Posts under: Blog

2018 Recruiting Update: January 19, 2017

Iverson Clement (image via Imgrum)

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2018

St. Louis (MO) Christian Brothers wide receiver Kamryn Babb was offered by Michigan. Babb is a 6’1″, 189-pounder with offers from Auburn, LSU, Miami, Missouri, Nebraska, Notre Dame, and Ohio State, among others. He’s a 4-star, the #13 wide receiver, and #86 overall. He has already been selected for the 2018 U.S. Army All-American Bowl. As a sophomore in 2015, he caught 39 passes for 832 yards and 8 touchdowns.

Mt. Holly (NJ) Rancocas Valley running back Iverson Clement was offered by Michigan. He’s 6’0″, 190 lbs. and a 4-star, the #22 athlete, and #283 overall. He claims a 4.49 forty, a 38″ vertical, and an 11.2 time in the 100 meters. As a junior in 2016, he ran 194 times for 1,430 yards (7.4 YPC) and 19 touchdowns. Immediately after the offer, Clement put Michigan in his top six, along with Florida, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, and Tennessee.

Brooklyn (NY) Erasmus Hall wide receiver Aron Cruickshank was offered by Michigan. He’s a 5’10”, 165-pounder with offers from Ohio State and Syracuse. Cruickshank is very slight and plays a lot of quarterback for his high school team, but his future is at receiver or maybe cornerback. Erasmus Hall is the school that produced Curtis Samuel.

Hit the jump for more on 2018 recruiting.

read more

Final ESPN 300 for 2017 released

Kai-Leon Herbert

ESPN released its final top 300 for the class of 2017 (LINK). Here’s what it looked like in July of 2015 (LINK). Movement for Michigan commits since that first list:

• Donovan Peoples-Jones dropped from #12 to #22
• Kai-Leon Herbert jumped from #265 to #99
• Dylan McCaffrey jumped from #186 to #117
• Drew Singleton jumped from #201 to #153
• Ja’Raymond Hall jumped from #229 to #169
• Ambry Thomas dropped from #146 to #186
• Tarik Black dropped from #102 to #225
• Joshua Ross dropped from #153 to #236
• Jaylen Kelly-Powell dropped from #243 to #262
• Corey Malone-Hatcher dropped from #94 to #270

Hit the jump for the full list of targets.

read more

Final Top 247 for 2017 released

Donovan Peoples-Jones

247 Sports released its final Top 247 for 2017 (LINK). Here’s what it looked like initially back in April of 2015 (LINK).

Movement for Michigan commits since then:

• Donovan Peoples-Jones fell from #13 to #26
• Jaylen Kelly-Powell jumped from #180 to #156
• Josh Ross fell from #111 to #202
• Dylan McCaffrey fell from #46 to #204
• Ja’Raymond Hall fell from #81 to off the list
• Corey Malone-Hatcher fell from #183 to off the list

Hit the jump for the remainder of the Michigan targets.

read more

Michigan’s Offensive Line Issues: How did we get here?

(image via GBMWolverine)

SITE NEWS: I have installed CloudFlare to help offload some of the demands on the site, which hopefully will help with some of the downtime TTB has experienced recently. Depending on how much this helps, I may not need to employ a new hosting service just yet. I appreciate everyone’s suggestions and help, which I will keep filed away for when I need to grow the site. A special thanks to Dan for the suggestion and info about CloudFlare.

The Orange Bowl was yet another example of a Michigan offensive line that has been underperforming for years. The 2011 offensive line wasn’t a completely dominant one, but it did have some NFL players and guys who worked cohesively as a unit. Since that time, there have been some good individual players (Taylor Lewan, Michael Schofield, Mason Cole, etc.), but not much development as a unit. Michigan expected some improvement from last season to this season, even with the loss of Detroit Lions draft pick Graham Glasgow (who started several games at center and guard for the Lions this past season). A unit that included three fifth year seniors would reasonably be expected to perform well. However, the Wolverines did not do well this year, gashed some weak opponents, and got handled by the tough defenses.

Hit the jump for a journey through the travails of Michigan’s offensive line.

read more

Final Rivals 250 for 2017 released

Dylan McCaffrey

Yesterday I put up a post about the final Rivals 100 (LINK). Today the final Rivals 250 was released (LINK). Here’s a link to the initial Rivals 100 (LINK) and 250 (LINK) for a reference point. Movement for Michigan commits:

• Dylan McCaffrey dropped from #100 to #131
• Ambry Thomas dropped from #133 to #146
• Chuck Filiaga appears at #175
• Joshua Ross dropped from #166 to #222
• Benjamin St-Juste appears at #229
• James Hudson appears at #240
• Kai-Leon Herbert appears at #250
• Corey Malone-Hatcher dropped from #223 to off the list

Hit the jump for the rest of Michigan’s targets.

read more