Monday Recruitin'

Update 8/13: Linked to fully ranked Rivals 250, articles on MI CB Boubacar Cissoko, TX S Keanon Cooper, AZ TE Dion Sims, MN WR Michael Floyd. Removed MI OT Deontae Pannell (PSU), OH RB Michael Shaw (PSU), TX DE Damien Square ('Bama), AZ S Jarrell Barbour (Arizona). Linked to Facebook chat w/ CT RB Mike Cox. Added PA DE Adrian Robinson.

Editorial Opinion: Quiet week.

Commits elsewhere. The ship sailed on Shaw once we picked up McGuffie and Cox; Square seemed interested in Michigan based on Stonum and McGuffie's raves but never visited. Neither is much of a disappointment. Pannell's an odd case who went from saying he really, really wanted a Michigan offer and would jump on it to unimpressed when that offer came. He visited but never seemed that into it. Either we turned him off by waiting or gave him an offer with a restrictive condition or two; don't know. Meanwhile, AZ S Jarrell Barbour went from Michigan as slight, unvisited leader to Arizona commit overnight. The board at safety now has one solid green in Brandon Smith and then implausible red intermixed with a couple of unknowns like Vaughn Telemaque. I am Officially Concerned.

One person who could potentially assuage my concern is TX S Keanon Cooper, who claims an offer from Michigan and mentions something like this in most articles that feature him:

"I've always liked Michigan," he said. "They are one school that always does well and I expect big things from them this season. They a top five team and should be competing for the Big 10 championship and the national championship."

Cooper's definitely leaving the state, as his top six consists of Nebraska, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Alabama along with Michigan. At previous junctures he's named both Minnesota and Wisconsin as slight leaders, which leads me to believe 1) Cooper's not worried about distance or weather and 2) Michigan hasn't put on a full-court press yet.

Arizona TE Dion Jordan isn't put off by the two TE commits already in the class and plans to visit for the Penn State game along with teammate Marc Anthony, a cornerback. Possible reason why:

...with a 4.6 sec. 40 and a 14.2 110m high hurdles, don't count Jordan out as a college wideout. In fact, Chandler head coach Jim Ewan says, "The upside to Dion is that he could play three spots, tight end, wide receiver or defensive end. He takes pride in doing all three. I think that he will end up a big wideout."

Rivals' new top 250 has followed the lead of Scout's top 300 and provided specific rankings for each player in it. Once you get down past 100 (or 50, really), individual rankings are somewhat silly -- tiers of 20 or 30 recruits would probably be more realistic -- but it is useful to know that JB Fitzgerald sits just slightly outside the top 100 and Christian Wilson just barely inside the top 250.

For the record, commits (listing stolen from IBFC):

Stonum: 44 (up from the 60s)
Cissoko: 54 (down slightly)
Moore: 61 (down slightly)
O'Neill: 71 (down slightly)
McGuffie: 90 (up an indeterminate amount)
Koger: 160 (way up from the previous rankings, in which he was out of the 250)
Martin: 174
Mealer: 194
Witherspoon: 221

And targets:

Hale: 12
Baldwin: 35
B. Smith: 89
Fitzgerald: 117
Perry: 161
Demens: 230
Wilson: 235

The only other thing this week is a weird little piece of new media, a Facebook group called The Michigan Football Recruiting Epicenter, that scored an interview/chat thing with running back commit Mike Cox. It's hard to pin down a link that doesn't shift with the sands of the group's ever-expanding wall posts, but at this instant it begins here. The chat's your standard txt-influenced internet pidgin both on the asking and receiving side -- looks like sin in text form to me, but I am old and crotchety compared to these damn kids on their social networking sites, oooh I'm so emo look at my hair -- so keep your grammar expectations low. Anyway...

do you pay attention to what the recruiting sites say about you at all? For some reason these sites have been slow to evaluate you

Mike Cox: haha not@ all, if wat they were saying was true do u really think michgian, or any of these schools on my offer list woulda offered me?? no, and getting offers from camp is alot harder than just gettin offered offa hype casue i had 2 prove myslef...they just hatin on me casue im from the east coast, let me give u the real scouting report on me tho, i'm just a real good all around back, got real good hands, can block, im fast (useally run mid- 4.4's), i'm quick (4.19 shuttle), got hops (37.4 in vert) and i'm strong (can bench about 320 now and squat about 500) so i think i'ma do real good wen i get there ...

and by the way, the only offers (except 4 duke) i got from going 2 camp ...

like even the coaches tell me, if i was from texas i'd b like 4 stars, have like 50 offers all dat, but i'm from boston so they nobody wanna think i'm nice

Someone compares him to Chris Howard; unsurprisingly this is the result:

... naa i never heard of chris howard but i could see people comparing me 2 him the way u describe him

Hey, man, the guy was married to Gabrielle Union, you better recognize. I'll now stop talking like a sassy 13-year-old girl. (Whateva! I do what I want!) An excitable dude from Colorado asks a PERTINENT QUESTION:

YOU CONSIDERING ENROLLING EARLY?

naa, my school wont let me, and i dont think i would wanna anyway even tho it would help 4 my first year there, i wanna have n enjoy my senior spring and everything

There is this explanation of his stats:

my first year i played i had about 900 yards n 4 games (i didnt get 2 play untill half way through the season, had 2 beat out 2 sick senior RB's), then last year i had a lil over a 1000 yards, about 10 yards a carry, about 16 TD's, my stats woulda been better but i only had averaged like 15 carries a game ... and we only play a 8 game season, so its kinda short comared 2 everywhere else ...

yeaa, haha just put it this way, the offensive coordinator at my school got fired after the season 4 not playing me... i cant wait till next season tho, casue the new coach is mad chill, he gonna have me returnin kicks, punts, all that, and he said id at least get around 25 carries a game...and yea in the offseason i useally do other sports (lol i play like eveyr sport) except this summer im just working out for football mostly n chillin wit my fam n freinds n stuff

A man brings up Inexplicable Jonas Gray:

well obviously the michigan coaching staff thinks really highly of you, i heard they wanted you over Jonas Gray and he is ranked 10th best running back by scout and 4th best by rivals, that just shows that you are right up there with the best of them

i think he might a lied about his 40 time 2 (4.37???) man, i was runnin wit him all day and didnt even come close to me n da drills and i cant run no 4.3

And a final question of interest:

Alright now be truthful on this...do you think you were the best back that Michigan had in camp this year?

the michgian coahces told my coach that i was the best RB in camp they had this year ... i'll tell u this tho, i kno the day i went, i was the best

Non-pertinent information: Cox believes Bonds was on steroids but doesn't want to take anything away from the accomplishment, he owns NCAA 08 -- described as "ill" -- and he's sort of a Red Sox fan but doesn't follow baseball that much.

(If we could skip the comments in which someone says mean things about Cox's writing style I would appreciate it; this isn't a term paper.)

We now return you to your previously scheduled Notre Dame-Michigan academics flamewar; board here.