National Signing Day 2009

Today’s post is brought to you by my neighbors “broken” washing machine. Seriously the trap is just clogged and a wire hanger coupled with some Drano will do the trick. No need to call the land lord, or use my washing machine for a month…

Well another year of recruiting has came and passed as of yesterday. Rich Rodriguez has his first year of recruiting under his belt and everyone in the 2009 class was recruited by him. In this post I will outline every position and what recruits Michigan got at those respective positions. Also, I know not everyone who reads this blog is a Michigan fan, so I will briefly outline recruiting classes for Michigan State as well as Notre Dame.

But…first things first! Michigan’s 2009 recruiting class by position accompanied with horribly optimistic comparisons.

At QB Michigan landed 4 star recruit Tate Forcier (enrolled in January) as well as 4 star ATH Denard Robinson. A good comparison to Forcier is Colt McCoy. Both are a little undersized and both don’t have the strongest arm. On the other hand both are quite quick and are deadly accurate throwing the ball. Denard Robinson is not listed as a QB to Rivals, but has played QB his whole life. He too is a little undersized, but runs a sub 4.4 40 yard dash. Direct comparisons to Pat White are inevitable. Overall Michigan got 2 QB’s which they desperately needed and both of them fit Rich Rodriguez’s system very well.

At RB Michigan received commitments from 4 star recruit Fitzgerald Toussaint and 3 star recruits Teric Jones and Vincent Smith. With current depth at the RB position this was not a pressing need in this class yet Michigan still landed a pretty good change of pace back with Fitz Toussaint. A good comparison to all of these RB’s would be a person like Steve Slaton or CJ Spiller. All three are small, quick types that do best running outside the tackles.

At WR Michigan landed 4 star recruits Je’Ron Stokes, Cameron Gordon, and Jeremy Gallon. All of them are in the Rivals top 250 and Stokes is close to the top 100. Stokes and Gordon are more of an outside WR type to compliment Greg Matthews who is better suited as a #2 WR. Stokes is a game changer and I think compares well to Derek Williams out of Penn State. Both can stretch the field vertically and both are very reliable catching the ball as well as being reliable running routes. Gordon is more of a bigger possession type receiver who compares well with Jason Avant. Jeremy Gallon will play slot WR and (hopefully?) can return some kicks. Gallon is lightning quick and really can make plays out of nothing. Unfortunately, Gallon was a QB in high school so he will have to learn the WR position a little more. Depth at every WR position was an issue and is no longer an issue. Great group coming in and also two great WR’s coming in 2010 (Ricardo Miller and Jeremy Jackson.)

Michigan recruited no TE in this class because there are many on the current roster and Rich Rodriguez doesn’t really utilize the TE position very much anyway.

At OL Michigan landed 4 star tackles in Michael Schofield and Taylor Lewan. Lewan was kind of a late bloomer and is said to have a massive up side. Schofield has been a top 250 recruit all along. Michigan also got 4 star guard Quinton Washington, another top 250 recruit. Because OL are very hard to project I am going to spare you all the uselessness. On the other hand, all three are rated very well after a year where Michigan took six OL so we now have depth on the OL that won’t make you want to vomit (2008.)

At DB Michigan landed 4 star recruits Justin Turner (borderline 5 star) and Vladimir Emilien, 3 star recruits Thomas Gordon and Mike Jones and 2 star recruit Adrian Witty. Turner is a stud who locked down top rated receiver Reuben Randle in the Army All American Game. He will be looked on to help almost immediately by playing slot DB or possibly safety, but ultimately his future is certainly at CB. Direct comparisons to any tall lockdown CB are in order so why not just say Charles Woodson. Emilien is a big safety who was hampered by an injury his senior year. Everything I have heard about him recently is very good as well, and he has enrolled early. Early playing time could also be in order for him with a comparison to one of my favorite Wolverines, Marcus Ray. Thomas Gordon, Mike Jones and Adrian Witty are all depth type of players. Unless something miraculous happens I don’t really see them becoming starters, rather being involved in nickel coverage and special teams. A position switch for Mike Jones is also possible to LB. Although we added 5 recruits at this position, I really would have liked one more quality guy here. Jayron Hosley was our closest bet and sadly he chose Virginia Tech. Quality is not an issue in 2009, but talented depth could be.

At LB Michigan received commitments from 3 star recruits Isaiah Bell and Brandin Hawthorne. Bell (borderline 4 star) played very well at the Under Armor All America Game, but at safety. His future is somewhat of a question mark. I personally believe he will end up at LB at Michigan with a little help from Mike Barwis to add a few pounds. Brandin Hawthorne is a recruit that I outlined in my first recruiting post. I really like this kid. Although he is somewhat undersized (possibly knocking him down to a 3 star) he hits very hard and seems to have a knack for finding the football. Both of these recuits are hard to project because they play a LB/S hybrid type of position which hasn’t really been seen at Michigan before. I guess the best example would be Cato June (played S while at Mich.)

At DE Michigan was somehow able to keep Brandon Graham away from the NFL for one more year, thus making the position a little less of a pressing need, but still a big need none the less. 4 star recruits Craig Roh and Anthony LaLota were both top 250 guys and both played in All America games. During those games, Roh saw his stock drastically rise (borderline top 100) and LaLota’s fell a bit. Roh is a speed rusher who is very polished and could have an impact as soon as this year. LaLota on the other hand is a strong side rusher who only has one year of football under his belt. Because of a lack of experience LaLota will most likely have to red shirt. I really think Roh will end up being a VERY good player and I think comparing him to Jason Taylor is very reasonable.

At DT Michigan landed 5 star recruit William Campbell (Thor) and that’s it. Although Big Will is an awesome recruit, depth at DT was a necessity and Michigan suffered decommitments from DeQuinta Jones and Pearlie Graves. This sucks. Because of a lack of depth at the position (Taylor and Johnson graduated) Big Will is penciled in as a starter along side of Mike Martin. After those two there is a severe lack of depth. Graves and Jones were both 4 star recruits and it would have been nice to be able to keep at least one. It is possible to add a DT who has struggled with grades or a 2 star that still is yet to sign. Hopefully that happens…

Michigan also received a commitment from 2 star kicker Brendan Gibbons (kickers don’t really get rated above a 3 star.) Apparently Gibbons was hitting 60 yard field goals in practice, so he has a good leg. He will be playing right away.

Rich Rodriguez talking about his 2009 class...

All in all this class is very good I think. After having forgettable season last year Michigan finished with the #7 overall class for 2009 according to Rivals (I personally dislike Scout so I go strictly by Rivals results.) QB needs were addressed as well as needs at DE and WR. Man would I have liked another DB and DT though. I guess you can’t get everything you want can you?

Michigan State finished the year with the #16 overall class for 2009 finishing third in the Big Ten behind only Ohio State and Michigan. State even beat out Penn State for the number three spot. State cleaned up in the state of Michigan picking up 12 commitments there. Headliners for the class include RB Edwin Baker (top 100), OL David Barnett (top 100), QB Andrew Maxwell (top 250) and LB Chris Norman (top 250.) Michigan State has a VERY balanced group of kids coming in and all in all seemed to do extremely well. This is a great class for Mark Dantonio and could set up well for him in the future.

Notre Dame finished the year with the #21 overall class for 2009. This was somewhat of a down year for ND recruiting. A mixture of recent success recruiting and lack of production on the field could be a factor here as well as the uncertainty of Charlie Weis’ future. Highlights from this year’s class include LB Manti Te’o (#12 overall recruit), WR Shaquelle Evans (top 250), OL Chris Watt (top 100), LB Zeke Motta (top 100), and RB Cierre Wood (top 250.) Obviously Manti Te’o is a huge recruit being ranked as highly as he is and him paired with Zeke Motta will do wonders for their LB corps. This class also included two kickers, a long snapper, and Mike Golic’s son Jake Golic who is a 2 star recruit probably strictly because of his last name. Overall this class has to be disappointing to ND fans.

If you made it this far maybe you to are as obsessed with recruiting as I am, or maybe you are just a State or ND fan and had to scroll all the way to the bottom. Needless to say, a lot happened yesterday on National Signing Day.