7-on-7 Tournament

Michigan was the host of Badger Sport's 7-on-7 tournament this weekend, and several big name recruits showed up. By all accounts, DeAnthony Arnett was again the standout player, dominating DB's all day. He capped off his performance on Day one with a leaping TD grab over two defenders on the last play of the night.

There were a couple of talented 2012 prospects in attendance, James Ross (LB) and Terry Richardson (CB). Richardson showed no fear about going up against Arnett, and held his own on a few plays.

Other notable names were Lawrence Thomas, Justice Hayes, Shawn Conway and Valdez Showers.

Cardale Jones Update

2011 QB Cardale Jones is one of the top prospects in the state of Ohio, and despite Michigan's lack of need for a QB right now, the Wolverines are in the mix. Jones visited Ann Arbor on an unofficial visit this week and was impressed with the trip.

He spoke with a lot of coaches, mainly Coach Rod and Coach Smith, and he even got to talk with new Athletic Director David Brandon. Ohio State is thought to be his favorite, even though they haven't offered the Glenville star yet.

With OSU most likely getting Braxton Miller, will this push Jones away from the buckeyes? Jones is a teammate of another UM target in Aundrey Walker (OL), and it would be great to pry two top prospects away from an OSU pipeline school.

The new defense...

If you have watched any interviews by Michigan players or coaches over the last week, you may have noticed a lot of them have been talking about the 3-3-5 defense. MGoBlog recent post here gives the impression that Michigan has made the switch to the 3-3-5, and the majority of defensive plays will be in this formation.

Personally I'm a big fan of this defense, and it should be well suited to Michigan with the speed that they have on defense. I'd imagine that Greg Robinson will keep all his hybrid players however, such as Craig Roh as the quick (DE/OLB), Mike Williams (who appears to be trying the new Stevie Brown role this spring) at spinner (S/OLB) and players like Kovacs as a box safety.

Anyway, in terms of recruiting, this must change the focus of defensive recruiting slightly. Recruiting the safety position will be very important over the next year or so to provide decent competition at the three spots. Fortunately Michigan got one of the best safeties in the nation last year - Demar Dorsey, as well as a handful of others such as Marvin Robinson and Carvin Johnson.

If we look at the safeties in the 2011 class, Ha'Sean Clinton-Dix will definitely be a target down the stretch. He is a teammate of Demetrius Hart, and the two players are considering going to the same school, Michigan is one of those under consideration.

Another good safety prospect is Ohio's Ron Tanner. He has been to Michigan twice now, and seems to enjoy it up there, however the Buckeyes have come on strong for him as of late and the word is a commitment could come before his senior year.

Rich Rod getting sued?

According to this ESPN article, Rich Rodriguez is being sued by some company saying they gave RR and some of his business partners a $1,000,000 loan.

I don't really know whats going on here, but one thing is for sure, there will be even more negative recruiting....

Even this early in the 2011 recruiting trail we've seen evidence of schools negative recruiting against UM, largely due to the NCAA allegations, Rich Rod's job security etc. This lawsuit will probably just add more fuel to the fire, which is frustrating. It seems like RR really can't catch a break in Ann Arbor, he really needs to just get out of the spotlight for a bit and focus on winning games!

Recruiting Formula #1 : More Wins = Better Recruits

Whoop Whoop!

ESPN spoke with Demetrius Hart recently...

"Auburn is still my No. 1," he said. "But Florida dropped out of my top three and Michigan is in there now."

Moving on up! He'll be at the spring game, and if Rich Rod can convince his mom that all is good at Michigan, UM could be #1 before you know it! Watch out Auburn...

UPDATE: Dee Hart just joined the facebook group..."I Beleive in Auburn"

Seantrel Henderson finally done

The nations top prospect from 2010, Seantrel Henderson, has finally signed with USC. Its almost two months since signing day, and as far as I know the NCAA allegations against USC haven't been resolved just yet, but I guess it was the right time for Seantrel.

I was really optimistic about UM's chances with Henderson many months ago, he actually visited Ann Arbor to see the Wolverines before the season. However he never made it back for an official visit, shame.

The good thing about this piece of news is that he won't be going to Ohio State! The buckeyes were the supposed 2nd choice after USC, and if the NCAA punished USC significantly, maybe Henderson would be at OSU this year.

Maybe I'll regret this when he ends up against Michigan's D-line on January 1st 2012, yeah that's right Michigan will win the Big Ten in 2011/2012! Just putting it out there....

Kevin Williams Update

Ohio DT Kevin Williams has previously mentioned he grew up following Notre Dame as a kid, but after last weekend the Irish are no longer a contender in his recruitment. According to Williams, Notre Dame weren't really looking to take an interior D-lineman in this class, and as a result, Williams backed out of their junior day and seems to have cut ties with the Irish.

More good news for Michigan came when Williams said he felt the same way about in-state school Ohio State. These latest developments lead many to believe its just a two horse race between Michigan and Nebraska. He expects to visit the Huskers in a couple of weeks.

Demetrius Hart Update (another!)

Hart has told scout.com that he has an official top three of Auburn, Florida and Alabama, despite admitting to be a big Michigan fan. However he mentions that certain things caused him to drop the Wolverines, i.e NCAA allegations. 

He also confirms that his mom is worried over the job security of Coach Rich Rodriguez and Hart goes onto say that he listens to his mom a lot. Translation - If she's worried about Michigan, he'll go somewhere else. 

All this comes after Hart confirmed to MgoBlog's Tom "VH" that he would be in Ann Arbor next month to see Ricardo Miller, surely this can't just be a social visit?

Top recruit recaps UM visit

Michigan should be the mix for Scout.com's #1 C in the nation, Ryan Kelly. Currently rated as a four star prospect, Kelly had been receiving Michigan mail for a while and decided to attend the night of champions event this month. 

Although he doesn't yet have a Michigan offer, he has given his film to OL Coach Frey who will be in contact shortly. Unless scout.com is really off on this one, he's very likely to get a scholarship offer soon, which would give him four. Cincinnati, Indiana and Louisville are the schools that have offered so far.

He was impressed with the Night of Champions event, and if UM were to offer, they would be near the top of the list.

Facebook!

Following a tip about Demetrius Hart's Facebook page, I added him as a friend, and there are a few interesting posts from the FL RB.

- "Just on my way back from the meeting with coach urban meyer all I gotta say is I may have a home????" (March 5th)

So Florida is #1? But wasn't Auburn named as #1 a week or so back?

- "Going to see big brah april the 16 lol hope yall can guess where???" (March 15th) 

If you can't guess, its Michigan. He will be going to see his good friend and former teammate Ricardo Miller. So Michigan is not yet out of it? But wait a minute, on an ESPN video Hart says he has one more school to visit, Alabama? Where did they come from!??? Perhaps this is just more of ESPN's scouts hatred of Michigan.

This whole situation is stupidly complex right now, but at least Hart knows whats up..."I think i know where im going yall" (March 10th). It will be interesting to see how things unfold in the next few weeks.

Matt Hegarty Update

Four star OT Matt Hegarty will visit Michigan unofficially this weekend after receiving his scholarship offer a few days ago. Michigan have been recruiting this guy for quite a while now and an offer was sure to come for Scout.com's #9 offensive tackle. 

Hegarty has yet to narrow things down just yet, largely due to his growing list of offers which includes top programs such as Texas, USC and Oklahoma. With this kind of recruitment, its important to get the prospect on campus early, because later in the year he will have many schools to visit and very little time. 

Let's hope the visit goes well and Michigan hangs in there with this one. 

Tuesday's news

A couple of quick updates from players:

- Demetrius Hart won't be committing to Auburn just yet...I hope. The word is that Ricardo Miller has convinced him to pay Michigan another visit in a few weeks. Hart really should have been a Michigan commit by now, but negative recruiting based on the NCAA allegations has vaulted Auburn into the lead.

- Chris Rock (Ohio defensive end) has come out saying his recent Michigan trip was his best visit so far. He'll be visiting a lot of other schools this spring, but the main competition should come from Notre Dame, who he visits this coming weekend.

Also, Spring Ball has officially started for Michigan! I know Trey DePriest said he'd be visiting during the spring, so hopefully we'll hear something about that shortly.

Night of Champions/DeAnthony Arnett Update

Michigan held its Night of Champions event this week, and there was a wide variety of events including egg eating and the good old tug of war. The big surprise of the night was that Denard "Shoelace" Robinson didn't win the 40 yard dash!??? Martavious Odoms (WR) took home the win. Each runner was hand timed individually, so there might have been a bit of error involved, but its pretty encouraging to hear Odoms runs a 4.35.

In terms of recruiting, there were a few big name prospects at the event, including Anthony Zettel, Brennen Beyer, Chris Rock and Kevin Williams amongst others. Perhaps the top recruit there was DeAnthony Arnett, who was rumored to be seen in full Michigan gear a few days ago??

Arnett got some good one on one time with Coach Rod and despite not naming Michigan in his top three a couple weeks back, the feeling is that UM is right back in the mix now. A lot people seem to think if Michigan pulls off a good season on the field, Arnett could well go blue. The competition is mounting up though, USC and Oklahoma are just two of the big name schools that are in a great position to sign him.

Ohio DT Kevin Williams also came away pleased with the visit, and he has a top two of Michigan and Nebraska right now. I believe there is some link to Nebraska through his coaches, but he has yet to visit the Huskers, so we'll have to wait and see on that. 

2012 James Ross Update

DetNews's Sam Webb caught up with "Super Sophomore" James Ross Jr this week to discuss his recruiting process. Ross is basically 2012's Lawrence Thomas, except Michigan has a better chance this time around. 

Despite favoring MSU and OSU early on, a recent trip to Ann Arbor has put Michigan level at the top of the leader board.

Check out the full article here. 

ESPN top 30 big ten players

First of all, if you have Facebook, please feel free to join the group "Get Michigan's Brandon Graham on the cover of NCAA 2011", link here.

Secondly I don't know how many of you read ESPN blogger Adam Rittenberg's blog, but I'm pretty psyched to see Brandon Graham in the top two of his Top 30 Big Ten Players. Link here. With only two players left, it has to be Graham and one other, and I think it's Jarred Odrick, the DT from Penn State. 

Here's hoping Graham lands the top spot!

Demetrius Hart Update

Once considered a lock for Michigan, now the FL RB could be committing to Auburn very soon? What happened? Negative Recruiting.

It seems a lot of people close to Hart have been steering him towards FSU and Florida, which are schools that traditionally Dr Phillips HS players attend. However somewhere along the lines Auburn came into it, and now there are rumors that he could commit there within the next few weeks! 

Even if a commitment comes Hart would still take official visits, which would include UM, so by no means are Michigan out of it. It's just a major setback in the race to sign one of the top Running Backs in Florida.

Last Week's News

I was in Poland for most of the week and therefore couldn't write any posts, here's a quick catchup. 

- The big news this week (and also the most disappointing) was that 5 Star LB Lawrence Thomas committed to Michigan State. Players from Detroit Renaissance are always funneled into MSU, but I hoped Thomas would take his time and give programs like Michigan a more of a look. MSU fans will now boast they dominate the in-state recruiting, if they get DeAnthony Arnett as well then I might have to concede that one.

- FL RB Demetrius Hart, who was once considered a bit of a Michigan lock has visited Auburn this week, and it looks like it could be a three way battle between the tigers, UM, and Florida.

- DeAnthony Arnett insists he has not dropped Michigan off his list, however the Wolverines need to impress on the field this year. Arnett showed his skills at the showcase event last weekend and really cemented himself as a top prospect in the Midwest. 

- The list of visitors for next weekend's night of champions event is building up with at least 13 prospects down to attend. Brennen Beyer, Chris Rock, Anthony Zettel and Shaq Washington are a few of big names going to the event. 

Miles Shuler Update

Michigan have extended a scholarship offer to Long Branch, NJ prospect Miles Shuler. Running a sub 4.4 forty yard dash makes him a pretty good fit for the spread offense at either RB or WR, however he currently plays QB for his High School team.

Local college Rutgers might be the team to beat right now, but Shuler was excited to receive his Michigan offer and says he will be in touch with the Wolverine staff over the coming months. He will be attending camps at Penn State and maybe Ohio State.