2010 Recruiting Board. Big update today. Hopefully everything from the last week can get taken care of in the next update.

Fluff on LA QB Terrance Broadway. There’s no Michigan mention, and it appears as though Michigan probably isn’t pursuing him. Broadway is on the fringe of being removed from the board.

Removed OH QB Dwight Macon. He named a top 3 of Ball State, Toledo, and Bowling Green. It appears at this time that he’s probably a MAC-level talent, and of no further interest to Michigan fans.

Michigan is likely to make the next cut for FL RB Brandon Gainer (info in header).

Removed GA RB Kendrun Malcome, who committed to Georgia. Malcome wasn’t a great prospect of interest to Michigan fans, but the Wolverines may feel a ripple effect. Georgia has been the leader for FL RB Eduardo Clements for some time, with Michigan not far behind. Malcome joins 2009 commit Washaun Ealey in the Dawgs’ backfield, and the crowded situation may help the Wolverines look a little more attractive in comparison.

Removed OH RB Braylon Heard, who’s headed to West Virginia.

Removed PA RB Dom Timbers. He committed to Syracuse, and was likely not a Michigan-caliber recruit.

Removed FL WR James Louis. He’s narrowed down to a final 4 that does not include Michigan.

Removed PA WR Andrew Carswell. He committed to Pittsburgh.

Removed FL OL Chaz Green. He’s only focusing on 5 main schools. With a planned decision by the end of summer, that doesn’t give Michigan enough time to try to get back into this one.

OH DT Terry Talbott plans to take all 5 official visits before committing to any school. By the way, he and his (non-twin) brother Terrance happen to attend the same school as QB Braxton Miller, probably Ohio’s top prospect in the class of 2011.

Removed FL DT Richard Ash, who has now been offered by USC. Since USC and Florida were his dream offers, and he has them both now, look for one of those two schools to land the Pahokee product. His early commitment (August 28th) doesn’t give Michigan much time to get back into this one, either.

Sam Webb Detroit News fluff on MI DE CJ Olaniyan. Of note: He’s close to setting a top-5 list, and Michigan is one of the 5-6 schools he’s already visited. the Wolverines look to have a chance for his top list. However, with the way defensive end recruiting has gone so far this season, I’d be surprised if he ultimately ended up in blue.

Removed GA DE Henry Anderson, who picked Stanford.

Added OH LB Cameron Ontko, who is “hearing from Michigan” (info in header).

Removed FL LB Zachery Allen. The Pahokee product (probably Michigan’s last best hope for a Blue Devil in the class of 2010) picked Wake Forest.

The somewhat-odd saga of MI LB/DE Andy Phillips came to an end last week. Early in the week, he said “if I’m going to play MAC ball, I’m going to play at CMU” ($). He was still seeking out better offers, but by the weekend, he was ready to play MAC ball for CMU. I’ve removed him from the board.

Removed MI S Earnest Thomas, who committed to UCLA. He never received much attention from Michigan, but it seems as though he blossomed into a better prospect than many were expecting. In other Orchard Lake St. Mary’s news, QB Robert Bolden, who has already been removed from the recruiting board, is announcing a decision on Friday, likely for Penn State.

FL CB Tony Grimes has set up his official visit to Ann Arbor (info in header). Forthcoming: free news on when that visit actually is.

MI CB Dior Mathis now favors Oregon and Michigan State over the Wolverines. Since Michigan had long been considered the favorite, that’s a bad thing, but there’s plenty of time to get back in the forefront of this Cass Tech player’s radar. Mathis will decide after his senior season, and plans to enroll early at his school of choice.

Sparty fluff on MI P Mike Sadler, who is one of the three kicking specialists Michigan is looking at heavily for this class (WI P Will Hagerup is the only one who has been offered at this point). Also mentioned is OH LB Jewone Snow. Michigan has yet to offer, but does have a family connection in their favor, as he’s the son of Garland Rivers. I wouldn’t be upset if the Wolverines offered for two reasons 1) He’s at MLB, a position of need, and 2) It could only help in recruiting his 2011 teammate, DE Steve Miller.

…and that seems like a perfect transition to talk a little 2011 recruiting and Miller. Video interview (HT: UMGoBlog):

Miller has visited Ann Arbor, but he says that Ohio State was his dream school growing up. If this Michigan coaching staff wants to get truly serious about recruiting, they’ll have to start beating the Buckeyes for prospects from Ohio. Going hard after Miller might be a good way to start getting that going. Steve already holds a Michigan offer.

Since the 2010 recruiting class is already starting to take shape, the 2011 recruiting board should be ready to debut any time. I’ll unleash it on the publis whenever the Wolverines get their first verbal commit for the class of 2011 (which may be coming soon, according to some insiders).

Posted under Football, Recruiting

2010 Michigan Recruiting Board.

OH QB Caleb Watkins appears to be a MAC-level talent. With that in mind, along with the fact that the Wolverines already have two quarterbacks committed, he’s ready to be removed from the board.

Josh Helmholdt says in the Free Press that which has already been internet scuttlebutt for quite some time: MI RB Austin White has been a Michigan lean since early this spring. The rest of the article is mediocre at best, with the general idea being “MSU is way better because they signed 12 guys from the state of Michigan last year,” but, like, Michigan only wanted maybe 304 of them, so what’s the point?

FL RB Eduardo Clements counts Michigan among his top 3 with Georgia and Miami. He plans an additional pair of official visits to Tennessee and South Florida.

FL RB Giovanni Bernard seems to have eliminated Michigan from the running:

“I have it nailed down to my nine right now. I don’t know exactly when I’ll make my choice, maybe make my one school decision around signing day. I’m just really trying to enjoy this, really concentrate on the schools I’m wanting to go to and at the same time concentrate on football. Right now, the nine schools are Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, FSU, Miami, Oklahoma, Oregon State, Notre Dame, and Nebraska.”

I’ll leave him on the board just a little while longer until it can be confirmed he’s naming a final 9, rather than just a top 9. He plans to announce his commitment near Signing Day.

GA RB Mack Brown will be announcing his decision in July, and is down to two choices (info in header). Since Michigan hasn’t been involved in his recruitment lately, it’s probably safe to assume that the Wolverines won’t be his choice. That’s reason enough for me to remove him from the board.

Removed GA RB Kendrun Malcome, who committed to UGa.

Removed MI RB Nick Hill, who committed to Michigan State. Actually, he was a guy who reeeally wanted a Michigan offer, so I’ll leave him on the board just a bit longer.

Removed PA RB Dom Timbers, who committed to Syracuse.

Fluff on LA WR Trovon Reed, about losing his mother this spring. Reed is a prototypical slot receiver, and part of a potential mega-package including TX RB Lache Seastrunk. With these factors in mind, it’s hard to imagine a reason that the Michigan staff hasn’t heavily pursued him, and instead went for players like Tony Drake and Drew Dileo. There’s always the chance that they know something we don’t, but doesn’t it seem like they didn’t even give top-ranked guys a chance? Michigan isn’t mentioned in the article, and Reed is soon to be long gone from the board.

FL WR Chris Dunkley doesn’t seem to be too high on Michigan anymore (if he ever really was):

“I like West Virginia, I like Florida, Florida State. I like Ohio State, I like USC, and I like Georgia. That’s not in any order I’m just naming schools off the top of my head.”

Since that’s not an official list at this time, I’ll leave him on the board. He plans to announce his decision during the Under Armour All American game in January.

Removed OH OL Taylor Miller, who committed to Toledo.

GA DT Michael Thornton has received a Michigan offer (info in header). His alleged excitement about it is more likely to be headline writing rather than an indication of his actual interest, though, so don’t think he’ll be committing to Michigan any time soon.

OH DT Jibreel Black has selected Indiana. This is only a moderate surprise, since his brother Larry already plays for the Hoosiers. However, Jibreel had a much more impressive offer sheet than his brother coming out of high school, including teams like Michigan and Michigan State. I wouldn’t put it past this Michigan staff to give Black one more big push. If they don’t, I’ll remove him from the board.

GA DE Henry Anderson was considering a Michigan visit this week:

Clemson and South Carolina will make the cut with DE/OL Henry Anderson (6-6, 245) of College Park, Ga., when he gets down to a final 10 this week. Anderson said last week Georgia Tech, Stanford and Virginia also will be on the list. He will visit Wisconsin on Tuesday and might see Michigan while he’s up in that area.

No word on whether he actually made it, but if he did, the Wolverines are likely to be on that top 10 list. When it is revealed to a free source, we’ll know if Michigan is still under consideration.

In your occasional 2011 snippet, Bucknuts guru Bill Kurelic thinks that 2011 OH CB Greg Brown might be committing to Michigan sometime soon. Brown has been favoring Michigan for a while now (though it had been thought that OSU was making a play for him this spring), and received an offer from the coaching staff following Michigan’s camp.

Whenever Michigan gets its first 2011 commit, the 2011 recruiting board will debut. If you know of anyone who should be on it, let me know in the comments or by e-mail.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

With information coming in so fast, I may go back to just posting updates as they get full instead of waiting for a particular day of the week. Expect at least one more this week, because there’s a lot of stuff I didn’t fit in here.

Don’t forget to visit the 2010 Michigan Recruiting Board.

PA QB Anthony Gonzalez is a little busy to take his visits right now, but once his basketball season ends, he’ll hit Illinois and Michigan in one trip sometime this spring.

PA QB Malik Stokes (younger brother of 2009 signee WR Je’Ron) says he’s expecting offers to start rolling in once he gets a qualifying score on the SAT. Michigan is one of the schools that he’s predicting might offer.

In other QB news (or non-QB news, as it were), TX QB Aaron Johnson, though he’s a dual-threat QB in high school, and is getting looks from some schools as a quarterback, says that Michigan is looking at him as an athlete, rather than a signal-caller.

FL Slot WR DeJoshua Johnson has accepted an invitation to play in the ESPNU Under Armour All American Game next January. By the time that game rolls around, fans will already know which school the Pahokeeite plans to attend.

CA CB Troy Hill isn’t particularly stoked on Michigan. The implication of that article is that he’s no longer considering Michigan at all after Taylor Hill didn’t end up here (he’s at Kent State), but I think it’s more accurate to say that they have moved from the top of his list into the “others” category, rather than off the list altogether.

“My brother played there but transferred out after they got a new coach,” said Hill.

Apparently, the brother in question is Taylor Hill, but this statement also doesn’t make sense because Taylor Hill never even considered Michigan until Rich Rodriguez became the coach.

This particular Scout headline has a fair amount of relevant information about TX LB Caleb Lavey. 1) He has been offered by Michigan. 2) His dad was an equipment manager for Michigan’s team in the 70s. These things both bode well for Michigan, obviously. Considering all the Michigan connections with LaVey, and the fact that he’s one of the very few linebackers who have been offered, I’d assume at this time that he’s the #1 LB target, and probably the most likely of any player at the position to end up in this class. Of course, things are constantly changing in recruiting, so that status may or may not last for long.

The Detroit Free Press notes that Michigan is interested in OH OL Andrew Donnal. He’s been added to the board as well.

Free Press fluff on CA RB (and noted former teammate of Tate Forcier) Brennan Clay:

“Clay has no plans to make a decision in the near future, but he has not ruled out the possibility either. He will attend Michigan’s spring game in April to see Forcier in his first game-like atmosphere as a Wolverine, but he also plans to spend a few extra days touring the campus and football facilities. Whether that weekend will be enough to seal up Clay’s commitment remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt Michigan will be a strong contender for his services.”

Emphasis mine, because this sounds significantly more positive than conventional wisdom on Clay, for what it’s worth. Most people predict he’ll remain on the west coast (with Oregon as the favorite?). Not only do I think he won’t commit that weekend, but Michigan is a longshot to gain a commitment from him at all. Of course, there’s plenty of time to make up ground.

Georgia and Georgia Tech have both told GA RB Mack Brown that he’ll be able to wear #33 should he choose either of their schools. At Michigan, that number is currently sported by Boubacar Cissoko, but he is rumored to be switching to #2 (then again, rumor has it Justin Turner will wear that number as well, so who knows?). Brown also placed the Wolverines in his top 10 after his offer came through.

FL LB Christian Jones has been offered. So has MD LB/S Josh Furman, and VA LB Aramide Olaniyan has also received his offer (info in header), along with FL DE Delvin Jones. Rounding out the recent offer train is CA S Sean Parker. (All info in headers). All have been added to the board.

Might GA RB Kendrun Malcome be coming up soon in that list of offerees? He certainly thinks that’s likely.

“I think UGA or Michigan will be the next to offer,” he said. “I haven’t heard from Georgia Tech.” Malcome, who also runs track at Southwest, hopes to make a decision during or shortly after the football season.

So take that for what it’s worth.

In what is probably the last item of 2009 recruiting news, NC Ath Larry Raper signed with NC A&T after Michigan decided not to offer him. He has been removed from the 2009 board.

Posted under Football, Recruiting