Recruiting Board Updated

Update 12/19: Added MI S Aaron Gant and MI DE Quintin Woods, removed IN DT Dexter Larimore(OSU) and re-added KY DT Corey Peters, who was apparently just offered. Reaction to the Larimore commitment? Removed WR Percy Harvin(UF). Added GA RB Carlos Brown as a commitment. Updated Jonas Mouton's school list based on a Scout article header: Nebraska is out. Final three are USC, LSU, and UM... where have we heard that before?

Also, here's a Daron Rose article.

Editorial Opinion: USC can't take a third safety away from us, can they? I would regard that article as good news. LSU hasn't been mentioned much for him and given the internets chatter it seems like if he's going to leave home it would probably be to go to Michigan. So Mouton gets to choose between OMG USC/mom/two five stars at his position in the very same class and Michigan/cold/one safety in the last two classes and Steve Brown. That looks good, but USC hasn't lost a recruiting battle against Michigan since they stopped sucking.

And, hey, remember Carlos Brown? I'm betting you do, since he committed yesterday. Well, do you remember that goofy AJC photoset featuring David Cone and his Army of Midgets? Yeah, they did Brown, too. (Original AJC link gone but reproduced at BuckeyePlanet; get a load of his ideal car: a 1996 Impala... um, okay(?).)You can see him at right holding a perfectly innocent football hostage. There are also a number of pictures available for perusal on Scout.

Other than the "are you sure? Really sure? Sure you're sure?" Brown commitment, the interesting news in this particular update is the emergence of two instate players who got offered (or are apparently on the verge of being offered) based on strong senior-year performance: DE Quintin Woods and OLSM's Aaron Gant, a safety. Someone claiming to be an OLSM alum popped up on BuckeyePlanet and offered these words:

Word around here is that Gant is going to Michigan. Michigan wants him at safety or linebacker. Gant is good friends with Michigan committ Brandon Graham, and his cousin is Dionte Allen- a kid whom many around here expect to be a Wolverine next year. Gant is a good player, he really came on strong his senior year, and that is why he's getting alot of recruiting attention right now.

and then again:

I have no idea if he really has an OSU offer. I do know that he has one from Michigan though. If there is a quality OLSM kid that wants Michigan, Michigan will almost always offer him. OLSM is a pipeline to Michigan, and the staff at Michigan doesn't want to disrupt that pipeline. Especially when you look at the prospects they'll have in the 2007 and 2008 classes. Michigan wants to keep the pipeline open, and if they land Gant, they can pencil in Dionte Allen in '07.

As always, take such unconfirmed Internet speculation lightly, but I buy it. There are enough ancillary factors in play here to believe Gant's offer is not strictly a Mouton backup plan--OSU got in on him, the OLSM pipeline thing, Dionte Allen--so I don't think Gant and Mouton commits are mutually exclusive.

As for Woods, he emerged late and has been the subject of a recent flurry of articles($). Iowa offered him (scroll down). A Google search turns up a lot of basketball hits but nothing on football, as he didn't even play the sport until his senior year--shades of TE Carson Butler last year.