Nolan Ulizio is my nomination for “most underrated” in the 2017 Countdown
First of all, thanks for reading. I can’t tell you how monumental of a task it was to write approximately 100 posts about the upcoming football season. This year was more of a Herculean task than others, and I thought about cutting it off numerous times. There were several times where I was up at 4:00 a.m. or staying up until midnight to get posts ready. It brings a literal sigh of relief to have this thing finished.
Below is the countdown from beginning to end. Due to a couple stupid omissions and counting errors, I have rearranged the following list to hold true to a numerical countdown, rather than keeping the 3A, 3B, 5A, 5B, etc. This should give you a truer sense of the ranking, even if the actual posts themselves might have slightly different numbers.
- Wilton Speight
- Rashan Gary
- Maurice Hurst, Jr.
- Mason Cole
- Tyree Kinnel
- Bryan Mone
- Mike McCray II
- Chase Winovich
- Patrick Kugler
- Khaleke Hudson
- Devin Bush Jr.
- Ben Bredeson
- Quinn Nordin
- Chris Evans
- Josh Metellus
- Kekoa Crawford
- Khalid Hill
- Ian Bunting
- Michael Onwenu
- Lavert Hill
- Tyrone Wheatley, Jr.
- Carlo Kemp
Keith Washington- Brandon Peters
- David Long, Jr.
- Michael Dwumfour
- Cesar Ruiz
- Jordan Glasgow
- Aubrey Solomon
- Tarik Black
- Henry Poggi
- Brad Robbins
- Luiji Vilain
- Jon Runyan, Jr.
- Andrew Robinson
- Michael Wroblewski
- Donovan Peoples-Jones
- Brandon Watson
- Karan Higdon
- Noah Furbush
- Eddie McDoom
- Juwann Bushell-Beatty
- Ty Isaac
- Ambry Thomas
- Grant Perry
- Nate Johnson
- Stephen Spanellis
- Garrett Moores
- Kareem Walker
- John O’Korn
- Nate Schoenle
- Drake Harris
- Zach Gentry
- Josh Uche
- Sean McKeon
- Nolan Ulizio
- J’Marick Woods
- Nick Eubanks
- Maurice Ways, Jr.
- Reuben Jones
- Jordan Anthony
- Joshua Ross
- Carl Myers
- Lawrence Marshall
- Oliver Martin
- James Hudson III
- Andrew Vastardis
- Benjamin St-Juste
- Jaylen Kelly-Powell
- Andrew Stueber
- Nico Collins
- Elysee Mbem-Bosse
- Chuck Filiaga
- Ron Johnson
- O’Maury Samuels
- Devin Gil
- Ryan Tice
- Jared Wangler
- Brad Hawkins, Jr.
- Donovan Jeter
- Ben Mason
- Drew Singleton
- Kurt Taylor
- Will Hart
- Ja’Raymond Hall
- Kwity Paye
Corey Malone-Hatcher- Tru Wilson
- Camaron Cheeseman
- Conner Edmonds
- Joe Hewlett
- Phillip Paea
- Dylan McCaffrey
- Deron Irving-Bey
Simeon Smith- Joel Honigford
- Jack Wangler
- Michael Sessa
- Grant Newsome
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We all appreciate your efforts very much! But I can imagine how much work it is to do.
In the future, perhaps group the 21 – 100 list to weekly updates, offered 10 at a time? And then go to one-a-day for the top 20?
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Thanks. The issue is traffic, really. Traffic was up about 20% in July, and in August it’s up by about 75%. Naturally, more people care about #10 than they did about #95. Traffic is probably going to build as the season nears, anyway, but I don’t know if it would build to that extent if it was just a once-weekly update. On top of that, if I only did a once-a-week post, then I would still have to try to come up with content for the other six days of the week. As things stand, I’ve basically had to give up the weekly recruiting updates and opinion pieces. There’s just not enough time in the day.
But I appreciate the suggestion. I may have to do a once-weekly post and forget about posting every day in the future.
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No way – daily updates in early summer make the countdown!
My advice is write drafts of these things in February/March downtime and revise in the summer. Usually not that much changes in the spring for most players.
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Oh, I agree … the daily updates are terrific. I lived off them like a poor college kid lives off Ramen noodles. But it must take a great deal of work collect all the information and formulate the posts.
I like your idea of blocking out the posts in the Feb/Mar time frame. The order may change, but the content for a given player isn’t likely to change too much. What I don’t know is whether Thunder is already doing something like that …
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You did an awesome job. Thanks for putting in the work. The countdown is my favorite feature/series on the site.
Go Blue!
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I think the only two scholarship players missing are Shelton Johnson and Alex Malzone.
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Johnson is gone for good after being on thin ice for a long while.
Malzone was covered by Thunder as not worth ranking in the top 100. Even with that low of a bar it’s hard to disagree.
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Great job on site. Love it. I do want (for the record) put down my own predictions as a reference. It’s the least I can do since Thunder has put down his projections.
1. Higdon will have close to 600 yards rushing. Close.
2. Running game will have a total of about 1600 yards.
3. McKeon will be the leading TE in total yards receiving.
4. UM will win 11 games which will include bowl game
5. UM will beat OSU
6. UM will lose at PSU
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Hard to see 11 wins with such an unproductive run game. 1600 would be the lowest total in a long time. last year was nearly 2800. this decade’s low was 2013: 1634. I’m as worried about the OL as anyone, but I think we’ll top 2000 (the 2015 total).
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Florida seems like a weaker team although if UM loses that game then my prediction goes out. I just think the Big Ten isn’t that deep and if UM beats Fla and with OSU at home then 11 is definitely possible since they will be in a winnable bowl game. Optimistic? Yes.
You are definitely onto something with the run game totals. I was too conservative to justify an 11 win season although I believe the defense is going to be better than people may realize although growing pains early but against some flawed teams.
I will bump up my initial projections and I give you credit. I call it a Lanmulligan.
1. Higdon close to 750 yards
2. Run game close to total of 2100 yards.
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Thanks for finishing this Thunder!
What happened to Mike? He had some good stuff, and could probably fill in when you’re swamped. I like Lank’s idea of throwing much of this together early, and fine tuning as time passes. While you’re doing the initial stuff, Mike can cover; when you get busy as HS football picks up, he can cover again, but you can “catch up” by releasing more than one at a time as your schedule permits
*all merely suggestions; anything to keep this going!
GO BLUE
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Amazing job, Thunder! I can’t imagine the effort that you put into this.
In general, I agree with the list but I can’t help but feel that a 9 win season SHOULD be considered a success. The top 25 are littered with first time sophomore/freshman starters. No matter how higly regarded they are, I think they have a steep learning curve. If Harbaugh can pull this off with a 10-win season, he deserved a Coach Of the Year award.
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