Varsity Blue: Big Ten 2009 Recruiting Class Rankings 4-25-08

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Big Ten 2009 Recruiting Class Rankings 4-25-08

This will become a weekly feature for Saturdays henceforth. If there is no recruiting action during the week, I'll either skip it or do something else informative.

Action since last rankings:
4-5 Northwestern gains commitment from Evan Watkins.
4-18 Michigan gains commitment from Fitzgerald Toussaint.
4-19 Ohio State gains commitment from Darrell Givens.
4-21 Ohio State gains commitment from Jordan Hall and Dorian Bell.
4-24 Michigan gains commitment from Kevin Newsome. Melvin Fellows switches commitment from Illinois to Ohio State.

New Rankings:

#1 Ohio State - 8 commits
DT	*****	Johnny Simon
LB	*****	Dorian Bell
RB	****	Jordan Hall
CB	****	Darrell Givens
WR	****	Chris Fields
CB	****	CJ Barnett
MLB	****	Storm Klein
MLB	****	Jordan Whiting
OT	***	Jack Mewhort
S	***	Jamie Wood
LB	*	Adam Homan

Ohio State has picked up three 4-star players and one 5-star player since the last rankings were given. They have a very strong start to their class. Adam Homan switched from FB to LB, where he will likely (not) play in college.

#2 Michigan - 6 commits
DT	*****	William Campbell
QB	****	Kevin Newsome
CB	****	Justin Turner
S	*	Isaiah Bell
RB	*	Teric Jones
RB	*	Fitzgerald Toussaint

Michigan has continued a fairly strong (though not OSU-ian) start to the recruiting year. Kevin Newsome fills a huge need for the Wolverines, and is the right guy for this system. He will end up a very high 4-star or a 5-star (currently Scout's #41 player (they had 50 5-stars last year), and Rivals's #39 player (they had 30 5-stars last year)), though an early commitment to Michigan typically means death to a player's ranking. Fitzgerald Toussaint is another RB/slot hybrid, with impressive film. High 3 or low 4-star likely.

#2 Michigan State - 6 commits
RB	*****	Edwin Baker
RB	****	Larry Caper
SLB	****	Chris Norman
WR	***	Donald Spencer
DT	*	Blake Treadwell
QB	*	Andrew Maxwell

No movement since the last rankings. Passed by Michigan because the Wolverines' commitments will end more highly ranked, and fill positions of need effectively.

#4 Illinois - 2 commits
DT	****	Lendell Buckner
OT	****	Leon Hill

Losing Melvin Fellows wasn't enough to drop the Illini below a couple teams with fewer commits.

#5 Wisconsin - 3 commits
OG	*	Ryan Groy
DT	*	Jared Kohout
DE	*	Shelby Harris

No movement. Their guys aren't yet ranked, but Wisconsin develops linemen like it's their job (side note: it is, in fact, their job).

#6 Minnesota - 3 commits
QB	***	Moses Alipate
C	*	Ed Olsen
OT	*	Josh Campion

Minnesota is going through a big scheme change, and needs to recruit players to the new system. After a huge (and pretty good) 2008 recruiting class, Minnesota is not off to a fast start in 2009. Once a new batch of rankings come out, they might sneak past Wisconsin.

#7 Penn State - 1 commit
C	*	Ty Howle

JoePa is death to Penn State's ability to recruit.

#8 Northwestern - 1 commit
QB	***	Evan Watkins

A big QB. Curious to see whether he has the quicks to run Northwestern's scheme, which requires some mobility.

T-9th - Indiana, Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue (0 commits)

Labels: football, recruiting