Monday, January 13, 2014

Recruiting Update: January 13, 2014

Wayne (NJ) DePaul running back Kareem Walker
ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2015
Clemmons (NC) West Forsyth defensive end Jalen Dalton was offered by Michigan. Dalton is a 6'5", 220 lb. prospect with offers from Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia Tech, among others. He's a 247 Composite 4-star, the #8 weakside end, and #96 overall. Dalton is a long, athletic kid who makes a lot of plays with his speed, knocking down passes, etc. and I like the enthusiasm and energy I see in his highlights. He could afford to be more physical, and that could happen as his frame fills out, but he looks like a weakside end all the way.

Randleman (NC) Randleman wide receiver Juval Mollette was offered by Michigan. Mollette is a 6'4", 187 lb. prospect with offers from Clemson, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Ohio State, and Tennessee, among others. He's a 247 Composite 4-star, the #25 wide receiver, and the #209 player overall. Mollette is a tall, long-striding receiver who's in the mold of a physical, jump ball type of guy rather than a burner. He appears to be leaning toward North Carolina at this point in his recruitment, despite a pretty good offer list.

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2016
Traverse City (MI) West offensive tackle Thiyo Lukusa was offered by Michigan. Lukusa is a 6'5", 300 lb. prospect with offers from Akron, Michigan State, and Wisconsin; all but the Michigan State offer came on Thursday of last week. While he plays left tackle in high school, he looks to me like a future offensive guard. Lukusa camped at Michigan in June 2013 and was considered to be a Michigan lean if they offered, but the Spartans' early offer had him considering committing to the bad guys. The Wolverines might be playing from behind, but a spate of new offers could slow down the process.

Wayne (NJ) De Paul running back Kareem Walker was offered by Michigan. Walker is a 6'1", 195 lb. prospect with offers from Penn State, Rutgers, and Temple. As a sophomore in 2013, he had 115 carries for 1,164 yards and 12 touchdowns. Not just because of his dreadlocks, but if you watch his highlight film, his acceleration and stride are reminiscent of Denard Robinson. Walker is a different style of runner overall, but watching him burst upfield brings back good memories.

OFF THE BOARD
Washington (DC) Friendship Collegiate cornerback Jalen Tabor stiffed Arizona and former Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez when he flipped from the Wildcats to the Florida Gators. Tabor had just committed to Arizona less than a week before flipping, so they didn't have much time to celebrate the recruiting victory. An early enrollee, Tabor is planning to start classes today, so Rodriguez won't have a chance to sway him back before National Signing Day.

MISCELLANEOUS
This isn't worth putting in its own post, but some of the early enrollees posted on Twitter the jersey numbers they'll wear to start their careers. Quarterback Wilton Speight will wear #19, wide receiver Drake Harris #14, defensive tackle Bryan Mone #90, and linebacker Michael Ferns #46.

9 comments:

  1. Lukusa def. looks like a guard. I hope we don't lose this guy to Michigan State or Wisconsin -- Losing Jake Fisher from the same city (Traverse City, Mich.) in 2011 in midst of coaching change really hurt us imo. He could've easily started for us in 2013 as a 3rd-year player. Got to lock-down in-state talent and deprive them from Sparty.

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    1. Fisher started for Oregon this year.

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    2. Exactly. Fisher would've been a good help in 2013. But what happened is what happened, and we just got to lock down talent from this point on.

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    3. http://mgoblog.com/content/hello-jake-fisher
      We actually had him at one point...

      I remember after he decommited, he went to visit State but later talked to Hoke/Funk and a lot of people still thought he would end up Blue. In the end we found out that he was very close to the old OL coach (Frey) and that was the main reason he decommited. To me the O-Line was the greatest area of recruiting need at the time and if I was Hoke I would have kept Frey if it meant we would've ended up with Fisher. Besides, its not like Funk has done much with the O-line here...

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    4. Yeah. Rich Rod's OL was actually pretty good, especially compared to what we saw in 2013. Now I see the reason why Fisher decommitted in the end. Argh.

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  2. Do you want Funk to get fired...STILL?

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    1. Yeah? The answer is yes. I don't think he is that good of a coach, given what we saw on the field. I understand about the youth, but what we saw sometimes were so terrible that no other excuse could be given. Now, there is a question of whether or not Al Borges was the bigger problem re: OL. That's the question Brady Hoke and Nuss got to think about.

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  3. Question for Thunder

    Have you seen any film on Chukwuma Okorafor? I just read about him and he's a 3 star recruit from the state of MI ( currently committed to Western) with no offer from Michigan or State but has offers from Oklahoma, Florida, Nebraska, Iowa and Virginia. I know we don't need anymore lineman but its weird for a 3 star kid from MI with that kind of an offer list.

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  4. Hmm. Looks like OSU snagged Larry Johnson away from Penn State. The recruiting battle in PA is about to get very interesting.....

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