Recruiting Update: December 27, 2018

Recruiting Update: December 27, 2018


December 27, 2018

Daxton Hill

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COMMITMENTS

Daxton Hill – S – Tulsa (OK) Booker T. Washington: Hill re-committed to Michigan (LINK).

Cornelius Johnson – WR – Greenwich (CT) Brunswick: Johnson committed to Michigan (LINK).

OFF THE BOARD

Noah Cain – RB – Bradenton (FL) IMG Academy: Cain committed to Penn State. Michigan was working really hard on him early, and for some reason backed off as the process wore on.

Quavaris Crouch – LB – Charlotte (NC) Harding: Crouch somewhat inexplicably picked the Tennessee Volunteers. With a top three including Clemson, Michigan, and Tennessee, most people thought he would pick Clemson. Except he then supposedly eliminated them in the last week or two, taking a final-weekend visit to Tennessee. Michigan seemed to be running #3, but Tennessee . . . I mean . . . Tennessee?

Hit the jump for several more developments since the early signing period began.

Eric Gray – RB – Memphis (TN) Lausanne: Gray surprised no one with his December 20 decision to sign with Tennessee. He was committed to Michigan for a few months.

Zach Harrison – DE – Lewis Center (OH) Olentangy Orange: Harrison committed to Ohio State. For a while he looked like he was Michigan’s to lose, and in fact they did.

Elijah Higgins – WR – Austin (TX) Bowie: There were rumors that Higgins’s inclusion in Stanford’s recruiting class pushed Johnson to Michigan.

Sam Howell – QB – Monroe (NC) Sun Valley: Howell flipped at the last minute from Florida State to North Carolina, choosing to play for Mack Brown and the home-state Tarheels in an Air Raid offense.

Adisa Isaac – DE – Brooklyn (NY) Canarsie: Isaac committed to Penn State.

Jakai Moore – OT – Nokesville (VA) Patriot: Moore signed with South Carolina.

Evan Neal – OT – Bradenton (FL) IMG Academy: Neal committed to Alabama. He had Michigan in his top group a while ago, but the Wolverines stopped recruiting him.

Will Putnam – OG – Tampa (FL) Plant: Putnam picked Clemson over Florida State.

Darius Robinson – TE – Canton (MI) Canton: Robinson, who was given a late offer to play tight end at Michigan, never showed much interest in the Wolverines and picked Missouri instead.

Lloyd Summerall III – DE – Lakeland (FL) Lakeland: Summerall committed to Florida.

Jamir Thomas – LB – Massillon (OH) Washington: Thomas, in a rare move for a midwesterner, picked Washington State.

Clay Webb – C – Oxford (AL) Oxford: Webb, the #1 player in Alabama and the #1 center in the country, created quite a stir in SEC country when he picked Georgia over the Crimson Tide.

Keon Zipperer – TE – Lakeland (FL) Lakeland: Just like his teammate Summerall (see above), Zipperer picked the Florida Gators.

5 comments

  1. Comments: 1364
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    WindyCityBlue
    Dec 27, 2018 at 9:46 AM

    Tennessee probably got tired of sucking, but are they dumb enough to pull an Ole Miss? Hope so.

  2. Comments: 6285
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    Lanknows
    Dec 27, 2018 at 11:39 AM

    It’s pretty amazing to see the run of Michigan-connected players (Gray, Crouch, Bailey, and Solomon) all end up at Tennessee within a few weeks. The two schools don’t always cross paths so much.

    Anyway, quite the talent haul for Pruitt…

    Is it too soon to start wondering where Crouch will transfer to after the sanctions come down? I’ll go with NC State.

  3. Comments: 6285
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    Lanknows
    Dec 27, 2018 at 11:50 AM

    I’m not necessarily a pay-the-players guy (the details are everything), but there’s NOTHING in college football that is more egregiously exploitative than the one-off bowls, IMO.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/he-runs-one-amateur-football-game-per-year-he-makes-more-than-1-million/2018/12/24/80b30450-04a6-11e9-9122-82e98f91ee6f_story.html?utm_term=.d9eb4ad5b0e7

    I have no idea why the conferences / NCAA don’t cut out the middle-man and run it themselves.

    • Comments: 1863
      Joined: 1/19/2016
      je93
      Dec 27, 2018 at 12:25 PM

      I think you answered it earlier: it’s in the details. I highly doubt the NCAA could manage the number of Bowls out there

      • Comments: 6285
        Joined: 8/11/2015
        Lanknows
        Dec 27, 2018 at 2:17 PM

        It doesn’t make sense to have an entire organization plan one game for two much larger organizations who already plan hundreds of them.

        The conferences manage football championship games and tournaments in other sports. Most high-profile schools manage neutral-site games in football, off-site basketball tournaments, etc. No issues are apparent from a fan perspective.

        Other than local connections there’s not much the bowls offer and their overhead/fees are significant. These are revenues that the schools elect to hand over (along with the local economic benefits). Even if some of those local connections are value-adding (a dubious assumption IMO) they could be matched by southern schools/conferences who are already playing in most of these stadiums and cities anyway (or by northern conferences/schools with domes, who don’t have to handoff the economic benefits).

        I don’t know why the Big Ten couldn’t keep some of these bowl revenues in the footprint by playing a high profile game at say Ford Field instead of El Paso, Los Angeles, or Atlanta. Maybe hit on some tit-for-tat deals with the Pac 12, Big 12, ACC etc. and stop handing out cash to leeches.

        The only thing keeping the system functioning the way it does is that that’s how it’s been done in the past. Plus the Bowls are savvy enough to allocate enough share of their profits to keep palms greased.

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