Recruitaholics: Be Jealous

This Week: Elite 11, 2013 News, 2014 New Commit Style, Visit, and that's it...What no Sayonara Suckas?!  I'm so upset!!

Elite 11
QB commit Shane Morris is at it once again.  Last week he was featured on ESPNU taking part in the Elite 11 competition where the top 25 QB's in the country show off their skills on and off the field.  Morris was featured throughout the special and got a fair share of mention from the show. 

 
Something that I liked to see from the QB was how good he was under pressure.  Coach Dilfer, who I have to say is one hell of a motivator and teacher, had a drill going where every QB got one shot to deliver a quality, accurate pass.  Dilfer would call them at random and he never called Morris' name until the very last rep.  And as you can see from the video above, Shane delivered with a strike across the middle to complete the drill.  Seems as though Dilfer knows how Morris enjoys the spotlight and how much of a leader he is to trust him to be the answer to the most pressure situation of the camp to this point.  Just another thing to add to Morris' repertoire.

2013 News
IL WR Laquon Treadwell  is also another name who makes a frequent appearance (along with Morris) although he is still just a prospect.  This time it finally consists of a story that doesn't throw a twist or turn into his recruitment like usual.  Treadwell was able to chat with Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports about taking his time and making the right decision:

“I’ve gotten real close to actually making it out and everything,” Treadwell said about possibly committing. “I told my mom and a couple coaches one time. Only thing that held me back is there are a couple of other schools and they’re special programs and I want to see what they have, and I’d like to take all my visits before I make my decision.”

He then goes on to say how his coach just wants him to make sure he makes all his visits and doesn't become a distraction during his senior season in committing or de-committing.  In the beginning, it looked like this article wouldn't have even existed because Treadwell stated many times how he almost pulled the trigger.  You still have to assume Michigan is the team he is talking about in the quote and that they are the team to beat (still).

The staff at Rivals.com continued to put together a list of top performers at each position who improved their status over the summer.  Last weeks feature focused on the defensive back position and Detroit Cass Tech (MI) teammates '13 commit Jourdan Lewis and '14 rising prospect Damon Webb made the list.  Josh Helmholdt tells us what caught his eyes about these two talented counter-parts:

Jourdan Lewis, Detroit Cass Tech: Lewis is already ranked among the top 10 cornerbacks in the country so he does not have a lot of room to move up in the rankings, but the Michigan commit proved his lofty ranking on big stages this summer. The 5-foot-10, 170-pound prospect was one of the top defenders at the Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge and put together a strong week at The Opening.

Damon Webb, Detroit Cass Tech (2014): Known originally as a wide receiver prospect, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound Webb switched to defensive back in the spring and has seen his recruitment take off. He did not receive his first scholarship offer until June but will exit the summer with tenders from the likes of LSU, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, West Virginia and Wisconsin after several strong summer camp performances.

As you can see just from their measurements, these two are almost mirror images of each other, although Webb seems to play much longer and taller than his 5'11" height would suggest.  Both have excellent skills and will be a nightmare for opposing quarterbacks, and offenses in general, this upcoming season.  Getting Webb to join Lewis in Ann Arbor could be some what of a challenge; he has some really impressive offers up to this point in his recruitment that could stand in the way.  Saying that, Michigan will almost definitely be in his final list of schools and I'm sure Lewis will stop at nothing in convincing him to join newest commit LB Michael Ferns in the '14 class (more on that below).

FL WR Alvin Bailey narrowed his list down to 4 schools and Michigan joined Georgia, UCF, and Florida.  UCF is the team to beat according to Bailey himself;  the Bleacher Report has this story along with how this could affect the recruitment of LaQuon Treadwell.


2014 News Commit Style

We had our first commit of Team 135 in OH LB Michael Ferns this past weekend.  This ends the long awaited first commit of the '14 class and you couldn't ask for a better player/person to start everything off.  I talked about this and more in the Incoming: Michael Ferns post the night of the commitment.

Image via here

You may be wondering why there is a picture of someone holding up a pair of New Balance cleats in the photo above.  Well, Ferns is already making friends and starting a connection with future QB Shane Morris.  The day after his commitment, he went to twitter to talk about the cleats he would be wearing during the season.  Morris got a good laugh after reading this and responded with a joke.  So Ferns then proudly decided to show off his kicks to the World and told Morris to "#bejealous."  Ferns 1 Morris 0.  A friendship is developing already between these two and like I said in my incoming post, look for Ferns to be the Morris of '13 recruiting for his own class. 

OH OL Jimmy Byrne told Mark from michigantremendus.com that he had a top 3 of Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio in no specific order.  Byrne will probably end up being the top OL prospect in the state of Ohio, but doesn't currently have a Michigan offer although he has offers from a couple big name teams.  Expect an offer to be extended soon, don't want to let this one get away without a fight.

Visit

'14 PA WR Ricky Rogers made his way over to Ann Arbor on Wednesday for an unofficial visit.  No offer had been/did get offered to the talented prospect, who just so happens to be teammates with Michigan target S Monte Nicholson.  Nicholson was at the BBQ and Michigan is very high on his list.   Rogers shared his reaction to the visit and thoughts on playing with Nicholson at the next level with Tremendous shortly after he left A2:

"The visit went really well. I was there from about 10:30 this morning until 6 or so, so it was my entire day right there. We got a tour of the facilities, I met Coach Borges, Coach Hecklinski and Coach Hoke. We got to see the academic building as well and talk with some counselors there as well. I also got to sit in on a practice, which was probably my favorite part of the trip. I also really liked the academic side of things and my parents were impressed with it as well. They really care about the players after they graduate and that's something I was really looking to find out about".

 "I'd love to play with Montae at the next level. Since I started at Gateway (Ricky is a transfer), Montae has been one of my best friends there. He's a great player too and it would be great to move up with him".

A package deal may not be out of the question here, but don't get you hopes up...package commits don't happen very often and are rare to see.  Rogers did seem to enjoy the visit and will definitely be back up for a visit with Montae Nicholson in the future.