Blog Archives - Page 612 of 776

4Feb 2017

Blog, homepage 2 comments Thunder

My life as a 247 Sports Crystal Baller

As of Wednesday, I (mostly) wrapped up my first recruiting cycle as a 247 Sports Crystal Ball picker. The chance to be a Crystal Baller was conferred upon me by Steve Lorenz, to whom I’m grateful for giving me a chance to expand my horizons.

There are bound to be a few kids trickling in with commitments, so rankings can change. However, as of this writing on February 3, I’m ranked #28 nationally (out of 175 ranked pickers) with 1,003.38 points. I got 80.6% of my picks correct. You can find the full list here (LINK).

It’s fun taking a shot at where some of these kids will land. My biggest moneymakers were picks for Khalan Laborn (Florida State), Andrew Thomas (Georgia), and Luiji Vilain (Michigan), each of which earned me 80+ points.

On the negative side, the most annoying part is that I don’t live on 247 Sports. Sometimes I hear news or see something developing with a certain player, but I just don’t have the time to log in to 247 and make or change my pick. Then I either forget about it or the kid chooses a school before I get around to making the choice. It makes things difficult for someone who’s not a full-time blogger, but I guess that comes with the territory.

Anyway, it’s been fun making Crystal Ball picks, and I hope to improve on that ranking and percentage for the 2018 class.

3Feb 2017

Blog, homepage 22 comments Thunder

Site news: Fundraising for new hosting service

(image via Panda Whale)

Over the last month, I’ve had too many site outages due to not having enough server. That has culminated with three consecutive days of some level of outage, starting with Tuesday, National Signing Day, and then yesterday. We’ll see if that streak continues today, but hopefully not.

Anyway, I added Cloudflare a few weeks ago, which has helped with site speed. But the server can still get overloaded. Therefore, I am moving the site to a new hosting service: Flywheel. I talked to some people, got advice from some readers, etc., and I think Flywheel suits my needs best. The trouble is that it costs a significant chunk more than my current hosting service. The package I’m purchasing costs $75/month, so I’m going to try to raise one year’s worth of hosting.

That means I’m looking to raise $900. When I constructed the new site in 2015, I used Paypal with some success. So if you would like to donate to the site, please use the Paypal button on the right sidebar or you can click below:

Other ways you can contribute to the site:

Visit and interact! The more active the site becomes with comments, discussion, message board posts, etc., the more popular the site becomes. With popularity comes page views, and with page views comes additional ad revenue.
Turn off AdBlock. I know AdBlock can be tempting to speed up your internet browsing experience, but it also inhibits sites like this one. I have AdBlock installed, but I turn it off for sites that I spend a lot of time on, such as MGoBlog, Rivals, 247 Sports, etc.
Purchase items from Amazon via the links on the site. It doesn’t cost you anything additional, but the site makes anywhere from 4% to 8% on your purchases. If you buy $100 worth of exercise clothing, that’s $4 to $8 coming out on my end. It may not sound like much, but it really adds up if a lot of people contribute. I can’t make money by purchasing things through my own links, so I buy almost everything through MGoBlog’s Amazon links.

Thank you for reading and for your support. I’m hoping these things help improve the user experience.

3Feb 2017

Blog, homepage 5 comments Thunder

Brad Robbins, Wolverine

Westerville (OH) South punter Brad Robbins

Westerville (OH) South punter Brad Robbins was offered by Michigan and committed to the Wolverines on Wednesday. He chose the Wolverines over offers from Illinois Navy, Nevada, and Rutgers.

Robbins is 6’2″, 180 lbs.

RATINGS
Kornblue Kicking: #1 P
ProKicker.com: #3 P, #6 specialist, #7 combo kicker
Rivals: 2-star K
247 Sports: 2-star, 73 grade, #7 P, #3232 overall

Hit the jump for more on Robbins.

2Feb 2017

Blog, homepage 7 comments Thunder

Nico Collins, Wolverine

Pinson (AL) Clay-Chalkville WR Nico Collins

Pinson (AL) Clay-Chalkville wide receiver Nico Collins committed to Michigan on Wednesday afternoon. He chose the Wolverines over offers from Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, and LSU, among others.

Collins is 6’5″, 195 lbs. As a junior in 2015, he caught 60 passes for 1,103 yards and 16 touchdowns. He followed that up with 43 catches for 865 yards and 9 touchdowns as a senior.

RATINGS
ESPN: 4-star, 82 grade, #21 WR, #150 overall
Rivals: 4-star, #17 WR, #120 overall
Scout: 4-star, #24 WR, #178 overall
247 Sports: 4-star, 92 grade, #29 WR, #200 overall

Hit the jump for more on Collins.

2Feb 2017

Blog, homepage 19 comments Thunder

Aubrey Solomon, Wolverine . . . again

Aubrey Solomon (image via 247 Sports)

Leesburg (GA) Lee County nose tackle Aubrey Solomon committed to Michigan on Wednesday morning. He chose the Wolverines over offers from Alabama, Georgia, and USC, along with many others . . . including Miami?

Solomon is a 6’3″, 295 lb. prospect. He claims a 4.85 shuttle, a 355 lb. bench press, and a 515 lb. squat.

RATINGS
ESPN: 4-star, 84 grade, #5 DT, #63 overall
Rivals: 5-star, #2 DT, #31 overall
Scout: 5-star, #2 DT, #11 overall
247 Sports: 5-star, 98 grade, #3 DT, #30 overall

Hit the jump for more on Solomon’s commitment.