Moved from Committed:

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

The Board. One formatting note: I changed players’ names to links, so if you want to see previous updates involving a particular player, just click on his name in the main board. Soon I will remove a lot of prospects whom I don’t see mutual Michigan interest with.

Moved to committed:
Shavodrick Beaver. Commitment article from local paper.

Added:
FL RB Jaamal Berry. He has a Michigan offer, though rumors say I should be ready to remove him soon because he will commit to the Bucks.

New Information:
MN WR Fritz Rock. He has apparently had his Minnesota offer pulled. He is a candidate for removal in the not-so-distant future.
SC DE Chris Bonds plans to take a Michigan official visit, and will decide around Christmas. He is also Adam Patterson’s HS teammate, which I guess might be obvious, but I hadn’t realized until just now.
OH OL Chris Freeman. He is still wide open, and will visit LSU this month.
MI WR Cameron Gordon. Fluff.

Removed:
A bunch of QB recruits who aren’t guys that Michigan would likely take as the third guy in a class, and didn’t have offers yet (and would be unlikely to move to other positions).
FL QB Eugene Smith
IN QB Morgan Newton
IN QB Jordan Luallen
MS QB Clayton Moore
TX QB Kolby Gray
IL QB Darwin Rogers
MO RB Ronnie Wingo. No mention of mutual interest in any articles.
Dangerously close to removing MI TE Reid Fragel, who Michigan only wants at OT, and apparently wants to stay at TE.

Etc.:
Nice Rivals video piece on the QB commits. Freep article on same. Also from Rivals: article on Nike camp, featuring lots of UM recruits.

Posted under Recruiting

With two commitments and a few prospects down, it was a big weekend of change for the recruiting board.

Removed:
KS LB Jaydan Bird. Committed to Oklahoma. Not a huge loss, as I don’t think there was ever great mutual interest. He seemed like one of those guys who mention Michigan early in the process to make them sound like big-time prospects.
TX OL Mason Walters. Committed to Texas. Not sure anyone but the Horns ever had a really legit shot at him.

New Information:
MI RB Teric Jones. Freep article on his commitment.
VA QB Kevin Newsome. Track video interview.

Etc.: Wisconsin looking to add some spread? Trotwood-Madison track (Michael Shaw and Chris Freeman). AP Indiana all-state basketball selections (Stuart Douglass special mention, Zach Novak 1st team). Mike Hart will be signing autographs at Briarwood MDen on Saturday. Free Press photo gallery from Saturday’s spring practice.

Posted under Basketball

Since yesterday’s update was a little half-assed (I was still feeling the effects of my St. Patrick’s Day celebration, to be honest with you), I’ll give a little more substantive update today.

The Board.

Added:
NC RB Desmond Scott. Jim Stefani notes that he would be a good fit for RR’s spread offense.
MN WR Bryce McNeal. He has been offered by Michigan.
UT OL Xavier Sua’filo. He seems like a top prospect, and has stated that he is interested in Michigan.

Removed:
VA QB Tajh Boyd. This means Virginia Tech will be more likely to pursue Kevin Newsome even harder, making it difficult for Michigan to land him.

New Information:
MS WR Dennis Thames has been offered by Michigan.
SC DE Chris Bonds has been offered.
TN WR Marlon Brown won’t decide until after signing day.
OH OL Chris Freeman plans to attend several spring practices.

Posted under Recruiting

Board.

I rearranged the information for a few prospects to make it a bit easier to digest.

A lot of prospects have reported that they aren’t “feeling the love” from the new staff like they were from Carr’s or are from other schools. However, it is important to note that the staff not only had to fall behind in ’09 to catch up with the ’08 prospects (they caught up with ’08, so one must assume with an entire year they’ll be able to do it in ’09), but they also are moving families to a new city, getting acquainted with the team’s current players, and even getting to know each other and develop new schemes. Once some of these things get worked out, ’09 recruiting should pick up.

If Michigan ends up with any of their top 3 quarterback prospects (Shepard, Murray, and Forcier, IMO), they will have a QB who is enrolling in winter for spring term. Hopefully it works out better this time than it did for Ryan Mallett.

Junior Day is next week (3-14ish), and after that, the recruiting picture could start to clear up quite a bit (including, possibly, a commitment or two).

New Information:
TX QB Russell Shepard. Linked to an article from New Era Scouting. BON thinks Mack Brown may give up on him.
FL QB Aaron Murray. Now reporting a Michigan offer, though I’ve noted conflicting information on the topic.
CA QB Tate Forcier. PSU and Oregon are the favorites? Michigan still seems to be strongly in this one.
FL WR Nu’Keese Richardson. He was the high school teammate of new Wolverine Martavious Odoms.
MI WR Cameron Gordon. 2007 Michigan summer camper. He will be playing at Inkster, not Melvindale this coming season.
PA OT Eric Shrive. Linked to local paper’s blog devoted to Shrive’s recruitment.
OH OT Chris Freeman. Have noticed that some fans are curiously interested in him as a power forward for their basketball squads.
LA DT Chris Davenport. Now has a Michigan offer.
MS DT Josh Boyd. Plans to decide on signing day.
OH DB Justin Turner. Left him at CB, though he may be a college safety. He now has a Michigan offer.

Removed:
MI RB Edwin Baker. To Michigan State. A candidate to be re-added if he wavers.

Added:
OK RB David Oku. Michigan is in his top 9. His junior highlight.

Posted under Recruiting

The board, which no longer has “debuts!” in its title.

Added:
PA DT Levi Brown. A 1-technique tackle prospect, and HS teammate of DE prospect Braxton Isaac.

Removed:
WV QB Craig Crawford. He has stated he does not want to play QB in college. He has also heard from the West Virginia staff, but not Michigan at all.
TX QB Tyrik Rollison. No apparent mutual interest between Michigan and Rollison. He has claimed a list of 3: Oklahoma, Texas, and A&M.
MI TE Mitch Kessel. It doesn’t appear he will become a D1 prospect.
MI OT Christian Brandt. He won’t be a high-D1 prospect.

Additional Information:
MI RB Hersey Jackson now has a reported 40 time of 4.8. He’ll be a fullback if he wants to play high-D1.
Russell Shepard has been named the #1 prospect in Texas (ahead of current Longhorns QB commit Garrett Gilbert). Craig Loston is #3. Not sure why this video from Rivals is free, but it is, so enjoy. Shepard talks about his favorites, his work in the community, and other interesting facts.
Dorian Bell reports a Michigan offer.
Craig Loston 5 stars (up from 4). He will probably be one of the top safeties in the nation next year. He hasn’t mentioned Michigan much, but he has talked about attending the same school as his cousin Russell Shepard.
OH OL Chris Freeman from Trotwood Madison is the cousin of OSU LB Marcus Freeman.

Posted under Recruiting