Michigan Thursday: Guys are Falling Off the Board

Rich Rod's approach to recruiting was to offer hundreds of guys and hoping he could land the best 20+ players out of that pool of young men.   Hoke and Staff seem to have a different approach, they offer guys they think will commit to Michigan.  It has worked well right now with a top 5 class for pretty much all the recruiting services. 

This time of year things happen to pull guys to Ann Arbor and things happen that push players to other schools.    A clear example of that was the Pharaoh Brown's secret trip to Oregon which cost him his Michigan commitment.  That is why you see the Michigan staff offering new TE's even this week.  

Other Guys that have fallen off the board include:

Taylor McNamara:  I don't have a reason yet, but I have heard the ship as sailed with him.  I am guessing the cost to take a visit from California.  He has used all his officials. 

Stefon Diggs:  The rumor mill is saying that the Michigan coaches had set up a time to meet with Stefon at his home.  When the coaches showed up he wasn't there and had decided to take an official visit to Cal instead and didn't cancel the meeting.   So that recruitment is pretty much done if that is the case.

Zach Banner:  Has Oklahoma as his leader, Michigan in no longer in his top group.


New Guys on the Board

OL Alex Kozan: Is one of the top centers/tackles in the nation and Michigan has renewed their interest in Alex and he will be taking a visit to Ann Arbor this weekend.  He is a 4 star prospect to Rivals and Scouts.  My thought is they are going to give Alex a full court press to commit.  I think the coaches believe Diamond's timeline is too long (he wants to do an official to U of M in January and make a decision on signing day) and even though Michigan is strong with Josh Garnett, I think they believe it will take a small miracle for him to go so far away from the West Coast.

TE Sam Grant - Was just offered this week and is a teammate of Kyle Kalis.  He is verballed to BC but is taking a visit to Ann Arbor with Kyle this weekend.   I would keep an eye on this one, Kyle was in the room when he was offered.  If he was looking at BC,  I would imagine academics is a priority for him.

TE JP Holtz:  Is a 6'4 240 TE that was committed to Penn State before all hell broke loose.  He has opened up and the Michigan coaches visited him last week.   He has done trips to Pitt and Purdue.  On a side note, Tony Gibson was recruiting him at Pitt but is now with RR at Arizona.  Michigan needs to get him on campus before he is a serious contender for a verbal.  He is a 4 star guy to Scouts and 3 to Rivals.

Congratulations to these Wolverines that made the Fall Big Ten All Acadmic Team:

Matthew Cavanaugh, Sr., economics, Alto, Mich.
J.B. Fitzgerald, Sr., sports management, Princeton Junction, N.J.
Jareth Glanda, Jr., movement science, Rochester Hills, Mich.
Cameron Gordon, Jr., general studies, Detroit, Mich.
Will Heininger, Sr., sports management and economics, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Zac Johnson, Gr., kinesiology, Morenci, Mich.
Jordan Kovacs, Sr., movement science, Curtice, Ohio
John McColgan, Gr., accounting, Saginaw, Mich.
Ricardo Miller, So., Literature, Science and the Arts/undeclared, Orlando, Fla.
Patrick Omameh, Sr., communication and sociology, Columbus, Ohio
Craig Roh, Jr., sports management, Scottsdale, Ariz.