If we can’t get Collins I definitely won’t be too upset with Martin as a backup plan.
Thorpe and Solomon would be massive pickups.
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Today, legislation passed that bans satellite camps.
Also today, Balas is reporting that Michigan plans to take a week long trip to Rome, Italy and practice overseas.
As expected, Herbert decommits. Thorpe is huge moving forward
What are your thoughts on the Rome thing? People are pretty split on The Fort as to whether they think it will help in recruiting or not. Albeit a different sport, you are pretty in tune with how kids would view this.
Thorpe shut down his recruitment earlier today.
Depends on your target, and Harbaugh targets a different type of kid in relation to Beilein. My gut tells me it won’t help Harbaugh all that much on the recruiting trail, but ultimately it doesn’t matter because he’s an elite recruiter and he’s going to land elite prospects.
According to a source, Jeremy Clark has been denied a sixth year of eligibility. Has signed an agent and will pursue his NFL options.
— Michael Spath (@MichaelSpathITH) January 23, 2017
This hurts. That’s one more soph/frosh that will be starting in the secondary; Clark had also been playing lights-out, before his injury. Best of luck to Jeremy, in the draft. The greatest injustice is that he doesn’t get another year to prove to scouts that he is a pro.
Meanwhile, Ed Davis is about to be granted a 7th year of eligibility.
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Yeah this one hurts, no doubt about it. Had the size to play safety if necessary as well.
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A secondary of Hill-Kinnel-Hudson-Long (Soph-soph-soph-RS frosh) would be crazy fast and athletic. But the secondary is a scary place to be THAT inexperienced. Even OSU’s ‘young’ secondary, this year, was full of 3rd year guys.
It’s pretty great that the NCAA isn’t even trying to hide its hatred for Harbaugh. And how does Harbaugh handle it: take the kids to Rome and do everything he can to make sure the NFL see’s Clark’s value.
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Your thoughts on Hudson? I’m in the great minority that wasn’t all that impressed with his HS film. Seems like more of an LB than a secondary player in my view but I’m certainly no football talent expert.
Look at the play at 00:41, 1:09, and 1:45. Those are just examples of his coverage skills. The whole video shows that he’s probably more of a SS than FS, though. I also know Brian and Ace, from Mgoblog, were crazy high on him.
Kinnel made a couple of great tackles in space, this season, where he found the ball, picked his angle, and made the tackle lightning-fast. I think hudson could do the same, as well as the coverage shown above.
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Based on my limited FB eval skills, it appeared to me that Hudson had good movement in small spaces but lacked the top end speed to be a coverage guy as a primary duty.
I think Hudson is well-suited to play as an in-the-box safety. He’s very quick, agile, pretty good eye discipline, and an aggressive and effective tackler. He doesn’t have elite speed, so I don’t think he’d be a great deep safety, but I have a lot of confidence that Kinnell will ably man that position.
We seem to have a few decent options to man the strong safety position or the Viper position that Peppers played. I’m pretty worried about the deep safety position after Kinnell. Losing Brian Cole hurt, because I think he’s going to be very good. Who’s Kinnell’s backup? Kelly-Powell? A converted CB?
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…probably. Or Woods; both frosh. The best option would probably be signing Gay, giving him the Viper, and then playing Metellus at SS, Kinnel at FS. Then Hudson is the safety depth.
Curious about your thoughts on the Viper spot, with and without Gay. Hard to decide if Metellus would be most needed/best utilized at Viper or safety. I guess Peppers, from play to play, swapped responsibilities with the safeties to disguise coverages and blitzes, so maybe the distinction isn’t so critical.
Thanks–forgot about Woods.
I’m really impressed with Gay’s film and the various scouting reports I’ve read. He’s one of the faster HS LBs I’ve seen over the past few years, and if he’s already over 220 lbs, I think he’d be a perfect fit for the Viper position.
Mettelus flashed some ability this year, but he also made some mistakes against FSU (not surprising as a true frosh who probably didn’t receive any 1st-team practice reps). I think he could play Viper or box safety long term. I don’t think he has the ideal speed for deep safety. Same for Hudson.
We have several young players (and commits and signees and recruits) who have impressive HS film and could play either Viper, box safety, or both. No one is proven on the college level, but there are enough bodies that I think we’ll be fine. As for deep safety, we have one guy (Kinnell) who has looked really good while receiving a fair amount of non-garbage time snaps, and 2 freshman. I’m really hoping Kinnell stays healthy, as I’m not terribly comfortable playing a true freshman at deep safety.
How are we looking for Solomon heading into Wednesday?
Sam still confident, but man… Everything Solomon says publically screams Bama.