MD LB Jelani Jenkins. Some recruiting fluff from the Freep. Sam Webb will see that and raise it in the News. Michigan grades out well in The Matrix (I'm not joking, click the link). By the way, Good Counsel will be on ESPN2 this Thursday.
AL CB Dre Kirkpatrick. It appears he's only taking visits to SEC country. Word on the street is that Georgia conceded him to Alabama Saturday night, and pretty much gave up recruiting him (though the Bama coaches were recruiting him - at their away game).
Requisite Gordon-Will Campbell good feelings exist. Miller's commitment is a good way to keep recruiting mojo working when the 2009 class is mostly full.
Moved to Committed: AZ DE Craig Roh. Hooray, a(nother) defensive end commit! Local article.
New Information: LA WR Rueben Randle. DeQuinta Jones's teammate has Michigan in his top 5, along with LSU, USC, Bama, and Miami of Florida. TN Marsalis Teague. Michigan is situated just outside his top 4, and may receive an official visit. FL S Jonathan Scott. He wants to set up an official for the Toledo game. FL S Vladimir Emilien. Official for the MSU game. FL CB/QB Mywan Jackson. When the headline is a question like "Is Michigan on Top for Mywan Jackson?," the answer is always "yes" or "they're in my top group, but I don't have a favorite."
Removed: CA WR Shaquelle Evans. Committed (albeit softly) to USC. OH RB Darrell Mason MI RB Hersey Jackson MN WR Fritz Rock LA LB Jonathan Stewart LA LB Jonathan Pippin MS S Dorian Berry VA CB Javanti Sparrow So, I removed a bunch of guys that don't seem to be on Michigan's radar.
Etc.:
Remember: Cass Tech S/QB Thomas Gordon announces his decision this weekend. Here's a little Cass Tech fluff, too.
IN LB Commit Jordan Barnes unofficially visited Purdue last weekend. Not sure if you should read anything into that, so take it FWIW.
Major (5 page) Tate Forcier fluff from the AANews. Obligatory "omfg he should mma w/ mike b."
I'll give a few 2010 tidbits here and there as the season progresses (more about the 2010 board tomorrow). A top instate player will have a hard time going against Green and White when it comes to his recruitment.
The Board lives here. I was going to hold this update a little longer, but the post is filling up, and there is a ton of content to roll out over the next few days. Enjoy.
New Information: FL TE Orson Charles. Georgia might not have a spot for him anymore. VA OL Morgan Moses. He may not qualify out of high school, and could be headed to prep school for a year. IL DE Craig Drummond. Nursing an ankle injury. NC LB Hawatha Bell. Plans on taking a Michigan official visit. MD LB Jelani Jenkins. Some fluff. Also, he might want to major in sports medicine (and Michigan has a very good program in this).
Removed: FL LB Frankie Telfort. Michigan is out of his top (final) six. FL RB Jaamal Berry. He's finally done what we've been waiting for so long and verballed to Ohio State.
Etc.: FL slot commit Jeremy Gallon. Fluff from the local paper. First official 2010 offer. Chris Dunkley isn't the only one that was sent out today, I assume. People like Devin Garndner, Ricardo Miller, and Marvin Robinson almost definitely received them as well. The board isn't going live soon, but keep this stuff in mind.
Analysis: Vincent Smith and Brandin Hawthorne had pretty much been penciled in as commits to this class, even before the official announcement. The commitment from Forcier, however, was surprising, if only in the timing. He fills the void left by Kevin Newsome, and Michigan is back to being locked down on the quarterback front. From here, the next possible commit is from a DE (perhaps Craig Roh, who visited this weekend?), and then an OL or two. I've emotionally detached myself from Darius Winston, as I don't think he will select Michigan on Friday (surprise us all, Jay Hopson!).
Though many believed Kevin Newsome would be the only top-flight quarterback Michigan had a shot at in 2009, California QB Robert "Tate" Forcier has committed to Michigan, filling the void left by the decommitment of Newsome. Forcier (6-1, 190, 4.63) is the younger brother of former UM (now Stanford) QB Jason Forcier. For the most inside of all the information on Tate, check out his family site. Forcier plans to enroll in January at Michigan.
Player Notes Forcier is a pass-run quarterback who is a much better fit for this UM system than his brother was for the old one. Forcier switched schools entering his sophomore season to avoid starting over his older brother Chris (now at UCLA). Tate is a pass-first dual threat quarterback. For those worrying about a lack of speed, it may be comforting to know that he had more rushing yards than Kevin Newsome as a junior. Tate is a little bit short (around 6-1), and his arm strength is not elite. However, he is fairly fast (faster than his former Wolverine brother), and his arm is very accurate. For the Scouts, Inc. evaluation of Tate, check out his site. One thing to keep in mind about Tate is that he has had a private QB tutor for much of his football-playing career, so his floor is very high, but he may be close to his ceiling as a passer.
Recruiting Notes Like his older brother before him, Tate Forcier grew up a fan of the Michigan Wolverines. This gave Rich Rodriguez and company a leg up in his recruitment. However, with a family member leaving the program just a couple of years before Tate would enroll, it was unclear whther there would be hard feelings towards the Michigan program. Forcier was offered early in the process, when Russell Shepard and Kevin Newsome were the only other signal-callers holding offers from Rich Rodriguez. Speaking of offers... Tate posted all of his online (and it was really annoying to Google him every day and see that another hack columnist around the country had noticed). However, Tate said he wouldn't start trimming his list until the Pryor situation was resolved. When Pryor picked against Michigan, many thought Pryor's other "finalists," Penn State and Michigan, were among Forcier's top schools (along with Oregon). Before Kevin Newsome committed, he and Tate talked on Myspace about attending school together. When Shavodrick Beaver also gave his word to become a Wolverine, Tate was not to be dissuaded, still speaking highly of Michigan. When Kevin Newsome decommitted, Forcier was almost immediately in town for an official visit to the Utah game. Shortly after, Forcier made the decision to pull the trigger and commit to Michigan.
Chen Geng (whose name can be pronounced in such a way that it sounds eerily/hilariously similar to "chain gang"):
Since it seems this season will go where the OL goes, what's the injury history been for RR's WVU teams? Did Barwis use chocolate milk to make their knees unbreakable?
Much thanks for the site.
It is my (and a generally-held) opinion that injuries are mostly freak occurences, and you can only prepare for them so much. That said, West Virginia has had a lot of luck (or injury prevention ability, if you believe in such a thing) over the past couple years. They bring back five starters this year, all of whom started most of last year except the right tackle, who started the final 6 contests.
Michigan, by contrast, started a smorgasbord of starting lineups, with Jake Long, Justin Boren, and Adam Kraus the only consistent starters (and even then Kraus and Boren trading starts at two different positions). Alex Mitchell, Corey Zirbel, Steve Schilling, Jeremy Ciulla, Mark Ortmann, etc., all started games as well. Of course, part of this was due to lack of production, rather than injuries (though they played a big part as well), but you can see that consistency is a big part of success.
So, it appears as though West Virginia has been mostly lucky in the past few years in terms of keeping starters along the O-line uninjured. If you believe that Barwis's exercises have some sort of magical ligament-fortifying power (Corey Zirbel would tend to disagree), then the futur might look bright for Michigan offensive lines.
Tony in Markley (for the record, I love the use of dorm name for location, rather than, you know, where you're from):
So, uh, what would a Forcier commit mean in comparison to Michigan just keeping Newsome committed?
Well, for the short-term, it is much, much better. Forcier is the most ready of all of Michigan's quarterback prospects to step in a contribute right away. Like many of the SoCal QB prodigies (yes, including Jimmy Clausen), he has a private QB tutor, so his mechanics and reads, etc., are well ahead of your average high schooler. That, in combination with his predicted early enrollment, would mean he might be able to challenge for a starting job in 2009. That said, any true freshman is going to be a liability as a starting QB, but Forcier would be the best to step in as a true.
In the long-term, Newsome has a higher ceiling as a prospect. He is taller, faster, probably a little stronger in the arm department. That said, he is raw as a quarterback. Even an early enrollment (which he is/was also planning on doing) wouldn't be enough time to get a QB like Newsome ready to play as a true freshman. However, he could have been an unstoppable beast down the road, once he became familiar with the responsibilities of the quarterback, and capable of doing what he needs to do to succeed.
I'll also take this opportunity to give a WTF to the stated reason for his decommitment. Newsome's father said he "heard" (ed note: this means the coach at another school, with no motivation to lie whatsoever) that Michigan wouldn't give Kevin a legitimate shot at playing quarterback. Instead, he "heard" that they would give him one chance then switch his position. This does not make sense. The Newsomes believed the most obvious bullshit negative recruiting about THE ONE school that had no intentions of ever even considering making Kevin play anything other than quarterback.
Matt from Louisiana (since I've had parenthetical commentary on each commenter so far, I'll disclose that I know Matt personally, and he wasn't expecting my answer to come in mailbag form):
Tim,
This individual was not the first to suggest such an idea:
http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/209097
But what are you thoughts on a SEC-Big 10 Challenge over Labor Day weekend (ala Big 10-ACC challenge on the hardwood)? As the NFL would not have started, you can have games on 3 days. You would rotate sites and let the 6th place team in SEC East/West (rotate) sit out. In the current state of college football, this is merely interesting fodder for discussion. However, upon moving to a playoff system (which will happen eventually), I think school presidents will value the growth of their sport (and ratings and revenue) over playing a really tough game (and a potential loss) the first weekend of the season.
-Matt
Corso makes Gameday go. I can only listen to the smart Herbstreit talk college football for about 1.5 hours. But I will stick around for 2 hours to see that PLUS Corso's antics.
Matt, as the proud proprietor of a blog, I reserve the right to condescendingly answer your question in mailbag form, rather than the simple e-mail that you definitely would have preferred.
However, from a strictly economic sense, I'm not sure that this would be a guaranteed way to make more money. Take the excuse of Bill Martin for not playing a tougher out-of-conference schedule (which, essentially, this would be forcing schools from each conference to do): they simply can't afford it. Of course "can't afford it" is secret code for "can make more money with a different system," in this case playing Notre Dame and a rotating series of tomato cans. If you guarantee 3 home games, and shell out a half-million bucks to the helpless opponents (helpless unless, of course, it's Appalachian State - too soon?), you are still netting more than going year-on, year-off in a home-and-home scenario, since you make the same amount off TV either way. Some teams, including those in the SEC, have neutral-site OOC games to make more money, but it is literally impossible to sell more tickets at any other venue than The Big House, Happy Valley, or The Shoe.
With the Big Ten locked into contracts with the Big Ten Network and ESPN, and the SEC's recently-signed deal with the ESPN family of networks, there isn't much of a way for the conferences or the schools themselves to make much more cash by playing a good OOC schedule. The networks can make more money by promising better ratings and charging more for ad time (which, technically, in the case of the BTN would make more money for conference schools), but this revenue typically doesn't trickle down to the schools.
Also, there is the issue of coverage. Every weekend that Big Ten teams are in action, the BTN is guaranteed at least three games to cover. In SEC country, that would mean 3 SEC games that fans can't see (and, knowing SEC fans, they wouldn't even PPV the games, because they wouldn't dare contribute money to the Big Ten).
While I think that such an idea would be good for college football, in addition to being downright entertaining (and perhaps being a yearly notch in the conference supremacy belt), when it's all about the benjamins, a Big Ten-SEC Challenge isn't an economically preferred system.
As far as the GameDay thing, Orson Swindle posted a pretty good synopsis of my feelings about it under his flesh name over at The Sporting Blog.
Huge update this week. There is actually more that will have to wait to Monday because this update is so JAM-PACKED. Anyway, here's the board.
Moved to Committed: TX K Anthony Fera.
Added: A kicker category to the board. Thanks, Fera, ya jerk. Maybe in the light of more recent developments, I shouldn't be calling anyone committed to Michigan a jerk.
Moved from Committed: VA QB Kevin Newsome.
New Information: CA QB Tate Forcier. August 30th visit (info in header). GA WR Braxton Lane. Skipping football this fall to focus on baseball. Sounds unlikely he'll hit the gridiron in college. NC OL Travis Bond. His official visit is set for October 25. VA DE Will Hill. Fluff. SC DE Chris Bonds. Michigan and Notre Dame won't move into his highest group until after he has a chance to see campus. They are still in his top 5. OH DE Tank Carradine. Does he have an offer? He's been working on his grades. FL LB Brandin Hawthorne has set up 5 official visits, despite planning a decision before any of them. If Michigan is his choice on August 30, expect him to either forget about the other visits or not be given all the priviledges (i.e. having a spot saved for you) of a true commit. OK CB Gabe Lynn. His friend (and former UM target) David Gordon is trying to lure him to Arkansas. Lynn's junior highlights.
Removed: PA WR Todd Thomas. He may have trouble qualifying. That may explain why Michigan never really seemed interested, despite his early love for the Wolverines.
Etc.: MN WR commit Bryce McNeal is a speed prospect, but is currently too skinny to be considered speed and size. Paging Mike Barwis, who will have McNeal built like an All-American in no time flat. TX QB commit Shavodrick Beaver welcomes competition. I was so much more into this article when there was someone in the class for him to compete with.
Analysis: Recruiting changes from the developing Newsome situation outlined here. On the defensive end front, Michigan still really needs people. Though Tank Carradine is now reporting an offer, his recruitment remains under the radar, likely because of qualifying issues of his own.
New Information: SC OL Quinton Washington. Not expected to take an official to Michigan. FL QB Eugene Smith. Re-widens his focus after previously having narrowed to a top 5. CA QB Tate Forcier. Top 6. PA LB Dan Mason. Will commit to a school at the Army AA game. His current plan for official visits doesn't include Michigan. OK CB Gabe Lynn. Fluff. FL Slot commit Jeremy Gallon. Most important news EVER: he has dreads. SC DE Chris Bonds. Official visit schedule shaping up. Notre Dame visit for the Michigan game (and he will be unavailable for the big UM-MSU recruiting weekend, when he will be visiting Tennessee). FL DE Ryne Giddins. Michigan outside of his top 6. MD LB Jelani Jenkins. GBW headline says a super linebacker visited on Saturday, and the accompanying picture is of Jenkins, so we can assume he visited this weekend, no? Video fluff:
Added: CA QB Tate Forcier. He refuses to stop mentioning Michigan, so it would be inappropriate to not at least include him on the board. FL QB Eugene Smith. Ditto. CA OG Michael Philipp. Michigan is interested and he wants to visit AA. MD DE Jason Ankrah. Offered:
Jason has offers from Illinois, Oregon, Maryland, Nebraska, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Michigan State, Syracuse and others. Jason said he attended North Carolina, North Carolina State, Syracuse and Penn State Junior Days.
“We have a rule that, even if that young man, Newsome, wanted to come to our school, he would have to play on the high-school team. We don’t jump over our high-school team.”
Removed: NC QB Everett Proctor. Michigan seemed to be offering him as a draw to Xavier Nixon, who has eliminated Michigan. PA OL Adam Gress. Final 2 doesn't include Michigan. And also, he committed to Penn State. IL OL Chris Watt. Wolverines out of his final 8. PA DT Levi Brown. Committed to Temple. MS DT Josh Boyd. Committed to Mississippi State. AZ DE Devon Kennard. Michigan did not make his final 5 (USC, UCLA, ASU, Cal, Texas).
Analysis: So, uh, any other DTs? At this point, there doesn't seem to be a high correlation between guys who have offers and guys that Michigan can realistically land. If the coaches want another tackle in this class, I expect to see some more offers go out soon. If they landed somebody like Chris Bonds, he could conceivably move from end to tackle, but there isn't exactly a glut of DEs, either.
Since a lot of people have been asking how I am doing, I'll just start off by saying: considering the circumstances, I'm doing great. I can move around without a ton of pain, which is something most people who fall four stories can't say (they usually can't say anything because they die). Here is what an x-ray image of a broken spine looks like: Pretend like I posted almost the exact same image 3 times. Now you know what my L1-L3 vertebrae look like. I am walking, talking, and (clearly) typing, so thanks to everyone for the kind words you gave earlier. And now for a couple of actually relevant things:
2. Rumor has it that that Jeremy Gallon has grades troubles and thats why some bigger schools passed on him. Any truth to that? Also is there any video of gallon
1. I have yet to figure out whether Jones is even a '09 or '10 prospect. There is precious little about him on the internet, and I think this "offer" sounds a little questionable. Where are the Scout and Rivals interviews with the kid (or even a profile on one of the two sites)?
Another thing I question on this topic is why the Free Press is writing about this offer. Michigan has offered tons of kids at this point, and this is the first one that the Freep has taken the time to write (read: plagiarize) and article about. Sounds a little questionable in terms of writer's motives.
2. I have heard this, but it doesn't really seem to make a ton of sense. Sure, RR isn't afraid of recruiting a kid because of possible grades issues, but then, neither are most of the schools in the SEC. There has to be another reason why schools didn't pursue this kid.
I think it is primarily because he is tiny (reports range from 5-6 to 5-9), and few schools have need for tiny guys like Michigan has need for tiny guys. Another factor is that he will have to change positions, and perhaps take a while to be ready to play. If Michigan was not scrambling to fill all the roster spaces for slotmen, perhaps someone like Gallon would have had to wait until later in the recruiting process for an offer.
As far as Gallon video, this is the best (free) one I've been able to find. If any enterprising readers find something else, drop me a line.
I've also gotten about 30 versions of this question:
What's the deal with Tate Forcier?
I have no idea. It certainly seemed like Michigan was going to be done with '09 quarterbacks with Kevin Newsome and Shavodrick Beaver committed. However, Tate Forcier still came to Ann Arbor for Michigan's senior camp, and appears to be strongly interested in the Wolverines.
Are Rich Rodriguez and Co. just leading the kid on? Or are they keeping him in mind as an insurance policy of either of the other guys jumps ship? Maybe he just refuses to let them drop him as a prospect. It may be too early to tell at this point, but I think Michigan has its two guys, and Tate will be on the outside looking in, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
Paul:
Whatever happened to the combined recruiting board with MGoBlog?
Brian and I tried to come up with a simple solution that would be easy for both of us to access and maintain, and when nothing came up quickly, the project was sort of shelved/forgotten. In all honesty, I think it might serve a good purpose to maintain separate ones, as it leads to more information getting out overall, about a wide range of prospects. For now, don't expect to see a combined recruiting board any time soon.
Added: FL OL Matt Alajajian. He has been offered (info in header). NC QB Everett Proctor. He would be a backup QB/DB. Michigan might give him the opportunity to start his career as a QB to get him to commit. He is HS teammates with Xavier Nixon.
New Information: OK RB David Oku. He has trimmed his list to a top 5, still including Michigan (and no longer including OSU or USC). MN WR Bryce McNeal. Sam Webb in the DetNews.
Analysis: As I said when it happened, James Jackson hurts because he is an instate guy spurning Michigan to go to Ohio State. He loves the school, but never really got a vibe going with the new coaching staff. His location makes it possible for Rodriguez to continue recruiting him. Holloman hurts because it means another year, no 5-star safeties. He had been planning a Michigan visit tomorrow, and it seems as though his commitment may have been to avoid having to go on the visit when he knew he actually wanted to become a Tiger.
RJ furnishes us with a link, summarizes by giving us this snippet of information:
Sam Webb said this morning that the days of Michigan recruiting players that only play qb. Brandon McGee and a few other dual threats who play other positions are what they are looking for. Tate Forcier and all the other qbs can be pretty much taken off.
I removed all QBs except two categories when Shavodrick Beaver committed to Michigan:
Guys who could play another position and learn QB for emergency situations.
Tate Forcier.
It now sounds like Forcier can be removed from that list. However, I think the scope of RJ's message is a little overextended. For 2009, Michigan is probably done recruiting QBs (unless they are multiple-position guys), but in the future, if there's a Tate Forcier-type guy, they would take him. So, for this year, it means Forcier is off the board.
In case you were worried about Kevin Newsome's speed, check out this video of his 4x100 team winning the large school division at the Penn Relays.
Newsome is the anchor leg in lane 2(? second from nearest at the finish line, the guy who wins). He brings his team the victory.
Also, according to Sam Webb on today's edition of the Michigan Insider on WTKA, there may be other good QB news this week. Tate Forcier or Shavodrick Beaver may announce for Michigan this week.
The full board. A bit of information was rearranged, but not enough to note it here.
New InformationVA QB Kevin Newsome - linked to State Track meet article. CA QB Tate Forcier - linked to his Michigan offer. Also, current internet rumor du jour is that he is visiting Michigan this weekend. PA RB Jordan Hall - Plans an early decision. MN WR Fritz Rock - Life story article from the Gopher Hole. Football Story MS DT Josh Boyd - has reportedly been offered. MD LB Jelani Jenkins - has reportedly been offered. FL WR Andre Debose - Track results.
Added IL QB Darwin Rogers - run-pass QB from Chicago. FL RB Vincent Smith - HS teammate of Martavious Odoms and Nu'Keese Richardson. May be close to a Michigan offer. GA TE Terrell Mitchell - He claims a Michigan offer. IL OL Chris Watt. He has a Michigan offer. OH LB Dan Fox. Michigan Junior Day attendee.
Removed OH WR Josh Jones. At this time, it doesn't appear that he will be a top prospect.
I rearranged the information for a few prospects to make it a bit easier to digest.
A lot of prospects have reported that they aren’t “feeling the love” from the new staff like they were from Carr’s or are from other schools. However, it is important to note that the staff not only had to fall behind in ’09 to catch up with the ’08 prospects (they caught up with ’08, so one must assume with an entire year they’ll be able to do it in ’09), but they also are moving families to a new city, getting acquainted with the team’s current players, and even getting to know each other and develop new schemes. Once some of these things get worked out, ’09 recruiting should pick up.
If Michigan ends up with any of their top 3 quarterback prospects (Shepard, Murray, and Forcier, IMO), they will have a QB who is enrolling in winter for spring term. Hopefully it works out better this time than it did for Ryan Mallett.
Junior Day is next week (3-14ish), and after that, the recruiting picture could start to clear up quite a bit (including, possibly, a commitment or two).
New Information: TX QB Russell Shepard. Linked to an article from New Era Scouting. BON thinks Mack Brown may give up on him. FL QB Aaron Murray. Now reporting a Michigan offer, though I've noted conflicting information on the topic. CA QB Tate Forcier. PSU and Oregon are the favorites? Michigan still seems to be strongly in this one. FL WR Nu’Keese Richardson. He was the high school teammate of new Wolverine Martavious Odoms. MI WR Cameron Gordon. 2007 Michigan summer camper. He will be playing at Inkster, not Melvindale this coming season. PA OT Eric Shrive. Linked to local paper’s blog devoted to Shrive’s recruitment. OH OT Chris Freeman. Have noticed that some fans are curiously interested in him as a power forward for their basketball squads. LA DT Chris Davenport. Now has a Michigan offer. MS DT Josh Boyd. Plans to decide on signing day. OH DB Justin Turner. Left him at CB, though he may be a college safety. He now has a Michigan offer.
Removed: MI RB Edwin Baker. To Michigan State. A candidate to be re-added if he wavers.
The Board. Also, if you're worried about Michigan not getting any new commits, while schools like Texas (7), Ohio State (7), and USC (9) are reeling them in, fear not. Michigan should start getting commits around junior day, which will likely happen in mid-to-late March. Due to the transition of the coaching staff, it is happening a little later than usual. Juniors will take in a spring practice rather than a men's hoops game.
Added: MS WR Dennis Thames. His uncle is Detroit Tiger Marcus Thames, and Clayton Moore is his HS teammate. MS DT Josh Boyd. He reports an offer from Michigan. TX DE Jamarcus McFarland. If Michigan is serious about recruiting Texas, he would be a great prospect to nab. AL CB Dre Kirkpatrick. Scout's #1 CB early in the game. Still scrambling to fill more DB target spots. OH CB DJ Hunter. Claims offers from every Big Ten school except Ohio State.
Removed: TX WR Greg Timmons. Committed to Texas.
New Information: CA QB Tate Forcier. Maryland may have him as their #1 QB target. He will start considering Michigan once the Pryor situation is resolved. PA OT Eric Shrive. He now reports a Michigan offer. MI RB Hersey Jackson. After a dispute over a 40 time listed on GoSpartans.net, I asked Allen Trieu of MichiganVarsity.com. He said Jackson ran a 4.6 at a camp last summer. Updated accordingly. TX WR Josh Gordon. Added a 4.5 40-yard dash time. NJ OL Khalil Wilkes. His dad played for Rutgers. NY DE Andre Civil. He wants to stay in the northeast for his college ball. Unless he develops into a four or five star prospect, he is on the verge of being dropped.
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