Recruiting Board Updated

Update 12/13: Linked to article on LB commit Marell Evans (claims VT and Clemson were interested) and one on JUCO LB Austin Panter (JUCO national DPOY.) Added TN OT Jared McGaha, removed CA RB Curtis Shaw(Washington). Linked to articles on IL DT Josh Brent, FL S/OLB Lorenzo Edwards, FL CB Doug Wiggins, and TX QB Ryan Mallett. Linked some YouTube video of MI WR James Rogers. Linked to article on OH LB Peter Rolf.

Also: More on Wiggins (WMU?) and Panter. Also removed McGaha, who I just freakin' added, as he committed to State.

Board here.

Editorial Opinion: Brent and removed IL DE Martez Wilson are announcing on the 20th at Wilson's high school and are expected to commit to... Illinois. No, I don't know why. Best guess is that Zook stumbled across some sort of downed alien spaceship and stole some sort of hypnosis ray. Anyway, they be gone.

McGaha visited, said he'd wait for a prospective Michigan offer, then committed to MSU yesterday. Two star OL heading to State is no big deal. The reason I bring it up:

"They were pretty up front about it with me. They've offered a tackle, from Oklahoma (Matt Romine)."

"Romine is going to make his decision in early January (at the Army All-American game). If he doesn't not pick Michigan, then they will come back to me."

Irish fans are very confident on Romine, some claiming he's a silent commit, but that behavior indicates that the Michigan coaches believe he's in play.

UMGoBlue uploaded some video of sleeper WR commit James Rogers:



It's clear that he's not going to play running back at Michigan, and for good reason. Those cuts are clunky.

On Doug Wiggins: I don't have feel for where he's leaning. It's sort of odd for this guy to have Georgia and Michigan as his leaders. It's more odd that he recently took a visit to Western Michigan. He does have three former teammates already there, including his cousin, and two current teammates are committed to Western, so there's that. Still... a bit odd. Useful information from the WMU article:

Wiggins intends to announce his decision at his high school team's banquet on Dec. 22. He said he'll graduate this month and will enroll at the college of his choice in January, making him available for spring practice.

Austin Panter woo! Guy was named the NJCAA defensive player of the year:

"Austin is everything you want in a football player. He's an extremely hard worker, he's committed both on and off the field, and he's certainly worthy of all the accolades he's received this year," [his coach] Morrell said. " Austin 's a leader, a very unselfish player and a team player. He has tremendous character, and he's a lot of fun to be around. "

Morrell has higher praise in a Scout article:

"Well, I coached Rudy Johnson who is with the Bengals right now (starting RB, and a first round draft pick). I coached both of Auburn's starting cornerbacks, David Irons and Jon Wilhite. I've got starters at Nebraska, Arizona State and Florida State."

"Austin is top of all those guys."

"He has a great size-and-speed combo (GBW note: we knew of Panter's 4.6 sec. 40, so we asked about his bench press ... Coach Morrell said over 350 pounds). His football instincts are as good as any player we've had here. He has a great nose for the ball. He has a great work ethic."

"He has tremendous potential."

Panter's now the leading candidate for both "surprise star" and "overhyped bust" going into 2007. Hopefully it's the former, as the coaching staff evidently is not in love with Johnny Thompson.

Lorenzo Edwards, like George Costanza, really wants to be an architect. This is an interesting issue for him, because Notre Dame's architecture program requires a year overseas:

Edwards wants to study architecture. The drawback to that for football players is that the program requires one year of study in Rome. Weis reassured Edwards that would not be a problem.

“That’s one of the things [the year in Rome] that me and coach Weis talked about today,” explained Edwards. “He told me once before that he wanted me to pursue my career goal and that he wouldn’t want to interrupt something that I wanted. He was reassuring me that if I went off for that year I could come back and play for two more years. It’s something that I love doing and something that I enjoy doing. I think that it would be a great experience.”

That's a hell of a commute to play linebacker (or safety), and one less conveniently timed that a Mormon mission since it would come in his third year in the program. Seems kind of doubtful Edwards ends up at ND. Rumor was that, like Michael Williams, Edwards was mostly choosing between Michigan and ND... could be good for us.

We're apparently close to offering two-star OH linebacker Peter Rolf, according to Scout. He does have an Oregon offer, so there's that. He's also Polynesian, which is cool.