Big Ten East Recruiting Round-up – September
Ben van Ooyen via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
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Welcome to the September edition of the Big Ten Recruiting Round-up. We normally focus on all things Ohio State here at The Buckeye Battle Cry, but today we are going to branch out and take a look at where all of the other teams in the Big Ten East stand as far as recruiting goes for the class of 2017. We are a little less than six months from signing day, and while we know a lot about the class that the Buckeyes will be bringing in, what do the classes that the rest of the Big Ten look like right now and how might they finish? We will take a look at the Big Ten West next week.
Michigan Wolverines – Class Rank #10 – 17 Commitments
Current Class
0 – 5-Star
10 – 4-Star
7 – 3-Star
Photo via McCaffrey’s Twitter
Michigan’s 2017 class is headlined by
Dylan McCaffrey, a 4-star quarterback out of Littleton, Colorado. McCaffrey is a pro-style quarterback and is the #1 overall athlete from the state of Colorodo. If the name sounds familiar, his older brother Christian plays for Stanford, and his father Ed was a longtime NFL receiver. McCaffrey could very well take over as the starting quarterback next year if none of the current lot are able to stand out this season. Some other big names have committed to the Wolverines in
Luiji Vilain a defensive-end out of Alexandira, Virginia and
Josh Ross, a linebacker out of West Bloomfield, Michigan.
In terms of kids that Ohio State recruited as well as Michigan, Vilain and Ross both had Buckeye offers along with
Corey Malone-Hatcher (4-star DE). They do however boast a couple of players from the state of Ohio in this class.
James Hudson is a 4-star defensive end from Toledo, Ohio that the Buckeyes were watching but never offered.
Joel Honigford is a 3-star offensive tackle from Sugarcreek, Ohio that camped at Ohio State but was not offered.
Some kids to keep an eye on becoming Wolverines before this recruiting cycle is over are
Donovan Peoples-Jones the 5-star wide receiver from Cass Tech in Detroit. He has been an 80% crystal ball projection to Michigan currently.
Drew Singleton from Paramus Catholic or as I like to call them Michigan East, is a 4-star linebacker that has a 91% crystal ball projection to the Wolverines, who are the home to his former high school teammate Rashan Gary.
Tedarrell Slaton and
Cesar Ruiz both out of Florida have a crystal ball projection greater than 60% for the Wolverines as well.
Ambry Thomas the 4-star cornerback out of Detroit’s Martin Luther King is likely to end up in Ann Arbor as well before all is said and done. A dark horse to watch is
Najee Harris out of California. He has been committed to Alabama since April of 2015, but has made visits since then, and Michigan is a team to watch. And last but not least is
Jaylen Kelly-Powell who has a 100% crystal ball projection to Michigan right now, and it would be a shock if he ended up anywhere else.
Michigan has had three decommitments in this recruiting cycle in
Aubrey Solomon and
Jeremiah Holloman, both athletes out of Georgia and today Carter Dunaway a 3-star TE out of Michigan. Solomon you might remember was mailed a thank you for showing up at the Michigan BBQ, an event which he didn’t attend. Not only that his name was spelled incorrectly on the thank you card. Holloman decomitted back in February and right now the Bulldogs of Georgia are the expected favorite to land his and Solomon’s services.
I expect Michigan to take a full class of 25 or more this recruiting cycle as Jim Harbaugh will look to cut some dead weight off the Brady Hoke years, and expect to see some of the current commitments replaced down the line by other names, as that is just how Harbaugh rolls as we saw last year in his first full recruiting cycle with the Wolverines.
Projection – Top 5 Recruiting Class
University of Maryland – Class Rank #17 – 16 Commitments
0 – 5-Star
6 – 4-Star
9 – 3-Star
1 – 2-Star
Photo via 247 Sports
Probably one of the more surprising stories this year is the rise of the Maryland football program in recruiting. DJ Durkin was brought in last year to become the head coach, and it seems to be paying dividends for the Terrapins. They have it the DMV area hard and have some quality athletes to show for it. The class is headlined by 4-star defensive end
Joshua Kaindoh out of the IMG Academy down in Bradenton, Florida. We said the DMV area was well represented and the other five 4-star recruits all hail from that area of the country.
Deon Jones is a cornerback from Oxon Hill, Maryland and is the #3 athlete from the state of Maryland.
Marcus Minor is an offensive guard from Hyattsville, Maryland and is the #5 athlete from Maryland.
Kasim Hill is a pro-style quarterback and the #2 rated player out of Washington DC.
Jordan McNair is a offensive tackle from Owings Mills, Maryland and is the #8 player from the state of Maryland. Finally
Cam Spence is a defensive tackle, and the #3 rated player from Washington, DC. There are some immediate impact players in this group, and I expect Kaindoh and McNair to come in and battle for playing time right away.
Ohio State had offers out to a few of these kids. Kaindoh had a Buckeye offer and even visited the campus back in June. Can Spence and Jordan McNair also had offers from Ohio State, and both had crystal ball projections in for the Buckeyes, but alas they ended up going with the Terrapins. When McNair picked Maryland, Ohio State focused its attention on Wyatt Davis and when Cam Spence picked the Terrapins, the Buckeyes put all of their eggs in the Chase Young basket. I would say that both Maryland and Ohio State are very happy with the outcomes of these recruitments. Deon Jones and
Ayinde Eley also had Buckeye offers, but were not really pursued hard by the coaching staff.
Some names to keep an eye out for for Maryland are 4-star linebacker
Ellis Brooks for Richmond, Virginia who right now has an 81% crystal ball projection to the Terripans. Maryland is also in good standing with 3-star wide receiver
Noah Igbinoghene from Trussville, Alabama and
Tariq Castro-Fields from Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Both have strong crystal ball projections for Maryland currently. Probably the highest target left on Maryland’s board might be
Joshua Paschal out of Olney, Maryland. Paschal is a 4-star defensive end and would pair really well with Cam Spence on that defensive line for years to come. Ohio State is also recruiting Paschal, but with the limited spots in their class, Maryland seems like a likely destination. Right now he sits at 40% crystal ball projections to Maryland and 20% each to Ohio State, Kentucky and Pittsburgh.
Maryland has suffered no decommitments so far in this recruiting cycle. That could change however as a lot of their prospects are highly thought of, and will continue to be recruited by the top programs all over the nation. Durkin and his coaching staff will have to do a really good job selling them that they will be taking this Maryland program back to some prominence if he wants to keep this top 25 class intact.
Expect Maryland to finish strong, and as long as they keep what they have and add a few other pieces this class should end well within the top 25 in February. If they are able to solidify this class and have a strong season in 2016, it could pay dividends down the road for Maryland recruiting.
Projection – Top 25 Recruiting Class
Penn State University – Class Rank #21 – 15 Commitments
0 – 5-Star
5 – 4-Star
10 – 3-Star
Photo via Bleacher Report
Penn State is finally able to recruit like they have wanted to over the past 5 seasons since the scholarship reductions were put in place by the scandal that rocked Happy Valley in 2011. Last year they recruited 20 athletes and finished with the #20 class in the nation for 2016. This season James Franklin and his staff are recruiting hard again trying to rebuild the talent that they were unable to attract with limited scholarships his first few seasons.
Penn State has a solid class going right now for 2017 and it is led by pro-style signal caller
Sean Clifford. Clifford is a 4-star recruit and the 6th ranked prospect in the state of Ohio. He has 18 offers to date, but has been committed since July of 2015. His pledge to the Nittany Lions seems firm and he will continue to try and help recruit top athletes to Penn State. Penn State does a good job of keeping a lot of local talent at home, or at least close to home by recruiting the Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia areas well while dipping outside of that area each year for a few select prospects. All of their 4-star recruits sans Clifford are from those areas and include
CJ Thorpe,
Yetur Matos,
Jonathan Sutherland and
Dylan Rivers. Thorpe is an offensive guard, and the other three will roam the defensive side of the ball. Of the 3-star athletes that have committed to Penn State, I really like
Brelin Faison-Walden an outside linebacker from Greensboro, NC. He had 22 offers before deciding on Penn State back in July and the Lions are getting a good one as he is the 13th best prospect from the state of North Carolina.
In a rare occurrence, Ohio State was not in on any of Penn State’s current 15 commitments. Clifford and
Michael Miranda are both from the state of Ohio, but neither were offered by the in-state program this year. Miranda is a 3-star offensive guard who comes in as the 23rd overall prospect in the state of Ohio.
Penn State still has a chance to finish strong, and the one guy to keep an eye on is 4-star defensive back
Lamont Wade. Wade has been tied to Ohio State, Penn State and Pittsburgh for a while now, but the current crystal ball projections favor the Nittany Lions heavily right now. The only way I see him potentially ending up at Ohio State is if Shaun Wade decides to flip, opening up a spot for Wade. He wants to enroll in January, so something would have to happen sooner rather than later, and I believe in the end he picks Penn State. The Lions are in on a few other prospects that right now the odds don’t look favorable in Danny Davis, a WR out of Sprinfield, OH and Dalyn Wade-Perry, a DT from New Jersey. They have one current prospect that has a 100% crystal ball projection to them and that is 3-star cornerback Donovan Johnson from Cass Tech in Detroit.
Penn State also has not had any decommitments from this class, and unless something happens to James Franklin as the head coach, I don’t see that changing too much. If Franklin gets fired, then all bets are off and a mass exodus might begin.
I think that the Nittany Lions nab Wade and Johnson and add a few other late pieces to their class. They will look to take a full class so that they can back-fill from previous seasons of scholarship reductions and it will take a few years to get the talent back to where it was.
Projection: Top 25 Recruiting Class
Rutgers University – Class Rank #26 – 20 Commitments
0 – 5-Star
2 – 4-Star
18 – 3-Star
Photo via 247 Sports
The Chris Ash era in Piscattaway New Jersey is underway, and recruits have taken notice of this former Urban Meyer protege. Ash may have a rough season in 2016 on the field, but his background and results while at Ohio State and Arkansas have shown that he can develop players for the next level. Like Maryland, Rutgers is a surprise so high in the recruiting rankings considering that the program has been down for so long. Ash is hitting the east coast hard and every one of his recruits hails from a state touching the coastline.
The class has two 4-star recruits in it and they are the highlight of this class.
Micah Clark is the #2 ranked player in the state of New Jersey and the 18th ranked offensive tackle in the country. He is joined by
Tyshon Fogg, the 6th ranked player from the state of Maryland and 15th overall outside linebacker. Clark was recruited by a lot of the top schools in the nation and was expected to take his visits to other schools this fall, but that appears to not be the case as he is recruiting hard for Rutgers and his brother
Jamaal Beaty is also a commit for the class of 2017. Fogg had crystal ball projections to Stanford and Maryland before committing to Rutgers back in June. He has 28 offers listed, and he is a player to watch to see if he goes on any visits or if he remains a solid verbal to the Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers went to bat against Ohio State a few times in this recruiting cycle and came out victorious. We already talked about Micah Clark who included Ohio State when he cut his list to 15 back in January. He then attended junior day and then followed that up with an unofficial before committing to Coach Ash shortly there after in April.
Bo Melton is another athlete that had an Ohio State offer that picked Rutgers over the Buckeyes and other programs. Melton is listed as a wide receiver and the 6th best athlete in the state of New Jersey.
Rutgers is still in the running for a few big names, including
Markquese Bell a 4-star athlete out of Bridgeton, New Jersey. Bell right now has 64% projections based on crystal balls to Rutgers, followed by Michigan and Clemson. Ohio State is recruiting Bell as well, but again with the numbers as tight as they are, he will end up elsewhere. Other guys with high odds to select Rutgers are
Romello Martin a 3-star defensive tackle and
Harrison Hand a 3-star cornerback, both from the state of New Jersey.
Rutgers has one decommitment in this class and that is
Darius Stills out of Fairmont, West Virginia. Stills committed to Rutgers on August 30th, and two days later decommitted and pledged to the Mountaineers of West Virginia. It will be interesting to see how Rutgers does this season on the field and if it has any effect on the recruits they have locked up so far. Hopefully Chris Ash can get them turned around and headed in the right direction.
Expect Rutgers to add a few pieces to their puzzle over the remaining months, but a huge get would be the wide receiver Bell to give them an outside playmaker for the future.
Projection: Top 40 Recruiting Class
Michigan State University – Class Rank #27 – 16 Commitments
0 – 5-Star
3 – 4-Star
13 – 3-Star
Photo via Hunter Rison’s Twitter
With the recent success of the Michigan State Spartan program under Mark Dantonio, you would think that the Spartans would be recruiting at a level even with a Michigan or an Ohio State. Dantonio has never really brought in the 5-star type kids, he brings in the 3-star kids and develops them into big time players like a Le’Veon Bell. While State is not recruiting as well as “Little Brother” right now, they are doing a good job of getting the right pieces for their team in place for the next 3-4 years.
Michigan State’s three 4-star guys are all on the offensive side of the ball in
Kevin Jarvis (OG),
Matt Dotson (TE), and
Hunter Rison (WR). Jarvis hails from Illinois, and decided he wanted to leave home and head north. He is the 4th overall prospect in the state of Illinois and the 15th ranked offensive guard in the class of 2017. Matt Dotson was down to Michigan State and Michigan before pulling the trigger for the Spartans back in July. He is the 9th ranked tight end in the country and 12th ranked prospect from the state of Ohio. Hunter Rison is the son of former NFL great and Michigan State alum Andre Rison. Rison is the #9 prospect in the state of Michigan, and was heavily recruited by Oklahoma and some other top programs.
Rison and Dotson were the only two Spartans to have been offered by the Buckeyes. However, the Spartans do have quite a few prospects from the state of Ohio. Besides Dotson, they have
Dominique Long a safety from Westerville, Ohio,
Weston Bridges from Akron, Ohio,
Matt Carrick from Massillon, Ohio,
Josiah Scott from Fairfield, Ohio and
Darien Clemons from Piqua, Ohio.
Michigan State is still in the mix for a few big name prospects including
Donovan Peoples-Jones the 5-star wide receiver out of Cass Tech, and
Ambry Thomas a 4-star cornerback from Detroit’s Martin Luther King. While both are seen as Wolverine leans, there is still an outside shot for each program to make an impression on them. The most likely to end up Spartans are probably
Lynn Bowden a 4-star running back from Youngstown, Ohio and
Tyler Johnson a 4-star tight end from Gilbert Arizona.
The only decommitment for the Spartans was Hunter Rison, who decommitted back in December only to recommit again in April.
I believe Michigan State will end up with a few gems late in the recruiting process, and will move up the rankings by February and finish with what will be a top 20 class when it is all said and done. Dantonio has things rolling in East Lansing, and I don’t expect it to fall off the tracks any time soon.
Indiana University – Class Rank #56 – 14 Commitments
0 – 5-Star
0 – 4-Star
13 – 3-Star
1 – 2-Star
Photo via Yahoo Sports
Kevin Wilson finally got Indiana to a bowl game last year in his 5th season at the helm, and he is hoping he can continue the trend into the future by fending off Notre Dame and Purdue for Indiana’s best prospects. I’ve been to Bloomington, Indiana and there really isn’t a lot there, so enticing a high school kid to want to go play their football there is certainly a challenge for Wilson. He certainly has found some gems in the past few years from Shane Wynn to Tevin Coleman. Will he be able to do the same for the class of 2016?
Indiana doesn’t get many four of five star guys into their program, so they have to develop a lot of 3-star guys into reliable players at the collegiate level. With 13 3-star commitments verbally committed so far, it looks like the trend will continue. Their highest rated recruit is
Derrius Mullins out of Columbus, Ohio. Mullins is a defensive tackle and is the 29th ranked player in the state of Ohio. Their highest ranked recruit from Indiana is
Bryant Fitzgerald, an athlete that could play on either side of the ball, who is the 7th ranked player from the state of Indiana.
Ohio State and Indiana have not gone head to head on any recruits so far in this recruiting class that have given the Hoosiers their pledge, and I don’t expect that to happen this season or for that matter any time soon. Their only recruit from the state of Ohio is the above mentioned Mullins.
Some names for Indiana fans to watch for commitments from are
R.J. Potts, who is a 4-star safety from Indiana and the 3rd ranked player in the state. He would be a huge get for the Hoosiers and they are battling Michigan, LSU and Notre Dame for his services. Indiana has 100% crystal ball projections for
Kurt Rafdal (TE) and
Keonte Jones (S) who are both 3-star guys from Indiana and Ohio respectively. A couple of guys from Florida are also 100% crystal balled to Indiana in
Bobby Roundtree (DE) and
Whop Philyor (WR).
Indiana has had a couple of decommitments and the one that stings the most is from
Lynn Bowden who we mentioned above. He decommitted back in April, and would have been the highest rated recruit that Wilson and his staff would have had on board.
Josh Johnson from Arkansas also decommitted back in March and he was a 3-star wide receiver that committed to Iowa State shortly after.
It would be a major win if Indiana could secure a top 50 recruiting ranking. If teams like Maryland and Rutgers can get some of these high level kids to believe in their program, then Indiana should strive for the same. I expect Indiana to end up with between 22-25 guys in this recruiting cycle and should see a lot more 3-star guys and maybe sneak in a 4-star as well.
Projection: Top 50 Recruiting Class
*Schools are listed in the order of their recruiting ranking on
247 Sports as of 9/8/2016
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Big Ten East Recruiting Round-up – September appeared first on
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