Wednesday morning the Michigan Football Team had 20 commitments with roughly 4 spots left. The names remaining on the radar are familiar ones like: Treadwell, Green, Wilkins, Mathis, McQuay, Cravens, Fuller and others. So are you surprised that the #21 commit is (drum roll please), Scott Sypniewski?
I sure was surprised because I had never even heard of Scott Sypniewski, since he is a non-ranked long snapper. So your next reaction might be, "Bob very funny you are listing a preferred walk-on as the 21st commit". I'm not, Scott is on a full scholarship and fills a need for the Wolverines at long snapper. "They said they need one. They just lost their starter, Tom Pomarico. They have one guy who is going to be a senior and they were going to bring in two walk-ons. They've seen my film and knew I was good enough to start there and that's why they offered me a scholarship."
Many large programs will offer kicker, punters and long snappers. Others don't and take the best available players as walk-on's. Michigan does both and has been offering mostly kickers and punters over the last few years. I do remember Carr offering a long snapper in his last class and I think RR kept him on and offered him a "gray shirt". So putting a long snapper on scholarship for the 2013 class in June is pretty shocking, but I trust this staff knows what they are doing.
The major recruiting services don't really cover long snappers, so don't look there. If you want information on long snappers you have to go to Rubio Long Snapping. This service has Scott as the #2 LS in the nation. Which is good!
I can just here Coach Hoke's pitch to Scott. "Son, our long snappers catch passes in BCS Games! Are you interested in becoming a Michigan Wolverine?" --- "Yes Sir!"
Congratulations to Scott and welcome to Michigan!
- Su'a Cravens picked USC over Michigan and OSU on Wednesday. This was not a surprise. What was a surprise is Su'a (one of the top players in the country) still wants to take official visits to Michigan, OSU and Florida during the season. It is worth a plane ticket and a hotel room for a chance for Greg Mattision to talk to him face to face and having Su'a feel what 110,000 strong feel like in the Big House.
1 comment:
I disagree about Cravens. I do not care how good a student-athlete is; if he's committed then there's no use for him. If you take the time to publicly commit this early and take official visits, then it can only mean one of two things. 1.) You want to see some historical campuses and stadiums on someone else's dime, which is just deplorable (being a great high school player does not entitle you to free traveling--it's not the purpose of the NCAA having official visits) and demonstrates someone willing to milk their status and false intent. That's a bad way to start off any relationship. or it means 2.) he's not really committed at all--in which case he's just an attention whore, another quality that does not a Michigan man make. I'd rather see that money go anywhere else than pandering to a spoiled-brat in training. Bank it.
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