Spoke briefly with 2013 Cass Tech (MI) OG David Dawson. He told me Ohio State and Michigan State are tied at the top. Many thought he'd be going to Florida, but he says staying close to his family is an important factor in his decision. He might visit Michigan State this weekend and will visit Ohio State for "The Game". He wants to make a decision at the all-star game he attends.
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Great news! If Urban can land him and Johnson that would be a great way to round out the oline class for 2013.
If we get Dawson and Johnson, that would make an average oline class a great one. Things are definitely looking up for our recruiting.
Saw that Dennis Finley at MSU might give them an edge for Dawson per Michael Chung. Nothing Urban can't overcome. And now Johnson told him Pitt still leads for now. Shheesh recruiting......
I'm not sure anyone can trust a thing Dawson says at this point. That kid has been all over the map.
I really like Urban's chances now. David Dawson said he wants to play like the Pouncey twins, so I find it very hard to imagine him turning down the Pouncey twins' former head coach.
The only way I see Dawson going to MSU is if early playing time is important to him. Even then, MSU is only a marginally better option in that regard.
Next years line will have 4 seniors and a sophmore so we offer early playing time!
Doesn't Johnson know about the idiots that are spewed from Pitt, like oh, I don't know...
"I like to kick Michigan's ass and chew bubble gum, and I'm all out of gum."
you made it a race joke by pointing it out. I'd omit/amend that
EDIT: Thanks, didn't want to see another innocent victim of a downvote storm
Fixed.
"I like to kick Michigan's ass and chew bubble gum, and I'm all out of gum."
Michael Chung? No familiar with him. Don't think Finley will have much of an impact on Dawson.
Michael Chung is "recruiting analyst" from the Ozone, and I take everything he says with the tiniest grain of salt possible.
Thus, his blatant and subjective speculation about Finley and Dawson, grain of salt.
His claim that Pitt leads for Johnson, legitimate because it came from Johnson himself.
Chung often does interviews with players. He's a pretty solid contributor to the Ozone, but I haven't been there in a while.
His interviews are useful, because they're reports of first hand information. Which is difficult to mess up.
But I also feel like he just says stuff to fill article space, which may be an inherent flaw in his media format. Beyond twitter, they don't have the same luxury that Alex does, where he can make a forum topic for a quick relay of information.
Very exciting with Dawson. Michigan and Hoke must have really pissed him off given that his two top teams now are Michigan's two biggest rivals, lol.
Chung interviewed Dawson as he publicly thanked him for it last night. FYI
With the grief Dawson is getting from scUM fans I can see him coming to OSU to get away from putting up with that for four years. Calling him everything in the book. How stupid can people be? Dawson said he hoped Gareon Conley was treated better than he has been. Don't know if he meant by scUM or the fans.
And as someone said on another thread, Johnson probably doesn't want the home state fans, Pitt, thinking he is leaving and will keep quiet about strongly considering or choosing OSU, until the time he announces.
I'd definitely think that getting Conley and Dawson makes up for the Kalis thing from last year.
I wouldn't cheer for Michigan if they were playing the Taliban.
@buck i-8, i agree with you about their website format / structure not being very effective. I, however, find his interviews and analysis to be top notch. it's focused on OSU recruiting and free (like 11w) as well I give the guy mad props.
it's 10x better than the 'forum super users' e.g. - jbook. it's just creepy writing about recruits via twitter stalking. he talks to the kids directly in a professional way.
I give him props for working hard, I just think he does a lot of extrapolation and fluff writing to fill space
yeah i see what you're saying. fair opinion. i like seeing analysis beyond restating what the recruits said because as the saying goes "90% of communication is non verbal" they have a better beat on how the recruits really feel.
This is really good news. I was impressed with Dawson based on his camp highlights.
his new top three is OSU, Sparty, and Wisc. he got over Florida pretty fast
born and raised in Cleveland
I thought Florida would get him. Get him to THE GAME and watch his future team go 12-0 with no more bowl bans. He is TOSU's to lose.
So, do we take both Dawson and Johnson? If so, who is on the outside looking in? I have to think we take our linebacker targets for sure, meaning some wide outs could be left on the out of the class.
@RAZRBACK16, I don't think Dawson's selection of tOSU and MSU as his top schools have anything to do with anger towards Hoke or Michigan but is a product of a close family and his situation. With having lost his father in April, it only makes sense that he would like to stay close to home to help support his mom. At this point, in order to stay close to home, Michigan is no longer an option, and his best remaining choices are tOSU, MSU, and ND. Since ND is full at OL and hasn't offered him, that only leaves tOSU and MSU to stay close to home. So this scenario is logical.
Now there is the other part of the story of Michigan no longer being an option. We know that Dawson's Michigan offer was pulled based on the following comments from his high school coach that I got from the Detroit Free Press. Please see the quote below.
"He told Michigan that he was going to visit Florida this weekend, and they told him that would mean he lost his scholarship offer," Cass Tech head coach Thomas Wilcher explained. "They explained that it was his choice [to visit Florida], but they were going to have him [decommit]."
Wilcher also explained that Michigan will no longer pursue Dawson, and barring a major change of heart, his scholarship offer to play in Ann Arbor is no longer valid. Committing to Michigan before he was 100% certain of his college choice cost Dawson the opportunity to play for the Wolverines.
http://www.freep.com/article/20121016/SPORTS06/121015044/Recruiting-David-Dawson-s-decommitment-shows-U-M-visit-policy-has-teeth
According to multiple sources, Dawson had set up and no showed multiple visits with Florida without notifying or talking to the Michigan coaches first about choosing to visit Florida. After doing this three times, one of the Florida coaches contacted Greg Mattison to tell him what was going on with Dawson. The Michigan coaches then confronted Dawson about it. The result of the conversation being that Dawson wanted to visit Florida, so Dawson was no longer considered committed.
So this is where Michigan's no visit policy line gets a little blurry I believe and becomes conjecture. In Dawson's scenario, not only did Michigan's coaches classify Dawson as decommitted, but they also pulled his offer, meaning Michigan was no longer an option for him. People (fans and maybe even writers) are speculating his offer was pulled not because he wanted to visit, but because he was trying to visit behind the coach's backs. Pharoah Brown's decommitment and offer pull in the 2012 class for visiting Oregon without telling the Michigan coaches is looked to as precedent for this. The speculation is that had Dawson been upfront with the Michigan coaches that he was scheduling a visit with Florida, he would have been considered decommitted but still would have had an offer and Michigan would still be recruiting him. I'm not sure if that is true or not.
The above makes me curious to see what happens with Gareon Conley. If he decides to take visits, it appears that he will be up front and honest with the Michigan coaches, so it will be a test case for people's belief of what the no visit policy is. If his status is moved to decommitted, but maintains his offer and Michigan continues to recruit him, then what is known of the policy will seem to be a little more concrete.
I'm sorry about this post being long. Just thought I would share for any of those that could be curious and since Dawson's recruitment is now important to this forum and some people might be interested in knowing some of what has happened with him in the past. For what it is worth, he seems to be a good kid and someone I think you root for no matter where he ends up. I wish he and his family the best and hope he finds what he is looking for.
@ Blue
Don't apologize for the long post -- it was quite informative, and I'm sure more than a few (myself included) appreciate your attention to detail, so thank you!
I'll forgive you just this once. lol.
Seriously though, thanks for the info.
Here are some good article links on Dawson for anybody that wants to read up on him.
http://espn.go.com/high-school/football/events/the-opening/2012/story/_/id/8108552/top-guard-david-dawson-remembers-father-prepares-opening
And a Freep article that was good when it was free but appears to a pay link now that it is in the archive. So for those of you that want to pay money, see the link below.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/freep/access/2767111161.html?FMT=ABS&date=Sep+21%2C+2012
One bit of advice on Dawson, the kid likes to play the recruiting game (what teenager wouldn't), so his recruitment at this point most likely won't be over anytime soon. (I believe he has also stated he will commit at one of the all star games.) A large number of times he put us on commitment watch only to have us see nothing happen. I think he was something like 1 for 10 on his predictions.
Dawson was telling people that he wasn't going to ttun because he wanted to win championships. Could be in retaliation to all the crap he is taking but if that is what he is looking for, MSU isn't the answer.
@RAZRBACK16 and @TENNBUCKEYE19, thanks for the comments. I just figured I could help catch this forum up on him a little bit. He seems to be a good kid and will be a great addition to whatever team he chooses. It is his decision, so I'm not going to hate on him no matter what he decides. I just wish others felt the same way and could conduct themselves accordingly. (the extreme parts of a fan base that feel it is necessary to tweet kids nasty things about their decisions.... ugh, embarrassing. I wish you could revoke people's fan cards for that.)
Thanks, bluebayou. I haven't been following recruiting closely during the season.
It certainly doesn't help Michigan's case with any recruits on the fence when you go 0-3 in the 3 highest exposure, prime-time games that everyone sees. If Nebraska wins out and denies Michigan a chance to get to the Rosebowl, and/or OSU wins big in Columbus, we might be hurting come the first week of February.
Those who stay will be CHAMPIONS!
~Bo Schembechler
If you find a way to do this, let me know.