The Board.

Added:
FL OL Matt Alajajian. He has been offered (info in header).
NC QB Everett Proctor. He would be a backup QB/DB. Michigan might give him the opportunity to start his career as a QB to get him to commit. He is HS teammates with Xavier Nixon.

New Information:
OK RB David Oku. He has trimmed his list to a top 5, still including Michigan (and no longer including OSU or USC).
MN WR Bryce McNeal. Sam Webb in the DetNews.

Removed:
NC DB Devonte Holloman. Committed to Clemson.
MI WR James Jackson. Committed to Ohio State.
CA QB Tate Forcier. Michigan is probably done recruiting him.
PA OT Eric Shrive. THE Pennsylvania State University.

Analysis:
As I said when it happened, James Jackson hurts because he is an instate guy spurning Michigan to go to Ohio State. He loves the school, but never really got a vibe going with the new coaching staff. His location makes it possible for Rodriguez to continue recruiting him. Holloman hurts because it means another year, no 5-star safeties. He had been planning a Michigan visit tomorrow, and it seems as though his commitment may have been to avoid having to go on the visit when he knew he actually wanted to become a Tiger.

Posted under Recruiting

The Board.

New Information:
AZ DE Craig Roh will visit Michigan this summer.
VA QB Kevin Newsome participated (well) in the Penn Relays.
PA OT Eric Shrive. He has a Nebraska offer, and now one of his teammates will be a Husker.
Article on various prospects including Morgan Newton, Stephon Gilmore, and Quinton Washington.

Not a lot of action this week. Players that I haven’t seen anything about lately (in terms of link to Michigan) may on the cusp of getting dropped (a couple of the quarterbacks, maybe a running back or two, probably safety).

Posted under Recruiting

The Board. Sometime in the coming days MGoBlog’s Brian and I are going to come up with a collaborative effort on the recruiting board. More info when we hash out some definite plans.

Added:
SC OL Quinton Washington. He seems mostly interested in southern schools, but Michigan has offerred.
AZ DE Craig Roh. Jim Stefani has noted that he was someone Michigan should offer – and now they have.

New Information:
TX QB Kolby Gray. Once included on the board as something of an afterthought, he is starting to become kind of a big deal.
NV DE Justin Chaisson. He plans to make a decision after his senior season.
VA CB Damien Thigpen. He recently visited a couple Big East schools.
MD LB Jelani Jenkins fluff.
IL OL Chris Watt <3 ND. :(
PA OL Eric Shrive is going on a midwest visit or two. Michigan not on the itinerary.

Removed:
TX DT Jamarcus McFarland. He is down to a top 3 of LSU, Texas, and Oklahoma.

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

I have seen a lot of delusional fans in my day, especially when it comes to recruiting. Some people think their school of choice will land every five-star prospect, others foolishly think they have a chance with a given guy (Michigan fans: Pryor isn’t signing with the Wolverines. Give it up). One of the most common brands of craziness comes to comparing the relative merits of certain schools. With that, I present today’s evidence: Syracuse football fans (apparently they exist) who think their school is more prestigious than Michigan (no, seriously).

I stumbled upon this goldmine when scouring the internets for information on recent OL offeree Eric Shrive. It comes from the Scout free board (I know, not the best place to find level-headed, rational people) devoted to Syracuse, and concerns the fact that several board members think Michigan’s offer to Shrive does not mean he is deserving of one from mighty Syracuse.

I don’t know what it is but I’m just not feeling it. I don’t think getting an offer from Michigan anymore to be considered “a BIG offer”. I see Michigan and think West Virginia.

Another goes on to clarify slightly that Michigan is still a big(ish) offer, it’s just not as big now that Rich Rodriguez is the coach.

Hard to explain. It’s not an offer FROM Michigan per say, it’s an offer from Rich Rodriquez. I never viewed West Virginia as being a BIG TIME offer and that’s sort of how I view Michigan now. It’s Rich Rod.

Rich Rodriguez has been one of the most successful coaches in America, at a place not exactly set up for success (unlike Michigan). Also, YOU’RE SYRACUSE.

All-time record:
Michigan 869-288-38 (.747)
West Virginia 664-442-45 (.596)
Syracuse 670-462-49 (.588)

Record Since Rich Rodriguez has been at West Virginia (2001):
Michigan 64-24 (.727)
West Virginia 61-26 (.701)
Syracuse 33-51 (.393)

If Pasqualoni was the head coach of Miami U would you consider that to be a BIG TIME offer or would you sort of view it in a different light?

If Pasqualoni was the coach at Miami U (which I assume is supposed to be UMiami), it would be a big offer if a) Pasqualoni was one game away from playing in the BCS championship game this past year, and his team had won 3 straight bowl games, including BCS games they weren’t supposed to win, and b) Miami had been one play away from being in the BCS Championship game two years ago, and had been to a bowl game for 30 straight years, and hadn’t completely sucked recently. One poster starts to grasp the big picture, realizing that, over time and in recent history,

Syracuse football doesn’t hold a candle to Michigan football.
I would think gameday atmosphere could be a big part of the answer here. I love SU, but it will be tough for them to be considered a big time fb school when there’s 30K, most of which straggles in around game time and sits on their hands (when not booing a third-down draw).

Michigan plays in front of 100K at the big house, has a huge athletic budget, the most wins in NCAA history (unless ND has more, but I think it’s Michigan), plays in a bigger football conference (even if it’s mostly perception) and always seems to appear in the top 25 at some point.

Then others come to drag it back down.

If I were a recruit, I would perceive Michigan to be a great offer for those reasons you listed. That being said, I am not in favor of writers who are supposed to be objective, singling out one offer as being better than another. This is not meant to slam Matt, as I think he does a great job (based on reading the few articles of his Scout provides as free, basically about fringe recruits) .

Sorry, guy. Michigan is a better offer than Syracuse, in much the same way that USC is a better offer than (insert school name here). Now, is it the best choice of schools for a particular recruit? Maybe not. But a bigger offer, it definitely is.

p.s. YOU’RE SYRACUSE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

Posted under Recruiting

The Board. Also, if you’re worried about Michigan not getting any new commits, while schools like Texas (7), Ohio State (7), and USC (9) are reeling them in, fear not. Michigan should start getting commits around junior day, which will likely happen in mid-to-late March. Due to the transition of the coaching staff, it is happening a little later than usual. Juniors will take in a spring practice rather than a men’s hoops game.

Added:
MS WR Dennis Thames. His uncle is Detroit Tiger Marcus Thames, and Clayton Moore is his HS teammate.
MS DT Josh Boyd. He reports an offer from Michigan.
TX DE Jamarcus McFarland. If Michigan is serious about recruiting Texas, he would be a great prospect to nab.
AL CB Dre Kirkpatrick. Scout’s #1 CB early in the game. Still scrambling to fill more DB target spots.
OH CB DJ Hunter. Claims offers from every Big Ten school except Ohio State.

Removed:
TX WR Greg Timmons. Committed to Texas.

New Information:
CA QB Tate Forcier. Maryland may have him as their #1 QB target. He will start considering Michigan once the Pryor situation is resolved.
PA OT Eric Shrive. He now reports a Michigan offer.
MI RB Hersey Jackson. After a dispute over a 40 time listed on GoSpartans.net, I asked Allen Trieu of MichiganVarsity.com. He said Jackson ran a 4.6 at a camp last summer. Updated accordingly.
TX WR Josh Gordon. Added a 4.5 40-yard dash time.
NJ OL Khalil Wilkes. His dad played for Rutgers.
NY DE Andre Civil. He wants to stay in the northeast for his college ball. Unless he develops into a four or five star prospect, he is on the verge of being dropped.

Posted under Recruiting