Recruiting Board "Updated"

Update 1/12: Linked to article on IN DT Jeff Boyd: we lead, no offer (academics)... nevermind. Removed commits Jerimy Finch and Marquis Maze. Removed everyone else, basically.

Editorial Opinion: The list of uncommitted recruits we're still in with a shot at: Ronald Johnson, Rashad Mason. We are also recruiting Jermale Hines and Donovan Warren, but they're widely presumed to be locks to OSU and USC, respectively. Mason appears to be a longshot. He's from Tennessee and is visiting various southern schools plus us. Everyone in a position to rumble about RoJo says he's going to Michigan but -- unlike Hines and Warren -- hasn't publicly expressed any sentiment about a leader.

In sum: we're waiting on Ronald Johnson and scouring for potential contributors. I'm sure a couple names will come up and commit. They'll have offers from MAC schools and few stars, but they'll be bodies who are potential contributors.

So... yeah, Finch. Even with a hypothetical RoJo commit he would have been easily the third best recruit in the class. His loss moves the class a fair chunk of the way from "disappointing" to "outright disaster." No RoJo == outright disaster, on a par with the 2000 class. If we do get him, we'll have addressed the crying needs at QB and CB from last year's excellent class and shouldn't have a Willingham-esque gap between quality recruits that's going to hammer Notre Dame's lines next year. (Other than the current gap at cornerback that's already hammering us.) There will be a lot of pressure on the Michigan staff to put together a 2008 class on a par with the 2006 group -- one bad recruiting class won't kill you but two in a row will cause problems.