Recruiting Update: December 10, 2012

Tag: Eldridge Massington


10Dec 2012
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Recruiting Update: December 10, 2012

Wide receiver Eldridge Massington

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2013
Port Saint Lucie (FL) West Centennial defensive tackle Jay-nard Bostwick was offered by Michigan.  Bostwick is a 6’4″, 280 lb. prospect with offers from Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame, and Oregon, among others.  As a junior in 2011, he had 74 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks.  He has set an official visit for Michigan on January 18, which doesn’t leave much time for Michigan to woo him, but the fact that he’s visiting puts Michigan in solid position.

Trotwood (OH) Trotwood-Madison cornerback Reon Dawson was offered by Michigan.  Dawson is a 6’2″, 175 lb. prospect who is committed to Illinois; he has also been offered by Pitt, Purdue, Virginia, and West Virginia, among others.  Dawson is the teammate of linebacker commit Michael McCray II and visited Michigan with McCray a few weeks ago, and he seemed very open to the idea of interest from Michigan.  However, he also has a defensive end teammate named Jarrod Clements who is committed to the Illini.  Dawson has supposedly taken a leap forward since his junior year, improving his stock enough to make him a legitimate Michigan prospect.  This offer appears to be an insurance policy against Massillon (OH) Washington cornerback Gareon Conley committing elsewhere, particularly to the Buckeyes.

Detroit (MI) Cass Tech offensive tackle Dennis Finley was offered by Michigan.  Finley is a 6’6″, 285 lb. tackle prospect who is committed to Michigan State; he also holds offers from Ohio State and Wisconsin.  I was a little surprised when Ohio State swooped in with an offer, because I was not impressed with Finley’s junior highlights.  Perhaps he has improved since then, but he was really slow off the ball in 2011 and seemed like a lower echelon prospect.  It is expected that Finley will remain committed to MSU, but it’s a curious development.  Is Brady Hoke truly trying to flip Finley, is he just trying to waste Mark Dantonio’s time, or is he trying to put pressure on fellow Technician offensive lineman David Dawson to commit?

Mesquite (TX) West Mesquite wide receiver Eldridge Massington decommitted from USC.  Massington is a 6’3″, 205 lb. receiver who tore his ACL early in his senior year.  Michigan was high on his list before committing to the Trojans, but it’s unclear if the Wolverines will re-enter the fray.  It’s looking more and more like they’ll miss out on Crete (IL) Crete-Monee wideout LaQuon Treadwell, so it might not be a bad idea to push for Massington.  However, the Texas product visited Alabama last weekend and plans to enroll somewhere in January to get top-of-the-line rehab for his knee.  If anything develops with Michigan, it will have to happen quickly.  Here’s a scouting report I wrote on Massington over the summer.

Plymouth (IN) Plymouth offensive guard Dan Samuelson was offered by Michigan, despite being committed to Nebraska.  Samuelson is a 6’5″, 275 lb. prospect who also holds offers from Illinois, Pitt, and West Virginia, among others.  Samuelson has indicated that he has no plans to change his commitment.

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2014
Oakley (CA) Freedom running back Joe Mixon was offered by Michigan.  Mixon is a 6’0″, 180 lb. back with offers from Arizona State, Cal, Oregon State, and Washington, among others.  As a junior in 2012, Mixon had 182 carries for 1,354 yards and 20 touchdowns.  His running style reminds me a little bit of Alabama freshman T.J. Yeldon, although Mixon isn’t as physically developed.  He’s a very high-effort, physical runner.

OFF THE BOARD
Massillon (OH) Washington wide receiver/cornerback Gareon Conley committed to Ohio State.  Conley had previously been committed to Michigan, but that was before the Buckeyes came calling.  I do not wish him ill, nor do I wish him luck.  The only thing I regret is that I spent so much time putting together his Recruit Tracker post throughout the season.  Argh!

Arlington (TX) Martin running back Kyle Hicks flipped from Texas to TCU, which is an interesting development because Texas typically dominates in-state recruiting.  He attends the alma mater of redshirt freshman quarterback Russell Bellomy.

Dallas (TX) Kimball defensive tackle Justin Manning committed to Texas A&M.  He is one of 33 (yes, 33) players currently committed to the Aggies.

Ashburn (VA) Briar Woods linebacker Matt Rolin flipped from South Carolina to Florida.  This had been brewing for a couple weeks.  Rolin was selected for the Under Armour All-American Game, but he tore his ACL early in the year and will miss the all-star game.

Los Angeles (CA) Loyola cornerback Cameron Walker committed to Cal.  Walker knew Michigan’s coaching staff from the time when they were at San Diego State, and he was offered fairly early in the process.  But as a field corner type of prospect who’s 5’10” and 180 lbs., he probably doesn’t offer what Michigan wants at this point, which is a bigger player to man the boundary corner position.

MISCELLANEOUS
I put together a list of players who plan to visit this coming weekend.  Cameron Hunt will be playing in the state championship game this coming weekend, so he’s postponing his visit to January.

2May 2012
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Scouting Report: Eldridge Massington

Mesquite (TX) West Mesquite wide receiver Eldridge Massington
(image via 247 Sports)

Name: Eldridge Massington
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 205 lbs.
Position: Wide receiver
Class: 2013
School: Mesquite (TX) West Mesquite

Notes: Holds offers from Arizona, Baylor, Colorado, Connecticut, Houston, Michigan, Mississippi, Mississippi State, North Texas, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Purdue, SMU, TCU, Tennessee, UCLA, Virginia, Wake Forest, and Washington State . . . As a junior in 2011, had 41 receptions for 666 yards (16.2 yards per catch) and 6 touchdowns . . . ESPN 4-star WR, 80 grade, #20 WR . . . Rivals 4-star WR, #32 WR, #245 overall . . . Scout 4-star WR, #24 WR . . . 247 Sports 4-star WR, 92 grade, #20 WR, #185 overall

Strengths: Tall receiver with good frame . . . Jump ball extraordinaire . . . Very good at catching ball away from body . . . Times jumps well . . . Uses bigger frame to shield ball from defenders . . . Good straight-line speed . . . Big and fast enough to beat press man coverage . . . With size and reach, should be an excellent blocker

Weaknesses: Not particularly shifty with ball in hands . . . More of a power runner . . . Gets sloppy with route running at times

Projection: Wide receiver.  Massington is a potential deep threat, more because of his size than pure speed.  Cornerbacks are going to struggle with a player his size who has a little bit of giddyup.  His high school team obviously loves to throw him jump balls, and he makes the play consistently, sometimes even in double coverage.  Any big plays he makes in the short passing game will probably come after shaking off a tackler or two rather than making people miss, but there’s a lot of big play potential there.  We just saw a player with similar skills go in the first round to the Arizona Cardinals (Michael Floyd), and Massington is probably a little faster coming out of high school than Floyd was.

Reminds me of: David Terrell

12Mar 2012
Uncategorized 6 comments

Recruiting Update: March 12, 2012

Detroit (MI) Loyola defensive end Malik McDowell

COMMITMENTS
Massillon (OH) Washington cornerback Gareon Conley committed to Michigan.

Trotwood (OH) Trotwood-Madison linebacker Mike McCray committed to Michigan.

ADDED TO THE BOARD
Duluth (GA) Peachtree Ridge offensive tackle Orlando Brown, a 2014 prospect, was offered by Michigan.  Brown is the son of Orlando “Zeus” Brown, the former Cleveland Brown and Baltimore Raven offensive tackle.  The younger Brown is even bigger than his father, currently standing 6’10” and weighing 360 lbs.  He also has offers from Alabama, Auburn, Notre Dame, and USC, along with several others.

Grand Rapids (MI) Christian wide receiver Drake Harris, a 2014 prospect, has a Michigan offer.  Harris is a 6’4″, 180 lb. kid who is also a highly touted shooting guard prospect.  As a sophomore in 2011, he had 57 receptions for 1,118 yards and 14 touchdowns.  He also has offers to play football at Indiana and Michigan State.

Mesquite (TX) West Mesquite wide receiver Eldridge Massington was offered by Michigan on Wednesday.  He’s a 6’3″, 205 lb. wideout with offers from Baylor, Houston, Notre Dame, TCU, and Tennessee, among others.  As a junior in 2011, he had 41 receptions for 666 yards and 6 touchdowns.  As you might imagine from an offer list like that, Massington immediately put Michigan and Notre Dame at the top of the heap.  He’s a tall, good-sized receiver with enough speed to stretch the field.

Detroit (MI) Loyola defensive end Malik McDowell, a 2014 prospect, was offered by Michigan.  McDowell is a 6’6″, 260 lb. strongside end who has started to wow people this offseason.  Loyola isn’t a highly recruited school, so it’s rare that we hear of kids from that school.  There have been rumors that McDowell will be transferring to Cass Tech, but so far there hasn’t been any movement there.  He also has an offer from Syracuse.

OFF THE BOARD
Camp Hill (PA) Cedar Cliff tight end Adam Breneman committed to Penn State.  I did a scouting report and TTB Andrew interviewed Breneman in the past, but always seemed to be a long shot for Michigan.  You can’t fault the kid for choosing the Nittany Lions.  New head coach Bill O’Brien showed with the New England Patriots that he values the tight end position, and he’ll find myriad ways of getting the ball to Breneman in the next few seasons.

Columbus (OH) Bishop Hartley tight end Jacob Matuska committed to Notre Dame.  The 6’5″, 240-pounder was being recruited by Michigan as a tight end, but the Fighting Irish are planning to use him as a defensive end.

Belton (TX) Belton tight end Durham Smythe committed to Texas.  Along with jumbo wide receiver Ricky Seals-Jones, who could also play tight end, the Longhorns are bringing in a couple quality

Crete (IL) Crete-Monee cornerback Anthony Standifer committed to Mississippi.  Standifer, a 2012 prospect, was committed to Michigan for several months, but a reported academic issue was going to prevent him from getting into Michigan.  Therefore, he decommitted a few months ago and started to look elsewhere.  He finally chose a school this past week.

VISITORS
In case you missed it, here’s a list of guys who visited Michigan this past weekend.  David Dawson is on that list, but he ended up not making it to Ann Arbor.

Meanwhile, St. Paul (MN) Cretin-Derham wide receiver James Onwualu will be visiting Michigan on Wednesday.  The 6’1″, 205 lb. athlete is being recruited by Michigan as a slot receiver, while other schools are recruiting him as a cornerback and safety, too.