Wolverine Wednesday: Duck and Cover

Michigan does well in recruiting Detroit's Cass Tech football program.  Even Rich Rod and staff recruited there and did well.   The notable Wolverines on the current roster from Cass include:  Delonte Hollowell, Thomas Gordon and Big Will.   We all know about Boubacar flaming out and Michigan has two players coming in the 2013 class with David Dawson and Jourdan Lewis.   That is a pretty good Maize and Blue pipeline right there.  Of course, Cass Tech is coached by former Wolverine Thomas Wilcher.

One of the players that got away from the Wolverines was 4 star DB Dior Mathis.   His recruitment seemed pretty strange from the start.  He had a Michigan offer but really never seriously considered the Wolverines.   It's fine if players want to get  away from home and go to another school, what was strange in Dior's recruitment was he barley gave the Wolverines a second look.  Some Michigan fans were a little concerned about Dior's recruitment because of Boubacar's trouble on and off the field and how he had trouble covering the ND WR's due to his height.  Dior is 5'9 and 170 pounds.  

Dior was the 12 ranked CB in the country by Rivals and ranked the #4 player in Michigan for the 2010 class.  He had offers from Michigan, Tenn, Florida, FSU, Miami, Oregon, MSU and others.
In January of that year he verballed to the Oregon Ducks.  Case Closed, right?  Nope.

Many high school athletes visit Oregon and feel like it's Nike World University.  They have great facilities and of course all the state of the art Nike gear.   Some guys just love that and travel far from home to play for the Ducks.   Is that the best way to rate a football program or University?  Probably not but you can't question the success they have had on the football field lately.  

Then the NCAA came knocking and found this:
 
The University of Oregon paid more than $28,000 to two men with ties to multiple recruits who signed letters of intent with the school, Yahoo! Sports has learned.

According to State of Oregon expenditure records, the university paid $25,000 to Will Lyles of Complete Scouting Services in Houston, and $3,745 to Baron Flenory of New Level Athletics. Lyles is a former athletic trainer who recently was serving as a mentor to highly touted Ducks running back recruit Lache Seastrunk. Meanwhile, Flenory runs the Badger Sports Elite 7-on-7 football camps which have featured several celebrated Ducks signees including running back DeAnthony Thomas, defensive back Cliff Harris, defensive back Dior Mathis and wideout Tacoi Sumler. Flenory had a personal training relationship with recent Ducks signee Anthony Wallace.

Funny how things work out in the end.  Dior had 6 tackles in limited action last year and there were also reports he was moving to WR.   The Ducks recently came clean on the above payments and said they were guilty of having an extra coach out recruiting as well.

Michigan Monday: 4 Star WR Set to Visit Today

The end of the week could be a big deal for the Wolverines with the BBQ at the Big House with a number of current commits, 2012 and 2013 prospects will get to share some burgers and hot dogs and get to know the coaches and the Michigan program a bit better.  Guys like Wormley or Dunn could take a few steps closer to becoming a Wolverine. 

Today and Tuesday a 4 star WR from Iowa,  Amara Darboh will visit Ann Arbor. Darboh holds offers from Florida, Iowa, Iowa State, ND, Nebraska, Wisconsin and others.  I'm going up to Michigan tomorrow [Monday the 25th]. Me and my basketball coach are going. He's a Michigan fan and he was able to give me a ride, so he wanted to go. We're taking off here at 8am on Monday, staying all day Monday, all day Tuesday, and then we might be back for a little bit on Wednesday too. 

I thought I'd have a top list already but I'm not going to have it until my season starts. Hopefully when my season starts I'll have it narrowed down to a top five and then just go from there. If I take an official visit somewhere and I feel comfortable and it feels right then I'll just commit there. Right now everything changes every now and then because I haven't seen everywhere yet. I don't want to name a list until I finalize it, but I think Michigan has a good chance to be in the top five. I'll know more about them after my visit.

With Stanford's interest in Michigan starting to slip, it seems Hoke and Staff will take the first 4 star WR that wants to commit.  With one spot in this class, I expect someone will commit in the next couple of weeks.

Bad News for former Michigan recruits:

• Pryor has had a bad 8 months but now reports are coming out the NFL might not allow him or even have a supplemental draft.
• We knew about Dee Hart blowing out his ACL.
• Now comes word that Kris Frost has a dislocated elbow and needs surgery. 
• Russell Shepard who considered Michigan his leader for about 5 minutes before committing to LSU, might have some eligibility issues.
• Jatashun “Big Tex” Beachum RB/DT who was considering Michigan near signing day for the 2010 class has left Arkansas program.
• If you didn't hear, Hawaii said, thanks but no thanks to Tate Forcier last week.   I think it's fair to assume that he has serious grade issues.  I'm guessing he will end up a Community College for a year.

Michigan Friday: QB's in the fold for the 2011 Recruiting Class

It's clear that Michigan wants to take one QB in this years recruiting class.  With the depth at QB right now, one would be enough.   The problem is with a depth chart that reads: Forcier - Sophomore, Robinson -Sophomore, Gardner - Freshman (maybe redshirt), it's hard to convince a top tier 2011 prospect to sign up.

With that in mind, here are some of the QB's in the fold for Michigan in the 2011 class:

• Cardale Jones, Cleveland, Ohio: 6'5 217 pounds but goes to OSU High or Glenville.  He doesn't have an OSU offer and is saying the right things about Michigan but if he gets an OSU offer will most likely jump at it.  He is rated 3 stars by Rivals.

• Marquise Williams, Charlotte, NC: 6'3 218 pounds and his team recently won the Carolina Panthers 7 on 7 Tournament.  He is reportedly down to Michigan and Virgina Tech and will make a decision by the end of the month.   It's good he mentions Michigan first so we will see what happens in a couple of weeks.  Marquise is also rated a 3 star prospect.

• Kevin Sousa, Lake Nona, Florida: is 6'2 213 pounds and TomVH from Mgoblog caught up with him yesterday:  I called coach (Rod) Smith today, and they are going to recruit me. He is meeting with coach Rodriguez tomorrow as to a possible offer. He said that the guys they were recruiting are no longer interested in Michigan, and they have opened it up again as far as looking for a QB.  Kevin is a 3 star prospect as well. 

Other News and Notes:

• A 2010 Michigan prospect leaves Maryland - Javarie Johnson is having some personal and academic issues at Maryland and has decided to leave the program.

• RR catches up with the media at the Sound Mind and Body Camp:  Highlights - He thought Demar Dorsey was eligible to play (when he recruited him) at Michigan and would have done well in Ann Arbor,  He should know by 6/26 if there other any other admission or academic issues with the rest of the 2010 class, he hasn't talked to any USC players about transferring to U of M. 

• The Michigan athletic department believes it will reach 100 million in revenue in 2011.

• Lou Holtz doesn't drink water but thinks ND should join the Big Ten.  This story from the Star Tribune in Minneapolis which includes this statement:  Holtz, 73, is a great commentator on college football for ESPN. He coached the Gophers in 1984 and '85 before leaving for the Irish.  The bold is mine.  A great commentator?  Use the word great for his coaching success and maybe motivational speaking, but I'm not sure too many people would use the word "great" for what he does for ESPN. 

Michigan Football Friday: Recruiting Rankings

Don't you just love college football. It's February 5th and this week has been nothing but who might be college footballs future stars. Thank goodness NSD wasn't today, I'm not sure we could have taken the suspense all week. I believe I heard, Tennessee's new head coach (no not Lane Kiffin, the other one) Derek Dooley say that Monday and Tuesday of this week were the worst two days of the year, because waiting is the hardest part. We also know as Michigan fans that kids change their minds late in the game. Michigan lost two defensive line commitments in the 2009 class on NSD and this year Michigan lost silent commit Sean Parker to Washington. The announcement on national TV didn't help either. (BTW: I loved how ESPN kept saying USC lost out on Parker all day. Maybe ESPNU should be renamed USC TV?)

Still Michigan finished strong by getting one of the top DB's in the country, a 5 star Demar Dorsey from Florida. (ESPN is calling it the biggest surprise of signing day) They also managed to keep all their other 26 commitments in place, which is no easy task. It's funny how some analysts have attacked this class. (Herbie, you might want to review the below information before you go on Sportscenter) What they don't seem to mention is that Florida was after Courtney Avery late, UCLA wanted Richard Ash on Tuesday night, Wisconsin came after Ray Vinopal, and so on. In the end, Michigan did pretty well with this class. Here are the final rankings.

Max Sports Prep (CBS Sports): #10
Scout.com: #12
ESPN: #14
Rivals: #20

Michigan ranks #2 in the Big Ten only behind Penn State which had an impressive class.

Ohio State: #26 Rivals, #20 Scout, #16 ESPN
ND: #14 Rivals, #19 Scout, #21 ESPN
MSU: #20 on Rivals, #32 on Scouts, and didn't make ESPN's top 25 (yes, they own Michigan alright)
Iowa: #42 Rivals, #45 Scout
Wisconsin: #86 Rivals, #33 Scout
Illinois: #70 Rivals, #60 Scout
Minnesota: #50 Rivals, #70 Scout

Other News and Notes from the recruiting trial:

• Seantrel Henderson has verballed to USC but won't sign his LOI until USC meets with the NCAA on the potential infractions. Seantrel's father also called Jim Tressel "boring".
• 5 Star safety prospect Latwan Anderson from Ohio who has verballed to WVU is planning a USC visit. Ohio State also continues to be in his recruitment.
• Anthony Zittel a 6'4 255 pound offensive guard from West Branch, Michigan got a 2011 offer from Michigan.
• Aundrey Walker a 6'5 355 pound offensive tackle from Cleveland also got a Michigan 2011 offer. (he goes to an OSU feeder school - Glenville)

What a Day: NSD in Review..........

So to recap the day, we wake up to the news that it looked like Sean Parker a Michigan lock for months was wavering and might go to Washington instead. At 10:00 on national TV he did.

The good news early was that Terry Talbott had confirmed his Michigan commitment and sent in his LOI. No North Carolina for him. 1 positive thing 1 big negative thing

As the morning went on, Michigan continued to receive all it's LOI's except one: Richard Ash. Richard was rumored to be wavering and UCLA was coming on strong. Richard stayed strong to the Wolverines and RR said at his press conference that they had to recruit him to the very last minute.

While it was good Michigan didn't get any de-commitments today on their 26 verbals, it was difficult to swallow the loss of Parker and Knight the day before. Michigan's last hope was it's longest shot: 5 star safety Demar Dorsey, a former Florida commit that had offers from every big program out there. So the reports started to flow, that Dorsey was a lock for Florida, FSU, and Michigan. Nobody could get a read on where he was going. The press conference was set for 1:00.

1:00 came and nothing happened on the Internet or on ESPNU. So we kept waiting. At 1:30 we get a report from Sports Illustrated that Dorsey committed to Michigan but still no press conference or confirmation anywhere else. The Michigan faithful even called his high school and spoke the the school Secretary a number of times. We continued to wait, and then about 2:00 the news broke all over the place that Demar had committed to the Wolverines and sent in his LOI.

A day saved by basically a hail mary recruit that nobody had coming to Ann Arbor. ESPN was reporting it was down to FSU and USC the night before. Most national insiders said they would be shocked if Dorsey went to Ann Arbor. Well he did and it makes the losses of Parker and Knight fade away into the night.

A class saved. Coach's Rod presser was the regular stuff: great class, great kids, and the staff did a great job. All in all it was a crazy ride today but a fun one.

To top off the day, Ohio State whiffed on every major recruit they were trying to sign in the last week. 0-3 on the week. (I know they have a solid class, but us Wolverines will take even small victories). Even with Penn State's good class, Michigan still made the loudest bang on signing day with Dorsey.

See you next year, same bat time, same bat station.

Good night, now!

Seantrel Henderson to USC

Seantrel Henderson just picked USC over Ohio State, Miami, and Minnesota. Seantrel is considered the #2 prospect in all of high school football this year.

Ohio State has a nice class but didn't finish strong with the losses of Seantrel, Jordan Hicks, and Matt James.

Kinard is in

Antonio Kinard LOI is in. Michigan has locked down all their 26 commitments.

That is great news. I hope we can add Dorsey to this class.

Richard Ash is in!

Whew! Richard Ash has signed and faxed his LOI to Schembechler Hall. That was a close one.

Antonio Kinard is the only one that hasn't sent his in yet. There were some rumors that he might have some academic issues.

So on the good news front, it seems Michigan won't have any signing day de-commitments from it's class of 26 players. (you could call Parker a de-commitment but his "verbal" was not public).

Could Michigan Go 0-3 Today?

It's starting to look like Michigan could go 0-3 today on it's safety recruits.

• Rashad Knight had Michigan for his leader most of the year, picked Rutgers.
• Sean Parker, had silently committed to Michigan for months decided last night to pick Washington.
• Demar Dorsey, is announcing at 1:00 and there are some reports that he is going to Florida State.

Not good! Moral of this story: Start winning more then 5 games a year and we won't lose recruits to places like Rutgers and UW.

Richard Ash, still seems to be on the fence since his LOI is not in Ann Arbor yet.

Ohio State Update

The only team that might have a worse day (as far as new signing day commitments) then Michigan is rival Ohio State.

The reports are flowing that #2 recruit in the Nation: Seantrel Henderson is picking USC over Ohio State and huge offensive lineman from Cincinnati Matt James has picked Notre Dame.

On a funny note, QB Munchie Legaux who Michigan was looking at before Devin committed. Has changed his commitment from Colorado to Cincinnati.

Sean Parker

Sean Parker is going to Washington. Unbelievable. This is a big loss for the Wolverines.

Jake, Jordan, Carvin, Drew are all IN

Jake Ryan
Jordan Paskorz
Carvin Johnson
Drew Dileo

Have all signed.

Just waiting on:
Richard Ash, Antonio Kinard, and DJ Williamson

and of course the annoucements.

Ken Wilkins and Davion Rogers

Both of their LOI's are in at Michigan.

Terrance, Will, and Cornelius

Terrance Talbott, Will Hagerup, and Cornelius Jones all have sent in their letters to the Wolverines.

Still to come: Sean Parker's annoucement at 10:00 (looking more like UW) and Demar Dorsey at 1:00.

Marvin, Jibreel, and Courtney

Marvin Robinson, Jibreel Black, and Courtney Avery letters are in.

This is good news. Jibreel had been committed to 3 different schools and Florida was after Avery.

Cullen and Ray

Cullen Christian and Ray Vinopal letters are in. They are the first two letters to hit the Michigan fax machine.

Talbott and Ash

We should know about Terry Talbott in the next hour and Recruiting insiders are saying that Richard Ash will sign with Michigan this morning. Richard had talked to the Michigan coaches yesterdy afternoon and now feels comfortable again being a Wolverine.

The optimism on Terry joining his brother at Michigan is high.

Good Morning Signing Day!

Wow, it seems we are starting off with a Bang today!

• It seems sources are saying that Sean Parker is now heading to Washington instead of Michigan.
• Is also seems that Dorsey is telling Michigan players he is commiting to the Wolverines at 1:00. Recruting insiders are saying USC or FSU.
• Sean announces at 10:00 and Demar at 1:00. Yikes! That's not good.

NSD Eve Late Night Rumblings

• There are message board rumblings that Dorsey is seriously considering Michigan. I will believe it when I see it.
• Ray Vinopal a safety from Ohio got offered by Wisconsin and Vandy in the past two weeks. Ray was taking some heat from some message boards on not having any big time offers.
• A former Michigan recruit QB Munchie Legaux of New Orleans had committed to Colorado now is considering Cincinnati and will pick between the two schools on Wednesday. (I wonder if RR gave his old friend some advice on Munchie?)
• Richard Ash is now on de-commitment watch. He is not 100% sure that he will sign with Michigan tomorrow.
• No word on Terry Talbott yet. Still expect it tonight. Update 10:40: still no news, looks like we will have two players on de-commitment watch on Wednesday. What is it with DT's and Michigan on signing day?

Signing Day Line Up at BHB

We are going to start early here tomorrow and the fun should last until late afternoon. Here is the schedule:

• We will kick it off at 7:00 AM to start tracking the letters being faxed to Michigan. I will be updating the list of players that have become Wolverines as soon as they come in.
  


• During the day, I will also be tracking where other big name players are going.
  


• 10:00 EST is when ESPNU kicks off coverage and Sean Parker is due to announce.



• 1:00 EST Demar Dorsey has a press conference scheduled
  


• 3:00 EST Rich Rodriguez will have his regular signing day press conference

Tomorrow hopefully is a fun and fruitful ride for the Wolverines. Their final 2 prospects are due to announce and will there be any Roy Roundtree surprises? Will anyone get cold feet like Sam McGuffie did? Who might send their letter into another school?

No need to listen to the radio, watch ESPN, and follow the recruiting sites. I will have all the important information here for you all day long.