Tag: Delonte Hollowell

Why “Blue Chip Players” Chose Their Schools



Why am I including a picture of myself?  Shut up, that’s why.



1. Lawrence Thomas, LB – Renaissance High School (Detroit)

Interpretation: Some of the coaches at Renaissance think former Renaissance players were treated poorly at Michigan, even though TE Carson Butler was constantly in trouble and FB/DE Andre Criswell couldn’t cut it on the field.  I can’t stand it when troublemakers and subpar athletes aren’t treated like royalty!

Interpretation: Michigan’s coaches didn’t recruit me, and the fans were jerks because they had no clue who I was.

Notice that when asked “Why not Michigan State?”, the Michigan commits – Brennen Beyer, Justice Hayes, and Delonte Hollowell – essentially said “I just didn’t see myself at Michigan State.”

Perhaps the cruelest part of the entire article is when they ask recruits who were never really contacted by the Wolverines, “Hey, why didn’t you choose the most successful program in the state?”  As if they even had a choice.

It would be like asking Halle Berry, “Why aren’t you dating Thunder from Touch the Banner?”  What would they expect her to say?  The truth?  She wouldn’t want to be dragged down into that pit of misery, not again.  To save face she would have to say that she wasn’t interested. 

But in reality, I think Halle Berry is a little old for me.  She’s probably got stretch marks from having a baby.  And frankly, I saw Monster’s Ball – I don’t want to touch anything that’s come in contact with Billy Bob Thornton.  Sister, please. 

Emanuela de Paula and I are doing just fine, thank you very much.

Blake Countess, Wolverine

Blake Countess (#1)

The cold, wet weather in Maryland had one advantage for Michigan and its fans.  Cornerback Blake Countess, from Our Lady of Good Counsel in Olney, Tweeted on Friday morning that he would be playing college ball at Michigan.  Countess is a 5’10”, 174 lb. cornerback and a 4-star recruit to all three major recruiting services; he’s also ranked anywhere between #13 and #18 in the country at the cornerback position.

Countess is a very solid corner.  I can’t honestly say that he’s “great” at any one thing.  But unlike several other cornerback recruits over the past few years (Justin Turner was too big, Demar Dorsey was too thuggish, Boubacar Cissoko was short and harbored too much ill will toward delivery boys), Countess doesn’t have any glaring deficiencies.  He has decent size, runs well, has good hips, is a solid tackler, and tracks the ball well in the air.  He ended his senior season with 47.5 tackles, 15 pass breakups, and 2 return touchdowns, in addition to 21 receptions for 302 yards and 2 touchdowns on offense. The way he moves reminds me a bit of former Michigan cornerback Ty Law, although Law filled out to be a thick, physical corner at Michigan and later in the NFL.

He also seems to be an intelligent kid with good character.  According to his senior highlights (below), he has a 3.1 GPA and a 22 on the ACT.  He’s well spoken in interviews and attends a respected private school.  Our Lady of Good Counsel consistently puts out a couple FBS prospects, including Jelani Jenkins (Florida) from the Class of 2009 and Vincent Croce (Virginia) from the Class of 2011, both of whom were offered by Michigan.  As for the pedigree of OLGC’s football team, it went 10-2 and beat renowned DeMatha in the WCAC championship game this season by a score of 42-3.  For some perspective, Michigan offered five DeMatha seniors in the Class of 2010, and no less than ten DeMatha kids have offers to play FBS football in the Class of 2011.  On a team that obliterated a squad like DeMatha, Countess was a captain.  That bodes well for his future.

This gives Michigan four cornerbacks in the Class of 2011 – Countess, Dallas Crawford, Delonte Hollowell, and Greg Brown. I do not expect Michigan to continue recruiting cornerbacks for this class, at least not to commit immediately.  The coaches will likely stay in contact with kids like Daren Kitchen, Valdez Showers, Raymon Taylor, and James Richardson, but only to keep lines of communication open in case one of the aforementioned players decommits.  It’s possible, even likely, that one of these four will move to free safety early in his career.  I also expect that Michigan will continue to recruit strong safeties like Wayne Lyons.

Overall, this is a solid development in Michigan’s recruiting, especially during a time when Rich Rodriguez’s future as coach is somewhat murky.  If Rodriguez can keep his job and hire a competent defensive coordinator, someone ought to be able to create a solid defense from the pieces being thrown together.

Ideal Big Ten Cornerback Height

Over 85% of All-Big Ten cornerbacks are taller than 5’9″.

Last week I put together a post about the ideal size for cornerbacks.  That was in response to a discussion that arose on MGoBlog, and MGoBlog author Brian felt it worthwhile enough to reference.

Well, commenter ironman4579 did some further research and looked up the All-Big Ten teams from 2004-2009.  Six years is probably less representative than a ten-year sample, but regardless, the trend continues – taller cornerbacks earn all-conference selections more frequently.

As you can see from the chart above, 5’9″ cornerbacks make up slightly less than 15% of the sample.  Cornerbacks who are 5’10” or 6’1″ make up slightly less than 12% each, but the difference between 15% and 12% is likely negligible.  Besides, there aren’t too many 6’1″ cornerbacks out there. 

The thing to note here, I think, is that the biggest set of All-Big Ten cornerbacks is 5’11”.  The same held true (sort of) for Pro Bowl selections in last week’s study, where 23% of Pro Bowl cornerbacks were 5’11” and 23% were 5’10”.  Those heights seem to be somewhat consistent in studying these two groups of cornerbacks.

I do not think these bits of research suggest that Michigan should completely avoid recruiting cornerbacks who are 5’9″ or shorter.  Obviously, there will be exceptions.  But it seems that Michigan has made a habit of recruiting short cornerbacks in recent years (Boubacar Cissoko and Delonte Hollowell, among several others they pursued but who never committed), and the statistics suggest that’s unwise.

Thanks to ironman4579 for the research!

What’s the ideal size for a cornerback?

In response to a recent discussion over on MGoBlog about preferred heights for cornerbacks, I figured that I would do a little bit of research into the heights of cornerbacks.  In general, I am not a big fan of short cornerbacks.  That has factored into my assessments of several Michigan recruits or potential recruits, including Cass Tech Technicians Boubacar Cissoko, Dior Mathis, and Delonte Hollowell.

Presumably, Michigan coaches, players, and fans would like to see Michigan products have success at the NFL level.  Of course, not every Wolverine will make it to the NFL or have success there, and college production is separate from the impact on the professional game.  However, I think it’s relevant to look at Pro Bowl cornerback size.  After all, trends in the NFL generally trickle down to college and then high school.

On to the data . . .

I looked at the cornerbacks selected for the Pro Bowls over 10 seasons, from 2001-2010.  Overall, there were 69 cornerback selections for those Pro Bowls (3 per conference each year, plus injury replacements).

The tallest cornerback to make the Pro Bowl was Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Bobby Taylor at 6’3″.

The shortest cornerbacks to make the Pro Bowl were the quartet of Aaron Glenn, Antoine Winfield, Cortland Finnegan, and Dre Bly, all of whom measured in at 5’9″.

Over 46% of the selections for the Pro Bowl came from players who were 5’10” or 5’11”.

I presume that most players who are 6’3″ or taller get steered away from the cornerback position; most are probably either steered toward safety or told to put on weight and become a linebacker.  Of course, there’s also a trend of tall wide receivers in football, so many skilled, tall athletes probably don’t play defense.  On the other hand, I would venture a guess that there is a much larger group of athletic kids who are 5’8″ or 5’9″ and get steered toward cornerback in college and the NFL.  For every 6’3″ wanna-be cornerback out there, one could probably find ten 5’9″ wanna-be corners.  So the pool of taller players is likely much smaller than that of short corners.

In summary, NFL Pro Bowl selections over the last decade support the idea that diminutive cornerbacks don’t have great success at the NFL level.  That doesn’t mean that shorter players are precluded from being successful in college or even the NFL, but the ideal height for cornerbacks tends to be anywhere from 5’10” to 6’1″.

Delonte Hollowell, Wolverine

Munchkinland High School cornerback Delonte Hollowell