Action since last rankings:
1-1-09 Illinois gains commitment from Jamar Bass.
1-3-09 Michigan gains commitment from William Campbell.
1-4-09 Minnesota gains commitment from Taikwon Paige.

New Rankings:

Posted under Football, Recruiting

Defensive tackle William Campbell from Detroit Cass Tech has re-committed to the Michigan Wolverines after a tense 4 months of decommitment. The second time around, the 6-5, 330-lber becomes Michigan’s 21st commit in the class of 2009.

Player Notes
Campbell is a physically dominating player who will need to work on his technique to become equally effective on the college level. He has extraordinary size, great brute strength, and surprising quickness. He is a two-way player in high school (even in all-star games), and has both the explosive first step to play tackle in college, and the intelligence and lateral quickness to move primarily to the offensive line. Whichever position he ends up playing, he will have to improve his technique. Campbell is currently in the midst of the Army All-American Bowl, where he has been one of the (few) consistent players.

Recruiting Notes
Campbell originally committed to Lloyd Carr’s Wolverines way back in the summer of 2007, before his junior season. When the coaching staff changed, Campbell reaffirmed his commitment to Rich Rodriguez. Despite that, he maintained all along that he would like to take official visits to other schools, if only to get out and see the world a bit. When other coaches (such as Pete Carroll and Les Miles) told Campbell that he could not visit their campuses if he was firmly committed to Michigan, Big Will rescinded his verbal commitment, and went on trips to Alabama, LSU, and Miami. On his official visit to Ann Arbor, Will rushed the court with Michigan students following basketball’s upset win over the Duke Blue Devils. However, coming into Army All-American week, Campbell told the media that he was eliminating Michigan from consideration. In the end, that was all a smoke screen as Campbell donned the Maize-and-Blue cap in the third quarter of the All-American Bowl.

Etc.
Campbell plans to enroll early, and has already done so, as was implied by a uniquname being created in the Umich directory in his name a week ago.
Campbell is also a teammate of 2010 CB/slot prospect Dior Mathis (along with the other two Cass Tech commits in the class of 2009). Landing Big Will can only help with Dior.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

Who: You, me, anyone else who feels like discussing.

What: Discussion about the Army All-American Bowl.

Where: NBC on your television, this post on your computer.

When: Today at 12 PM, an hour before TV coverage starts. Conversation may get going a bit earlier (hopefully).

Why: Drool over Justin Turner, badmouth Ohio State commits, and commiserate with each other when The Otter pulls out a purple hat.

How: Converse via the comments section of this post (inelegant, I know. If it goes well, I may move to CoverItLive for the ESPN game Sunday night).

Posted under Football

After several suggestions, I’ve decided to scrap the play-by-play aspect of the UFR feature, and just include the final stats from the game. The raw data is available in .xls format here. Thanks to reader formerlyanonymous for his help, as well.

Half 1

Half 2

Game totals

Individual players:

Manny had a really crappy day. He took it upon himself to carry the team, and he quite frankly couldn’t do it this time. Considering he’s been able to do it consistently to this point in the year, I guess he can get a pass for once.

LLP has gotten praise for being able to hit the open three, but he just couldn’t do it on this day. He forced a bit too.

Novak was the Designated Awesome Freshman on this day, and he was a key player at the beginning of the second half, when Michigan needed to keep it close.

Awful day for DeShawn all over the place. He grabbed four rebounds all game, and none until the second half. He hit his shots, but didn’t take very many of them. I wonder if the ankle injury from Monday hampered, and he also might have been having breathing probles.

Like all the other Wolverines (except maybe Novak), Stu really struggled on this day.

Kelvin got almost no playing time all day (11 minutes), in favor of Dave Merritt. I would have liked to see him play a bit more, considering Michigan needed more playmakers on the floor, and I think his ability to drive might have opened up more shots for his teammates to miss.

At least he didn’t have guards ripping tons of rebounds out of his hands.

Seemed to play more than he has been lately. He didn’t get a lot of offensive opportunity, and he actually seemed to be a calming influence at times when he was in the game.

Not much usage for Dave.

The entire Michigan team struggled, and when you’re a Perimeter Oreiented Team, there are going to be poor shooting days that turn into losses. Of course, the other side of the coin is that hot-shooting days will turn into upsets (see: Duke II) Early in the game, both teams were getting plenty of open looks. The only difference was Michigan’s were long-range (which they subsequently missed) and Wisconsin’s were easy inside looks. Once Wisconsin built up the lead, the game was pretty evenly back-and-forth. DeShawn Sims was completely off today, and I’d like to hope that was because of the ankle injury he sustained against NC Central than an inability to perform against a better team like Wisconsin. Manny was equally frustrating (and frustrated), and he seemed to be trying a little too hard throughout much of the game.

Posted under Basketball, Football

Let’s start with the odd/potentially important news. 2009 OH CB Dale Peterman didn’t seem to be too high on Michigan’s radar. However, there is this random quote from a basketball article:

Only one player, Ursuline’s Dale Peterman, who is expected to announce early next week that he will be attending the University of Michigan to play football, fouled out.

Take that for what it’s worth (very little, if you ask me). To the best of my knowledge, he hasn’t been offered.

All-League teams from the San Diego Area include a UM commit and a 2010 prospect:

Eastern League

First-team offense–Wesley Cody (Mira Mesa) Sr.; Tyler Gaffney (Cathedral Catholic) Sr.; Dana Barbaro (St. Augustine) Jr.; Allen Aguilar (St. Augustine) Jr.; Duante Jones (Patrick Henry) Jr.; Robert Forcier (Scripps Ranch) Sr.; Brennan Clay (Scripps Ranch) Jr.

Good for Tate, and I assume having him on the team will help with the recruitment of Clay, if Michigan wants him.

Not to be outdone, FL RB commit Vincent Smith was named his area’s Player of the Year.

Fluff on Michigan’s Ohio commits that are playing in all-star games this weekend. Justin Turner:

Projected as a defensive back once he gets to Ann Arbor, athlete Justin Turner (6-0, 186) of Massillon Washington is representing both Ohio and Michigan in the Army All-American Bowl. He is rated as the No. 25 athlete prospect in the country by ESPN.

Turner, ranked No. 7 in the state by Ohio High, was a two-way standout for Massillon at running back and at defensive back. He rushed for 1,380 yards and 11 touchdowns on 207 carries on offense. Defensively, he had 29 tackles, three interceptions (two for touchdowns) and a forced fumble for the Tigers (6-5).

Turner was a first team All-Ohio selection on defense in Division I and was also a member of the Ohio High/ONN All-Ohio team.

Isaiah Bell:

Headlining the Ohio contingent in the Under Armour game is Youngstown Liberty safety Isaiah Bell on the Black Team. Ohio High ranks Bell (6-2, 200) as the No. 32 prospect in the Class of 2009 while ESPN has Bell as the No. 9 safety in the country and No. 91 player overall.

…and uncommitted prospect Marcus Hall:

Offensive tackle Marcus Hall (6-5, 290) of Cleveland Glenville was a first team All-Ohio selection this season in Division I and an Ohio High/ONN All-Ohio team selection. Hall is rated as the No. 3 player by Ohio High magazine for the Class of 2009 and ESPN has Hall rated as the No. 11 offensive tackle in the country and No. 78 overall.

Hall is the highest rated player nationally from Ohio participating in the three all-star games.

He is considering scholarship offers from Ohio State, Michigan, Illinois, Miami (Fla.) and Tennessee. While the Army All-American Bowl has evolved into a stage for players to announce their college choices about a month before National Signing Day, Hall does not plan on announcing at the game wanting to take all of his official visits before he decides.

2010 FL RB Eduardo Clements sounds like he may be a Miami of Florida lock:

The 5-foot-10, 185-pound running back with documented 4.45-second speed in the 40-yard dash rushed for about 900 yards this year in the hammer-hard competition of Dade County. His first scholarship offer was from Miami, something he savors.

“I mean, my first scholarship offer was from the Canes,” Clements told SN Today. “I was thinking about how my childhood favorite—that I was so up about—had just offered me a scholarship. It was great that people were looking at me and seeing how hard I work.”

He also sports offers from South Florida, Central Florida, West Virginia, Boston College, Iowa, Oregon, Rutgers, and a few others. He doesn’t plan to commit anywhere until his senior year, but it sounds like Miami certainly has a leg up on the competition.

Removed 2009 MN WR Bryce McNeal, a former commit. He announces his decision (already made) this weekend at the Army All-American Bowl between Oregon, Clemson, Minnesota, and Colorado.

Added 2010 FL OL Torrian Wilson. SoFlaFootball reports he has been hearing from Michigan.

2009 MI QB AJ Westendorp has earned a scholarship offer (info in header). This vastly decreases the likelihood he’ll walk on at Michigan.

It doesn’t sound like FL CB Jayron Hosley will be into the weather when he comes on his official visit:

The Michigan staff better have a hill and a sled for Jayron when he visits Ann Arbor Jan 16. He heard about the snow Michigan received a week or so ago and is not feeling that. “I heard they got a bunch of snow and some people even lost power, I don’t want that [laughing].” Michigan seems to be behind the 8 ball now, but like I always said, sell him early playing time. The early playing time, showing him snow actually can be fun [sledding is fun for all ages], and see where it gets you.

If you want to hear Jim Carty’s take on the William Campbell situation, head over to his site to listen to the audio from his weekly WTKA appearance. For the record, Sam Webb still thinks Michigan gets him.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

As a blog so heavily involved in following recruiting, I’d be remiss to neglect mentioning the high school All-American games that are taking place this weekend. Listed below are the respective all-star games, how to watch them, and who to watch in each game.

Army All-American Bowl
Saturday 12PM NBC

ESPNU Underarmour All-American Game
Sunday 8PM ESPN

You don’t get to know which teams these guys play for, or what numbers they are, because ESPN’s website is awful and the network as a whole is turning into a terrible tabloid.

Posted under Football