Michigan Thursday: Avery Back and Important Weekend Visitors

 

Some of the news yesterday out of Schembechler Hall was that Courtney Avery should be back for Saturday's match-up against ND.   Which means the two safety positions will be 100% different from what they were just a week earlier against Central Michigan.   Thomas Gordon was suspended for CMU and Avery was recovering from a knee procedure that held him out two weeks.    This should help reduce the potential for big plays down the field by Tommy Rees.  I would also expect we will see Jarrod Wilson some as I doubt they will want to play Avery all the snaps. 

With the all hype this game as been getting, I think most of us are forgetting that this might be the most important recruiting weekend for the 2014 class and maybe the 2015 class as well.   We all know, Da'Shawn Hand will be making another visit to Ann Arbor.  He also is bringing a few prospects with him.  2015 recruits DT Tim Settle and Matt Burrell, Jr. (OL or DL) are friends with Da'Shawn and both are interested in the Wolverines.   Tim is one of the highest rated players in the 2015 class (#7 ESPN and #1 Scouts) and pretty much has offers from everyone, except the Wolverines.   I would imagine he will not be able to leave Ann Arbor without an offer.   Matt isn't a slouch either, he is rated the #6 OT in 2015 by Scouts and #124 player in ESPN's top 300, both services list him as a 4 star prospect.   Matt doesn't have a Michigan offer either yet.

The next important 2014 visitor is instate DT Malik McDowell who has been to Michigan a number of times but stays pretty quiet about his recruitment.   Malik is expected to take all 5 of his officials and make a decision during an All Star game in January. 

Other visitors expected:

• 2015 RB Mike Weber
• 2015 DE Joshua Alabi
• 2015 OLB Justin Hilliard
• 2015 WR Brian Cole

I would also expect a number of commits and a few more 2015 visitors on the sideline as well.

If you missed it the Big Ten Weekend Preview is below.