Recruiting Predictions

It's been a bad day for Michigan recruiting, with both Goudis and Fisher backing out on their commitments; but despite this, I have faith that Brady Hoke is going to end this class well. Here's how I see this class ending up.

- Firstly, I don't think we're going to see any more decommitments. Sure Kellen Jones is visiting Miami; and Countess isn't exactly solid right now, but in the end it won't take much from Brady Hoke to get these two in the class. When a DC gets named, things will be easier.

- We might not be getting Dallas Crawford back, but Michigan has a good chance to lure Jake Fisher back into the class. Florida and Oregon haven't offered him (as far as I know), and even the MSU guys on rivals.com think Fisher will go blue in the end.

- Kris Frost won't be enrolling early because Auburn didn't accept him in time. If I was Frost, I'd be pretty frustrated with the Tigers. Frost has been in contact with Michigan, and I think Brady Hoke will be able to convince Frost that Michigan is where he belongs.

- Chris Bryant really liked his visit to Pittsburgh, but I reckon it's just because of the familiarity with Calvin Magee. Bryant loves Michigan, and he really cares about academics which gives the Maize and Blue a big edge. He's now met with Brady Hoke, and I think everyone expects him to choose Michigan on January 28th.

- Raymon Taylor been leaning towards UM for a while after decommiting from Indiana; and I expect he'll commit to the Wolverines after his official at the end of this month despite the coaching change.

- Michigan is mainly looking at two guys for WR (Flowers and Lucien); of which I expect them to get one. I thought Flowers was a certainty to end up in the class when RR was there; he loved that offense and Michigan in general. However, Hoke had two 1000 yard receivers at SDSU this year, and you can bet he'll mention that to Hakeem.

Lucien hasn't visited Michigan yet, so it's hard to guess where he'll end up, it all depends if Hoke can get him on campus before signing day. He's deciding between Miami and Michigan for his final official.

- Michigan will get at least one surprise commitment from a California kid; a prospect that we hadn't really heard of before Hoke was hired. Stefan McClure (see below post) is certainly a candidate for this spot; but I reckon there might be one more; maybe a current SDSU commit? Could be a QB or TE to help out with the transition to a more pro style offense?

*EDIT* - Brady Hoke has just extended an offer to Kicker Matt Wile (San Diego, CA). With this offer, and the possibility that Derrick Mitchell (former minor leaguer) might walk on, and with Connor Loftus still theoretically alive....it looks like Michigan will be taking a kicker in this class. So those of you who weren't happy with my "Gibbons could get better" idea, can rejoice!

Random Updates: Michigan has offered defensive back Floyd Raven, who just decommitted from Ole Miss today. Not sure how interested he is just yet.

MGoBlog's TomVH is reporting that Michigan has been in touch with Illinois OT commit Pat Flavin; who had an offer from SDSU. I certainly wouldn't mind some insurance on Jake Fisher.

Conclusion: Michigan has 10 commitments at the moment, but a few of them are just soft verbals. If the above happens, they will end up with around 16-17 commits, which would be a great save for this class.

Hoke is throwing everything into the recruiting trail now after securing Denard and doing all the player meetings, and one would guess his staff will be completed in the next few days. Once a DC gets named, it will be a lot easier to turn the soft commits (Countess, Jones, Beyer???) back into firm verbals.