I know this seems a little bit late, but since I just wrapped up the final TTB Ratings for 2019, I thought it would be time to share “recruiting awards” for the 2019 class. Feel free to pipe in with your own choices, and you can glance back at, say, the 2016 awards (LINK) to see how I did (what’s up, Andrew David?).
Best Overall Recruit: S Daxton Hill
It was a battle to land Hill, who was sought by everyone. Some thought he would go to the home-state Sooners; some thought he would go where his older brother did, Oklahoma State; he was committed to Alabama for a time; and he committed to Michigan twice. He was the #14 overall player to the 247 Composite, and I have him with a 100 as the best safety in the class.
Best Offensive Recruit: RB Zach Charbonnet
Charbonnet has great potential to be a stud running back. He’s fast, strong, catches the ball, and can make people miss.
Hit the jump for the rest of the awards.
Best Defensive Recruit: S Daxton Hill
See above.
Recruit Most Likely to Make an Early Impact: WR Mike Sainristil
Zach Charbonnet could easily go here, but Sainristil has already been named as the likely starter at slot receiver. He had a great spring and brings an ideal combination of skills to the wide receiver spot.
Fastest Recruit: S Daxton Hill
Hill recorded a laser-timed 4.30 forty and a 4.22 forty – and it translates to the field. There has been talk that he could play some wide receiver, too, although it’s probably best to let him settle in on defense first.
Strongest Recruit: OG/C Nolan Rumler
Rumler is a weight room junkie with big plans. Back in 2012, he was saying he wanted to bench press 500 lbs. and squat 700 (LINK). I don’t know exactly where he is on the path to those goals, but they’re not out of reach.
Best Under-the-Radar Recruit: OG Zach Carpenter
I usually limit this to 3-stars, but Sainristil is a 3-star – and he’s a named a starter, along with being a Gatorade Player of the Year in Massachusetts. He’s not under the radar. Instead, I’m going with Carpenter, who’s strong like Rumler but not as well known.
Most Overrated Recruit: QB Cade McNamara
This is supposed to be a 4- or 5-star guy that I don’t think will reach that potential, and my choice is McNamara. I can see a path to playing time for him, but I also can see him fading into the background with people like Joe Milton and J.J. McCarthy sandwiching him.
Recruit Most Likely to Redshirt: OT/OG Jack Stewart
Stewart has good potential, but he plays a position with a lot of depth. I don’t see him playing this season.
Personal Favorite Recruit: RB Zach Charbonnet
I’ve been so desperate for a good running back at Michigan for so many years that I have to hitch my wagon here to Charbonnet. He could end up in the same breath as Biakabutuka, Wheatley, Thomas, Hart, etc. if he stays healthy.
What do you think?
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Man i hope you’re right about Charbonnet. He looks the part, he sounds like he has the right makeup, his situation couldn’t be any better. I just can’t get over the height issue. I’m in believe-it-when-I-see-it mode with the tall RBs. Way more pleased about him listed at 6’1 not 6’2 than I should have been. When I see him deal with defenders in the backfield I’ll be convinced.
I do like the comparison to the ’97 RB rotation. Was never a huge fan of A-Train but I respect what he brought to the table.
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Really hoping for Charbonnet to succeed – this should theoretically be an offense that would attract high-level RB talent, but that hasn’t been the case thus far. Love the addition of Gattis but it steel feels like Harbaugh wants to field a ball control / low turnovers / strong defense type of team. Explosiveness at RB is key (IMO) to making that strategy successful. Hard to imagine we dont beat OSU in 2016 with a Nick Chubb / Dalvin Cook / Royce Freeman at RB, for example.
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We’ll see. I believe Harbaugh ceding control to Gattis is generally legitimate. The turnover avoidance instinct isn’t going to go away IMO but I think he’ll let Gattis get loose to some degree. I don’t know that they’ll be able to lean on the defense like they have in the past. Harbaugh is surely aware.
I found it interesting that they were running drills with 2 balls to maximize the read-option exchanges. I think that’s new.
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That might be new to them; I don’t know. Teams have been doing that type of thing for years, and we do it in my high school program, too.
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Finding a difference-making RB would be nice. I think they’re pretty rare.
I’m not convinced everyone you named is a legitimate difference-maker — Stats don’t always tell the story with backs but some of those guys backups and replacements produced just as well or better. Freeman in particular – I don’t see any great evidence that he’s better than competition on his team or on others.
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Fair enough. 6+ years of watching Vincent Smith / Deveon Smith run the ball has just left me starving for a real difference-maker at the position. Great effort guys, but it would be nice to have someone who requires some defensive game planning.
Don’t necessarily disagree re. Freeman – he’s just one of the names that come to mind. When I think about the real difference makers that I’ve seen at RB over the last few years, the guys that personally come to mind are Cook, Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley – guys who could run and catch and could create yards on their own. I’ve never been blown away by the Alabama RBs, for example.
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Dax Hill — this is totally unfair but I’m disappointed in the lack of buzz about him in the early stages of camp. I think Peppers came in right away and wow’d people. I haven’t seen the “he is definitely going to play” talk yet, which is concerning with openings across the secondary.
Doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but I’m surprised.
I guess it’s good that Turner is drawing early praise since Corner looks like such a position of need in the next few years.
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Same, Dax. I’m also surprised about the lack of buzz. Usually it’s overdone, but in this case it’s almost nada
Agree on McNamara. Hope I’m wrong, but the only two JH quarterback recruits that have excited me are McCaffery and McCarthy
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Freshman safeties, man. That’s why he’s #42 on the countdown. Very, very, very few safeties come in and wow you from day one. It’s too difficult of a position to play.
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Sure, but we’ve heard praise for 4 or 5 Receives (none about DPJ), RB is the ‘deepest position,’ and we have the ‘fastest DL’
Off-season is the time for exaggeration, so I expected to hear SOMETHING
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If all you want to hear is SOMETHING, then I’ve heard good things about Hill. But there’s been very little buzz about the freshmen who didn’t enroll early – because they’ve only been practicing for about two weeks.
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Love this. Fun read and great conversation starter.
Do you think McNamara was recruited as more of a “4 year (including redshirt) and a 5th year handshake” recruit? I live in Nevada and got to see him play and he’s really good, but I don’t think he was better than Tate Martell when he played HS ball in Vegas. My point being is, do schools recruit, “Stud” one year, “Good” next year, “Stud” the year after that to avoid having a bunch of transfers leaving the cupboard bare?
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I’m sure that’s a consideration. You don’t want to recruit guys you see as being prime transfer candidates if they don’t win the job within a year or two. But I don’t think coaches say, “Hey, this guy won’t be good for another five years, so let’s recruit him.” You kind of have to see what type of kid he is and try to figure out whether he’s willing to compete or if he wants to play immediately.
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