingo will require more make-up work. LeGaux has been added to the recruiting board, in addition to our collective hearts.

Offered GA RB Mack Brown has released his first top 4, and the Wolverines are nowhere to be found on it: the list consists of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Oklahoma.

Bobby Petrino has risked turning off some of the top recruits in Arkansas, including very highly-rated running back Michael Dyer, by offering very few in-state prospects:

“We’re just wondering what’s wrong with the in-state kids, because obviously they do a good job on the out of state kids,” [Dyer] said. “It’s the people who live in Arkansas who are actually having a hard time getting recruited by Arkansas.”

Michigan is interested in Dyer, and though he was considered a lock to Arkansas early in the process, Petrino may end up losing out be cause of a perceived disrespect toward top Arkansas prospects.

SC QB Cornelius Jones won’t announce his decision until Signing Day, and (from the same article) SC DE Brandon Willis, a HS teammate of RB Marcus Lattimore, received a Michigan offer, and he plans to enroll early at the school of his choosing. Speaking of Lattimore, this article has a bit of good information on him. The highlight:

“I grew up a [South] Carolina and Florida State fan, but I don’t really think it will make an impact on my decision,” he said. “But I mainly pulled for Florida State when they had Chris Weinke and Peter Warrick.”

While his childhood preferences may not be a factor in his decision, Lattimore says there are three things that he will be very interested in looking at when evaluating each of his potential schools.

“First will be if the school has my major, which is sports administration or sports management, but probably the second one would be how comfortable I feel there with the players, coaches, and in that environment. Third would probably be the facilities,” said Lattimore.

Michigan’s Division of Kinesiology is among the best nationally for those majors. Lattimore also intends to trim his list of choices to 8 by summer. Considering he’s said Michigan is a lock to receive an official visit, I’d be surprised if they weren’t in the final 8.

FL OL Brent Benedict has received a Michigan offer.

MI DT Tremondae Branch is starting to see his recruitment pick up. Cliff notes:

“I just got home from Michigan’s Junior Day,” Branch stated. “I was really impressed. I had been there before because my older brother played football there, but it seemed like it was at another level. I know they changed the offense since then, but they didn’t change the tradition. It is a great program for anyone…

“But that’s why I’d rather play football in the South,” Branch continued. “Even though the northern schools have a lot of competition with big guys, I just think by playing in the South I’d have to work harder which would make me a better player and it would bring my game to a whole different level…

“Right now I‘m still wide-open to anyone because I do not have any offers yet,” Branch concluded. “I just want to play college football somewhere.”

I haven’t been able to figure out who his brother is. Captain Obvious would say “Alan Branch, obviously,” but I don’t think that’s the case, because Alan is from New Mexico. Does anybody know who Tremondae’s older brother is? Also: Durr idiotic SEC crowing.

Michigan offered MI DE CJ Olaniyan, and that (predictably) made them move up on his mental list of schools. He was at Junior Day last weekend. Following that, a pretty good fluff piece from Sam Webb in the Detroit News.

OH DE Marcus Rush wasn’t able to make it to Junior Day last weekend, but that didn’t stop the Wolverines from offering him (info in header) when he came later in the weekend to take in a spring practice.

AL DE Martaze Jackson was the MVP (“winner”) of the National Underclassmen Combine.

This is either the worst tease for an article ever, or Michigan HASN’T offered IL DE Louis Trinca-Pasat. I’m thinking it is indeed the worst tease ever, and he’s been offered. I won’t note it on the board yet, because I’m relying a little heavily on context clues here.

A little recruiting fluff on FL LB Jeff Luc:

Luc says no school is ahead of any other at this point. Academics and graduation rate are important factors to him, and he said he likely will wait until the fall to make his decision. He plans to major in accounting or engineering.

Michigan is obviously very strong in both of those fields (if they’ll let him major in what he wants, of course).

IL LB Rickey Simpson is hearing from Michigan.

And your “WTF?” news of the day: Toledo fans seem to think Devin Gardner was going to commit to their school before the coaching staff there was changed following 2008. Like, no. Dude, no. I would be surprised if the Rockets have ever landed a 4-star or 5-star prospect at all.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

With Michigan in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 11 years, it’s finally time for breaking down the potential opponents, matchups, and out very own Wolverines for Match Madness. A great new tool that gives you the ability to do all this and more comes from BracketBrains, a cool site that has all sorts of comparisons and statistical analysis to help you figure out our team’s chances for success.

The unfortunate part of this site is that, like many of the best things in life, it isn’t free. There are several subscription options, ranging from $10-100, each with different access to their variety of features.

The pick for the Clemson game gives the Wolverines a 46.4% chance to win by one metric, and 41.0% chance by the other. Two predictions of the final score by BracketBrains have Michigan losing by scores of 74.6-71.0 and 73.4-68.4. Should they advance, the odds against Oklahoma are pretty dire, indeed.

It’s a really cool site if you’re willing to shell out the cash, and I encourage you to give it a look-see, even if you don’t end up buying.

Posted under Analysis, Basketball

Don’t forget to check out all the information over time on the 2010 Recruiting Board.

Moved to Committed:
MI QB Devin Gardner. WOOOOO! The somewhat complicated story seems to be that he’s committed to Michigan, but won’t officially tell the media until his basketball season ends. So, he is committed, but the reason Rivals doesn’t list him on the commit list is his reluctance to give them an interview prior to the end of his hoops season.
OH Ath/WR DJ Williamson. More WOOOO!
OH LB Antonio Kinard. WOOOO round 3!

Removed:
FL RB Tiger Powell. Committed to South Florida.
TX CB Adrian White. Committed to Texas.

TX DE Reggie Wilson has set a decision timeline for himself: He’ll commit to a school before the end of the month. His “Final 3” consists of Texas, Oklahoma, and TCU, but I’ll leave him on the board a little longer, until there’s confirmation from another source (not that I’m doubting the credibility of BON, but best to hear it from the horse’s mouth).

FL QB Stephen Morris, one of the stars of Michigan’s 2008 summer camp, is making a name for himself. At least, there’s definitely a PR firm pumping out releases about him. Morris has also started to draw the attention of a familiar face to Michigan fans:

“I just received a couple of letters from Coach Loeffler, who is the new QB coach at Florida, and he really wants me to come up and visit. It’s funny how things turn out, he was the coach who first convinced me to come up to the University of Michigan for their football camp a couple of years ago – and we had a great time there.”

Funny how things turn out, indeed. From the sounds of it, he was more interested in Michigan than in Loeffler after his visit to Ann Arbor, but a coach with whom he’s established a relationship should certainly be considered a threat. There’s also relevant recruiting information in the article:

His list of top schools includes: (in alphabetical order) Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

The Florida attention is likely to shake that list up a bit.

TX LB Caleb Lavey is the #5 linebacker in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for the class of 2010. His measurables aren’t what’s keeping him that low, however: It’s the fact that he plays in a lower division against lesser competition.

Scouting report on MI RB Austin White. The “unsubstantiated rumor” that he committed to Michigan on Junior Day doesn’t exist, even in unsubstantiated form, anywhere other than this site to my knowledge. Let me know if I’m mistaken.

It might be in the best interest of FL LB Jeff Luc to get out of Miami, according to his brother. For the record, said brother went to Florida State, so this isn’t exactly an advocate for going to a school like Michigan.

FL RB Corvin Lamb has said it in no uncertain terms: he wants to go to Florida. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gave the Gators a commitment before the spring is over.

Ohio State and Michigan State, in that order, lead for OH DE Darryl Baldwin. Michigan was on him early in the process, so expect them to turn up the heat if they really want him.

For those who fear that FL S Marvin Robinson is no longer likely to end up in Ann Arbor, take heart: he recently named the Wolverines his #1 school. An early commitment still doesn’t look likely, but at least the Wolverines aren’t playing catch-up.

Michigan has offered OH OL Skyler Schofner, and also FL DE BJ Butler.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

Ohio Linebacker Antonio Kinard, a 6-4 210lb player from Youngstown Liberty High School, has given his word to become a Michigan. Wolverine. Kinard actually committed Friday, but (free) news about his commitment didn’t come out until late yesterday. He can be considered either the 5th or 6th commitment in the class.

Recruiting Notes
Kinard’s interest in Michigan, and theirs in him, can be easily determined: He’s the younger teammate of 2009 Wolverine signees Fitzgerald Toussaint and Isaiah Bell. However, Michigan fans weren’t really aware of him until even later than that. When Varsity Blue scouted a Youngstown Liberty game in October, we were almost entirely unaware of Kinard, and didn’t focus any attention on him. We did notice a standout linebacker (though we thought at the time it was 2009 linebacker Julius Ferrell), which ended up being Kinard. The Michigan staff, of course, was more diligent in their scouting, and were able to offer Kinard in January. He didn’t take long to accept, giving Michigan his verbal pledge on Junior Day.

Player Notes
Kinard is a tall linebacker with good athleticism. Though we we were unaware of him as a prospect when we scouted the Liberty game (though he did bust a 50-plus yard touchdown from the fullback position), He, Bell, and Toussaint were by far the most physically impressive in terms of appearance. Much of Kinard’s responsibility in high school was playing the run and rushing the passer, so those are the areas in which he excels. However, with his quickness, he should be able to learn to play the pass very well in addition to the other two. He is still a small-ish guy, so he’ll need to add strength in order to play at the college level. He has a tall frame, and may even be able to add enough weight to play a hybrid OLB/DE position, known as the “spinner” in Greg Robinson’s schemes.

Video

Courtesy of Scouting Ohio.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

Ohio WR/Athlete DJ Williamson has pledged his word to sign with the Michigan Wolverines in the Class of 2010. Williamson, who hails from Warren Harding High School (the alma mater of Mario Manningham, among other former Wolverines), measures in at 6-1, 172lbs, and has been clocked in the 4.4 range in the 40-yard dash.

Recruiting Notes
Though Warren Harding High School is constantly fighting the reputation that its players and coaches hate Ohio State, there’s no denying that they may have a certain affinity for Michigan. Thanks to successful Wolverines who have hailed from Warren, like Carl Diggs, Prescott Burgess, and Mario Manningham, DJ Williamson was one of those Michigan Wolverines fans. When Rich Rodriguez sent word to Harding High just over a week ago that he was interested in offering DJ, it was a dream come true. However, a commitment didn’t come immediately. First, Williamson made his way up to Ann Arbor for the Michigan Junior Day, where he met with the coaches, and decided that he did indeed want to wear the winged helmet. He became the 4th commitment in Michigan’s class of 2010.

Player Notes
Though Michigan fans may say “ANOTHER receiver?!?,” my inner Lee Corso says “Not So Fast, My Friend.” Like fellow Ohioan Jerald Robinson, Williamson is a very versatile player. He has the skill set to play either on the outside or in the slot, and could even find an eventual home on the defensive side of the ball. Combine that with the fact that Jeremy Jackson may have the potential to move to pass-catching tight end down the road, and the logjam doesn’t look quite so bad. Williamson has very good change of direction skills, nice speed (10.82 100m), and good height (though he’ll likely need to add some bulk to be ready to play at the next level). He also has the ability to be a good return man in the near future.

Video

Courtesy of ScoutingOhio.com

Posted under Football, Recruiting