Orlando safety Mike Jones has pledged his word to become a Michigan Wolverine. Jones (6-2, 197) hails from Orlando Edgewater high school. He projects as a strong safety, or perhaps even a weakside linebacker.

Recruiting Notes
Jones hails from the same high school as junior WR Greg Mathews, which gave him something of a familiarity with the Wolverines (of course, former Edgewater players litter the rosters of such programs as Florida, Ohio State, Notre Dame, UCF, and so on). Though he grew up a Miami of Florida fan, the Canes never played a large role for Mike. From early in his recruitment, Jones indicated that not only was he open to leaving home, but also was favoring a few schools in the midwest. Michigan offered Jones in late spring, and the Wolverines joined Notre Dame at the top of his list. Jones took a late June visit to the campuses of both schools, and at this time, Michigan may have moved to the front of his mind. Without a solid scholarship offer from the Irish, Jones picked Michigan on August 1st.

Player Notes
Jones was injured during his junior season, but was impressive in the five games he managed to get in. Jones has very good height and weight for the strong safety position, and if he adds a bit more weight may be a candidate to move to weakside linebacker. He is very explosive for his size, though he may be someone who “plays quick” rather than actually being fast (this is not a bad thing in Scott Shafer’s defensive concepts). He is a big hitter as well.

Posted under Recruiting

Though we’ve all seen what can happen when social networking sites are relied upon to be a source of recruiting information, sometimes the evidence is overwhelming.

Pahokee Blue Devils Brandon Hawthorne and Vincent Smith won’t announce their respective college decisions until August 30th, but it appears as though Michigan has a very good shot at landing both. Several readers have chimed in to let me know that each has changed various aspects of his Facebook page to indicate impending commitment to Michigan.

There is a long time until August 30th, and even longer before signing day, but it appears as though both Hawthorne and Smith intend to don a blue hat at their first game this season.

Posted under Recruiting

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:

Removed:
MS S Rod Woodson. Committed to Alabama.

Posted under Recruiting, Video

Scout unveiled a new set of rankings, but I’m not going to bother updating the stars for now, since I’m planning to switch to Rivals’ rankings son anyway.

Action since last rankings:
7-19-08 Minnesota gains commitment from Eric Stephens.
7-20-08 Notre Dame gains commitment from Zach Martin. Illinois gains commitments from Tommie Hopkins and Terry Hawthorne.
7-21-08 Michigan gains commitment from DeQuinta Jones. Wisconsin gains commitment from Jeff Duckworth.
7-22-08 Michigan State gains commitment from Tyquan Hammock.
7-23-08 Purdue gains commitment from Rob Henry

New Rankings:

Sam Longo commits. OSU probably has 3-4 slots left for people like Marcus Hall, Jaamal Berry, etc.

A defensive end goes a long way to easing Michigan fans’ fears about the position.

Nate Cadogan commitment is now official. Figueroa and Kuntz figure to be low three-star types, maybe dropping in twos.

Chris Watt commits, failing to realize that ND OL have underperformed horrifically in recent times. Turk and Tausch have a rating ceiling of high three-stars (standard for non-all-world kickers).

Wisconsin’s OL commits get a bonus half0star because of their inherent Wisconsin-ness. Jeff Duckworth drops for the Badgers.

Tyquan Hammock goes green after not getting the Michigan offer he wanted.

Gophers pick up Eric Stephens, whom the recruiting sites give vastly different rankings (Scout 2-star, Rivals 4-star).

The Illini grab Terry Hawthorne and Tommie Hopkins. Is Hawthorne’s teammate Kraig Appleton next to drop?

Dustin Kiel, Lawrence Barnett, Charles Chapman, Mitch Ewald, and Pat McShane commit. While the Hoosiers have a lot of commitments (which would rank them higher in many ranking systems) their abundance of 2-star guys really limits where this class can end up.

Trumpy and Battle will be low threes, Moulton a high two.

Aristide could end up a high three-star. He was on the verge of being a big prospect before a bad junior year injury. Bush will be a mid three-star. The Boilermakers pass Iowa.

Ferentz’s glory days in recruiting seem to be over. Rogers will end up a low two-star.

Posted under Recruiting

I forgot to link it Monday, but don’t forget that the board is here.

Moved to Committed:
LA DE DeQuinta Jones. The awesomely-named one is also added to the board in this update. Commit article.

New Information:
VA QB commit Kevin Newsome. Some glorious, glorious reassurance from Sam Webb that he is firmly committed, and recruiting other players to Michigan. Now in convenient print form! Newsome speaks with SI about transferring to Hargrave.
FL QB Eugene Smith. He made the Elite 11. And is performing quite well.
FL S Jonathan Scott. Michigan in his top 3 (info in header).
SC DEs Sam Montgomery and Chris Bonds. Both plan to take officials to Michigan.
FL CB Mywan Jackson. Michigan visit this weekend.
NJ DE/OL Anthony LaLota. Narrows his list to 7 (including the Wolverines).
NV DE Keenan Graham. Will he decide before getting a chance to visit Michigan?
MS S Rod Woodson. Now reports an offer.

Removed:
AL DE William Ming. Alabama commit.
IN LB TyQuan Hammock. After not getting the Michigan offer he wanted, commits to Michigan State.

Analysis:
Hooray, a defensive end! Michigan will want at least one more in this class, likely a speed rusher. Other sources of celebration: Reassurance on the Newsome front! Hooray!

Posted under Recruiting

Coming this afternoon: Michigan State Preview.
Coming sometime this week: A classic Bo interview (“classic” in this case meaning “old,” not “something seen by people other than those who lived in the dorms circa 1994”).
Coming Sunday: The podcast (like usual, but this one that I’m particularly excited about).

For Newsome-worriers: Rest assured (for now). More in the Friday recruiting update.

Jim Stefani has a bit more on DeQuinta.

An interesting discussion that took place in the comments last week:
Why is Indiana having recruiting success in Michigan?
Paul theorized thusly:

I wonder if that means that MSU is getting better players outside of Michigan so they don’t have to pick up the crumbs or if MSU is just losing its grip on said crumbs.

I think it’s neither. Pretty much all of the guys from Michigan who have committed to the Hoosiers either would never have gotten a High-level BCS offer (sorry Indiana), such as Kenny Watkins and Jamonne Chester, or are sleepers who would have had to wait a while for even an MSU offer, like Charles Chapman and Jeremy Gainer.

The only difference between this year and past years is that Indiana’s recruiting class is filling up earlier, so they can grab these sleepers before better offers come, or snatch the other guys away from the jaws of MAC schools.

Posted under Blog News, Blogcast, Recruiting

Rivals is reporting that Louisiana defensive end DeQuinta Jones has given Rich Rodriguez his word to become a Michigan Wolverine. Jones (6-2, 265, 4.7) hails from Bastrop High School, the home of one of the nation’s top receivers in Rueben Randle. Jones is the 13th commit in this class, and the coaches would certainly like him to bring his teammate up north as well. Jones is a three-star to both sites.

Recruiting Notes
Jones’s recruitment stayed out of the mainstream media, with Scout and Rivals the only main sources to follow his every move (creepy, I know). However, in early July, he was featured in an article on GoBlueWolverine.com. Michigan fans took notice. Jones committed to Michigan on. He cited his relationship with linebackers coach Jay Hopson (the former headman at Southern Miss) among the reasons that he picked Michigan.

Player Notes
Jones is a big-time defensive end – something the Wolverines sorely need after missing on Nick Perry in 2008. He is considered more of a run-stuffer with speed than an edge rusher, but he shows ability to get to the quarterback as well. He has good size, and may even be able to grow into a defensive tackle unless the staff wishes to keep him at end. He comes from a winning program (Bastrop won the Louisiana state title in 2007) and hopes to bring his success to Ann Arbor. Jones was listed by the Times-Picayune as a player just outside the top 25 in the state of Louisiana. Blogger Dandy Don pegs him at #19 in the state, while praising his work ethic.

Video

Bastrop in the state finals.

Posted under Recruiting

Slow weekend for recruiting news, despite big camps across the south (I guess that could qualify as good news)…

Added:
IL OL Patrick Ward. Four-star is considering Michigan, and will narrow to a top 7 list soon.

New Information:
VA DE Will Hill. A bit of fluff involving Michigan.
SC DB Damario Jeffrey. Michigan in his final 7.
AR CB Darius Winston. Despite an Arkansas decommit, he shows up to their senior camp. Also, he no longer maintains that Michigan is his leader.
FL QB Eugene Smith. Michigan makes his top 5.

Removed:
VA RB David Wilson. Committed to Virginia Tech.
IL OL Zach Martin. Notre Dame commit.

Etc.:
Steven Threet fluff from the Toledo Blade. Cathy Schembechler interview in the Dayton Daily News.

Posted under Recruiting

Scout unveiled a new set of rankings, but I’m not going to bother updating the stars for now, since I’m planning to switch to Rivals’ rankings son anyway.

Action since last rankings:
7-12-08 Michigan State gains commitment from Bennie Fowler. Penn state gains commitment from Nate Cadogan.
7-13-08 N0tre Dame gains commitment from Chris Watt. Michigan State gains commitment from Derek Hoebing.
7-14-08 Indiana gains commitment from Mitch Ewald. Indiana gains commitment from Pat McShane.
7-15-08 Purdue gains commitment from Kris Cooke.
7-16-08 Illinois gains commitment from Nathan Scheelhaase. Indiana gains commitment from Lawrence Barnett.
7-17-08 Indiana gains commitment from Dustin Kiel.
7-18-08 Indiana gains commitment from Charles Champan.

New Rankings:

Sam Longo commits. OSU probably has 3-4 slots left for people like Marcus Hall, Jaamal Berry, etc.

Michigan is waiting for more commits.

Nate Cadogan commitment is now official. Figueroa and Kuntz figure to be low three-star types, maybe dropping in twos.

Chris Watt commits, failing to realize that ND OL have underperformed horrifically in recent times. Turk and Tausch have a rating ceiling of high three-stars (standard for non-all-world kickers).

Wisconsin’s OL commits get a bonus half0star because of their inherent Wisconsin-ness. Borland will be a mid three-star, frederick a high three.

Bennie Fowler and Derek Hoebing commit. Reynolds will be a low three-star, as will Klatt and probably Fowler. Hoebing may end up a high two-star.

Keise, Rengel, and Michel probably low-3/high-2 guys. Orseske will end up a high two.

Thrash will be a mid three-star, Fuller a high two.

Dustin Kiel, Lawrence Barnett, Charles Chapman, Mitch Ewald, and Pat McShane commit. While the Hoosiers have a lot of commitments (which would rank them higher in many ranking systems) their abundance of 2-star guys really limits where this class can end up.

Trumpy and Battle will be low threes, Moulton a high two.

Aristide could end up a high three-star. He was on the verge of being a big prospect before a bad junior year injury. Bush will be a mid three-star. The Boilermakers pass Iowa.

Ferentz’s glory days in recruiting seem to be over. Rogers will end up a low two-star.

Posted under Recruiting

Added:
NC OL Travis Bond. Plans to visit Mich (info in header). Smart money is on MSU or Toledo weekends.
TN WR Marsalis Teague. There is some Michigan interest.
VA OL Morgan Moses. Virginia’s top OL plans a Michigan visit.
SC DB David Sims. He plans to take an official visit to Michigan, so it stands to reason that they are in his top 5.
AL DE William Ming. Mega-old article, but it mentions that Michigan is recruiting him.
IN LB Tyquan Hammock. Visited Michigan this week.

New Information:
MD DE Jason Ankrah. Extends his PSU visit. Is he feeling the Nittany Lions?
MD LB Jelani Jenkins. His teammate Caleb Porzel picks Maryland. The two had discussed being a package deal.

Removed:
MD RB Caleb Porzel. Committed to Maryland.

Posted under Recruiting