Update 11/30: Wooo! It's back. With the long delay just assume a lot of changes. I've removed a whole host of guys who have committed elsewhere or fallen off the radar and added a separate host, including FL CB Doug Wiggins, OH LBs LeBron Daniel and Jermale Hines, TX LB Brandon Herron, KS LB Austin Panter, CA DT Da'John Harris, and VA CB Cris Hill.
Also, we've made the last five for OT John Elliot and the final three for OT Matt Romine. Added OT commitment Mark Huyge.
Updates on: AL ATH Marquis Maze, CA RB Curtis Shaw (Michgan and Washington lead), CA CB Michael Williams (still deciding between Michigan and ND), MI FB Vince Helmuth (early enroll), Junior Hemingway (tough mofo, 73 catches for 938 yards and 13 touchdowns, team plays for state championship tonight).
A giant recap of Texas High's season. Good for your RDA recommended Mallett ogling. Texas High takes on Copperas Cove tonight in the quarterfinals.
Link here.
Editorial Opinion: The board is totally reshaped. The most notable change is at linebacker, where Michigan appears to be scrambling. They've got offers out to a number of three stars who are considering teams like Nebraska and Wisconsin and Iowa, certainly not shabby but also not OSU or USC or Florida. They've also started expressing an interesting in a couple JUCOs, which is unprecedented. The last JUCO at Michigan was Russell Shaw almost ten years ago.
The best prospect out there is probably Cleveland Glenville's Jermale Hines -- yes, that is the den of iniquity run by Ted Ginn, Sr. His recruitment looks simple: if OSU offers, he'll go to OSU. If they don't, he'll go to Michigan. He's got a low ACT score, which makes OSU and their dangerously low APR leery. Michigan and its shiny high score can take chances on kids like Hines because they have built a buffer with good academic performance. So, like, hope his ACT score doesn't go up. Recruting... it's faaaaantastic!
Second best according to the gurus would be KS JUCO Austin Panter, a speedy and large middle linebacker who played for the tiniest of tiny high schools and decided to go JUCO for development and publicity reasons more than academic concerns. He's a good student and a likely offeree when he comes on his official visit this weekend.
Then you've got a mass of indistinguishable three stars I won't be excited about until I talk myself into it after they commit: Brandon Herron from Texas, Ronnie St. Fleur from Florida, and LeBron Daniel, also from Glenville.
Good news/bad news on Marquis Maze. He's missed the last six games with an injury (bad) and visited Tennessee (good, since he came back still committed and that shows serious interest on the part of UT).
Michigan's continued interest in CA RB Curtis Shaw is puzzling with 16 commitments already locked up with at least one pure running back, Avery Horn, committed and two high-profile guys in the last class. Maybe Shaw or Horn is a potential DB?
The picture at OL is clearing up. The only guys being consistently mentioned are AZ OG Javorio Burkes, NY OT John Elliot, and OK OT Matt Romine. All three are kind of big deals -- latter two top 100, Burkes a top 250 to Rivals -- and are geniunely interested. Romine's down to ND, M, and Oklahoma. Elliot has a selection of academically rigorous eastern schools that are a little light in football tradition (Rutgers, UVA, BC), West Virginia, and Michigan.
There is also the matter of Michigan's most recent commitment, Grand Rapids CC OT Mark Huyge, who Michigan snatched from the clutches of directional Michigan schools with an offer. This set off alarm bells, but it's longstanding MGoBlog opinion that OL is the weirdest of all positions to rank and Huyge is a sleeper in the traditional sense. A year ago, he weighed 220 pounds (you'll have to scroll down). An impresssive camp and similarly impressive senior film -- now at 280! -- resulted in an offer. It's a reach, sure, but not a huge one. Pun not intended. It's not even pronounced like that. His coach extols his virtues in this MLive article:
"Where Mark made his impression was last summer at the Michigan camp," Catholic Central coach Tom Passinault said. "The coaches were actually watching the pass rushers, but they saw him on the offensive line and they were surprised that he was from Michigan. They like his frame at 6-6 and they like his versatility. Their linemen move around a lot and Mark is good on his feet.No one's evaluated him... it'll be interesting to see what he gets rated if/when ESPN gets around to him.
At corner, Michael Williams has visited ND and Michigan and could decide at any time. Remember, Michael: Notre Dame hates America. Delightfully-named Doug Wiggins is kind of a big deal and is down to Georgia and Michigan. Remember, Doug: Notre Dame hates America. Also you should come to Michigan.
OMG shirtless defensive ends Everson Griffen and Martez Wilson have suddenly refound their interest in Michigan. Griffen's down to USC and Michigan, though USC is widely hailed as the lockiest of all locky locks here; Wilson suddenly shifted course, dissed ND (woo!), and declared Illinois, OSU, and Michigan his leaders. There have been crazy rumbles he wants to play wide receiver instead of defensive end and ND getting back into it and Illinois leading and generally just all sorts of wack stuff. So whatever. Pants. Wilson is the guy Brent Musberger claimed was going to Ann Arbor during the USC-ND game-type substance, for what that's worth. Moments later he claimed that the road to Glendale was paved with Trojans. So he was probably wasted.
Scholarship stuff: we have sixteen commitments and nineteen available scholarships. The latter number is sure to go up due to transfers (Doug Dutch is a good bet, for one) and a couple of guys not coming back, whether it's because they're leaving early for the NFL draft or they're not contributors. I would guess a class from 22-25.
The remaining commitments will probably break down like this:
- 0 or 1 RBs. Probably 0.
- 1 or 2 OL.
- 2-3 DL
- 2-3 LB
- 2 CB
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