Wolverine Wednesday: A Couple New Names on the Recruiting Trail

Michigan is preparing to meet FSU in Miami on Friday night.  If you worried about the heat and the Wolverines, the next couple days will be a high of 82 in Miami, on Friday the high will be 74 and probably in the low 60's at game time.    That should help squad from A2!

The other thing that is going on is that the Under Armour All American game practices have begun in Orlando.   Michigan commits Kai-Leon Herbert, Jaylen Kelly-Powell, Luiji Vilain, Cesar Ruiz, Drew Singleton (probably sitting out) and Kwity Paye are all participating in this game.  The UA game is at 1:00 on 1/1.

With the loss of Wilson (who is also in Orlando), Michigan still needs a couple of offensive line recruits.   A new name on the radar is Penn State commit OG CJ Thorpe who could be open to taking an official visit to the Wolverines in January.

Another new name is BC commit CB Brandon Sebastian who is also expected to take an official to Ann Arbor before signing day.

Not a new name but OL Mekhi Becton is now becoming a priority for the Michigan coaches as well.  There is also concern that Kai-Leon Herbert's commitment could be a bit shaky with his visit to Florida and some other closer to home schools.   So getting a few offensive lineman on campus is going to important to a strong finish.

If there is a chance for anything to go wrong with the 2017 class it could be the offensive line recruiting down the stretch.   I was worried with WR recruiting early but that has been replaced with the offensive line.

• John Calipari has a podcast and his latest interview is with our own Jim Harbaugh.  Coach Cal asked about Jimmy's approach to negative recruiting:  “As far as the negative recruiting, a lot of that comes from people that have been saying that for six months or a year. They’re our enemies, they’re our competition. They try to manipulate a youngster and their family any way they can. My philosophy and thought on it – if you have to talk about somebody else and somebody else’s program and negative recruit them or their situation, then you’re really not concentrating on your own program and the situation you have at your school. That’s what you should be presenting and that’s what you should be encouraging a youngster to look at, not the negative side of recruiting. Definitely people use that against you and they use that against me and I’ve long referred to those type of people as jive turkeys.”

• Michigan's long snapper Scott Sypniewki won't be back for his 5th year and will look for a school as a graduate transfer.

from The BIG HOUSE Blog http://mbighouse.blogspot.com/2016/12/wolverine-wednesday-couple-new-names-on.html