Early Early Signing Day Newsbits

Jerimy Finch's word is about as reliable as that of the US Army... if you're an American Indian. Finch, who you may remember was a Michigan commit for a number of months before switching to IU because his Warren Central teammates were his "family," has decided to join Florida's family, at least for now. Dear Hoosiers: ha-ha. Projected Florida decommit in 3... 2... 1...

Anyway, the upshot: if Finch offers you blankets, for God's sake don't take them.

Rashad Mason committed to UNC. Happened a couple days ago, mentioned here for completeness.

Boubacar Cissoko is Michigan's first 2008 commit. The Cass Tech corner is on both Scout and Rivals preliminary Top 100 lists and is a decidedly sexier start than last year's Vince Helmuth commit, no offense to Mr. Helmuth. Cissoko's a bit undersized at 5'9" but has been tearing up scouting combines whenever he deigns to attend them.

Vance Bedford, recently booted from his position as Oklahoma State's defensive coordinator, will be returning to Michigan as defensive backs coach, a position he held in '97 (woo) and '98 (less woo but still not bad). Since then he was the Bears' defensive backs coach for six years and the DC at OK State for two. His tenure at OKState was abbreviated when he sort of flipped out after a poor performance from his D, calling critics "roaches," a term usually reserved for Ohio State fans.

Initial opinion on this: indifferent. Bedford's a known quantity in the Michigan program and should fit in well -- Ron Lee's dismissal is increasingly rumored to be because of recruiting improprieties -- but his tenure was long enough ago that I don't remember much good or bad about him. His successor Teryl Austin was a dynamite recruiter but oversaw the Todd Howard era of Michigan defensive back disasters.