Eleven Warriors

Given the limited amount of space left in their class, and the many, many months until signing day, either Hoke has lost his mind (possible) or he sees something in the kid that the recruiting services haven't (more likely).

He's 2 stars because he is unknown and they have to give some sort of ranking. The kid showed up at a UM camp, impressed the coaches so much they gave him an offer. Sounds like neither the scouting services nor the colleges were even looking for him. Might end up being a great find for them stumbling upon a solid player. Who knows!?

Hoke must not be planning on making a final all out push on any top talent come next january. Their class will be full by fall at this rate.

Looking at their recruits, I don't think it is much of a secret what their style of football will be, and I look forward to that tough smash mouth rivarly coming back!

Can't have much different recruiting styles between meyer and hoke right now. I'll take the quality over quanity any day.

From what I've read, he is a good player, who was outshined by his teammates, one of which is Uriah LeMay. Yeah the guy is a 2* on Scout & Rivals (247 has him as a 3*) but I would think his stock will be rising. And his offer list is not impressive (Hampton, Howard, Ball State, Charlotte), but he very well could've earned offers from bigger schools this summer and fall. Could he have just performed extremely well at the Michigan camp in shorts and no pads, sure. But I would think Hoke and Co. wouldn't offer a kid they weren't interested in. 

This gives UM 22 commits. Rumor is they have space for 25. Should be interesting to see how they finish up.

It's curious, particularly given the seeming interest from McQuay III ( I think Fuller is a real longshot), but as already pointed out, 3 days of working out in front of actual college coaches trumps a bunch of guys watching youtube videos at ratings sites.  So I'll hold off on laughing now, and save it for when we're scoring TDs on the kid (if he sees the field).

One definite trend in Michigan recruiting this year is height... maybe while sacrificing speed.

let's not laugh...every OSu fan is going to make fun of them for this and every Michigan fan is going to "love that they found this sleeper"......I remember a couple pretty good 2 stars that panned out for us and are solid in the NFL...oh yeah, their names are Malcolm Jenkins, James Laurinaitis, and AJ Hawk.....let's judge this kid in 4-5 years not now....not like their ENTIRE class is 2-3*s

totally agree.  in fact, most of their class (with a few exceptions at WR, long snapper, this new CB, and TE, will be consensus 4* recruits.  sure, they don't have the any consensus 5*, but there are only so many in the country.  people here need to stop saying ohh urban wouldn't stoop so low.  i'd bet that urban would love (and take very quickly) a good number of their commits. 

I hate how hypocritical we all are with recruiting rankings (but we all are) in that we brag on our 4 and 5 star guys, but say things like "I don't get it, but I trust the coaching staff," or "rankings don't matter if the coaches see something," when they are 3* or less

The coaches watched him closely for 3 straight days at camp, in which he earned his offer.  I guess he hasn't hit the camp circuit much and doesn't play on any 7on7 teams.  All I have to say is "I trust Hoke and Mattison on this one, lol."  He's listed as an Ath and, while it's likely he'll end up at CB, nothing is set in stone.  He will be a 3* (minimum) on all sites before NSD and is already 3* on 247sports.

There must be more attrition that the public isn't aware of.  Fuller and Green are looking less and less likely.  McQuay has is between us and Vandy.  Treadwell is highly interested (but who knows), and guys like Alvin Bailey WR, and Dlinemen Muhammed and Mathis are long shots.  I think we can take 3 more.

Edit: missed that one commandhead

Um, HAIL, Jeremy Clark is in the class of 2012... was originally grey-shirted, but earned himself a spot in Michigan's 2012 class last fall.  No rumor about it... this has been fact for quite a few months.  Unless you're talking about some other Jeremy Clark.

If he is already 6'2 that's something that plays in his favor, and I'm sure hitting the weights in a top shelf D1 training facility will help out his growth. I remember a guy back in high school that was about this guy's size, but he hit like a ton of bricks was the hardest hitting football player I had personally ever been around. His grades were awful though which is why he never played beyond high school, but going completely off a star rating can be extremely misleading. Everyone doesn't have the cash to get out to all these different camps to get their star ratings up, and this may have been the case with this guy. I'm not going to laugh because #7 for LSU wasn't very highly rated either, and look how he turned out.

You would be correct sir!

Sox33OSU my point was that this new UM commit is a 2 star and we had 2-3 star caliber players commit...nobody thought Laurinaitis would do much at OSU, let alone play his freshman year in The Game and Fiesta Bowl and go on to be an AA

Mattison is a beast D coach. If he thinks the kid can play, I believe him. 

Look, stars do mean something. They mean that a recruit has been at least identified as having good potential, that is a good sign and someone with high stars does typically represent someone who has a better chance to succeed. NOT having a lot of stars also means something. It means that you either have been evaluated and your skillset doesn't look like it'll blossom or you haven't been evaluated. Kids in both catagories break molds, it is no myth that overall, a team that recruits better talent, even based on scouting sites, will be better teams overall.

Just don't take the stars and absolutes is all. They means something, but they are not definitive. There is no doubt a team that picked up all the 5 stars recruits from all three recruiting services would be better than a team that got all 2 star players from the recruiting services, clearly they mean something.

Hoke is retarded. 4-star (top 50 according to some sites) Leon McQuay is down to USC, TSUN, & Vanderbilt. Seeing that USC already has 5-star DB Sua Cravens & 4-star DB Chris Hawkins in their small 15-16 player NCAA probation class the race is probably down to TSUN & Vanderbilt. If I was a  betting man I'd like the chances of TSUN vs. Vanderbilt for a top recruit. 

I get the fact that his kid probably outperformed his ranking on their campus and they liked him a lot. But still, what an idiot Hoke is. It's not like this 2-star kid has any better options, he's most likely more than willing to wait. A smart man like Saban or Urban would've waited for McQuay then decide on this 2-star. 

Who says Leon McQuay isn't going to UM? Did they revoke his scholarship because of Stribling?

Hoke is a good coach. If he saw something he likes I'd trust him. A lot of kids don't have the money to travel to all of the big combines so they fly under the radar. I'd trust Hoke over Mike at Rivals or any other recruiting site. There is a reason why Hoke makes millions and recruiting analyst dont. Now that I have defended Hoke I must go vomit. Go Bucks

Why is it bad if we like what Hoke is doing?? ... bringing Michigan back from their darkest times. It's not a good rivalry if the other team sucks all the time. I want to beat Michigan, and have it really hurt their fans and players, in order to do that, they need to be relevant. The 90's were so hard on us because Cooper put together great teams who would always find a way to lose to Michigan. I like what Hoke is doing, He's doing a fine job, and he gets the rivalry. I'm just glad they didn't get Jim Harbaugh. That could have been scary.

It's pretty bad when we Buckeye fans actually like what Hoke is doing. It almost makes me ashamed to be a Buckeye fan. With friends like that, who needs enemies? Do you think the Wolverine fans wouldn't laugh at OSU if Meyer was grabbing up 2-star players? Like Crusher, I'd vomit if I defended scUM.

Toledo:

Who said we like what Hoke is doing? I don't like what he's doing, but I do respect what he's doing. If that really makes you feel shamed to be a Buckeye fan, you need to rework your priorities.

As for Crusher, if you read what he said before the "vomit" part at the end, he defended the recruitment of a 2-star player.

Logical Wolverine fans would probably see that Urban liked something in a 2-star if the kid got offered. It's the dumb ones who would laugh about it.

I think you're reading too far into it. He most likely isn't aware of the star rating of the guys he offers, because the staff doesn't care. He has a database of tapes, not bookmarked pages from rivals

All those facts are important to the recruiting process. Star rating isn't. 

Furthermore, do you think anyone actually respects the things you say when you baselessly cry foul every time someone wants to have constructive recourse with you? C'mon, kid.

That's exactly my point, Hodge. If you don't have the confidence in your ability to scout players yourself/with your staff, you're not cut out to be a coach. That being said, we can see that Urban has had numerous successes with his recruits without having to justify them, so he is clearly cut out for it. Transitively, that means that it's highly probable that though ratings may end up being something he hears about because we the public, along with the media fetishize it so much, he really doesn't have even a curiosity about a player's ratings, as he's seen what he needs to see. I think Marcus is an example of this.

That's a good point, the star system adds sensationalism to the recruiting service and undoubtedly sells subscriptions

Finley? I think he's rated a little high to be a sleeper, but it's a matter of time until we take a 3-star tackle and UM fans make stupid jokes about how "Urban only pulls 4s and 5s"

Haha maybe Sprinkle is comparable, because he conveniently got a ratings bump after committing to OSU, as many expect Stribling to enjoy as well. It's logical that this effect would happen, because again, services want to sell subscriptions to the big markets. 

However, if the two share a playing field, I think it's difficult to "compare sleepers" because of what's at stake. UM's is at a position at which they already have one sleeper type guy committed, so there's more at stake for this kid to make an impact, whereas Sprinkle is a luxury with a high ceiling that we can afford to grab because of DL depth and versatility.

^^Very original

Shady, I think the reason Meyer defended Marcus' highlight tape wasn't because he was embarrassed, but because he thought it was crazy that the kid didn't get more recognition. Just like any of us do when we see a kid ranked as a 3 star, but feel his play is better than a lot of 4 stars.

@Ksparkle

Believe it or not, Vanderbilt is the favorite for McQuay.  Apparently the Vandy staff has a longstanding relationship with the McQuay's coaching staff, and it is also closer to home.  Your analysis regarding USC I agree with.

McQuay didn't really have Michigan on his radar and then visited and they shot to his top 3 (all within the last month).  He is high on U of M because of the Music program.  It's probably 60-40 Vandy if I had to guess, so he is far from a sure thing.  If he visits with his teammate Baily in the next week or two, I'll be a little more hopeful.  BTW, Brady hoke is of great football mind. 

It is...and Nashville knows a thing about music, too. 

Does CB stand for Corned Beef?!

I am really surprised at all of the comments on this blog.

I agree with ToledoFanJim though: If the situation were reversed, I bet the fans on Mgoblog would be nowhere as cordial as most of the fans are here.

Like how they mention that verbal commitments are "nonbinding".  Better be careful, Michigan - I hear they have an Urban-like coach over there at Ball State that's good at getting recruits to flip.  Okay, probably not.