Michigan Thursday: Hand to Hand Combat

Da'Shawn Hand surprised many yesterday by cutting his list down to three schools (Michigan, Alabama and Florida) and knocking out South Carolina and his reported favorite Virginia Tech. 

The plan for now is to maybe visit Michigan and Florida before his season starts and then take all his 5 official visits which would include USC, LSU and his final 3.    He already has his Michigan visit scheduled for the Notre Dame night game.   He doesn't want to get anyone's hopes up at USC or LSU but would like to get to those campuses to see what they are about.  If you get a recruit on campus we know Les Miles and Lane Kiffin can work some magic. 

Da'Shawn had originally considered going into engineering but changed his mind and now wants to major in Sports Marketing.   He seems to be most interested in Engineering at Alabama and hasn't been there in a year.   I think that is a clear sign. 

The Sports Marketing Professor at Michigan blew him and his Dad away.  He said his dad wanted to enroll at Michigan and take his class.   Of course, Michigan has a very strong Engineering school as well.

He hasn't been to Florida yet.  UF has majors in both Sports Marketing and Engineering. 

I hate to jinx this but it seems Michigan is way ahead of all the other schools in Da'Shawn's mind.  The issue is Michigan needs to keep that lead with the likes of 4 other officials, which can be tough.   Those officials can't start until the college football season kicks off.   So if a decision comes the earliest it might come is the October/November timeframe. 

The good thing is, it seems Da'Shawn wants to have his decision made pretty early but won't announce until he takes all his visits.   It would be great if he makes it to Michigan for the BBQ or another visit before his senior season starts.

• Allen Grant is moving from Safety to SAM LB.

• Jalen Brown spoke to ESPN and said he enjoyed his Michigan visit this week.  He will do more of an update after he visits all the schools on his Mid-West trip.