Weekend Visitors: Mayden In For Official
Michigan is hosting a few notable visitors for Saturday's game. Allen Trieu has a free rundown in the Detroit News. The notables:
- Four-star TX CB Jared Mayden, an Oregon commit taking an official visit this weekend. He appears to be a longshot to flip; having him on campus at least indicates a certain level of interest.
- CA QB commit Victor Viramontes, a newly minted four-star on 247, is the other official visitor this weekend.
- Top-100 2017 GA QB Davis Mills, who seems to be one of M's top QB targets in the class along with Dylan McCaffrey.
- Three-star 2017 GA RB Kurt Taylor, who has an early M Crystal Ball pick from 247's Steve Wiltfong.
- Wiltfong reports it's possible top in-state recruits Lavert Hill, Donovan Peoples-Jones, and JaRaymond Hall also come in for visits, but nothing is set in stone yet ($). He said that at the moment he thinks Michigan will land all three.
The Wolverine's Tim Sullivan reports Michigan asked four-star NC OT Landon Dickerson to push back his official visit to after the season after he was originally slated to take it this weekend ($). Dickerson told Tim "I guess if I still have interest at the end of the season I'll make my way up," which doesn't sound promising.
[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]
Brandon Peters On TV Tonight
If you want to see future Michigan quarterback Brandon Peters in action, his Avon squad takes on Brownsburg—featuring 2017 five-star QB and Tennessee commit Hunter Johnson—on ESPNU at 8 pm Eastern.
In other commit news, Tim made his way down to Prattville—dude, I'm impressed—to scout Michigan commits RB Kingston Davis and LB Dytarious Johnson. Davis had 22 carries for 162 yards and three touchdowns and two lost fumbles; Tim said he's bigger and that's not entirely a good thing ($):
When we last saw Davis play in the spring, he was planning to shed a few pounds (he was 242 at the time) by the start of his season, but if anything, he looks even bigger now. He has a thick trunk and legs, and there isn't a lot of bad weight, but he will trim up when he arrives in Ann Arbor. He's certainly not slow, but the added weight seems to have cost him a half-step of his quickness.
On the flipside of that coin, he's a tough load for opposing defenders to bring down. He runs with good power, and if a player doesn't hit him low, he's shrugging off the tackle attempt and continuing on his merry way (often into the endzone). He has good balance, and his feet are quicker than you'd expect for a player off his mass - though they can be even better when he's in excellent shape.
Tim sees Johnson as a future nickel linebacker; he's undersized, quick, and has trouble taking on blocks.
Sullivan caught up with Davis after the game; he plans to take all five of his official visits, though he says he's solid with Michigan and "just keep[ing] my options open." ($) Johnson has fielded interest from Auburn, Syracuse, and Ole Miss, but told Tim he won't even talk to them—he's all Michigan ($).
2016 Updates: Gary SEC-bound?
The update on five-star NJ DT Rashan Gary isn't a good one; 247's Ryan Bartow has an overview of his recruitment that doesn't mention Michigan among the main contenders ($):
The feel here is that Gary will likely head to the SEC- Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss or Alabama. He has a rapport with former Texas A&M offensive line commit and fellow five-star Greg Little, an offensive tackle from Allen (Texas) and speaks highly of the programs in the south.
Don't count USC out, either.
As long as Gary still uses an official visit on Michigan they can't be counted out but this isn't trending in the right direction.
As far as backup plans go, four-star TX DT Chris Daniels has Michigan in his top five after taking an unofficial last month, and fellow four-star TX DT Jordan Elliott told 247's Taylor Hamm that Michigan is among the schools he plans to see after decommitting from Houston this week ($):
What official visits are Elliott pondering?
“Texas, Michigan, USC and I talked with Coach (Clarence) McKinney about taking one to Texas A&M as well,” he said. “I don’t know about a fifth one yet. I’ll probably have a final decision by the All-American game.”
Per Steve Lorenz, Michigan remains on top($) for four-star MD OG Terrance Davis:
"Michigan is still #1," the DeMatha star told 247Sports National Analyst Ryan Bartow. Davis has scheduled his official visit to Michigan for the Ohio State game on November 28th. "The atmosphere for the spring game was crazy. When I visited, I had dinner with Coach Drevno's entire family and that meant a lot to me. They looked better against Utah. Utah is a Pac-12 contender and the team looked different under the new staff. They fought. Coach Harbaugh brings a lot of energy and the atmosphere he's created around Michigan football has been great."
Georgia, Alabama, UCLA, and Maryland round out his top five.