With the 2010 recruiting year already underway (several teams already have commits), the 2009 class isn’t quite wrapped up for a few teams. Minnesota has been reportedly communicating with 4* RB Trabis Ward, and Michigan is still talking (just starting?) with 3* ATH Larry Raper.

That said, within the next week (who knows? maybe even today), I’ll start publishing 2010 recruiting class rankings, and hopefully the final 2009 rankings will take place soon enough.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

When Will Campbell was being interviewed they had him step off the stage, so he wouldn’t be too tall for the cameras.  Will’s personality, his bubbliness and goofiness remind me a lot of Terrance Taylor.

 

 Will Campbell Signing Day Interview: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Personnel, Video

Jim Stefani has a few QBs of interest to add to the recruiting board:

Barry Brunetti QB 6′1 206 4.65 Memphis University School Tennessee
Anthony Gonzalez QB/DB 6′2 193 Bethlehem Liberty Pennsylvania
Ricardo Young QB/ATH 6′0 155 4.78 Washington Woodson D.C.
Kain Colter QB/WR/DB 6′1 185 4.60 Greenwood Village Cherry Creek Colorado
Gavin Webster QB/DB 6′0 200 4.45 Lutcher Louisiana
Santez Emory QB 6′3 200 4.57 Franklin Heard County Georgia

…and also some good information on a few guys who are already there, so check out the article.

GA QB Barry Bostic has been offered by Georgia Tech, and they are his new leader (info in header).

Fluff on 2009 WR Commit Cameron Gordon, which also mentions his class of 2010 teammate, QB Devin Gardner:

Next year it will be Devin Gardner’s turn to celebrate his college choice with the Inkster faithful. The Vikings’ star quarterback could be throwing passes to Gordon at U-M or be the opposition if Gardner chooses to attend Ohio State, a school so high on him that head coach Jim Tressel visited recently and watched Gardner play in Inkster’s basketball game against Wyandotte Roosevelt…

“I was pretty excited at first,” said the 6-foot-5, 200-pound Gardner of the Tressel visit. “My heart was beating really fast, but as the game went on I just settled down and played within the team. I like basketball, but football is my first love.

Despite Tressel’s visit, Gardner is still not sporting an Ohio State offer.

The “other” instate QB, OLSM’s Robert Bolden, was recently the feature of an article by Sam Webb in the Detroit News. It’s pretty clear that Gardner is probably a higher priority for the staff (and with good reason), but Bolden might be a good fallback guy in the class.

The Free Press has an early in-state top-10 for next recruiting year, and The Sporting News had a national top-10 like substance. Gardner is on both lists, and Bolden is on the former while FL WR Commit Ricardo Miller is on the latter. From the former, I’ve added MI RB Chris Robinson from Ovid-Elsie to the Recruiting Board.

While we’re on the topic of early top-X lists, how about top-30 offerings from two of the biggest football counties in south Florida. Broward top-30, and Miami-Dade top-30.

Some Rivals fluff on VA QB Phillip Sims, who is still not mentioning Michigan (though he does talk about West Virginia). With his insistence on playing in a pro-style scheme, and no mention of the Wolverines yet, his tenure on the board may be close to coming to an end.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

Shooting data can be found in .xls format here.

Half 1

Half 2

Individual Players

Easily the player of the game. Was ice cold (in a good way) from 3.

Didn’t score a lot, but did some very good work on both sides of the ball.

Kind of a rough day matching up against some really athletic defenders. Limited his turnover a bit, though he’s still committing too many.

Doesn’t do a lot of scoring, but his defensive effort and steady work at point(!) were a huge part of Michigan staying in this game. Forced several turnovers.

Continued to struggle. Really would be well-served by sitting out a game, I think.

Not Zack’s best work, and he was in foul trouble for most of the game. I guess that’s to be expected when you’re playing the 4 at 6-5 against one of the bigger teams on the schedule.

Seemed to be a non-factor, but he may have ctually been worse than I remembered. The plus/minus doesn’t even include a couple times he was pulled after committing a foul.

Dude killed it, considering he was matched up against Thabeet and various other trees.

Hit a meaningful shot, and didn’t really screw anything up. That’s a pretty good performance for him.

Other: Puls 2min -2

Posted under Analysis, Basketball

Surprisingly, there wasn’t a shoving match in order to get to Mike Jones. Apparantly he seemed hesitant or nervous on WTKA, but he sounded comfortable and excited here. I apologize for the lack of good questions. I was sort of a one man show at this point:

 

 Mike Jones Signing Day Interview: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Personnel, Video

This is Tate speaking to the media on signing. He really does sound like a pro dealing with the media. Sorry for the sub-par videography. For most of the time, I was holding the camera with one hand and the mic with another.

I have interviews with Campbell, Vincent Smith and Mike Jones that will be coming throughout the rest of the week.

 

 Tate Forcier Signing Day Interview: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Personnel

With the 2009 recruiting class out of the way, it’s time for recruitniks to shift attention to the 2010 class for the Michigan Wolverines. Obviously, I’ve been paying quite a bit of attention to the matter on this site, and that will continue.

By the way, for those who have asked me when I’m going to start looking at the 2011 class, since I’ve become so used to worrying about two recruiting classes at once, dont hold your breath. It will be at least into summer, and more likely into the fall, before I start looking in-depth at 2011 prospects.

Without further ado, I’d like to reintroduce you to the 2010 Recruiting Board. Since I’ve neglected 2010 information for the past week or so, due to 2009 Signing Day, there should be a couple updates this week so I can get caught up a bit. On to the new information:

FL CB Lorenza Wood, widely regarded to be the frontrunner to be Michigan’s next commit in the class of 2010, took a recent visit to Georgia Tech (info in header). He is also expected to make a visit to Michigan for a Junior Day sometime this winter/spring. Wood also picked up an offer from Notre Dame.

MI RB Nick Hill, also considered a prospect that Michigan is likely to land if they want him, traveled to (and enjoyed) Notre Dame’s recent junior day (info in header).

If you can wade through all the fluff on Brandin Hawthorne and Brendan Gibbons, there is a tidbit of info in this article, which states that FL Slot DeJoshua Johnson (from Pahokee) has been offered.

…and while we’re on the topic of South Florida 2009 tandems who have had a junior teammate offered, Deerfield Beach’s RB Cassius McDowell received word from Rich Rodriguez that he is welcome to follow Adrian Witty and Denard Robinson to Ann Arbor. He has been added to the board. Witty and Robinson each had a bit to say for themselves, as well:

”If I go up there and work the way I know I’m going to work, I’ll be the starting cornerback at Michigan next fall,” said Witty, who visited Kansas State, Michigan and FIU.

“I’m not the kind of guy who likes to sit on the bench… I want to be the face of Michigan,” Robinson said.

More power to them, and I’m sure Michigan fans wouldn’t complain if their predictions turned out to be true.

Other early 2010 offers: OH WR Jerald Robinson. Michigan is his first D-1 offer. The coach at Canton South has also attended RR’s coaching clinic in the past, so there is a good relationship started there. Of course, Robinson has since committed to Michigan.

IL DE Chance Carter was also at said Irish junior day, and

Irish Emerge As Carter’s Favorite

Notre Dame was always considered the likely favorite to land him, and this certainly reinforces that notion. The Chicago Tribune reports that Wisconsin is his #2 choice behind the Irish.

CA RB Malcolm Jones was named the Offensive Player of the Year in his district. Despite still not holding a USC offer (although his brother plays for the Trojans), He is considered the top pure running back in Southern California for the 2010 class. The latter article also says that Robert Woods, currently on the board as a safety, will play WR in college. He has been moved on the board.

FL WR Kadron Boone holds the Gators as his favorite (info in header). With Michigan already holding commitments from two wideouts in the class, this likely doesn’t affect their recruiting strategy very much.

Speaking of those WR commitments, FL WR Commit Ricardo Miller recently caused something of a flap when his Facebook or Myspace page mentioned something about taking visits to other schools. The Michigan online community collectively flipped out. I have a few comments on the matter (as did the WLA): 1) A kid picking a school other than Michigan (or in this case, taking visits to schools other than Michigan) is not a reflection of his class or character. 2) It’s early in the process, and fans have absolutely no right to harass recruits, and maybe are putting a little too much attention into them. 3) Please, please don’t inter-stalk recruits on social networking websites. It’s creepy, it’s borderline pathetic, and it’s likely a minor NCAA violation. Don’t do it.

Removals:
TX WR John Harris to Texas.
TX DT De’Aires Cotton to Texas.
TX LB Aaron Benson to Texas.
CA DE Chris Martin to Notre Dame. Upside: now I can finally stop stumbling upon news about the singer from Coldplay. Downside: Notre Dame lands another 5-star.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

Post-Signing Day BTB Roundtable hosted by Zombie Nation.

1. Were you pleased with this year’s recruiting class? Where did your team excel? Where did they fall short?

I was pleased to the tune of about a B+. Michigan picked up 2 QBs, which were desperately needed, a few good athletes, and some big bodies up front. They could have done better recruiting a couple more DTs (obviously, they lost two on Signing Day), and some linebackers. Other than that, it was a very good class, especially coming off a 3-9 season.

2. Name one or two players you want to see get on the field ASAP, and where you think they will fit in.

Tate Forcier is the obvious choice for most Michigan fans, as the QB play for Michigan last year was a choice between a healthy Nick Sheridan or a hurt Steven Threet for most of the year. I’m also pumped to see Will Campbell (along with Forcier, one of Michigan’s 7 early enrollees) at defensive tackle, Justin Turner in the secondary, and any number of the speedy little bastards Rich picked up in ’09.

3. This one’s purely for the sake of argument. Much has been made about the SEC’s recruiting ‘dominance’ over the Big Ten, particularly this year. Either validate that claim, or try to prove it wrong. At least vent a little bit. You know you want to.

Michigan in particular, and the Big Ten as a whole, just need to win. The Wolverines recruited ridiculously well, all things considered. The Big Ten needs to shake its national perception (fair or not) that it’s a weak conference. Of course, I think the Big Ten, top to bottom, is unlikely to ever recruit as well as the SEC, because an overwhelming majority of the nation’s top players come from the Southeast.

4. Going into next year (already), where does your team need to focus its efforts? How about the Big Ten as a whole? What can the conference/your team do better to attract more highly-regarded recruits, or is it even an issue?

Defense should be Michigan’s #1 priority, as they got a couple top guys (Campbell and Turner), but missed out on players like Jelani Jenkins (who would have considered the Wolverines much longer than he did, save for the 3-9 season), Darius Winston, and the two defensive tackles, Pearlie Graves and DeQuinta Jones. With a more successful 2009 (fingers crossed), the Wolverines should have an outstanding 2010 class, especially with all the top prospects they’re in on early.

One word/number answers…

How many freshmen (in your class) redshirt in 2009?

13 (of 22)

Did you watch live TV coverage on signing day? If not, how many times did you hit ‘refresh’ on your browser on signing day?

I had it on in the background as I was moderating the world’s most stressful LiveBlog. I didn’t refresh at all, and most of the information I got was actually from readers pitching in during the blog.

Are you going to your spring game?

Yes.

For the record – it was impossible to answer those questions with enough detail to make them interesting, while only using one word.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

If Michigan wins this, they have a good chance of going .500 in conference and making the tourney. If MSU wins, they have the inside track for the regular season championship. A lot to play for. There will probably be a ton of people trying to contribute, so apologies in advanced if your comments don’t get through.

We’ll get started a bit before 7pm.

Posted under Basketball

Since I didn’t have the opportunity to record the game and score the shots, this edition of UFR will only include the differential.

Penn State Half 1

Half 2

Penn State Totals

Individual players:

Gibson 13min +3
Novak 27 min +15
Lee 29min +8
Harris 34min +20
Lucas-Perry 18min -5
Douglass 24min +22
Wright 1min 0
Merritt 13 min +9
Shepherd 13min +4
Puls 1min 0
Sims 26min +16
Grady 1min +2

LLP’s struggles continue. In a 20-point blowout, he was the only Michigan player in the negative. Douglass was a true G in this game.

The Michigan Athletic Department didn’t find the UConn game worthy of being immortalized in a boxscore, so I’ll give that game the full UFR treatment sometime in the next few days when I get a chance to re-watch it.

Posted under Analysis, Basketball