Michigan Football Recruiting: Wolverines Off To Great 2013 Start

Green is a graduate of Hermitage High School, where he ran for 3578 yards and 50 touchdown in three seasons. As a senior, Green rushed for 1285 yards on 184 carries, scoring 20 times. He’s a prototypical pro style halfback: Strong between the tackles with sufficient speed on the corner and the uncanny ability to fall forward after contact. As he told ESPN’s Jeremy Crabtree, Green liked Michigan’s academics, history, and depth chart, and rightfully so: There is a dearth of competition in the Michigan backfield, and Green should be able to step in on Day One and compete for a starting spot.

Green joins a Michigan recruiting class already vying with Ohio State for Big Ten supremacy. The Wolverines are set to sign 16 Rivals four-star recruits, including highly-coveted defensive tackle Henry Poggi and massive offensive linemen Kyle Bosch and Logan Tuley-Tillman.

Ross Douglas, a cornerback from Avon High School in Ohio, is one of the early enrollees in Michigan’s 2013 recruiting class. Douglas committed to the Wolverines last July, following his decommitment from Penn State.

Douglas is considered the 22nd-best cornerback in the country by Rivals, and No. 241 overall prospect in the class of 2013. He joins several well-regarded recruits that have enrolled early at Michigan.

Jake Butt, a tight end prospect from Pickerington North High School (OH), is one of the early enrollees in Michigan’s 2013 recruiting class. Butt has been committed to the Wolverines since last February, and now he will be able to get a head start on his college career and participate in spring drills.

Butt is the fifth-best tight end prospect and No. 144 overall player in the class of 2013, in Rivals’ estimation. He’s ranked as the 14th-best tight end in the class by 247Sports.

Taco Charlton is already on board at Michigan, as the four-star defensive end recruit is the top defensive lineman in Michigan’s highly touted recruiting class.

Charlton committed to Michigan almost a year ago, following a basketball game where Michigan students chanted his name. Although there was some worry he’d switch to Ohio State, the Buckeyes didn’t offer, and thus the Pickerington, Ohio native never showed any signs of backing off his commitment. When the time came around for it, he graduated from high school early and became one of six incoming recruits to enroll early to participate in spring ball for the Wolverines.

Logan Tuley-Tillman’s stock has grown in the year since he committed to Michigan, but he’s stayed firm, showing off his dedication to the Wolverines in some over-the-top ways and enrolling early as part of arguably the best incoming offensive line class in the country.

At 6’7, 300 pounds, and with decent athleticism, Tuley-Tillman quickly became a highly-touted offensive lineman recruit, but Michigan was amongst the first to go for him. However, the Peoria, Ill. product quickly rose up the rankings: he became a four-star recruit with offers from o-line factory Alabama, Notre Dame, and many others, with ESPN tagging him as the seventh-best tackle in the country.

Stud safety recruit Dymonte Thomas has been committed to Michigan for well over a year, and now the Ohio native is an early enrollee for the Wolverines.

Thomas enrolled at Michigan in January shortly after participating in the Army All-American game, and will be a member of the team through spring ball and play in Michigan’s annual spring game. While some members of his class are still picking hats, Thomas is already a Wolverine.

One of the big stories in this recruiting season has been the strong showing from the traditional elite of the Big Ten: Michigan and Ohio State.

Kyle Bosch, a highly-touted offensive lineman with a “mean streak” on the field, is on board with Michigan, part of an elite incoming class of offensive linemen.

The 6-foot-5, 310-pounder from Wheaton, Illinois has been committed to the Wolverines since about a year ago: he had initially been considered likely to go to Notre Dame, and later picked up an offer from offensive line factory Alabama, but he committed to Michigan last February. Now, he’s one of six players - and two top offensive linemen, the other being Logan Tuley-Tillman - to enroll early with the Wolverines. He’ll be able to play with the team in spring practice.

The 6’0, 220-pound running back is rated across the board as one of the top 10 players at the position in the country, with Rivals proclaiming him No. 1, and joins four-star prospect DeVeon Smith as the second running back in Michigan’s 2013 recruiting class. Before Green’s commitment, Michigan had a top 10 recruiting class, and this may work to bump them up a little bit. Green is the Wolverine’s 27th commitment for this recruiting cycle, but six of those players enrolled early and are already taking classes and working out with the team in Ann Arbor.

Even though there should be around six running backs already on Michigan’s roster for the 2013 season, Green may be able to get in the mix for some early playing time. Following the departure of Denard Robinson, the Michigan offense will lean much more heavily on running backs to carry the load rushing the ball.

Running back recruit Derrick Green will make his college choice on Saturday, Jan. 26. Green is a consensus five-star recruit, and arguably the top high school running back in the country.

“I have decided to make my college announcement on January 26, 2013 at 4:00 pm,” Green wrote in a Facebook message. “Truly Blessed!!!!”

The Michigan football program always recruits well and has started to show the results of that recruiting on the field under head coach Brady Hoke. After several sub-par years, especially by Michigan standards, the Wolverines returned to rankings and relevance in the past two seasons.

The team still has some work to be done to get back among the elite programs in the country, as their five losses in 2012 came to Nebraska, Notre Dame, Alabama, Ohio State and South Carolina. The Wolverines were able to take care of the bottom of the Big Ten, but they still fell short of challenging for a BCS berth.

Worse yet for Michigan fans, is that Conley says he plans to visit the Ohio State Buckeyes, who defeated the Wolverines Saturday:

Scout describes the 6’2 Conley as follows:

Running back Derrick Green’s visit to Auburn wasn’t exactly well-timed. The Tigers were blown out by Georgia, and the crowd booed and left early. Still, Green had a lot of positive thoughts on his visit, and apparently took in a very different atmosphere than the one shown on TV. He spoke with Rivals.com.

He even believes that Auburn will not fire Gene Chizik and the rest of his coaching staff. Bruce Feldman, and many others, disagree.

Most of Michigan’s football recruits played well over the weekend, including receiver Csont’e York, who excelled on both sides of the football. Check out Maize & Brew’s recruiting roundup feature for news on all of Michigan’s commitments.

BEAVERTON, OR -- Laquon Treadwell is a top-seven wide receiver nationally and one of the best players in the country regardless of position. I caught up with Treadwell as part of SB Nation’s recruiting coverage of The Opening. The Crete (Ill.) Monee High School recruit was eager to talk about his experience there.

“I’ve enjoyed the coaching. The competition out here is great. Being around great players and learning stuff from them, too. The facilities are great,” He said.

Henry Poggi, a top defensive tackle recruit, committed to the Michigan Wolverines Monday morning according to multiple sources including Scout.com. Poggi stars for the Baltimore (Md.) Gilman School. He also claims offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Ohio State, Penn State, Stanford, Texas and West Virginia, though some of those offers might not be legitimate. Poggi is a consensus four-star recruit and is considered one of the top 25 defensive tackle recruits nationally by all four services.

Poggi stands 6’4 and weighs in at around 270 pounds. He profiles as a single-gap penetrator and does not look to be a player who will absorb double teams because of his size. Poggi’s length presents the interesting option of having him play some five-technique end if Michigan elects to run more 3-4 sets. Poggi is a tough player with a high motor and should have a very productive career for the Wolverines.

The commitment came during an unofficial visit to Michigan and on the heels of a visit to Michigan State.

Hurst stands 6’2” and weighs in at 290 pounds. Hurst’s game is that of a penetrating three-technique defensive tackle, using his quickness to get in the backfield and disrupt plays before they develop. Hurst should be able to rush the passer effectively. He does not have a massive frame and will likely never be a two-gap player.

Gedeon stands 6’3” and weighs in at 215 pounds. He is a consensus four-star recruit and is widely considered one of the top-15 linebackers in the country. Gedeon is a physical player who also pursues well from sideline to sideline. He plays both running back and linebacker for his high school.

Incredibly, Gedeon is the 17th commitment of the 2013 class for the Michigan Wolverines. 10 months from signing day, the Wolverines have most of their recruiting class sewn up, as well as a likely top-10 finish in the recruiting rankings.

Deveon Smith, a top running back recruit, committed to the Wolverines on Saturday, according to multiple reports. Smith stars for Warren (Oh.) Howland High School and also held offers from Big Ten powers Ohio State and Penn State, as well as West Virginia.

Smith stands 5’11 and weighs in at 195 pounds, according to his Rivals profile. Upon first view, his film is impressive. Smith doesn’t possess great speed, but still manages to break a lot of long runs thanks to his ability to pick through traffic, stiff arm, and he uses his angles to set up seams. Smith keeps his weight over his frame and looks to have pretty good balance.

Conley has been lightly recruited, but remember it is still very early in the recruiting process. Plenty of top players are yet to emerge, and Conley may be one of them. Here’s Maize n Brew’s take on Conley’s skills:

For more on Conley and Wolverines football recruiting, visit Michigan blog Maize ‘n’ Brew, plus Big Ten blog Off Tackle Empire and SB Nation Detroit.

Oh, right. From the actual story:

Since McCray isn’t allowed by the NCAA to sign with Michigan yet, and has only been allowed to say he intends to sign 11 months from now, his future teammates have to pretend he doesn’t exist.

Nate, here’s the test for sbnation dot com

Signing Day 2012 isn’t even a month old yet, and Michigan’s offensive line class might be done already. Kugler is the fifth four-star blocker to sign on, according to Rivals. And those five are joined in the trenches by a pair of tight ends, one of them the spectacularly named four-star, Jake Butt. With 13 commits and 11 four-stars in all -- before March! -- the Wolverines could consider themselves halfway done with next year’s recruiting already, if they so desired (They surely do not, as someone’s gonna have to upset Bret Bielema by hogging all the recruits).

So what happened? How has Hoke assembled a class in one month that most schools would be satisfied with after a year’s worth of work, at least as far as quality goes? Here’s Zach Travis, who’s pulling off a similar turnaround at Michigan blog Maize N Brew, in an interview with Big Ten blog Off Tackle Empire:

Zach Travis of SB Nation’s excellent Michigan site, Maize & Brew, has a tremendous look at what the big recruiting weekend means to the Wolverines. At 3800 words, this is just a ridiculously comprehensive analysis. If you are a hardcore Michigan fan, you need to bookmark the new Maize & Brew. Here are some of the headers from this top-notch piece:

↵-Michigan Can Aim for the Stars

-Michigan’s Has Defined Its Needs

-Michigan Has Reversed Recent Momentum

-Michigan’s Big Picture Strategy is Paying Off