Friday, August 29, 2008

Pahokee Florida Teammates go Michigan


*Programing note: Check back on Saturday morning for the Utah Preview. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

So it seems Panhokee Florida has a straight line to Ann Arbor. Odoms who will be featured tomorrow (yes, I said it Tomorrow!!!) as Michigan's starting slot receiver came from the same school last year.

Vincent Smith and Brandin Hawthorne both announced their intention to play for the Maize and Blue for the class of 2009. (If there is any DE's from Arizona or QB's from California that would like to do the same this weekend, please don't hesitate and go ahead and commit!)

As always here is the recruiting info from VB:

Smith is a 5-9, 170-lb running back and Hawthorne is a 6-0, 185-lb linebacker who boasts a 4.7 40-yard dash.

Recruiting Notes: Michigan fans first became aware of Pahokee High School when slot receiver Martavious Odoms joined the class of 2008 in February. They quickly learned of Odoms's younger teammates, including WR Nu'Keese Richardson (Florida commit) and Smith and Hawthorne. Smith was the first of the two added to the board, when he reported in March that he was about to receive a Michigan offer. That offer became public in June, and Hawthorne was added to the recruiting board shortly thereafter, when he placed Michigan in his top two, despite not reporting an offer. In early July, Brandin stated that he wouldn't make a school decision until after he had taken his official visits. However, in the middle of July, both he and Smith stated that they would announce their college decisions on August 30th at their game against Olive Branch. At the end of July, the duo started dropping none-too-subtle hints that Michigan would be the choice for both Blue Devils. Towards the end of August, both Hawthorne and Smith announced that they had set up 5 official visits, though they still planned to announce on August 30th (an announcement that they subsequently moved forward by one day). With the final choice of Michigan, it is unlikely that they will have spots reserved for them in the class if they still intend to take officials to schools other than Michigan. The runners-up for Smith were Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Tennessee. finishing in second for Hawthorne was Louisville.

Player Notes: Both players may be considered slightly undersized for their positions, though Rich Rodriguez has focused on adding speed to the team first, and will likely worry about size and speed in future classes. Smith projects as yet another RB/Slot combo, with his diminutive stature and decent quickness. Hawthorne is probably going to end up as a weakside linebacker unless he has a pretty significant growth spurt. He will have to add a ton of mass to play linebacker, and hopefully he won't lose too much speed doing so in Mike Barwis's program.

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