OFF THE BOARD
Devon Betty – DE – Fort Lauderdale (FL) St. Thomas Aquinas: Betty committed to North Carolina State.
Javian Hester – WR – Tulsa (OK) Booker T. Washington: Hester committed to Missouri. He was a teammate of Daxton Hill’s. Hester is a 4-star, the #40 wide receiver, and #233 overall.
MISCELLANEY
Here’s a list of players who visited Michigan last weekend (LINK).
I’m tracking Michigan’s 2020 and 2021 commits’ seasons over on the message board (LINK), including J.J. McCarthy, J.D. Johnson, Blake Corum, etc.
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I don’t follow recruiting as closely as you do. Would you say Michigan does a good | fair | or bad job of maintaining balance across all the position needs?
I ask this because this year we’re on pins-and-needles about the DT role. I recall a bunch of DE offers and commits, and we have Hinton and Smith in the stable, but would you say we’ve given proper focus to that position?
As you scan the recruiting focus for Harbaugh since he arrived, what do you see in terms of under-recruited and over-recruited positions?
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I think Harbaugh’s done a better job of this than Hoke. Though, to be fair JH was in an advantageous position of more or less having a “full cupboard” that fit his desired personnel whereas Rodriguez and Hoke started with rosters that did not – at least on offense. That means scrambling.
A mildly similar thing going on with Gattis right now. Michigan has some TEs and FBs they don’t need anymore and hit WR hard in the last class. We’ll see what 2020 looks like but the way they recruiting TE is a bit curious. I think many want to see more pure OTs with NFL upside now that OL has stabilized.
With defense Brown seems to be up to something. There are a ton of hybrid LB types in recent classes. Everyone is a viper. Not enough pure DBs IMO. Traditionally you can take some corners and move them to safety if they aren’t lock-down in coverage, but that hasn’t been happening under Brown. Obviously Zordich is doing work with CBs, but depth has been flimsy and OSU and FSU feasted by picking on the weakest cover guy. Nothing new there but it speaks to the need for depth. CB feels like a roster problem despite on-field success. Seems potentially disastrous if Zordich goes elsewhere.
The DT vs big DE argument has been made on here before too. DL numbers should be higher IMO. LB is more than well-stocked.
Of course everyone wants the 5 star corners and 300 pound DT freaks so that’s not easy.
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Any comment about Jordan Morant’s official visits elsewhere?
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I’m never comfortable with players taking visits elsewhere. I mean, it’s certainly their right to do so, but from Michigan’s perspective, you have to wonder how solid his commitment is. If you’re taking visits, you’re not committed, IMO.
However, Morant was planning to take all his officials, and he wasn’t supposed to announce until the All-American Bowl. He self-admittedly pulled the trigger early because he had a great visit to Michigan, but he said all along he was going to take all five officials. So I take this as Michigan being named the leader while he continues to explore his options.
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Need a better picture of Myles – the way the light is hitting him it looks like his hair is going gray at age 17.
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