Michigan Thursday: The Clarkston Combo

This year the State of Michigan might have better senior high school top tier talent then the State of Ohio.   Which is saying something.

Part of that talented group is 2 prospects from Clarkston, Michigan: 4 star OT Garrett Dellinger and 4 star OG Rocco Spindler.   Garrett is 6'6 and 280 and just released his final 4 yesterday.   Rocco is 6'5 and 295 pounds and plans to release his top 5 next week.  

Garrett who insiders believe is leading towards LSU, also included Michigan, PSU and Ohio State as his finalists.   Most of Rocco's crystal balls are leaning towards the Wolverines.  

Jimmy and staff have their work cut out for them, as these two talented offensive lineman and the #2 rated RB in the country Donovan Edwards are seen as must wins for the Wolverines.   Can Michigan keep these talented player home?  Time will tell.


Recruiting Coordinator Matt Dudek, takes us through how a normal visit would go for a prospect vs. what is happening today:

“Let's go through a visit, for example, when they come to campus, they're greeted by me and my staff, as well as the coaching staff. We take them around the building for a building tour or a photoshoot, meeting with Herb, meeting with nutrition, meeting with academics or campus tours to the stadium, we sit down with your position coach, sit down with the head coach and all those things are roughly an hour each. You got to keep the day moving because, at the end of the day, they leave. They got to go to the next school, they got to go home, whatever the case may be.

“So an eight-hour visit, you get about an hour of everything. Then you're not doing that follow up call to get on a Zoom or FaceTime and do more chalk talk with Don Brown. Has it happened? Sure, of course it's happened. Would it happen twice a week three times a week at 9 pm? Probably not. Because, again, Don's on the road at this time. I say Don, every one of our 11 coaches are doing exactly the same thing. It's just he called me after his nine o'clock last night that's fresh in my mind. It's one of those deals that I think that building and layering that communication and that relationship, I would say it's just it's building a better Michigan communication and relationship."

Michigan Tuesday: Wonders If We Should Call Him Jackie?

Here is an interesting thought (at least it was for me):
Did the cancellation of the Spring Game actually help recruiting?

Michigan landed another commitment last night in Jack Stewart, which we will get to in a minute.  What's interesting is some thoughts from Instate OL prospect Karsen Barnhart's mom on not having the game and getting more personal time with the staff and the other families:

“This one was probably one of my favorite visits because the spring game was canceled, so we were in a close environment,” she said. “You got to mingle with a lot of the parents during the practice. And Coach Mattison’s wife found me right away when we got there and started introducing me to several different moms and telling me about their son (Bryan Mattison, who was an All American offensive line recruit in the early 2000s).


“Every visit we’ve had has been great there,” Mrs. Barnhart said. “One of the things that I like about every visit (to Michigan) … and it’s not that we’re not very special at other places… but we are treated top notch at Michigan. Someone is always there to guide you. We always have someone that if we need something, they pretty much stick with us throughout the day. Some of these other schools we’ve been on visits to, it’s like you’re kind of left hanging and you don’t know what to do next.”


Side note: We have always known that Coach Mattison is one of  the best recruiters in the country, maybe its really his better half who's the top notch recruiter!

Karsen is expected to announce on Friday and it looks like Michigan has a great chance to make this week a hat trick of commitments. 


Speaking of commitments, Michigan landed another talented offensive lineman recruit in Jack Stewart last night. 

Jack is rated a 3 star prospect and a bit under rated because he plays in "Don Brown" territory out East in Connecticut.  As you probably already know, CT is not known as a football state which means prospects really don't get scouted much.  Which in the past has meant great pick ups for the likes of UConn, BC, ND, and others. 

Jack is 6'5 and 275 as a Junior and has offers from the likes of Arizona, ASU, BC, UK, IU, TCU, Texas AM, Baylor, Maryland, and Ole Miss.  Michigan didn't even offer until April 6th.   I wouldn't be surprised to see his stock and ranking go way up now that he is committed to Michigan.   ESPN for example doesn't even rank him.  

His high school coach likes the player Michigan is getting:

"He has all the ingredients Michigan looks for in a football player," New Canaan coach Lou Marinelli said. "The face he is going to go out there with (Michigan defensive coordinator) Donnie Brown and coach (Jim) Harbaugh and that program, they're going to force him to him be as good as he can possibly be.


"He's a road grinder kind of offensive lineman."


"Jack Stewart is one of my best football players, no doubt," Marinelli said. "He's a big, strong, tough, athlete. He's a heavyweight wrestler."


Two things to point out: 

1. He called Don Brown, Donnie which I love and shows the long relationship.
2. He is a heavyweight wrestler which is great for offensive lineman

If we call him Jackie does that mean he will get off to a great start and play fast?

Welcome Big Man!

Michigan Monday: Instate Visitors Coming To Ann Arbor

Michigan has done well instate recruiting as the program has struggled the last few years.   Michigan had the likes of Brian Cole and Alex Malzone commit during a very difficult time for the program last season.   Those were two of the top players in the state.  

With that said, we can't deny that OSU has come in and gotten a couple of guys and Michigan State's program has continued to be on the rise.    It's time for Michigan to re-establish it's dominance in recruiting in the great state of Michigan.   That dominance needs to start in a talent rich 2016 class, where Michigan's staff is still playing a bit of catch up.    The OSU NSD Mike Weber issues and the hiring of Ty Wheatley should help Michigan at Cass Tech and other Detroit schools.

If your interested in a run down of the state's top prospects, please check out fellow Michigan Blogger Touch the Banner today.  He has a great run down of the prospects.


Michigan on Tuesday will host a number of instate prospects for an un-official visit:

• WR Donnie Corley (Detroit King)
• DE Khalid Kareem (Farmington Hills Harrison)
• DT Michael Onwenu (Cass Tech)
• S Demetric Vance (Cass Tech)
• WR Donovan People-Jones (Cass Tech)

Some other news and notes from Instate prospects this year:

Braylon has another brother who is a recruit in the 2016 class.  His name is Bailey and he is a 6'2 WR at Chelsea.  Get ready for some Braylon tweets. 

Michael Jordon has a famous name but is 6'6 285 pound OT from Plymouth.  He will be one of the top recruits in Michigan this year.  He already has offers from the likes of Michigan, MSU, ND, PSU and OSU.  He is a 4 star prospect to Rivals.

The curious case of Daelin Hayes who is the cousin of former Wolverine Justice Hayes (who just transferred for a graduate year at another college).   Daelin is a 6'3 LB who is committed to USC and was very high on the Wolverines before he took his trip to Southern California.   He got hurt is sophomore year at St. Mary's and then transferred to a school in California.   He is now back and will be playing at Ann Arbor Skyline this fall.    He has played very little football the last couple of years.  Will he stick with USC?  Will USC stick with him?  Since he is in Michigan's backyard, will the Wolverines get another shot?   He is rated as a 5 star player to Rivals and the #18 player in the nation.   This will be a very interesting recruitment. 

DE Khalid Kareem committed to MSU already and then de-committed a couple of days later.  His parents didn't want him to make a rushed decision, but he seems like a strong MSU lean right now.  He is a 4 star prospect to Rivals.