Posts by: touchbann_adminuser

Site News: What do you want on the new site?

UPDATE: This is bumped from its original post date of March 14. Thanks to the funds many of you have sent my way (Paypal is on the left sidebar if you’re interested in helping), I have gathered enough to start the website redesign. I have a meeting with the developer this coming week, and I will continue to look for additional feedback from you, the reader. What requests do you have for the new site?

Thank you!
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Good morning, trusted TTB readers! I know I’ve been promising a new site for a while, and I actually have had a domain name and a new platform for an embarrassingly long time without doing anything about it. Unfortunately, while trolling around WordPress, I realized that I have become pretty proficient at using Blogger . . . and not at all proficient at actually building a website from scratch. It’s like your first girlfriend – you like her because you don’t know any better.

But it’s time to be a grown-up and ask other people for help, so I am hiring a professional web developer to create my new site. We had a meeting the other day and should be getting rolling soon, even though it will surely take a bit of time to code and launch the new site.

Here are a few of the features planned:

• Drop-down menus to clear some of the clutter up top
• Individual logins for commenters
• A message board for readers to post threads/comments

Here’s what I would like from you:

• What other features would you like to see?
• What features do you like about the current site that might translate well to the new site?
• What advice do you have regarding the look of the site, the implementation of the message board, etc.?

Recruiting Update: April 13, 2015

Oak Park (MI) Oak Park offensive tackle JaRaymond Hall

Thanks to Spencer for your recent donation! If anyone else would like to help with the effort to redesign the site, please use Paypal (on the left sidebar) or consider buying something from Amazon via the link (LINK) on the right sidebar.

COMMITMENTS
Southfield (MI) Southfield running back Matt Falcon committed to Michigan (LINK).

Weber State punter Blake O’Neill is transferring to Michigan (LINK).

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2016
Houston (TX) Westside defensive tackle Jordan Elliott decommitted from Baylor. He’s a 6’4″, 305 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Florida State, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, and USC, among others. He’s a 247 Composite 4-star, the #12 defensive tackle, and #93 overall. As a junior in 2014, he made 78 tackles, 31 tackles for loss, and 12 sacks. The decommitment took place shortly after he took an unofficial visit to Texas, and the Longhorns are thought to be the favorite to land Elliott.

Jacksonville (FL) First Coast wide receiver Kevin Stepherson was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’0″, 180 lb. prospect with offers from LSU, Notre Dame, and others. He’s a Rivals 3-star wideout and seems relatively unknown at this time, but he shows some good long speed and an ability to run after the catch. The Tigers and Fighting Irish make up his top two, so Michigan has some catching up to do.

Hit the jump for several more new offers and some miscellaneous bits.

Rialto (CA) Carter linebacker Lokeni Toaioloa, a UCLA commit, was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’1, 212 lb. prospect who committed in late March; he also has offers from Miami, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, and USC, among others. He’s a 247 Composite 4-star, the #1 inside linebacker, and #58 overall. Toaioloa is a solidly built, hard-hitting linebacker and probably won’t give Michigan much of a look.

Green Bay (WI) Bay Port offensive tackle Cole Van Lanen was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’5″, 270 lb. prospect with offers from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and others. He’s a 247 Composite 4-star, the #27 offensive tackle, and #279 overall. Wisconsin is the odds-on favorite.

Springhill (LA) North Webster linebacker Devin White was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’1″, 260 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Ohio State, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M, among others. He’s a 247 Composite 4-star, the #10 athlete, and #148 overall. The reason he’s labeled as an “athlete” is because in addition to making 90+ tackles in each of the past two seasons, he ran for 2,287 yards and 30 touchdowns as a junior running back in 2014. He could play linebacker, defensive end, or some sort of H-back at the next level, but his highlights are impressive, one of the best highlight packages I’ve seen in the 2016 recruiting cycle. As are most highly touted Louisianans, he’s expected to go to LSU.

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2017
Waxhaw (NC) Cuthbertson wide receiver J.T. Cauthen was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’1″, 200 lb. prospect with offers from Clemson, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia, among others. He’s a 247 Sports 4-star, the #13 wide receiver, and #68 overall. As a sophomore in 2014, he caught 104 passes for 1,464 yards and 15 touchdowns. He makes some very athletic catches and has a solid build for being just a sophomore.

Oak Park (MI) Oak Park offensive tackle JaRaymond Hall was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’5″, 255 lb. prospect with two other offers coming from Bowling Green and Miami-OH. Hall might be too short to be a tackle right now, although he’s just a sophomore and should grow a little bit. He does a great job of firing low off the ball, keeping a wide base, and driving his feet through the whistle. Linemen typically develop a little bit later, but Hall is the best in-state lineman I’ve seen in the 2017 cycle so far. He attends Oak Park, which sent running back John Kelly to Tennessee in the 2015 class; several of his teammates have gone to MAC schools in recent years, too.

Waco (TX) La Vega tight end Kedrick James was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’4″, 245 lb. prospect with an offer from Baylor. James is a big body who moves pretty well in a straight line, but he lacks refinement as a blocker and pass catcher. He’s a good developmental prospect.

Hyattsville (MD) DeMatha running back Anthony McFarland, Jr. was offered by Michigan. He’s a 5’9″, 181 lb. prospect with offers from Clemson, Florida State, Georgia, Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin, among others. He’s a 247 Sports 5-star, the #2 running back, and #28 overall. McFarland has scorching speed and looks a little like Chris Johnson running the ball. The Seminoles lead the Crystal Ball predictions, but McFarland was openly campaigning for a Michigan offer, so maybe there’s a shot.

Anaheim (CA) Servite wide receiver Osiris St. Brown was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’1″, 178 lb. prospect with offers from Illinois, Kentucky, Notre Dame, Texas Tech, and Utah, among others. He’s a 247 Composite 4-star, the #15 wide receiver, and #74 overall. He is the brother of Equanimeous St. Brown, a Notre Dame incoming freshman wideout.

Philadelphia (PA) St. Joseph’s running back D’Andre Swift was offered by Michigan. He’s a 5’9″, 195 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Iowa, Penn State, Pitt, and Rutgers, among others. He’s a 247 Sports 4-star, the #1 all-purpose back, and #8 overall. Swift is a kid who can do a little bit of everything – run, catch, return kicks, play corner, etc. He doesn’t have truly elite speed, but he accelerates quickly and is very tough to bring down in space. He attends the same school as 2015 signee Jon Runyan, Jr.

OFF THE BOARD
Kathleen (GA) Veterans quarterback Logan Byrd committed to North Carolina. Byrd did not have a Michigan offer, but he visited Ann Arbor several weeks ago and lots of people assumed he would leave town with a chance to play for Michigan. The offer never came, Brandon Peters committed to Michigan, and now Byrd is a Tarheel.

MISCELLANEOUS
Charlotte (NC) Ardrey Kell defensive end Julian Okwara named a top five that includes Michigan. The other schools on his list are Clemson, Georgia, Notre Dame, and Ole Miss. However, he has already set an announcement date of April 30th and has not visited Michigan, so that’s a big hint not to get excited.

Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei linebacker Curtis Robinson named a top seven that does not include Michigan. It does include Duke, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington.

Over on Recruiting Season, I added a profile for:

• Greenville TE Keegan Cossou

Blake O’Neill, Wolverine

Blake O’Neill

Weber State punter Blake O’Neill is transferring to Michigan. He has spent just one year playing American football and will be eligible as a fifth year senior graduate transfer in 2015.

As technically a redshirt junior in 2014, he punted 62 times for 2,737 yards (44.1 yards/punt). He had a career long of 74 yards, landed 25 punts inside the 20-yard line, and kicked 18 punts more than 50 yards. That punting average was #6 in the Football Championship Subdivision and #1 all-time at Weber State. Standing 6’2″ and 215 lbs., he ran a fake punt 20 yards and completed a 17-yard pass on another fake punt against Montana State.

O’Neill brings an array of punting talents to Michigan. He can deaden the ball near the goal line, punt directionally, boom it deep, and generally limit return yardage. The nice thing about punting is that it translates well from one level or team to the next, so regardless of whether he’s playing at Weber State or in the Big House, his kicks are going to travel a long way if that’s what he wants.

Michigan has had good punters for a while, including Zoltan Mesko and Will Hagerup in recent years. Unfortunately, Hagerup was inconsistent at times and even missed the entire 2013 season due to suspension. However, punt coverage was spotty last year, which should improve with the arrival of O’Neill as well as full-time special teams coach John Baxter.

O’Neill gives Michigan three scholarship specialists, including incoming freshman kicker Andrew David and redshirt sophomore long snapper Scott Sypniewski. However, O’Neill also puts Michigan at 87 scholarships for the upcoming season, which means that two players need to come off scholarship before the fall. There is at least one player who could become a medical casualty (Chris Fox), and there are a few walk-ons who have had scholarships in the past that might have to pay their own way (Graham Glasgow, Ryan Glasgow, Joe Kerridge).

TTB Rating: 86 (ratings explanation)

Matt Falcon, Wolverine

Southfield (MI) Southfield running back Matt Falcon

Southfield (MI) Southfield running back Matt Falcon committed to Michigan on Wednesday. He chose the Wolverines over offers from Arizona State, Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Oregon, among others.

Falcon is a 6’1″, 215 lb. prospect. As a junior in 2015, he had 75 carries for 1,109 yards and 7 touchdowns. He claims a 4.41 forty.

Hit the jump for more on Falcon and his commitment to Michigan.

RATINGS
ESPN: 3-star RB
Rivals: 4-star, #13 RB
Scout: 4-star, #8 RB, #149 overall
247 Sports: 4-star, #10 RB, #263 overall, #7 in-state

Falcon has been on the big-time recruiting radar for a long time, but an ACL tear during his sophomore year sort of delayed his true arrival. While he had been in contact with the previous coaching staff, they never offered. Shortly after National Signing Day 2015, Jim Harbaugh’s staff extended an offer. He visited Michigan several times, but on Monday, Alabama running back Kingston Davis committed to the Wolverines. With just one running back spot left, Falcon went ahead and picked Michigan two days later.

Back in February I ranked Falcon the #3 player in the state (LINK). Despite the knee injury, he was extremely productive in 2014. He has good straight-line speed, makes some nifty moves in the hole, and runs with good body lean. He shows a strong array of skills that should allow him to be a three-down back who can gain short yardage, make people miss, outrun people, and break tackles in the open field.

The only real concern I have about him is that knee injury. It seems like anyone who tears an ACL tears it again at some point, so it might not be a question of “if” but “when.” Of course, the hope is that he can be permanently healed, but we’ll see.

Overall, I really like the pickup of Falcon. He has the skills I want to see in a Michigan running back. Michigan has lacked a big-time running back for a while, although there are a couple guys with potential currently on the roster. The Wolverines have had a history of great running backs, but the last time they had a successful, prototypical back was perhaps Chris Perry in 2003. (I might argue that Brandon Minor had the potential, but he never had the production, for various reasons.) Falcon and a couple other backs on the roster represent an opportunity to return Michigan to the level they were at before the Rich Rodriguez years. For many years, Michigan was a running back factory, but now schools like Ohio State, Alabama, and Georgia have jumped well ahead of the pack.

Michigan is scheduled to need 15 players in the 2016 class, although that number will increase over time. He is the second running back, and that should fill up the class at the position. Regarding Southfield High School, they have churned out a lot of talent in the past few years, including sending defensive end Lawrence Marshall to Michigan in 2014. The 2015 class at Southfield was perhaps the best ever, but it would be a good school at which to build a pipeline.

TTB Rating: 85 (ratings explanation)

Jake Ryan, #47

HIGH SCHOOL
One of the few 2010 recruits to stick with Michigan for an entire college career, Ryan was a Rivals 3-star and the #30 inside linebacker coming out of Cleveland (OH) St. Ignatius. He had a handful of MAC offers before committing to the Wolverines in January of 2010. Brady Hoke – who was at San Diego State – somewhat famously took a pass on recruiting Ryan, who would end up being perhaps Hoke’s best defensive player at Michigan. Here’s my commitment post on Ryan from January 2010 (LINK), and I named him the most underrated recruit in that class (LINK).

COLLEGE
When Ryan entered college, he was considered a bit of a project after missing a chunk of his junior year in high school due to injury. It was assumed he would redshirt, and redshirt he did while Rich Rodriguez and Greg Robinson played around with the 3-3 stack. When Hoke was hired and brought in Greg Mattison, Ryan became a SAM outside linebacker and changed from #37 to #90. He made an immediate wow play in the 2011 spring game when he jumped in front of a Devin Gardner pass and returned it for a touchdown while wearing the #37 jersey. That fall he switched to #90 and earned the starting SAM job, and he would finish the season with 37 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 1 forced fumble, and 2 fumble recoveries. That redshirt freshman season earned him some hype for a 2012 in which he did not disappoint. He made 88 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery, and 3 pass breakups, earning Second Team All-Big Ten. With expectations shooting through the roof, he promptly tore his ACL in the spring of 2013. It was early enough that he was not ruled out for the entire season, so he returned mid-year and made 30 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, and 1 pass breakup in an understandably mediocre campaign. Fully healed by his fifth year, Ryan moved to middle linebacker in a revamped defense and finished the 2014 season with 112 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 3 pass breakups, and his first career interception. He was named First Team All-Big Ten as a senior.

CAREER STATISTICS
267 tackles, 45.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, 7 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries, 7 pass breakups, 1 interception (returned for 2 yards)

AWARDS
2011: ESPN and Big Ten Network Freshman All-Big Ten
2012: Second Team All-Big Ten, Roger Zatkoff Award (team’s top linebacker), #47 Legends jersey
2013: Team Captain, #47 Legends jersey
2014: Team Captain, Roger Zatkoff Award, First Team All-Big Ten, #47 Legends jersey

SUMMARY
For his career, Ryan ranks #17 in solo tackles, #3 in tackles for loss, and tied for #4 in forced fumbles. While he never had a truly dominant year, he was a very consistent player for Michigan every year except in 2013, when he hurried back after tearing that ACL. But “consistent” is not really what I think of when I think of Ryan. While he was reliable, he was one of Michigan’s best playmakers on defense – from blitzing to deflecting passes to keeping outside contain to forcing fumbles, he was the one guy that offenses generally had to worry about on a play-to-play basis. He has never wowed anybody with his measurables, but he simply found a way to make plays over and over again. Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Greg Mattison said several times throughout Ryan’s career that he had an unorthodox way of playing the linebacker position, but he got the job done. Ryan would sometimes get his lower body out of position but find a way to redirect and make the tackle, or he might leap over a blocker, or he might sidestep a blocker instead of taking him on directly. Michigan’s defense has been lacking stars in recent years, which you realize when you think about walk-on safety Jordan Kovacs being the biggest fan favorite since Brandon Graham wore the winged helmet in 2009. Ryan is the closest thing to a bona fide stud for the Wolverines since Graham terrorized Big Ten opponents in Rich Rodriguez’s second year.

I WILL REMEMBER HIM FOR . . .
. . . his very first college game when he started at SAM linebacker, moved inside occasionally to blitz, and destroyed Western Michigan’s quarterback while causing an interception that was returned 94 yards for a touchdown by Brandon Herron. That was the first sign – and it happened immediately – that we might have something special in Ryan.

PROJECTION
Ryan projects to linebacker in the NFL, although it’s unclear exactly where he will play. He could be a 3-4 outside linebacker, a SAM linebacker in a 4-3, a middle linebacker in a 4-3, or an inside linebacker in a 3-4. At the NFL Combine, he ran a 4.65 forty, did 20 reps on the bench at 225 lbs., broad jumped 10′, showed off a 34.5″ vertical, and had a 4.2 shuttle time. I think he’s best as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 look because he can rush the passer and has a knack for hemming guys in on the edge, and I think he fits as a SAM in a 4-3 look. I do not think he has the athleticism to be a star in the NFL, but I do think he can carve out a long career if he stays healthy.