Scouting Report: Drew Dileo, WR – Greenwell Springs, LA

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29Mar 2009
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Scouting Report: Drew Dileo, WR – Greenwell Springs, LA

Drew Dileo has exactly one FBS scholarship offer. That offer came from the University of Michigan Wolverines. Dileo is a similar player to recent commit Tony Drake, so I’m not entirely confident that Michigan will hold a place for Dileo. But here’s what I can gather about him.

Height: 5’9″
Weight: 175 lbs.
Position: Wingback/wide receiver
Jersey number: #3
School: Parkview Baptist in Greenwell Springs, LA
40 Yard Dash: 4.5 seconds (reported)

Notes: Holds a single offer, which is from Michigan . . . Rushed 87 times for 540 yards and 4 TD’s as a sophomore in 2007 . . . Caught 17 passes for 305 yards and 3 TD’s as a sophomore . . . Rushed 102 times for 760 yards and 9 TD’s as a junior in 2008 . . . Caught 21 passes for 315 yards and 4 TD’s as a junior . . . Accumulated 1077 kickoff return yards (35 yard average) and 391 punt return yards over two years . . . Plays RB, WR, CB, KR, and PR . . . #19 player in Louisiana, according to Tigerrag.com

Scouting report: Good acceleration . . . Runs hard and does not look to avoid contact . . . Keeps feet moving in traffic . . . Good vision . . . Natural looking athlete . . . Excellent kick returner who looks to get upfield in a hurry . . . Good pass receiver who doesn’t mind going across the middle . . . Above average change of direction skills, although more of a slasher than an east-west runner . . . Attends a school with about 600 high school age students, so competition is questionable . . . Needs to add size and strength to power through a few more tackles . . . Running form could use some tweaking, as there’s too much wasted movement in his sprinting strides

Projection: Dileo looks to be a low to mid 3-star player. He’s a standout at a small school against weaker competition, but I question his ability to be fast enough or elusive enough to be a major contributor at the next level. Michigan is recruiting him as a slot receiver, but he could play running back; however, he will probably make his biggest impact in the return game.

26Mar 2009
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Tony Drake, Wolverine

Apparently, the world went haywire when Toney Clemons decided to transfer from Michigan a couple days ago, because his name was quickly replaced by that of Tony Drake, a rodent-sized slot receiver from Skyline High School in Dallas, Texas. In case the name of that high school sounds familiar, that’s because Michigan targeted current Minnesota Gopher Keanon Cooper for the class of 2008.

Drake is listed at 5’9″, 170 lbs., which means he’s probably 5’8″ and 155 lbs. He plays slot receiver for his high school team, in an offense that closely resembles Rich Rodriguez’s spread offense. In an article with Rivals, he said that the coaches want to use him like a combination between Steve Slaton and Noel Devine. They offered him Wednesday and he committed on Thursday; this was a quick, perhaps hasty, marriage. Unlike a few former recruitments – ones that played out dramatically and didn’t make sense from the get-go, like Kevin Newsome, Bryce McNeal, and Dewayne Peace – this one seems logical. Despite the distance from Texas, Drake seems like a perfect fit for the offense.

Skyline is a giant high school, educating somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 students. Their team finished the 2008 season with a record of 12-2 and ranked 22nd in the state of Texas and 164th in the country. On a high school team with several FBS prospects/commitments – Keanon Cooper, Spencer Reeves, Mike Davis, James White, and others – over the past couple years, Drake earned playing time as a freshman. As a sophomore, he gained 605 yards from scrimmage and averaged 10.5 yards per touch.

I have been unable to find junior year stats for Drake, but his film is very impressive. He has excellent acceleration, and what’s most impressive to me is his ability and patience in the area of setting up and following his blocks. As a slot receiver in that offense, he sometimes takes the equivalent of a jet sweep handoff, but once he gets going upfield, most of his movements continue to take him in that direction; he doesn’t move laterally as much as many small backs do, so he’s going to gain some yards after contact.
The biggest knock on Drake might be his top-end speed. You can see several occasions on film where he accelerates faster than everyone else on the field…and then starts to lose ground to defenders, and not necessarily just the fastest defender on the field. By the time he gets on the field at Michigan, though, he’ll have plenty of time to work on his speed. Hopefully it’s a weakness that he’s willing and able to strengthen.
Drake reminds me of Martavious Odoms in many ways. Despite the lack of dreadlocks, Drake’s field awareness and balance make the two similar.
I’m usually not overly excited about players whose only offer comes from Michigan before they commit, but for some odd reason, the three guys I’m most excited about are Antonio Kinard and Tony Drake (who only have offers from Michigan) and Devin Gardner.
26Mar 2009
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Rich Rodriguez is a drama queen

Mark Snyder’s blog says that Nick Sheridan was seen with crutches and a walking boot, which means my official diagnosis is that Nick Sheridan did not:

1. break his femur.
2. improve his chances of winning the starting QB job.
3. contract AIDS.
Broken femurs usually involve loud cracking noises, lots of screaming, and a wheelchair with a mattress on it.

Starting quarterbacks usually are medically cleared to play football.

And #3 is just a guess, really.

It’s unclear how serious Sheridan’s injury is. A sprain or a break will likely not affect his medical clearance for football season. It will probably prevent him from participating in much of spring practice, perhaps even the duration of the spring session.

I wouldn’t venture as far as to say that Tate Forcier is happy about this turn of events, but certainly things couldn’t have gone any better for him earning the starting QB nod for the fall. He enrolled early. Last year’s starter, Steven Threet, is transferring. Last year’s other starter, Sheridan, is now hobbled. And his fellow Class of 2009 quarterback is finishing up high school in Florida.
Rich Rodriguez clearly shies away from quarterback stability, as every Michigan quarterback now seems to run away or suffer from Bill Blass disease.

Meanwhile, Justin Feagin keeps getting sucked into the black hole that is the Michigan quarterback position. The coaches keep telling him to play slot and he keeps practicing at slot, but he keeps looking closer and closer to playing quarterback.

Meanwhile, our quarterback depth chart as of this moment looks like this:

1. Tate Forcier
2. Justin Feagin
3. Carlos Brown
4. Terrence Robinson
5. Mary Sue Coleman
6. David Cone
22Mar 2009
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Spring football notes

According to reports from spring practice, it looks like the roster will be shaken up some.

Rumors are swirling that junior wide receiver Toney Clemons will no longer be playing for the Wolverines. This has been a rumor for a while, but he has been absent from practices, so the writing appears to be on the wall.

Redshirt freshman Patrick Omameh is running with the first team offensive line, and it looks like the odd man out could be redshirt junior John Ferrara. Redshirt junior Steve Schilling has moved to left guard to take Ferrara’s spot, and Omameh has been plugged in at right tackle. The rest of the offensive line will likely remain the same.

Sophomore Justin Feagin, redshirt freshman Terrence Robinson, and senior Carlos Brown have all been practicing throwing the ball. None of them is being looked at as a possible quarterback; they are simply in the mix for occasional direct snaps.

The competition at running back seems to be working wonders. Reports are that all the available running backs (Michael Shaw is injured) look good and are running the ball well, and that includes true freshman Vincent Smith.

Sophomore J.B. Fitzgerald is battling Kenny Demens for the open linebacker job, but it looks like Fitzgerald has a leg up in that fight. The other linebacker who earned a starting nod last year, Marell Evans, is playing the hybrid DE/OLB position, along with Brandon Herron, Steve Watson, and Anthony Lalota.

The coaches are giving redshirt freshman Brandon Smith every opportunity to win the starting strong safety job. It looks like redshirt sophomore Michael Williams will be the starter at free safety. It’s yet to be determined what role senior Steve Brown will play, but it looks like his role will change. He’ll be playing closer to the line of scrimmage if Smith can prove himself worthy of the starting job.

This quite possibly means nothing, but one picture I saw showed Kevin Grady as the long snapper.