Scout has updated their player rankings, and that is reflected in these team rankings. I might switch to Rivals rankings soon, because they appear to be less terrible. Also: Purdue, welcome.

Action since last rankings:
6-16-08 Michigan gains commitment from Michael Schofield.
6-19-08 Purdue gains commitment (!) from Ismael Aristide.
6-20-08 Ohio State gains commitment from Duron Carter. Indiana gains commitment from Edward Wright-Baker. Michigan State gains commitment from Dana Dixon.

New Rankings:

Dominic Clarke is now a 3-star, as is Zach Boren. Fellows has been given a fifth star.

Michael Schofield is Michigan’s first OL commit. His athleticism is a good fit for the spread offense. Gallon and Bell have now been ranked as 3-star players.

Howle, Felder, and Morris have been ranked 3-stars. Arcidiacono has been given a fourth star. Curtis Drake is being brought in as a QB unless the Nittany Lions get a top-notch signal caller in this calss (in which case he will likely be a WR). Penn State has a quantity-over-quality class right now.

Fox now ranked a 3-star. Golic drops to 3-star. Kicker fills a need.

An instate WR picks the Spartans.

Keise will probably end up a low 3-star/high 2-star. Same with Rengel.

Zac Matthi
as brings the Badgers past Illinois. His ranking is bumped in my mind by the Wisconsin seal of approval.

Illinois started fast, but has since stagnated (and lost Melvin Fellows to the Bucks).

Ferentz’s glory days in recruiting seem to be over. Barrent drops to 3 stars in Scout update.

At least they have some commits.

Not sure where Aristide will be ranked, but it has to be a more important commit than a long-snapper. He was on the verge of becoming a big prospect before a junior year injury.

Keyt is a long snapper/DE who will greyshirt, according to IUFootball (who deserves props: writing about Indiana football has to be among the most thankless jobs out there). Indiana also picks up a QB commit in Edward Wright-Baker.

Posted under Recruiting

The Board.

Moved to Committed:
IL OL Michael Schofield. Commitment article from Sun-Times.

Added:
SC TE Jim Teknipp. He wants to visit Michigan this summer.
FL TE Orson Charles. He has a Michigan offer. Most consider him a Florida lock, however.
MD RB Malek Redd. Impressive at Michigan camp.
MD RB Caleb Porzel. Teammate of Jelani Jenkins, and he seems like a good fit for the spread. Michigan is probably playing catch-up, however.
TX WR DeWayne Peace. There is clearly mutual interest for the camper (info in header).

New Information:
SC DB Damario Jeffery. Michigan is in his top 6 (contrary to Monday’s recruiting post).
LA WR Rueben Randle. Miami of Florida leads (info in header).
OK RB David Oku. Sam Webb News fluff.

Removed:
SC DB David Sims. He has dropped Michigan.
LA DT Chris Davenport. It doesn’t appear that he has any interest in the Wolverines.

Etc.:
You can ignore most of the article, but take note of the blurb at the bottom:

ESPN television is currently in production on a special that will profile the top prospects at the Nike and Elite 11 training camps. The information used in this article was gathered as part of the television production process.

Analysis:
Schofield is a good get for Michigan. This is partially because offensive line was a position of some need in this class, and also because he is a particularly good fit with great athleticism. He is moving upward in the rankings.

Posted under Recruiting

Michael Schofield, Michigan’s 10th 2009 commit, is an offensive lineman hailing from Orland Park, Illinois. The Sandburg High School product stands 6 feet, 6 inches tall, and tips the scales at around 270 pounds.

Schofield’s height seems to be evidence that he will be capable of being an offensive tackle down the road. His lighter weight shows the difference between the athletic linemen preferred by the new coaching staff, as Schofield will put on some weight, but probably never play above 290lbs.

Want more evidence that Schofield is athletic? How about taking note of the fact that he is a hurdler on the Sandburg track team?

110 Meter Hurdles
Finals

Place   Heat  Lane   Wind   Competitor, School                                       Time
 1      1     4           Ryan Buchanan (Fr), Bolingbrook                         16.3
 2      1     5           Mike Schofield (So), Sandburg                           16.3 

While his time of 16.3 may not be particularly impressive when compared to Kevin Newsome’s 14.15, there are a few factors to keep in mind. 1) Kevin Newsome is an all-american in track. 2) Michael Schofield is an offensive lineman. Schofield also shows his strength by chucking the discus for Sandburg.

Schofield seems like a future left tackle at this point, with good height and exceptional athleticism. Rivals and Scout are in disagreement on him at this point, with Rivals considering him a 4-star (#15 offensive tackle) and Scout a 3-star (#47 offensive tackle). Judging by offers from schools like Miami of Florida, Penn State, and Wisconsin, Rivals is likely to be a more accurate ranking.

Posted under Recruiting

Michigan’s offensive line recruiting for the class of 2009 has kicked off with the commitment of Michael Schofield. Schofield (6-6, 280) hails from Orland Park, Illinois, where he attends Sandburg High School. He is Michigan’s 10th overall commit for the class.

Recruiting Notes
Schofield attended the BBQ at the Big House recruiting event. He received a scholarship offer from Rich Rodriguez shortly thereafter. Michigan was the most prestigious school pursuing Schofield, and he decided to end his recruitment on June 16th.

Player Notes
Schofield is a tall, nimble lineman. He has very good height (listed anywhere between 6-5 and 6-7) and will likely end up as a tackle in college, though it remains to be seen if he has the skill set to protect the quarterback’s blind side.

Etc.
Thanks to commenter Obes for tearing me away from the Utah preview I was working on to break the news of this commitment, and also to RJ, who text messaged me the news minutes later.

Posted under Recruiting

The Board.

Added:
AR CB Darius Winston. He has decommitted from Arkansas, and the Wolverines are considered to be among his top schools.
NV DE Keenan Graham. Michigan and USC appear to be at the top of his list. He recently visited Ann Arbor (info in header).
FL LB Frankie Telfort. Michigan has offered.

New Information:
IL OL Chris Watt. Has he dropped Michigan? Since he has visited a couple times, he’ll remain on the board until more info comes out.
PA WR Todd Thomas. Michigan makes his top 5.
GA S Darren Myles. He plans to visit Michigan this summer.
SC OL Quinton Washington. He will make a decision after his senior season.
SC S Stephon Gilmore. Article with no Michigan mention. The Wolverines were recruiting him as a backup QB-type. Should he be dropped from the board soon?
GA DB Donavan Tate. Michigan is among the schools that has offered to let him be a two-sport athlete.
SC S Damario Jeffery. Michigan outside his top 6.

Removed:

Etc.:
OH RB Commit Fitzgerald Toussaint. He hasn’t been running track because of a lingering injury.
MI DT Commit William Campbell. Sam Webb fluff in the News.
Fluff on Pahokee High.

Posted under Recruiting

Want to know what the new Adidas home jerseys will look like? A lot like the old home jerseys, with a different logo on them. Thanks to reader Paul for the heads up.

The Big Ten Network and Comcast are expected to announce a deal this week, according to the Chicago Tribune. This comes not one second too soon, and I think all parties involved are relieved to finally have this issue resolved.

For those who have been asking if Jim Stefani’s (awesome) work is available anywhere on the internet anymore, it can now be found here.

Posted under Recruiting

The first edition of the Varsity Blue recruiting video podcast is live! In the near future, look for the podcast to also be available for subscription on iTunes. In the first edition, the current Michigan commitments are introduced.

As of today, we are planning to make this a weekly offering.

Posted under Recruiting

Purdue is officially last to the party, as Indiana picks up their first commit.

Action since last rankings:
6-8-08 Ohio State gains commitment from Dominic Clarke. Michigan State gains commitment from Patrick White.
6-9-08 Indiana gain commitment from Josh Keyt.
6-10-08 Ohio State gains commitment from Adam Bellamy. Wisconsin gains commitment from Zac Matthias.
6-11-08 Penn State gains commitment from Curtis Drake.
6-12-08 Notre Dame gains commitment from Ben Turk.

New Rankings:

Dominic Clarke is lightly-regarded at this point, but it seems like the Bucks really know what they’re doing when evaluating DBs. He’ll be in the high three-star range. Boren will be a three-star whose commitment is more celebrated for bringing in his brother.

Bell will likely end up a high 3-star or low 4-star (ESPN loves him). Gallon

Arcidiacono is underrated, Howle will end up as a high-three star, Figueroa a low three-star, and Felder somewhere in between. New commit Curtis Drake is being brought in as a QB unless the Nittany Lions get a top-notch signal caller in this calss (in which case he will likely be a WR). Penn State has a quantity-over-quality class right now.

Michigan and Ohio State didn’t seem to be pursuing Fox at all, and he wasn’t exactly a sleeper, so I doubt he is much better than a high three-star (with requisite ND-rounding to four). New punter commit! Notre Dame will rule the world!

MSU has started losing coveted in-state guys to other schools.

Keise will probably end up a mid 3-star.

Zac Matthias brings the Badgers past Illinois. His ranking is bumped in my mind by the Wisconsin seal of approval.

Illinois started fast, but has since stagnated (and lost Melvin Fellows to the Bucks).

Ferentz’s glory days in recruiting seem to be over.

At least they have some commits.

Keyt is a long snapper/DE who will greyshirt, according to IUFootball (who deserves props: writing about Indiana football has to be among the most thankless jobs out there).

12th – Purdue (0 commits)

Posted under Recruiting

The Board.

Added:
PA OL Adam Gress. Offered (info in header).
FL DE Ryne Giddins. Offered.

New Information:
NJ DE Anthony Lalota. ND is probably his favorite.
MD LB Jelani Jenkins. West coast swing.
FL DT Antwan Lowery. Miami and Florida are near the top of his list.
GA S Darren Myles. Michigan will make his next cut.
AZ DEs Craig Roh and Devon Kennard. Both will have top 10 lists out soon.
MS DT Josh Boyd. He will camp at Michigan.

Removed:
SC WR Alshon Jeffrey. Southern Cal commit.
FL OL Nick Alajajian. Not in his top 6, combined with the fact that a decision date has been set, seem to show that Michigan is not in this race.
MI OL Zac Matthias. Wisconsin commit.

Analysis:
Jeffrey and Alajajian were both considered longshots with only token inclusion on the recruiting board. Matthias is a bogger loss for MSU (the Spartans need all the good linemen they can get – especially instate and especially those who are good enough to end up at a lineman factory like Wisconsin) than it is for Michigan, who didn’t like him enough to offer before camp…. Speaking of camp, those itching for more commitments should be in luck, as summer camp (Sunday-Thursday) is usually a time when a couple guys get offers and commit.

Posted under Recruiting

While it is not news to anyone who follows the Big Ten that Penn State fans have an… uncomfortable fixation on Michigan, typically this has been restricted to fans. Nittany Lions supporters have a focus on Michigan that seems unwarranted but for the Wolverines’ dominance over PSU in recent years. Now, even those who write in the mainstream media have latched onto the obsession as a crutch for writing their terrible columns (entire relevant section quoted to avoid giving this idiot clickthroughs):

An interesting sidebar to these rankings: How much will they be different if QB Kevin Newsome winds up in a Penn State uniform? He committed to Michigan earlier, but all indications are that Penn State is still recruiting him hard. So much for the gentlemen’s agreement between Big Ten teams about not talking to verbal committments. What years of sportsmanship and living up to one’s word built up, Rich Rodriguez and Michael Shaw tore down.

While I don’t need to point how how dumb the bolded portion of this quote is (nor do I need to point out that Donnie Collins doesn’t know how to spell “gentleman’s” or “commitment”), I will anyway.

Of course, due to a highly-publicized quote from Joe Tiller, suddenly Rich Rodriguez is to blame for Penn State’s recruiting tactics. Umm… what? If he wants to try to hold Penn State up as a bastion of sportsmanship, maybe he shouldn’t do so in reference to an incident where they are doing something he deems to be “unsporting.” If Penn State was as virtuous as Collins intends to imply, they wouldn’t be recruiting Newsome, regardless of what Michigan did last year.

In addition, it’s great to see him trying to slam an 18-year-old kid for picking a school that he liked more than Penn State. If Penn State was worth going to, Shaw would have ended up there. Rich Rodriguez is not some sort of hypnotist. Of course, Shaw wasn’t even the recruit that caused the “controversy” in the first place (that would be Roy Roundtree).

And of course, Collins’s entire argument hinges on the presumption that Rodriguez was the first coach to recruit other schools’ commits, which (actually good) columnist Sam Webb pointed out to be not at all true in an unfortunately-no longer free Detroit News article.

Posted under Coaching, Recruiting