Who put that hoop on the football field? (image via Platte County Citizen)
Kansas City (MO) Park Hill wide receiver Ronnie Bell committed to Michigan on Monday evening. He chose the Wolverines over . . . a basketball career at Missouri State.
Bell stands 6’1″ and 170 lbs. As a senior in 2017, he caught 89 passes for 1,605 yards and 21 touchdowns.
RANKINGS
ESPN: Unranked
Rivals: 3-star PG
247 Sports: 3-star, 85 grade, #159 WR, #1056 overall
Hit the jump for more on the commitment.
Bell signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball at Missouri State in November, but he was released from that to attempt to further his football career. With the current football climate, it’s a bit surprising he chose the more physical sport, but Michigan football is on a slightly higher plane than Missouri State basketball. Michigan offered him on Saturday, and without visiting Ann Arbor, he flipped to the Wolverines on Monday.
Physically, Bell looks like Roy Roundtree. He’s very thin, and Rivals lists him at 165 lbs. After initially being underwhelmed with what I saw on his junior film, I noticed some positive developments on his senior season highlights. There’s actually quite a bit to like if you can get over the lack of stars and the reedy frame. The main thing that sticks out after watching him is just that he’s a very natural athlete. Whether it’s instincts or coaching or a mix of both, the kid just seems to have “it” when it comes to competing on a football field. He has a point guard’s agility, he varies his releases off the line of scrimmage, he finds the football in the air, he high-points the football, he stiff-arms defenders, he hits creases when he sees them, and he runs tough for such a scrawny kid.
So why doesn’t he have any other offers? Size is one issue, although there are plenty of undersized receivers getting college scholarships. The other thing that stands out is his lack of explosiveness. He’s not slow, but he’s not a blazer. He has the quick-twitch skills to sky for the football, but he’s not going to outrun a lot of Big Ten cornerbacks, either. So while he doesn’t jump out as a big, powerful athlete, you look at those 89 catches, those 1,605 yards, and those 21 receiving touchdowns (plus 4 more in other phases), and you think, “He finds a way to get the job done.”
On the surface, it doesn’t seem like Michigan should be “reaching” for an unranked kid in a small class when the Wolverines are 28-10 over the past three seasons. The hope is/was that Michigan would finish out the class with stars like Nick Petit-Frere, Tyler Friday, Ja’Marr Chase, etc. The end of the class seems to be wrapping up with the likes of the unheralded Bell and Ben VanSumeren (LINK), even though there’s a month and a half left until National Signing Day.
The way I look at it is this: Michigan’s leading receiver is Grant Perry, another unheralded, small receiver who put up ridiculous high school stats (105 catches, 1,727 yards, and 20 TDs) as a senior. Perry and almost any standout receiver from the New England Patriots over the last 20 years – except Randy Moss – have been no-name, unheralded slot guys who just know how to make things work. They don’t look great in the weight room, they don’t blow you away with their workout numbers, but they make the tough catches and keep the ball moving down the field. Perry will be a senior in 2018, and it’s not clear whether someone else is ready to take over that type of role. Will it be Eddie McDoom? Oliver Martin? Or maybe Ronnie Bell?
Michigan is now up to 18 commitments in the 2018 class (LINK), and they will need to lose 3 scholarship players before getting down to 85 for next season. The last player Michigan successfully recruited from Park Hill was defensive tackle Ondre Pipkins, who transferred and finished his career at Texas Tech.
TTB Rating: 71 (ratings explanation)
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This will be an interesting one to follow given the unusual recruitment. Kind of fun to see something so different.
How good is KC area football compared to say Detroit?
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Excellent — and well balanced writeup — as always Thunder. You’re the second Coach I’ve read with a generally favorable review. The sky is not falling!
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Gave him a 71 – generally a very low grade. I think the positive words a preemptive strike against the 3-star-haters.
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Low? On the scale he’s at the bottom of “solid starter, some NFL potential.” That strikes me as “medium.”
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*generally favorable compared to the meltdown some fans are experiencing
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I think the TTB Rating is right about where I would consider Grant Perry to be at the moment. Perry is probably not an NFL prospect, because he doesn’t have great measurables, doesn’t make a lot of big plays, and hasn’t had a lot of production at Michigan. Despite all that, he’s a solid college player who has had his ups and downs (a few nice catches, a few drops, some trouble blocking early in his career, now an okay blocker, etc.).
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Agreed. Perry is fine. Not going to win you a game or lose you a game (now that he isn’t a true freshman).
Though I would hope they see more potential than that in Bell, I think your argument that he projects to Perry-like role is plausible.
The question though is if you need to target scholarships for these kind of low-ceiling role players (Or if you can rely on the rest of the roster to fill them instead.) It’s the same line of reasoning as with a scholarship FB.
As at FB, the offer probably speaks to a lack of confidence in other candidates. A reasonable fan may wonder why somebody like Crawford, McDoom, Schonele, or Martin can’t capably replace Perry when he leaves. Or some other WR who doesn’t win a starting job.
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The issue isn’t replacing Perry, that will be handled by McDoom, Martin, Schoenle et. al.. Bell is being signed to replace those guys.
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Bell will have the same eligibility as Martin this fall.
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He won’t have the same eligibility this time next year.
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If your point is that Bell is going to red-shirt in 2018 and then replace Martin in 2022 well that’s 5 scholarship years for a one-year starter.
You better have a really high ceiling to make 5 years of scholarship pay off in 1 year.
At least Perry came in an contributed from year 1.
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No Lanky, my point is that Bell is going to redshirt next year while three other guys get the snaps then will rotate in getting increasingly more snaps himself until he moves out into the world himself.
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We’re going to have a 3 man rotation at slot receiver? That won’t leave much time for our 12 FB-Hbacks-TEs.
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How many guys played slot this year?
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Our WR play was bad this year. I don’t think you want that as a model.
Ideally you are playing your best 3 or 4 WR. If you are relying on heavy package personnel it’s probably more like 2 or 3.
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The notion that anyone being recruited at any position, ever reflects a lack of confidence in guys already in the system is nonsense.
Guys are being brought in next year in order to be grown into replacements for guys going out two and hopefully three years hence.
It happens occasionally to be sure, but the idea that any coach any where is ever thinking that some freshman is going to leap to the head of the pack as a true freshman is nuts. No coach in his right mind even considers this. The great Archie Griffith, a stud freshman if ever there was one, had to wait for Woody to go through most if not all the RBs on the roster before he ran him out on to the field. Although it didn’t take Woody long.
Freshmen very seldom are ever going to leap to the head of the pack barring some bare cupboard circumstance or just a wave of guys mowed down by injury or stupid.
This is one reason we are taking some project kids this year, with all the youth we have taking significant snaps this year, we can’t honestly sell playing time now. So we’re bringing in nasty kids that need some time to grow and selling development.
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Griffin. Dear Lord.
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It happens every year and Harbaugh expects true freshman to play prominent roles every year.
Just this year backup DE, DT, LB, CB, S, WR, FB, and OL jobs were open. The starting punter’s job was also wide open. Freshman stepped up to start at DT, OG, WR, P. At other spots they weren’t there yet as starters but they still played significant roles.
It’s entirely delusional to expect every freshman to sit around on the bench for 2 or 3 years. That’s not how Michigan recruits and that’s not been reality since around the time dinosaurs walked the earth.
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Nowhere did you read the word every in my above comment.
Those backup jobs were open this year because we were wiped out last year having sent a raft of guys out the door and barring injury, freshmen for damn sure won’t be stepping into those starting jobs next year because they’ll be held by seasoned Sophomores. Most of those backup jobs won’t be open next year either as a great many of them will be held by the same guys that held them this year.
Backup FB was hardly open this year, the better argument for you here would have been, stud kid came in and took snaps.
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Mason needed to get snaps since he was expected to be starter in 2018.
I don’t think he outplayed Poggi or Hill, though he wasn’t very far behind by the end of the year – to his credit.
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They’re selling playing time at FB, RB, TE, WR, OL, LB, Safety — anywhere there are departures and/or walk-ons competing for playing time.
At least we agree this is a low-need year.
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Agreed, hardly, not at all, LOL, no way, maybe Reese, nope
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Upon reflection, I’ll give you Mustapha at flex.
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Vansemeren was told he could get 30 snaps a game. Per him.
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See the above agreed on FB, although if he really did say that, he’s delusional.
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At DB this year Michigan gave meaningful snaps to a walkon (Glasgow) and 2 true freshman (Thomas and Woods). Hudson’s best backup is Metellus.
RB – Isaac snaps are open for taking. Evans and Higdon will take many of them but they’ll want a 3rd guy to emerge and that bar isn’t real high.
TE – only Gentry and McKeon are locked in and neither is a great blocker yet. Plenty of room if rumored departures are coming and that’s why you see them recruiting 3 for a deep position. LB – wide open of course. OL – not one but 2 spots.
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Not delusional to see Hill and Poggi’s snaps as open for the taking. Perhaps more depending on how TEs and WRs are used.
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You’re absolutely correct, I want nothing more to do with freshmen receivers, and thankfully we won’t have to for a good long time. We started 2 freshmen wide receivers last year and played three … i think. They are extraordinary athletes, and will be better next year if only because they will have a year of experience in a college offense. Nobody wants any more freshmen running around out there screwing up routes.
Crawford will be better too.
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Enjoyed the highlights. I don’t get why a guy like him doesn’t get any offers. Shouldn’t the coach be pumping this kid up to coaches?
He makes a lot of plays and seems to know the game well. But so did Nate Johnson. I want to like him but there has to be more to this story than UM coaches were the only ones to watch his tape. It’s not the basketball thing, it’s Missouri State! I can understand if he was going to Duke and everyone was scared away. Not the case.
His size and speed are concerning. I could see him getting sick of bulking up and trying to play basketball after a couple years. Unless, this 0-star player (yeah, he just got the 3-star pity ranking) can somehow beat the odds and prove me wrong. He seems like a mid-60’s type player on Thunder’s ranking to me.
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Sometimes coaches aren’t going to waste their time if they’re convinced the kid wants to play basketball. I mean, he signed a NLI to Missouri State, so he was obviously serious about playing basketball in college.
Size and speed were concerning for Perry, too. You don’t have to have great size or speed to get open in the slot. You do need to be tough and run good routes, and I think Bell has enough of those traits.
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He has some advantages here, not the least of which is the fact of all the big outside receivers we brought in last year. He’ll likely spend by far the majority of his career here as a slot guy and as such won’t have to contend so much with the bigger, more physical corners in the league.
He sure has a whole lot of make you miss.
Won the Otis Taylor award. Bell might have Taylor’s hands, if he blocks anything like Otis Taylor … Yeah Baby!!!
He’s probably not a D1 shortstop prospect.
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There seems to be a consensus that good route running is going to be a key for Bell. What’s the sense for where he’s going to pick up the finer details of that? Last I understood, Michigan didn’t have a dedicated WR coach. Is that something that falls under the Pep Hamilton umbrella?
Also, how do you see Bell being used along with Oliver Martin? Martin was billed as a route technician, but not a deep burner threat. Do they rotate? Or do you see the two on the field at the same time?
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Every FBS team gets a 10th assistant coach in January. It is assumed by many that analyst Scott Turner will step into the role as the WR coach.
I don’t see Martin and Bell being on the field at the same time much, because that’s not how Michigan runs its offense. The offense is somewhat tight end-heavy. From what I’ve seen out of Michigan over the past few years, I think each guy will have some packages in which he is best suited to play the slot receiver position, just like there were times where McDoom was on the field, times when Perry was on the field, etc. They could be out there in 4-WR sets together if it’s a two-minute drill type of situation.
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Sorry, but the strength coach in me cannot resist. When you reference the New England Patriots smaller slot WRs I have to assume you’re referencing Edelman at least in part. Although short at 5’10” he does not have a small build at 200 lbs. I’d hazzard to guess he is above average in the strength department in the weight room for a WR. So, I’m not sure that your comment that they don’t look good in the weight room applies.
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I like him. Looks like a Daddy Long Legs type. Doesn’t look like he’s moving very fast and then he runs by you. Redshirt the first year then see what he looks like when he’s 20lbs heavier.
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Michigan has missed on most of it’s blue-chip targets and is filling out the class with role players (e.g., FB, inside possession receiver) and “sleepers” they see as having a high ceiling (e.g., Faustin). With so many returning players they can afford this approach for now.
Looking past people venting frustration with the number of misses and general low ranking of the class, I think there are legitimate questions about scholarship allocations.
Michigan continues to never ever lack for scholarship options at some positions (RB, TE, LB) and at others you see true freshman and walk-ons in the mix from the outset year in and year out (OL, DB). Some of this can be rationalized pretty easily. Others seem like a recurring problem indicative of roster mismanagement and/or failure to acknowledge limitations of player development under the current staff.
It’s pretty clear that they have over-recruited WR by the numbers if you buy into the logic that the position is less important for Michigan because of FB/TE usage. It’s also clear that they had to do this to address the need at the position resulting from Hoke’s inheritance. Once Darboh/Chesson were gone the void was obvious – if it wasn’t already when Perry played such a big role in his first game as a true freshman. This has led to some compromises in depth elsewhere (most notably at safety – though Michigan mostly survived this without big problems).
Certainly player development (at WR and OL in particular) is a bigger concern than scholarship allocations but the two need to be aligned.
Here is how I’d like to see the 85 scholarships get allocated under the assumption that M will generally utilize 2 or more FB/TE:
Offense total: 42
QB: 5
RB: 4
FB/TE: 6
WR: 7
OL: 20
Defense total: 40
DL: 16
LB: 8
DB: 16
Special teams: 3
This is the roster target – not the recruiting class target. Generally you will get more attrition at positions like RB. FB (and often TE) can be filled from other spots and/or by leverging a robust walk-on program (like Wisconsin has). There can be significant overlap between many positions, big LB and edge DL included. None of this is a hard number – you obviously have to adjust to the roster and who has moved where.
That OL total will be high to many people but Alabama allocates 18 with much higher ranked recruits. I’d like to make sure there’s 4 or 5 guys red-shirting every year. No more true freshman starters unless they’re just flat-out ready to play at an all-conference level. Given Michigan’s inability to consistently develop players here I don’t think they should take any chances. Our OLs would have been much better in recent years if some of the guys who were thrown into starting gigs as true freshman (generally treading water at best) had the opportunity to return for 5th years.
Furthermore, with the more athletic types that Frey is bringing in some of them can be used as blocking TEs. For Michigan to be the Michigan we want it to be OL is critical.
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It should also be noted that the class is not done and that there is likely to be 3-5 additions. The staff will still aim to land blue-chip targets (either flips or guys like Petit-Frere) and back-fill with more if/when they miss. If you are expecting a boring next few weeks in recruiting you may be surprised.
There’s a lot of attention of the math but there’s always going to be attrition this time of year, not only from the current roster but the recruiting class.
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Ohio State has 15 scholarship linemen. Clemson has 15. Alabama has 18. Oklahoma has 18. Nobody keeps 20 scholarship linemen.
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Yes. I think this reflects a couple things:
1. Michigan wants to be a power running outfit. Ability to run on the ground is critical for the scheme. This is their identity.
2. They have been very bad at developing OL talent. Low success rate. This is a recognition of that. Prove me wrong Drevno! Until you do – you need the volume.
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I agree that no1 keeps 20 OL on skolly as a program would need to sign about 30ish OL on average per 5 year class cycle period or about 6 per every incoming class; on average. No one can do this with the 85 skolly limitations.
But programs like OSU & Alabama (Clemson & Florida St as well) average very close to 5 per class and/or 25ish over every 5 year period. As the 40% attrition ‘law’ takes affect the numbers become smaller as the age of an incoming class gets older – hence Alabama while signing an average of 25 OL over the last 5 years has ‘only’ 18 on the team.
Ideally this is what Michigan needs to accomplish; an average of 4 to 5 OL per class and/or 25 per any 5 year cycle. I think Harbaugh has signed 12ish OL his 1st 3 classes – an average of 4/yr; meaning these next 2 years he needs to sign 13 in order to attain the standard of OL recruitment attained by Saban at Alabama and Meyer at OSU (who trails Saban only slightly in numbers of OL signed per year).
Harbaugh Probably won’t make that number as its a Very difficult standard to maintain; yet Saban has gotten there and Meyer and also Sweeney at Clemson & FSU are not that far behind this standard.
Harbaugh has ALOT of catching up to do IF Michigan is to get to the OL plateau of programs like Alabama, OSU, Clemson, FSU and a couple others.
The OL problem at Michigan started a long time ago and Harbaugh now going into his 4th year has yet to make a major impact to correct this longstanding issue with Michigan’s football team.
Maybe over the next couple years?…….INTJohn
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You want only 4 scholarship RBs? You know we played 5 this year, and 4 just won’t cut it, right?
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I personally don’t understand why we played Samuels. OK so both Isaac and Higdon get banged up. We still have Evans and someone else to give him a breather. I don’t see why there’s a need for more than 4.
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They didn’t need to play 5. All of Samuels carries could have been handled by a walk-on or FB.
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I am sure there has been some time in history where 3 or 4 RB went down to injury and the 5th guy was critical but they are very very rare. You can use this argument to justify exorbitant depth at any position.
With Michigan taking FBs on scholarship the need for deep deep RB depth is further marginalized.
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We had Higdon and Issac banged up or injured for parts or all of the last three games. Walker missed some time as well. Now you’re down to Evans (not an every down back), and Samuels, who under your management wouldn’t even be on the roster
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Samuels had zero meaningful snaps all year.
4 backs was sufficient this year and it is sufficient almost every year…unless you’re Iowa.
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Too many linemen on both sides of the ball, and depending on whether a viper is a Linebacker or a Safety, not enough Linebackers.
No where near enough skill guys on offense.
I don’t mind guys moving around, but I for sure don’t want to be relying on it for filling positions that my system is built around.
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Michigan had at least 15 DL on scholarship to start this year. I’m not really proposing much change.
Worth remember that the 2015 Defense was sabotaged by DL depth problems on the interior. This was an outlier in bad injury luck, but nonetheless it illustrated how critical DL depth is. In 2017 depth concerns may have contributed to 4th quarter fades and/or a schematic shift to 3-man fronts.
As for the OL – the issues should be obvious to anyone paying attention. Right now we are mostly relying on freshman as we get them. It’s nice to say we need better development but until we get that, this is another approach. The two strategies aren’t mutually exclusive.
This is just an insurance policy, and all it costs you is deep depth at offensive skill positions and LB.
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