Commit #22

A little pressed for time, so this will be a little short.  Michigan received an enormous commitment today from four star DT Ondre Pipkins.  I say enormous because Pipkins is a large human at 6'3" and 320 pounds, but moreso because this was the giant glaring hole in this gem of a recruiting class.  I have opined in this space plenty that the DT depth going forward scares the bajesus out of me and that Michigan absolutely must sign two DTs in this class.  Let's have a look at the big guy:

Rivals Profile

The only film I've been able to find on him is premium content on the recruiting services so obviously I can't embed and you can't watch unless you have a subscription, so the above is an interview done at the end of last school year and posted by SpartanTailgateVids.  Michigan relevant part starts at 1:53 if you want to skip ahead.

I will give my own assessment of the film I have seen on him.  First of all, he is physically imposing in a high school film reel.  He plays the nose tackle which means he is subject to a lot of double teams, but he makes plays anyway because of his strength and power.  He has good explosion off the ball and uses his leverage pretty well most of the time, which is not easy considering most of the guys trying to block him are shorter than he is.  He sniffs out the ball well and gets after it, a quality I prize above most others.

Pipkins will likely see his ranking rise in the next round of re-rankings by the recruiting services after a very successful summer on the camp scene.  Perhaps his most impressive performance came at the Ohio State Nike camp where he was "unblockable".  There was no shortage of quality offensive linemen there so that's not a small endorsement.  There is some rumbling that his stock might even rise all the way into the top 100 on Rivals (currently he's #246).

Going Forward

Coach Hoke stated today in his post practice presser that Stonum unexpectedly being around next year will not affect the size of this recruiting class and is still expected to be 26.  That means just four spots remain.  With the largest hole on the roster at least somewhat filled with Pipkins, the coaches can be very selective from here on out.  Stonum returning means they don't have to take a WR, although I still expect them to take at least one.  Pipkins committing now means they don't have to have another DT (I still say they do but we'll see), but perhaps more importantly now takes some of the pressure off of Danny O'Brien to commit and gives him a little breathing room to go through the process like he wants to. 

There are still quite a lot of possibilities on the board and so few spots.  It is getting more and more difficult for me to decide who I think fills out this class and who gets left out.  Do they take another OL?  How badly to they want a RB?  What about the possibility of another CB regardless of Terry Richardson's status?  Just because this class is filling up certainly doesn't mean we will be lacking for drama.  It'll be very interesting to see how this all pans out.  This feels more and more like a shot in the dark as these spots fill up but here goes.  The last four go to O'Brien, Amara Darboh, Jordan Diamond, and Yuri Wright.  This would be an amazing finish.  Until then, stay tuned and Go Blue.