Eight is Great

After the amazing day Michigan Athletics had yesterday, today has been a very nice cherry on top.  Two more four star commits came tonight, bringing the total for the weekend up to eight.  That's right, eight.  All of them four stars.  All of them in the top 200.  Unbelievable.  Let's have a look at the newest members of the class of 2013.

First up this evening was 6'6" 230 pound TE Jake Butt out of Pickerington, OH.  You can find Jake's film and a brief breakdown of him I did here.  Rivals has Jake ranked as the #96 player in the country regardless of position.  He play on both sides of the ball (also DE) and has been offered by different schools for different positions but Michigan has recruited him as a TE and that is what he will be.  I expect Jake to be more of a traditional, on the line TE as opposed to a blocking TE (A.J. Williams), an H or U-back (Khalid Hill), or a tweener (Devin Funchess).  This kid has excellent height and length, and can be a weapon in the red zone.

There was a long list of suitors vying for Jake's commitment including BC, Iowa, Maryland, Stanford, Tennessee, and Wisconsin as well as quite a few others.  Notre Dame and OSU were interested as well, though Rivals does not show an offer from either right now.  This is a very solid player a ta position of need and I think this will wrap up the TE spot for this class.  Jake on his discussions over the weekend with the coaches ($):

They also showed me what they're doing with their offense. They're running a bit more spread right now with Denard, but once Shane [Morris] comes in, they're going to go to a two-tight end formation, so they were kind of talking about that a little bit too, and where I fit in.

I think you're going to fit in just fine young man.

Once again, the wait for the second part of the commit pair wasn't a long one.  Logan Tuley-Tillman announced on twitter about an hour or so later that he was "Officially a Wolverine & better yet a Michigan Man".  LTT is rated as the 109th player in the country and comes to us from Peoria, IL (Manual).  He is a 6'7" 300 pounder that is destined for OT at the next level.  This is perfect as it seems probably both Bosch and Dawson will play inside and LTT and Fox will stay outside.  Gotta love the balance.

This is somewhat of a surprise commit, not because I didn't expect him to be a part of this class but because I didn't expect it to happen so soon.  Logan had maintained that Michigan has always been his leader but he has also said repeatedly that he would not make a decision until after he had taken his official visits.  He was on campus for the 6th or 7th time last week and had his Mom with him this time, so that may have had something to do with it, but I suspect the fact that the OL class is filling up in a hurry had a little effect on his timeline as well.

It's not as though he had limited suitors either.  His other offers include Alabama, Arkansas, BC, Florida State, Illinois, Iowa, Mizzou, UNC, ND, OSU, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.  There was even a rumor going around that Nick Saban called Logan last night to try and control some of damage from the flood of Wolverine commitments.  Luckily for Coach Hoke and company, Logan was not to be dissuaded. 

Let's have a look at some film:

This is sort of a weird reel; looks like it was recorded with a camcorder from a tv screen.  Anyway, these are Junior season highlights.  He looks rather thin here but he has put on 20+ pounds since then and I expect him to be more physically dominant at the point of attack in his final season.  That being said, he shows flashes of the nastiness and willingness to bury his opponent you want in a OL.  Has the ability to drive his man in run blocking and shows a decent kick and quickness in his pass pro.  Inconsistent in his "pop" off the line - sometimes plays to the defender instead of through him.  Has a tendency to play too high and wrestle with the defender - this is biggest flaw of virtually every high school lineman and is correctable, it's very difficult for these kids to stay down especially since they are quite a bit bigger than their opponent most of the time.  He can dominate in the run game when he uses his technique and leverage.  Positions his body well to seal his block on several plays.  He has all the tools you are looking for and will be a good one with more coaching and time in the weight room.

What a weekend!  I'm going to toot my horn again and point out both these guys were on my projection last week as well.  That makes me 8 for 8 this weekend and I couldn't be happier with the way this class is progressing.  As far as the rest of the class goes, I think we are at the halfway point as far as numbers go.  I wouldn't expect another eight commits in the next couple of days, although with the way this class is filling up you can be sure recruits have taken notice.  I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two more in the near future.  The quality in this class is outstanding and uncommitted recruits know it; there may be a few that want to make sure they secure a spot to be part of it.  I think the focus will be on a super RB, a couple if not three big time WRs, and you know the DL will get some more attention.  Add to that a couple of LBs and a couple of CBs and that will get things close to the end.  Until next time, Go Blue.