Monday, June 8, 2015

Michigan Monday: The Summer Swarm Rock Tour Continues to Rock On!

The Michigan coaches don't sleep and continue to everywhere on this rock tour.   Saturday they did a morning  (150 kids) and afternoon session (400 kids) in Tampa and a night session in Miami.   Thank goodness for private aviation.

Sunday they were in PA to a record crowd of 1400 campers all supporting a good charity: Lauren's First and Goal. That camp alone raised over $100K for brain cancer research.

Michigan is not only helping kids but they are making a huge impression on recruits that don't know Jimmy and staff.   This wasn't a great idea, it's a brilliant idea.   If the NCAA doesn't put a stop to it, look for this to be copied by every major program in the US.  

This tour has also been paying off in offers and commitments.   Two new commitments came in on Saturday:

The first commitment was one we all expected in athlete Chris Evans from Indiana.   Chris is a 4 star recruit to Scouts and 24/7 but a 3 star to Rivals.   He is listed as a RB on most sites but is being recruited as a Slot WR to Michigan.   Chris is 5'10 and 195 pounds and could end up at DB as well. He recently visited Michigan and attended the Indy camp as well.   His top offers were from Michigan, Minnesota and Michigan State.

This is another "flex" recruit for Jimmy and one he could do a ton of things with.   Michigan has two solid RB's in this class already in Davis and Falcon so finding another position for Evans won't be a problem. 




The second commitment was from Prattville, Alabama OLB Dytarious Johnson who you can consider an "under the radar" recruit.  He visited Ann Arbor and attended the Prattville camp last week.   The Michigan coaches liked what they saw and he received an offer on Saturday and committed on the spot. 

Johnson is only rated two stars by Rivals and other services don't even have him ranked.   Which doesn't leave a lot of information about him out there.

Michigan Blog:  Touch the Banner has a nice write up after watching his film: 

Now watching his film, it's clear to see what the coaches like in him. For being a linebacker, he's a very smooth runner who moves like a strong safety. The first highlight in his film below is of him playing man coverage on a slot receiver, staying right on his hip on a wheel route, and tracking the ball down in the air; he tips it to himself and races about 75 yards to the endzone. He also likes to hit, and he takes good angles to the football. One thing I also like is that he seems to understand his role as an outside linebacker, and he does a very good job of maintaining leverage and fighting off blocks to keep outside contain.

The athleticism is there, but some basic fundamentals are lacking. His stance and footwork will probably need to be adjusted, but that will come with reps and coaching. He will also need to get stronger and add a little bit of weight.

Overall, if you told me this was a 4-star recruit, I would not have batted an eyelash


Scouts Sam Webb als0 tweeted this prior to his commitment on Friday:

I trust the Michigan coaches and now they have seen him live.   I'm sure this young man has some work to do on his skill set but it sounds like he is closer to his basement then his ceiling right now.    Also look for him to become a 3 star recruit on all the services as a Michigan commitment.



Numbers for the 2016 Class?

Right now is stands around 14-15 kids with 10 commitments already.  I expect that number to be in the low 20's and I think the Michigan coaches are expecting to take a class in the +20 range.


  • Reports out of the Elite 11 camp is that Michigan commit Brandon Peters is doing well.  Per Scouts: Peters was in our top five on Saturday and was equally impressive on Sunday. He was smart and decisive with his throws during the 7v7, didn’t force passes that weren’t there and protected the football very well. When he did have a chance to go deeper down the field, he took advantage and was very accurate. The Michigan commit shows a lot of poise and his game translates very well to the next level.

The tour continues in Houston today.   No sleep for Rock Stars!

2 comments:

ScottyDoggs said...

Nice write!

Scott K said...

When are high school QB's going to realize there hasn't been a relevant NFL QB come out of ohio state since...... Tomczak in 85...