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5-8-17 Recruiting Update: ABC, BBD

Lakeland (FL) Lakeland TE Keon Zipperer (image via Scout)

COMMITMENT

Olympia (FL) Olympia quarterback Joe Milton committed to Michigan (LINK).

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2019

Palm Beach (FL) Central cornerback Akeem Dent was offered by Michigan. Dent is a 6’1″, 170 lb. corner who decommitted from Miami in March. He’s a 247 Sports 4-star, the #1 cornerback, and #6 overall, and has offers from Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, and LSU, among others. He transferred to Central from Pahokee, which is the alma mater of former Michigan players Martavious Odoms, Brandin Hawthorne, and Richard Ash. As a sophomore at Pahokee in 2016, he made 40 tackles and 3 interceptions, 2 of which he returned for touchdowns.

Acworth (GA) Kennesaw Mountain tight end Ryland Goede was offered by Michigan. Goede stands 6’7″, 235 lbs. and is a 247 Sports 4-star, the #4 tight end, and #66 overall. Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU, and Notre Dame have also offered. He seems likely to eventually end up at Georgia.

Loganville (GA) Grayson linebacker Kevin Harris was offered by Michigan. He’s a 6’4″, 210 lb. outside ‘backer with offers from Georgia and Oklahoma, among others. He’s a 247 Sports 4-star, the #9 outside linebacker, and #109 overall. Harris is a little bit thin right now, and he might end up at either linebacker or defensive end, depending on how his body develops. He attends the same school where Michigan incoming freshman Kurt Taylor played during his senior year, a powerhouse program in the state of Georgia.

Fort Myers (FL) Dunbar defensive end Derick Hunter was offered by Michigan. Hunter is a 6’5″, 245 lb. strongside end with offers from Florida, Florida State, Notre Dame, and Oregon, among others. He’s a 247 Sports 4-star, the #13 strongside end, and #166 overall. With two years of high school remaining, I think Hunter might grow into a 3-tech defensive tackle before all is said and done.

Hit the jump for a bunch more new offers.

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Joe Milton, Wolverine

Joe Milton (image via Detroit News)

Olympia (FL) Olympia quarterback Joe Milton committed to Michigan on Sunday. He picked the Wolverines over offers from Florida, Georgia, LSU, and Miami, among others.

247 Sports lists Milton at 6’6″, 222 lbs., and he lists a 4.69 forty. He led Olympia to a 6-5 record in 2016, and he plays against some very good talent in the Orlando area, including the alma maters of Eddie McDoom (West Orange), Greg Mathews (Edgewater), and numerous other Michigan targets over the years. In 2016 he was 82/178 for 1,573 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions.

RATINGS
ESPN: 4-star, 83 grade, #8 dual-threat QB, #124 overall
Rivals: 4-star, #6 dual-threat QB, #113 overall
Scout: 3-star, #29 QB
247 Sports: 4-star, 90 grade, #12 pro-style QB, #279 overall

Hit the jump for more on Milton’s commitment.

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What I’ve Been Reading: Missoula and Jack Reacher

You can support TTB by clicking on any of the pictures or links to Amazon and making a purchase.

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer. I’ve written about Jon Krakauer several times in the past, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed his past writings. The two books mentioned on the cover above – Into the Wild and Under the Banner of Heaven – were my favorites. I found Missoula to be a little less enthralling and more poorly written. It’s a non-fiction account of several sexual assaults that take place in Missoula, Montana, which is the home of the University of Montana and its football program. Several Montana Grizzlies football players were accused of rape over the span of a few years, and the justice system seemed to favor the football players. Not only does the town seem to protect its athletes, but claims and statistics suggest that the number of reported rapes is a mere fraction of the total sexual assaults that take place. As a fan of football and sports in general, it does not surprise me that athletes get away with more than the average citizen might. I see it happen all the time, even at the high school level. The most frustrating part is that it gets institutionalized, because local governments sometimes don’t communicate or cooperate with schools, and vice versa. The reason I say the book is poorly written is that Krakauer beats some of the same points to death, without seeming to realize that he has addressed the same arguments previously. Furthermore, he seems to come to very few conclusions. What can be done? How can the problem be fixed? What underlying psychological issues do we have as a society that prevents us from treating athletes how they should be treated? The book was interesting, because it gave some specific stories and statistics on the issue overall. We have seen similar issues become national stories in recent years with Jameis Winston, Gareon Conley, and others.

Hit the jump for a discussion of The Affair by Lee Child.

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Traffic and Income Report: March 2017

A couple months ago, I mentioned that I wanted to start sharing traffic and income reports for the site. As readers and contributors, I think it’s fair to want some insight into the “inner workings” of the blog. Many of you visit regularly, click on ads, buy things on Amazon, contribute via Paypal, etc. I posted one last month, so here’s the second iteration of the series.

The following data comes from March of 2017:

Page views: 255,894.
This was still a down month for traffic, but it’s up 26,000 page views from February. I believe some technical issues were still to blame, and those technical issues were hooting my Google ranking, as well. Hopefully those rankings continue to build back up now that the site is faster and more reliable.

Google AdSense revenue: $317.35

Amazon Affiliates revenue: $17.17

Sovrn revenue: $32.37
Sovrn is a new advertising network for me, and I started messing around with it in March. It actually wasn’t very productive for me initially. When Sovrn can’t fill ads, it’s supposed to pass back ads to Google AdSense . . . but it wasn’t doing that. So a lot of my ad space went unfilled. Not only was Sovrn not performing well, but it also hurt my AdSense earnings. Since then I’ve improved its performance by making some tweaks, but March was a down month.

Paypal donations: $0.00
In February I received over $1,100 in donations for the new server, but that’s usually the only time when I get donations – when there’s something specific I need. And I’m okay with that.

TOTAL INCOME: $366.89

This Week in Twitter: NFL-bound Michigan Edits

Here’s a wrap-up of what went on this week on Twitter:

TIM BREWSTER VS. JIM HARBAUGH…FIGHT!

Most draft picks doesn’t correlate to winning….Just ask Michigan! #OrangeBowlChampions!

— Tim Brewster (@TimBrewster) April 29, 2017

Naturally, Jim Harbaugh had a response.

@UMichFootball – We LOVE having our players picked, and our players love BEING picked. ? https://t.co/5c7L0pgjnB

— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) May 3, 2017

Hit the jump for more Twitter happenings.

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