Hurray For Being Wrong

Headshot from the Toledo Blade.

Kevin Koger has committed to Michigan. Divers alarums. Informative update coming.

Informative Update: Major disagreement between Rivals, Scout, and ESPN on just how good Koger is. Scout's porridge is hot, ranking Koger above fellow OH TE and Michigan commit Brandon Moore and placing him just outside their top 100. Koger's the #106 player on their THIS IS MADNESS top 300 and the #7 TE in the country.

Rivals' porridge is warm. They give Koger four stars but exclude him from their Rivals 250. Only a few players outside the 250 get the fourth star, so he's closer to a three than a top 100 ranking to them. He's their #15 TE and way behind Brandon Moore, a resident of the Rivals 100.

ESPN's porridge is cold and full of nails, but not quite so much as it was a week or so ago when they rated Koger a 65/100, which would be by far the worst rating assigned a Michigan recruit since ESPN dumped Lemming for Scouts Inc. Now it's up to 73, which is still way crappy. Scouting report is, as you would expect, mixed:

He has a long, rangy frame and should be able to pack on additional bulk. He looks on film [but not in real life? -ed] to have long legs, takes long strides and can cover some ground. He flashes the ability to come off the ball, shoot his hands and create some separation. .... Koger will garner interest because he has talent, but he will need to work on elevating his game and getting more from his skills consistently.

Said scouting report also evaluates him as a defensive end only; Koger is coming in as a tight end.

As far as offers, Michigan and Ohio State were obviously the two big ones. The OSU offer is especially telling, IMO, since they're pretty thin on scholarships this year and have a bumper crop in-state. They have a few young TEs in a system that doesn't use them extensively, pursued and acquired Columbus-area TE Jacob Stoneburner, lost out on Kyle Rudolph, and didn't offer Moore -- though I hear tell that may be because of some friction between the Trotwood-Madison and OSU staffs and not necessarily a reflection of Moore's talent -- and still chose to pursue Koger. Salutary indicators. Not salutary is his lack of offers outside the Big Ten, though that may be due to a lack of interest on Koger's part. I don't believe he went to any combines or camps that would get him wider attention and was down to the local behemoths as soon as he had offers from both.

ScoutingOhio has video of Koger on both sides of the ball, though their website continues to sell the video quality short by making them teeny tiny. I've you-tubed it; hopefully increased pub will prevent them from unleashing the hounds.

(I know you're wondering: rap or emo? Emo.)



I like that the guy who put it together clearly got tired of how much time the slow-mo and glowing ball effects were taking and said "screw it" after a few clips.

You can compare and contrast with the Brandon Moore clips if you like. It's not advisable to get too invested in highlight reels -- you can never tell if you're getting Mike Hart or Justin Fargas -- but I like Koger's. Even if the scrubs he's running away from or towards aren't D-I caliber they are usually like 50 pounds lighter than him.

The wider view: Michigan is done at tight end and has two kids they identified and pursued early, wresting one away from Ohio State and the other away from most of the SEC. With Stonum and possibly Smith or Baldwin, a potentially stellar haul of targets for Mallett.

Name collision: Kevin Koger provides online dating tips:

SAY CHEESE! Look your best and submit a great photo of yourself for your profile photo. A good picture really is worth a thousand words, and research shows that you are nearly 10 times more likely to be noticed if you post a photo to your profile

There are dozens of these on all sorts of skeezy-sounding domain names. The other Kevin Koger is apparently try to put together some sort of Mormon (or "LDS") dating site.