The Board is here. The updates are here:

New Information:
MD OL Brennan Williams. Down to 4 (BC, Mich, Duke, Wake).
FL TE Orson Charles. Knee surgery, will narrow to a top 5 soon.
OH DE Davon Custis. His leader is Boston College.
FL LB Brandin Hawthorne. His final two has changed. Michigan is still in it. Things still look rosy here.
FL S Vlad Emilien. Top 5 of UNC, Wake, tOSU, Mich, UF. He will probably decide in November.
AR CB Darius Winston. He has accelerated his timetable drastically. This is a bad thing for Michigan, but if he picks the Wolverines, then hooray.
FL CB Josh Robinson. Decision on November 30 (USF and UCF seem to lead).
VA CB Javanti Sparrow. Top 6 doesn’t include Michigan, and Kevin Newsome is no longer his teammate. Should he be dropped soon?

Etc.:
A really crappy article that seems to think Winston is a Mich commit. A good sign? Probably not.

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

Added:
CA QB Tate Forcier. He refuses to stop mentioning Michigan, so it would be inappropriate to not at least include him on the board.
FL QB Eugene Smith. Ditto.
CA OG Michael Philipp. Michigan is interested and he wants to visit AA.
MD DE Jason Ankrah. Offered:

Jason has offers from Illinois, Oregon, Maryland, Nebraska, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Michigan State, Syracuse and others. Jason said he attended North Carolina, North Carolina State, Syracuse and Penn State Junior Days.

New Information:
IL OL Commit Michael Schofield. Linked to his junior highlight video.
VA QB Commit Kevin Newsome. Can’t play on the post-grad team at Hargrave?

“We have a rule that, even if that young man, Newsome, wanted to come to our school, he would have to play on the high-school team. We don’t jump over our high-school team.”

FL LB Brandon Hawthorne. Decision after officials.
AL CB Dre Kirkpatrick. Fluff.

Removed:
NC QB Everett Proctor. Michigan seemed to be offering him as a draw to Xavier Nixon, who has eliminated Michigan.
PA OL Adam Gress. Final 2 doesn’t include Michigan. And also, he committed to Penn State.
IL OL Chris Watt. Wolverines out of his final 8.
PA DT Levi Brown. Committed to Temple.
MS DT Josh Boyd. Committed to Mississippi State.
AZ DE Devon Kennard. Michigan did not make his final 5 (USC, UCLA, ASU, Cal, Texas).

Analysis:
So, uh, any other DTs? At this point, there doesn’t seem to be a high correlation between guys who have offers and guys that Michigan can realistically land. If the coaches want another tackle in this class, I expect to see some more offers go out soon. If they landed somebody like Chris Bonds, he could conceivably move from end to tackle, but there isn’t exactly a glut of DEs, either.

Posted under Recruiting

The recruiting board is all-new! If you have any problems with the new incarnation, e-mail me right away. If you have any suggestions, questions, etc., let me know.

Since it’s still in the buggy stages, everything is still up to date at the old board as well.

Moved to Committed:
IN LB Jordan Barnes. Commit article.
TX WR DeWayne Peace. Commit article. He may be moved to another position as word comes out about where Michigan recruited him to play.

Added:
FL LB Jon Bostic. He apparently holds an offer.
OK DE Pearlie Graves. Awesome name, Michigan offer (info in header).

New Information:
FL LB Brandon Hawthorne. We already knew Michigan and USF were his top choices, now we know that Louisville, Tennessee, and West Virginia round out the top 5.
SC DE Chris Bonds. Top 5 of USC, USC, Michigan, ND, and ‘Bama.
OH OL Chris Freeman. Article with no Michigan mention. He is teetering near the edge of being dropped.
OK CB Gabe Lynn. Audio interview in the radio, top 5 by end of summer.
OK RB David Oku. Nebraska official 9-27.

Removed:
PA CB Corey Brown. As expected, commits to Ohio State.
PA DE Juantez Hollins. Pitt commit.
MI TE Mitch Kessel. Cincinnati commit. He was a longshot to ever get an offer.

Analysis:
Losing Brown to the Bucks isn’t that big a deal, because it was expected and prepared for, and means OSU is starting to run low on scholarships to give to other ’09 prospects. Barnes is a Chris Graham-ish player, and he may see a move to MAX back. DeWayne Peace could be a good WR or CB.

Etc.:

Posted under Recruiting

The board.

Added
FL LB Brandon Hawthorne. Michigan in his top two with USF (info in header).
SC S David Sims. Offered.
SC S DJ Swearinger. He has a Michigan offer.
FL CB Angelo Hadley. Offer.

New Information
SC DE Chris Bonds. Recruiting fluff with mention that one of his officials will be to Michigan.
OH OL Chris Freeman. WVU-tinted recruiting fluff.
AZ DE Craig Roh. Plans a summer visit to Michigan.
AL DB Dre Kirkpatrick. Plans to take a visit to Michigan.
NC WR Jheranie Boyd. Michigan is in his top 15.
FL OL Nick Alajajian. He plans to make a summer decision without taking a visit to Michigan. Things don’t look so good here.
SC OL Quinton Washington. Michigan doesn’t make his top 5, but is just barely on the outside.
MD Slot Tavon Austin. Georgia has distinguished itself in his recruitment by offering him as a slot. Michigan has done the same (most other schools want him to play RB), but does not garner special mention.

Removed
TN OL Alex Bullard. Notre Dame commit.

Analysis
Alex Bullard isn’t a huge loss, mostly because it was expected. It may also indirectly help out with Chris Watt (whom I believe UM covets more than Bullard) by making the Irish less appealing to him.

Posted under Recruiting